SMB growth doesn’t stop at account opening

Small businesses are the backbone of your communities, and a primary growth engine for your institution. But most banks still define onboarding success at opening the account or getting the loan.

The data suggests that’s not enough.

• 40% of new SMB accounts never fund
• $600+ average CAC per SMB account
• 85% of businesses say they would consider switching banks
• SMB onboarding ranks among the top strategic priorities for financial Institutions 

If acquisition is expensive and switching intent is high, activation matters.

The industry gap: Post-account opening 

Over the past several years, banks have invested heavily in improving the account opening experience. They’ve focused on faster digital applications, reducing abandonment, and streamlining compliance to make the process more efficient and less burdensome. While these efforts have made opening an account easier and more seamless, the experience that follows often hasn’t evolved at the same pace.

The experience often fragments across multiple systems such as: 

• Core banking
• Digital banking
• Treasury management
• Merchant services
• Payments
• CRM (where available)

Activation often becomes a manual process, relying on PDFs, relationship manager follow-up, and internal handoffs between teams. With limited time and resources, these efforts are difficult to scale effectively. Meanwhile, many SMBs never log into digital banking, and others stall before activating key services like Remote Deposit Capture, Positive Pay, ACH, payroll, wires, or merchant services.

As a result, first-year attrition risk increases. The account may exist, but the relationship hasn’t fully matured.

Why this is structurally difficult

SMB journeys are rarely linear. Businesses tend to onboard in phases, with funding transitioning gradually over time. Employees may be added well after the initial setup, and accountants often join once operations are underway. Additional services activate as growth milestones or operational needs arise. Despite this reality, most solutions are designed to stop at account opening rather than supporting the full lifecycle of a growing business.

The opportunity: Lifecycle engagement 

What if onboarding didn’t end at an opened account? What if you could:

• Track post-open activation 
• Guide digital service adoption
• Align internal teams around business-level milestones
• Set up surveys at business growth intervals for automated checkins 
• Improve funding and multi-product adoption in the first 90 days

Success shouldn’t be measured by opened business accounts. It should be measured by funded, activated, growing SMB relationships. 

See the lifecycle approach in action

For banks with a meaningful commercial concentration, the growth opportunity is clear. The focus must shift beyond simply opening accounts to activating the relationship, accelerating service adoption, and ultimately increasing profitability. By prioritizing engagement and multi-product usage early in the lifecycle, financial institutions can unlock greater long-term value from their SMB portfolio.

Discover how a structured post-account-opening activation layer helps financial institutions:

• Improve funding rates
• Drive digital adoption
• Increases staff productivity 
• Increase first-year revenue

Strengthen long-term SMB relationships, let’s talk about how you can build a structured post-account-opening strategy that drives measurable growth.