BLOG
Elevating Your Business Loan Request with Negotiation Leverage
Unlocking Better Business Loans with Negotiation Leverage and Cerebro
If you are seeking a business loan within the mid-market, having negotiation leverage is a significant advantage. Consider this scenario: you are a business decision maker in need of loan options for your business. You have just begun the process and the first lender to give you a term sheet is offering rates and terms that appear steeper than you had initially expected. Unfortunately, you have no other loan options under your belt to compare these rates and terms against. Now, you are faced with uncertainty as to whether this offer is the best fit for your business.
You wonder, “what leverage do I need in order to negotiate more favorable rates and terms with my lender?”. In this scenario, and in most cases, you will not have an abundance of options immediately at your disposal. Why? Because your time and resources are limited, so you have only been able to approach one lending institution at a time. Collecting several loan options from other lending institutions is not in the realm of possibility and would take you weeks, if not months to collect loan options for future negotiations.
Without alternative offers from other lending institutions, you begin to feel trapped. However, discovering how you can access negotiation leverage is easier than you think and will quickly shift the dynamics, allowing you to unlock better loan options you were unaware existed.
The Role of Leverage in Commercial Loan Negotiation
When entering into the business loan negotiation process and speaking with lenders, having leverage immediately gives your business a higher chance of success. Negotiation leverage, for example in the form of other lender feedback or term sheets, provides you with all the tools you need to sway loan terms in your favor. Your existing lending institution will be more willing to match to your needs when you present them with other, more favorable terms you have received. Now you wonder, “how can I gain negotiation leverage?”.
Strategies to Gain Negotiation Leverage
There are several strategies you can take to harness the power of negotiation leverage when it comes to your business loan options:
- Have your loan request go out to market, not to just one lending institution
- Ensure you have valuable lender feedback
- Be aware of real-time data straight from the mid-market
- Seek advice and guidance from Capital Markets experts
Once you’ve gained leverage, the next step is to use it effectively. You will begin to show the lenders you are working offers and feedback you have received from other lending institutions. and ask if they can match, or beat, those terms. Remember, lenders want your business, and if they see you as a valuable client, they are more likely to negotiate.
How Cerebro Provides You Negotiation Leverage
When you partner with Cerebro, we use proven tech and data-driven matching to get your business loan request in front of the over 2,200 top bank and non-bank lending institutions in our network. You will be matched to your best lending options, so you can compare multiple term sheets at once, all-in-one-place. Giving you direct access to multiple rate and term offerings, in turn providing you with negotiation leverage.
You will have the unique opportunity to receive valuable feedback from the multiple institutions you match with, feedback you would not be able to access, or benefit from, anywhere else. Accessing market data is easy when you work with us. We have helped facilitate over $5.6 billion in loan proposals. We run thousands of debt processes within the mid-market, more than anyone else. This allows us to get a deeper understanding of the mid-market lending landscape. We collect market data from the excellent term sheets our customers are receiving via our lender network. This data you can use to negotiate more favorable rates and terms amongst the lenders you are working with.
If you are seeking expert guidance, Cerebro has you covered. Our experts have over 100 years of commercial lending experience. They not only understand the right loan options for your business loan request, but understand the market and what current rates and terms are looking like in the mid-market. They will use all their expertise, as well as what Cerebro has to offer, providing you with high level negotiation support whether you plan to work with one of our lenders, or try to obtain better rates and terms from an existing lender relationship you may have.
Navigating the commercial lending landscape does noy have to be daunting. By understanding and utilizing negotiation leverage, you will have lenders competing for your business, instead of you feeling left in the dark. Before you accept those high rates and terms, remember the power of negotiation leverage and how it can elevate your business loan request.
Related Content
The world of middle-market lending has changed. Before COVID-19, traditional lenders showed flexibility as they worked to expand their books of business.
Increase the Chances of Closing a Loan
Significant disruptions to the lending landscape in the past four months have left corporate borrowers scrambling to stay on top of changing requirements
CFOs need to be constantly aware of how their company’s financial performance and market shifts affect its debt capacity, which is the best measure of your business’ ability to borrow.
Ready to get started?
Join the thousands of mid-sized companies who have used Cerebro.
- info@cerebrocapital.com
-
12 W Madison St.
Baltimore, MD 21201 - Cerebro Capital
- @cerebrocapital