Cash Management

Generating More Treasury Management Referrals and Fee Income

Clarity Role: A super-regional bank shifted corporate banking focus from loans to “wallet share” and “fee income.”  Seeking to increase referral volume and referral quality, the bank’s Treasury Management department engaged Clarity to recommend, design, and help the bank launch an initiative to drive more referrals.  Clarity’s recommendation included a sales dashboard focused specifically on the initative; training for Corporate Banking RMs on client cash management challenges, bank products, and discovery conversations; a rigorous field coaching and leadership process; and a 90-day ‘sprint’ to boost momentum quickly.

Outcome: From the first 90 days – 53.5% increase in number of TM deals closed and 34.8% increase in $$ value of deals closed.  By the 180-day mark, the initiative generated over 1,000 referrals,  increased net TM fees by 23% year over year, and produced more than 400 new Treasury Management opportunities.

Increasing Cash Management Referral Quality

Clarity Role: For a major regional bank, we developed “sales–oriented” product knowledge training (different from “product–focused” product training) for high priority products.

Outcome: Reduced time required for newly hired sales team members to identify opportunities. The quality of referrals tracked by cash management team members increased according to criteria Clarity helped them develop.

Improving Sales Skills for Treasury Management Sales Officers

Situation: The senior sales leader of a major regional bank’s cash management sales force noticed that his “sales representatives” were little more than technical implementation experts, focused on order fulfillment rather than sales.

When they accompanied relationship managers on calls, their questions focused on “product qualification” and “fulfillment.” They frequently did not understand a customer’s strategy, business priorities, and cash cycle.

Corporate banking relationship managers complained about their low sales prowess, saying they were frequently embarrassed by their behavior.

Project Focus and Clarity Role: Clarity developed narrative examples of desired sales strategies and approaches, then led training through which the bank communicated the new expectations and assisted the cash management sales team members to learn and practice new sales calling skills.

Outcome: Corporate banking relationship manager complaints about the cash management sales team members dropped noticeably shortly after the training. Over a period of time, their partnerships improved and the bank documented improved cash management sales performance.

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