In our business, what comes around goes around. In this case, Dan, a lender that we had placed with an up and coming community bank received a promotion and became a Team Leader in charge of, among other things, expanding his team. Dan called us because he was interested in finding an experienced commercial lender with credit knowledge. We checked our schedule and set an appointment in three days for us to deliver a list of 30 candidates to him.

The list of 30 ended up being broad because of the geographic location of Dan's bank. These candidates ranged from Senior to Junior, from Real Estate specialists to Agriculture specialists. We gave Dan the opportunity to take off any names that he did not want contacted and ended up with 28 people to call. We set an appointment in five days, checked Dan's schedule for the next three weeks for interviews and started cold calling.

From the list, we had three candidates interested in taking a meeting with Dan and his bank, Al, Nancy and Cassidy. Al was a branch manager for a national bank that was interested to get back to his commercial lending roots. Nancy was an Agricultural Specialist for a single branch location of a large regional bank, interested in getting more local decisions and support. Cassidy was a junior lender who felt it was important for her to know what opportunities were out in the marketplace. We set up lunch meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for Dan to meet all three.

We spoke with Dan on Friday. He was enthusiastic after his meetings because he not only saw the solution to his initial need in Al but he knew that Nancy would also be a tremendous attribute to his team. He went about explaining that although he did not call us for an Ag lender, the wealth of knowledge and the 30+ years of Ag experience she possessed was just what he needed to help his bank's fledgling Ag department. We were then able to give Dan the feedback from Al and Nancy and were pleased to let him know they were just as excited about him.

We spoke with Dan on Friday. He was enthusiastic after his meetings because he not only saw the solution to his initial need in Al but he knew that Nancy would also be a tremendous attribute to his team. He went about explaining that although he did not call us for an Ag lender, the wealth of knowledge and the 30+ years of Ag experience she possessed was just what he needed to help his bank's fledgling Ag department. We were then able to give Dan the feedback from Al and Nancy and were pleased to let him know they were just as excited about him.

From there, we set up second meetings the following week. It was important to act quickly to capture the enthusiasm felt by both parties. In the second meetings, Al and Nancy met Dan's boss, Paul, who came away equally impressed with their knowledge and professionalism.

The following week Dan came back with competitive offers for both Al and Nancy, who accepted on the spot, effectively killing two birds with one stone.