Given our diverse base of customers, it may seem impossible to assess each customer effectively – yet, how we ensure each deal is diligently evaluated goes to the heart of how we operate. We are not a ‘sausage machine’ with a risk policy that assumes that one size fits all... in fact, we are very much the opposite.
We want to understand our customers’ business, and the people behind it. Ideally, this will involve a face-to-face meeting which, with the current trend towards arms-length transactions, may sound a little old fashioned. However, we’ve found that by getting to know our customers we’ve been able to consider and present deals in a way that would not have been possible without really understanding the business or having met the key people.
In many cases this has secured funding that might not have otherwise been available and in others we have been totally upfront and explained that the deal just cannot be done... which, unfortunately, is sometimes the case.