AI

How AI is Scaling a Veteran Small Business Financing Brokerage to New Heights

“There are [AI] voice systems out there that have just blown me away,” said Cheryl Tibbs, owner of Atlanta-based Commercial Capital Connect. “So we are using those and I’m implementing some in my office in my day to day—we have an AI receptionist that answers the phone, it just frees up time.”

As a broker, Tibbs recognizes the value of being able to answer a potential client anytime, anywhere, but there needs to be time to sleep, train others, and expand as well. And thanks to the advent of actual AI, it’s now become increasingly possible to scale on multiple fronts where it wasn’t before. Tibbs told deBanked that she’s been using AI to duplicate herself across anything she can.

“So we train these models on everything about our business, everything about us, and it can just answer questions, either through chat or having a conversation,” she said.

AI can call leads or qualify a customer through online chat at three in the morning if need be—not theoretically; it’s doing it for her already.

“Some mornings I wake up, I see full conversations between the conversational AI and somebody that filled out a lead form,” she said. “The chat agent has the ability to send them a text message with our full application link, or book them on our calendar.”

But more customers coming in the door means more questions from her team about where to place a deal. She’s got a solution for that, a bot she created named BrokerBuddy that can answer on her behalf when she’s not available to do it herself.

“I trained it on most of the lender guidelines that we work with, so they can just go in and just type a question, you know, ‘hey, BrokerBuddy, I’ve got a customer with a 680 FICO score.’ He says, ‘two years time in business, looking to buy a $40,000 skid steer. What else should I ask him? Which lender in our organization do you think will do this deal?'”

There’s a role for AI to just skip the questions and place a deal all by itself using advanced algorithms, something many tech companies tout these days, but the human nuance is a key component to her service, since any deal could be equipment financing, SBA, or working capital rather than solely one thing. It’s not always immediately obvious which one it’s going to be or what the customer would prefer. Way back in the day, Tibbs started purely with MCAs, back when they could only be done via a credit card machine. Since then she added equipment financing, working capital loans, and SBAs. For a long time now, she’s offered it all. She pairs up customers with the best fit and relies on her knowledge and relationships to know what’s going to work and what’s not.

Tibbs, right, is a two-time judge of Broker Battle

“SBA is a hot button right now and merchants are really excited to know that this is definitely a possibility,” Tibbs said.

One opportunity with SBAs in particular is to consolidate MCAs, which, if the business owners qualify, can have a tremendous impact. Sometimes these business owners find her by seeing her posts online, and they reach out. Maybe it’s her they’ll get right away, or maybe it’s her AI. In any case, all of her experience has long since led other brokers to refer their own business to her, since she has a reputation for being able to get the deals done.

“I’ve been operating as a super broker most of the 20 to 25 years that I’ve been in this alternative space,” she said, “and as a super broker, I’m able to offer my broker partners more stuff than they even thought about. […] I study this stuff. I eat, live, and breathe it.”

While it’s unclear if AI qualifies as alive, her band of automated agents are beginning to breathe the rush of it all right alongside her. So many brokers (and lenders) are diversifying their product sets that her referral business is escalating, and she wouldn’t be able to scale without the assistance.

“Even though we get appointments, if we’re not on the phone with that merchant usually within three to five minutes, sometimes it’s hard to get them back on the phone. And even if they make an appointment, they may not show up. Having that instant engagement it definitely helps.”