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For small business owners, the bumpy ride continues.  Not that things aren't getting better; they are.  Or at least, when you take a step back from the monthly assessments of small business optimism, and observe the trend lines over the last couple of years.  But It’s the up and down, uneven nature of the monthly reporting that gives you this picture of a “she loves me, she loves me not” world small business owners must be living in.  At least life isn't boring. From a lenders perspective, it may not be quite so erratic.  The larger small businesses are providing good opportunities for lenders to provide new financing.  Demand is growing, and that is a good thing.  In addition, new forms of financing are growing in popularity.  Alternative lenders are providing direct financing to small business owners, and providing competition for more traditional banks.  Credit cards are being embraced more and more by small business owners, and provide some nice fringe benefits to owners.  Extending payments, rewards programs, and just plain old convenience are among the benefits small business owners can enjoy by paying their vendors with a credit card.  Not a bad way to go! The increased use of small business cards is just one example of a growing trend spawned during the economy’s comeback from the “great recession”.  Lenders have better tools available to them to grow their small business portfolios, and also to manage them better.   Recent advances in technology and data availability (dare I say “big data”) are providing lenders opportunities for more cost-effective targeting of risk and opportunity.  The ability to cross-sell consumer clients who may also be small business owners is a lower cost way to identify solid prospects for commercial products, as well as a way to potentially reward customer loyalty.  Benchmarking is another trend that has been shown to provide lenders a tremendous amount of insight into how different segments of customers behave, and help to inform strategic policy. 50 002 trends-in_commercial_card_and_small_business_lending from Experian Business Information Services

In the early 1970’s a brilliant engineer/inventor/music lover designed a credit card sized electronic music player.  Early prototypes and models of this small music player received the accolades of “the most radical music system ever” from the audio industry.  Many of you may think I am talking about Steve Jobs – well I am not.  This inventor however was distracted, did not pay attention to the business and saw the technology get away from him.  And that is why today, Jobs and Apple’s 1.75 billion iPods are a household name and Kane Kramer is not. So the question for you today is…are you keeping your eye on the technology, trends, and market place that will make your commercial lending efforts successful and sustainable? In a CEB TowerGroup survey, bank executives clearly called out that maximizing credit applications with quality growth is the top priority for 2014. To be successful in achieving that growth commercial bankers will be focused in 2014 and beyond on these five key areas: (1) Rationalizing infrastructure, (2) Optimizing sourcing, (3) Centralizing risk management, (4) Enhancing liquidity management, and (5) Implementing commercial loan management solutions.  To back that claim, in the 2013 Sales Readiness Assessment, CEB TowerGroup found that banks that are taking these steps to lead in technology changes were seeing an increase of 8% in their top performing relationship managers, and a 13% increase overall. And while growth is critical, we cannot take our eye off the existing portfolio.  Best practices suggest that to make the most impact in 2014, institutions should in the next 90 days to take steps to look at their individual loans, but with multiple factors, e.g. duration, convexity, and yield.  But even more important banks should aggregate these views to a portfolio level to make sure that can optimize returns overall. So while we see that in commercial lending the 3-year CAGR is now 10.5% and looking stronger, banks need to focus and not be distracted and capitalize on these opportunities.  Invest and stay focused on the future! Vision 2014: The new world of commercial lending from Experian Business Information Services Tweet this! Not focusing on #innovation & change can cost you. Kramer designed IXI in the 70's.  But #apple gained with 1.7 B #ipod sold. #vision2014 Click to Tweet This At @ExperianVision and Joanne Pollitt from CEB Tower Group talking about #change in cmcl #banking for 2014.  Are you ready?  @ExperianVision  Click to Tweet This What is your #banks top #commercial #banking #initiative for 2014?? How can @Experian_DA_GCP and @Experian_US help you  #succeedandproceed  Click to Tweet This  

4000! Consumers view over 4000 ads per day. As a result they are overwhelmed with information and opt not to see what could be waiting for them. The best way to grab the consumer’s attention and CLOSE the sale is to target them with content directly related to their interests. This is not an easy task, but Experian can help lenders stay above the noise and drive relevant traffic to their websites. We can turn a site visit into a credit qualified lead and ultimately a high-quality booked account – cutting through the “junk” that drags down your portfolio’s performance. Are you sure you have a truly optimized digital prospecting strategy?  Do you have the data to drive both the targeted advertising for increased site traffic and to customize the credit offers that empower the consumer to complete an application? Experian has the data assets to help you tailor the entire online experience for the least amount of online friction. For example, your advertisements can be as customized as creating a multi-channel cross-device experience based on your own marketing history or you can optimize your current online advertising strategy using additional data elements to get the most out of your marketing dollars. Use marketing and credit data to stay relevant and generate the highest quality traffic. The consumer has come to the store – you still need to close the sale!  Experian’s ability to leverage data once the consumer has reached the site is the new frontline for developing a relationship with your customers.  By bringing credit data to the beginning of the conversation, before they have decided to apply, you can learn from your customer and educate them on their best option.   You can’t deny wanting to help your customers find the right products for them but also increase your ROI, and continue to maintain your risk modeling. Come see what Experian can do for you!  Learn how our data-driven solutions can help you create a tailored digital consumer experience to build customer loyalty and drive new loan growth. Vision 2014: Customer acquisitions in a changing digital landscape from Experian Business Information Services Tweet this! 90% of our media interactions are screen-based.  #digitalmarketing #vision  Click to Tweet We spend over 4 hours a day on average in front of screens of increasingly diverse sizes?  #digitalmarketing #vision2014  Click to Tweet Consumers choosing online & #mobile channels to engage, creating challenge in authenticated cross-selling #digitalmarketing #vision2014  Click to Tweet Deliver the right message to the right consumer about the right product – optimize your # digital strategy #digitalmarketing #vision2014  Click to Tweet Experian is only bureau able to offer targeted digital advertising capabilities and robust credit decisioning tools #vision2014  Click to Tweet