Seth Cooper

Senior Vice President - National Sales Manager, MidCap Business Credit, LLC.

40 Under 40 Category: Business Development

Biography:

Seth is responsible for new business development in the Northeast market for MidCap.  In addition, he manages a team of sales professionals across four other regions around the country.  Seth has spent the last 16 years in asset-based lending. He has been in new business roles for both large regional banks and independent commercial finance companies such has Presidential Financial, Business Alliance Capital Corporation, and Sovereign Bank. Seth received his undergraduate degree from Elon University where he majored in business administration and received a minor in accounting.  In his free time, Seth enjoys spending time with his wife, Chelsea, and three girls, Emerson, Maeve and Cassidy, playing golf and skiing.

What is the best professional advice you have been given and how have you implemented it?

The best two pieces of professional advice I have received is to work hard and don’t be scared to “ask for the business.”  When in a new business role, one of the most important things is to always stay in front of your referral sources.  New business roles require work in the early mornings and at night, in order to fit everything in which is required throughout the week.  I learned at the start of my career that the majority of the work week should be used for calling on and maintaining and developing new and existing referral sources.  Deal write-ups, follow-up calls and setting the calendar for the upcoming weeks or months can be done outside of the conventional work-day hours.  After 16 years, this is still the basic framework I try to stick with.  Hard work and managing my time and calendar throughout the week is one of the most important things I do, which I believe enables me to be most effective in developing new business.

In addition to working hard, I learned early in my career not to be scared to “ask for the business”. One memory which sticks out was 11 or 12 years ago. I was working on the largest and most competitive deal of my career to that point.  The owner of the company was a real hard negotiator and we were on the third or fourth turn of the terms letter. When I was out meeting with him and reviewing the letter, he asked for a couple more changes. I was worn down at that point and looked at the older, seasoned business owner and asked him, “If I get these changes approved are you going to sign the letter and send us the due diligence deposit?” He looked at me and said, “Are you asking me for the business young man?”  I replied, “Yes I am.”   I was a little nervous as he was probably 35-40 years older than me and I was unsure how he would reply.   He looked up and me and said, “Yes, I will sign the letter and wire you the deposit as soon as those changes are made.”  We had the signed terms letter and wired deposit the next day.  To this day, there isn’t a deal that goes by where I don’t “ask for the business,” when the timing is right of course.

How did you wind up in the industry? We know most kids don’t say “I want to be in commercial finance when I grow up.” 

I moved to Boston in 2000 after graduating from Elon University.  I had a job in Back Bay selling mutual funds. It was an inside sales job, which required a ton of “dialing for dollars.” I absolutely hated it.  I wanted an outside sales job where I was face-to-face with potential customers.  After a year of selling mutual funds, I was introduced to Presidential Financial, a commercial finance company, who at the time was focused on doing non- bank asset-based deals up to $2MM.  Presidential was headquartered in Atlanta, but had a regional office in Rockland, MA.  I interviewed and was hired as vice president of new business.  I really loved the business from the start.  I was able to learn about many different industries and quickly realized how many great people were in the commercial finance space in general.