Focus: Branch managers, platform staff, small business specialists

Main Messages: Take the time (and follow a consistent path) to understand a client’s or prospect’s trajectory (past, present, and future goals), their cash position and cash flow, and their back-office methods (AR, AP, daily funds management, fraud mitigation) before you respond to their requests or propose a product.

Learning Points: Talking Business with Small Business® is a comprehensive bank-to-small-business client experience and conversation training designed to demystify small business and small business finances and encourage productive small business owner conversations that lead to greater understanding, deeper relationships, and stronger client retention and referrals

The two major elements of the program are “cash flow” and “discovery conversations”. Through a small-business simulation, the participants experience cash flow challenges and management decisions in a growing, seasonal company. Through the simulation and small-group discussion and activities, participants learn:

• Terminology and relationships in business financial statements and cash flows
• How to “look behind the numbers” in financial statements and financial performance measures
• How to prepare for small business conversations or sales calls
• Lines of discussion (represented in a comprehensive Conversation Guide) that draw out information about cash available for operations (liquidity) and back-office efficiency (AR, AP, payroll, etc.) and that lead to bank lending, cash management, merchant services, and other products
• The cash management products that can improve business liquidity and back-office efficiency
• The difference between short and long cycles of borrowing causes and repayment sources and why a line of credit is not the best answer for every borrowing need

Delivery:

Physical classroom: Two-day classroom session.

Virtual classroom: Pre-classroom work plus four 4-hour virtual classroom instructor-led sessions. These can be configured into two consecutive full days or four consecutive half days.