Historically, banking has been a transactional business. But for us, serving transactional needs is just one part of the equation. With our Truist Business Lifecycle Advisory approach, we’re dedicated to building long-term relationships grounded in trust, collaboration, and care.
At the heart of this approach is relationship banking. It’s how we leverage the full extent of our capabilities and expertise to guide you to customized solutions—today, tomorrow, and further down the road.
At its most basic, relationship banking is when a bank offers advice, products, and services using a personalized and people-focused approach. We believe that every client needs and deserves this level of care, so we provide it across the board for business clients and personal wealth clients alike. In this way, we’ve made standard an approach that, in other banks, is free only to clients who meet specific criteria. Relationship banking is so ingrained in our DNA that we call the bankers at Truist Commercial Banking “relationship managers.”
Some other key differentiators of Truist Business Lifecycle Advisory:
Proactive, personalized advice. Your relationship manager’s role is to get to know you so well that they can bring you personalized strategic advice when—or before—you need it. They also serve as the coordinator of your team of Truist partners and resources, which may include a portfolio manager, a treasury consultant, an insurance specialist, leadership development consultants, a capital markets expert, and a personal wealth advisor—all with the singular goal of helping propel your vision forward.
Banking made easy. Our high-touch approach is augmented by our high-tech tools, allowing clients to have more efficient service (or self-service, if they choose). For example, Truist One View provides all your banking apps in one convenient location, and our digital portal makes it easier to access loan information.
Here for the long haul. Our goal is to work with clients across the decades, through shifts in market cycles and business lifecycle stages. To achieve this, we have an ongoing dialogue with each of our clients and their teams. Our longtime presence in your community and our deep understanding of the economy and your industry enable us to provide timely and relevant solutions that make the most sense for you—and that leave you poised to achieve your long-term goals.
“Your business is unique, of course. But where you are in the business lifecycle matters, too, so we provide solutions tailored to your lifecycle stage as well as your business, industry, region, and other defining characteristics.”
David Weaver,
Head of Truist Commercial Banking
Having regular check-ins with your relationship manager means having a partner to help you implement your strategy, set goals, assess progress, and identify and address issues early on, when they may be easier to manage. You may even be able to anticipate and avoid problems altogether.
Plus, these ongoing conversations may allow you to see and seize opportunities sooner, which could give you a competitive advantage in the marketplace. And when you’re able and willing to communicate freely with your relationship manager, you’re likely to gain more personalized insights from them.
Your Truist relationship manager also acts as a single point of contact who can bring you the right team at the right time. For example, if you need to reassess your risk mitigation needs, your relationship manager can connect you with experts at McGriff Insurance.
If you’re used to thinking of banking as transactional, it can take a bit of a mindset shift to speak with your relationship manager more often and more openly. Here’s what you can expect from your Truist relationship manager.
This last point is the crux of Truist Business Lifecycle Advisory and one of the key factors that sets it apart from transactional approaches.
“Your business is unique, of course,” says David Weaver, head of Truist Commercial Banking. “But where you are in the business lifecycle matters, too, so we provide solutions tailored to your lifecycle stage as well as your business, industry, region, and other defining characteristics.”
Each stage of the business lifecycle comes with a unique set of challenges and opportunities that can benefit from a unique set of lifecycle-targeted solutions and insights. But even businesses in the same stage will have numerous differences. Taking a combined approach—uniting your knowledge of your business with your relationship manager’s expertise—can provide you with the most tailored and nuanced guidance.
Your relationship manager will ask questions to learn more about you and your business. You can improve communication, too, with these suggestions.
Old habit: Learning how to talk to your banker
New mindset: Letting your relationship manager learn how to talk to you
Working with some banks can feel like going back to school. They load you up with glossaries and guidelines on how you should learn to communicate with their bankers. We take a different approach.
“A key part of our role is to be interested in and interesting to our clients,” says Weaver. “To do that, we meet each person where they are—not just each owner or leader but each member of their team. No one should have to look up a term on the internet after talking with their Truist relationship manager or anyone else on their Truist Business Lifecycle Advisory team. Our clients are busy, and they have more important things to do with their time.” Of course, if you don’t understand a term, acronym, policy, or concept, ask any Truist teammate to explain it until you do.
Old habit: Minimizing your business challenges
New mindset: Sharing information more freely
Worried that any negative information you share with your banker may impact the care, services, and terms you receive? With Truist, that’s not the case—and having all the facts can enable us to provide more targeted, effective, and thorough advice.
Of course, share any positive changes as soon as possible, too. They may enable your Truist advisory team to renegotiate terms on a loan, free up working capital to accelerate growth, or build enterprise value in preparation for a business transition.
Old habit: Meeting only annually or when there’s a problem
New mindset: Connecting more often
Many experts recommend talking with your banker quarterly—at a minimum. But Truist Business Lifecycle Advisory works best if clients talk with us much more often. Here are a few of the times it’s especially important to connect.
Old habit: Forgetting your business has a lifecycle
New mindset: Identifying what stage you’re in and what that means
The business lifecycle impacts every aspect of your company, and many financial and operational best practices differ depending on the stage you’re in.
Take your personal wealth, for example. Early on, you may have much of your personal wealth tied up in equipment, real estate, and other company holdings—but other strategies can liberate working capital to protect your household finances and personal credit. If your personal wealth grows alongside the company’s revenue, you may need help with an investment portfolio, and as your company becomes established, you may look toward creating a trust or another vehicle to preserve your legacy. Finally, if you decide to transition out by selling your business, you may benefit from considering how to manage the sudden influx of capital.
“Your long-term strategy is about how you want to position yourself, and that can change over time—or it can change quickly,” says Weaver. “Our approach with Truist Business Lifecycle Advisory is to have a dialogue with clients about events that have happened or that can happen, so we can help them avoid tricky situations. But if they occur, we can help with a solution that makes sense within the context of the big picture.”