Building Small Business Acumen

You have charged your Branch Managers to engage in new business development efforts for Small Business relationships—but so has every other bank! How do you differentiate your staff from all the others? By giving them the confidence to have a collaborative conversation with the owners of Small Businesses around issues and opportunities that are important to them!

Why Building Small Business Acumen?

Building Small Business Acumen is a one-day intensive workshop that teaches participants to speak the language of the small business owner. Participants will learn the skills needed to confidently discuss goals, operations, challenges and opportunities in ways that are meaningful to small businesses, and gain a deeper understanding of the business and can confidently recommend solutions that are aligned with your client's desired outcomes.

Who Should Be Trained?

Building Small Business Acumen is for bankers who have responsibility for acquiring and expanding small business relationships. Participants are asked to bring profiles of a small business client to be analysed during the capstone activity.

Delivery Method

Building Small Business Acumen is a one day workshop conducted by an Omega Performance consultant or bank leader who has enhanced their subject-matter expertise via Omega Performance's leader training. Attendance is capped at 16 participants to allow for maximum interaction and in-depth learning.

Results

Building Small Business Acumen will help you:

• Step up your level of small business competency and optimise calling time with business owners
• Ask the right questions about the business owner's everyday challenges to identify sales opportunities
• Best position your products to address the unique needs of small businesses
• Learn to communicate the benefits of your financial solutions in terms that a small business owner can relate to

What Is Included?

Building Small Business Acumen incorporates knowledge-based learning through which participants achieve the following objectives:

• Understand the operating cycle of a small business, and the appropriate questions to ask at each stage
• Define small business owners' expectations of financial institutions
• Learn financial statement terminology and how to apply this knowledge to servicing a small business
• Evaluate legal forms of business and business growth stages, along with the associated opportunities and risks
• Gain a deeper understanding of small business ownership through an exercise of building a business
• Examine the consequences faced by bankers who lack business acumen

Learning Method: