Have you ever found yourself wondering what it’s like to live a day in the life of a Relationship Manager? If I had the time to write it and you had the time to read it, this blog would likely be in the region of 400 pages long! Fortunately for us both, I do not have the time to cover the 1001 daily tasks that we do as Relationship Managers, but I’m going to give you a small insight into my world.
The thing about my role is that the emphasis is on the word ‘relationship.’ I enjoy developing strong, lasting bonds with our clients that will hopefully stretch for many years. Although it can sometimes be hard being a Relationship Manager it never stops being rewarding.
So, what might a typical day look like for a Relationship Manager? Well, the very nature of our job means that essentially no two days are the same. One day I could be in the office completing admin tasks (or at home if there’s a global pandemic!) or I could be visiting a client in a town that I’ve never heard of. The admin tasks I’m positive I could potentially bore you to sleep with, but they are important, and they do serve a purpose. Whilst the fun and rewarding part of our job is meeting, greeting, and building long term relationships with our clients, we do also have to monitor and mitigate against a range of risks.
I tend to start by going through my inbox with any queries or requests from clients. I’ll then begin looking at the risk side of things. All RMs use a fancy piece of software called Risk Factor. Risk Factor is like an extremely useful virtual assistant that helps us make informed decisions quickly. Based on my findings I may need to contact my clients to discuss any new activity on their account.
I also join regular internal meetings which have been more important than ever during the pandemic – particularly whilst everyone is working from home and beginning to believe they’re featuring in Cast Away with Tom Hanks. We use this time to not only discuss our work but also to check on each other’s wellbeing, and bounce ideas off each other.
I use my quieter time wisely and go in to ‘focus mode’ to work on tasks that require a good deal of concentration. As an example, I might be writing up an annual client review or perhaps writing a credit paper submission for a proposed funding limit increase for a client.
As the Funding Partner of Choice increasing our clients funding limits in line with their business growth is extremely important to us and as a Relationship Manager, I take great pride in being able to continue to provide funding solutions that support business growth.
Visiting clients is great as it allows us to gain further insight into their business and although I have really missed this face-to-face element of my job, I feel fortunate for video conferencing technology and how quickly Ultimate Finance adapted to allow me to virtually keep close to my clients.
To summarise being a Relationship Manager doesn’t stop at being a funding guru, you also get to know business owners on a deeper level and feel like you are part of their team and really helping to keep their business moving. As I said at the start of this blog the emphasis on the word “Relationship” is key in our job title and I will leave you with a quote from Robin S. Sharma to finish….
“The business of business is relationships; the business of life is human connection.”
