Process: initial to close
The closer takes a finished file and turns it into a closed deal. You do not chase documents and you do not build the file — you read it, run the right call, get it signed, and own it to the finish.
Your role
You close what the junior advisor built
By the time a file reaches you it should already be complete — statements collected, application filled in every field, documents uploaded. That is the junior advisor's job and they own it. Yours starts when the file is in hand and someone has to make the call.
The closer's value is judgement. Two files can look identical on the summary and need completely different calls, and picking wrong costs the deal — a build script run on a fundable file wastes sixty days, and a funding script run on an off-rail file gets a decline.
What you own
- Choosing the build path or the funding path
- Running the closer's call in full
- Every agreement, explained before it is signed
- Underwriting replies and stips, same day
- The funding points conversation
- The renewal, when it comes due
First senior call to close
Six steps, every file
The order matters. Skipping step two is the most common way a closer ends up running the wrong call.
Take the handoff
The junior advisor hands you a complete file — statements, application, voided check, license — plus their notes. Read the notes before you dial. The AI push on the file tells you at a glance whether this is a build or a funding file, and that decision picks your script.
Read the file yourself
Do not trust a summary you did not verify. Open the statements and check the three things that decide everything: monthly deposits, how much of it is off-rail, and how many positions are already open.
Pick the script and call
Build file — card volume off the rails, or over-stacked — run the Build Script. Clean file that already funds — run the Funding Script. There is no third call, and running the wrong one is what loses the deal.
Go thereGet the agreements signed
Every path ends at paperwork. Which agreements depend on the path — the MPA for a build, the PCL pieces for leasing — and every one of them gets explained line by line before it is signed.
Go thereSubmit and stay on it
Submit to underwriting or to the funder, then own the follow-up. Stips get answered the same day. The merchant should never be the one asking you for an update.
Confirm and close
Walk the merchant through the funding points before anyone else does — amount, structure, timeline. The verification call confirms it. Then the deal is closed and the renewal clock starts.
Go thereThe two scripts
One file, one call
Read the signals on the left of each card against the file in front of you. Whichever column the file falls into is the script you run.
Build Script
The file needs the rails installed first
Use this when the merchant's real revenue is partly off-rail, or they are over-stacked. The call finds where the money is actually landing, explains the 30–60 day season, and closes on the processing so the file can fund properly later.
Run it when you see
- Heavy Zelle, Cash App or Venmo movement
- Card volume running through a processor the bank cannot see
- Clean deposits but too many open positions
Funding Script
The file is already clean and ready to fund
Use this when the deposits are bankable and consistent and there is room left in the cash flow. The call runs out of GHL, reviews the file with the merchant, and presents amount, structure and timeline as three separate things.
Run it when you see
- Consistent on-rail deposits above the floor
- No negative days, healthy balances
- Few or no existing positions
A build file is not a worse file
It is a file that needs one more step. The merchant with strong revenue running off the rails is often the best long-term client you will sign — they just need the rails installed and a season before they fund properly.