Taught in a workshop format, this session shows relationship managers how to effectively
focus their limited time on those key clients where the investment will pay off. Every banker
has the prospective client he has been chasing for months; the relationship she has been
trying to expand; the target prospect that senior management wants to bank. Using the
tools and techniques discussed in this workshop, bankers will be able to convert these
problems into more business and better relationships. Participants learn how to manage
their relationships by actively using account planning, marketing themselves, networking,
team-building, planning and positioning, and SWOT (strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-trends)
analysis.
The session uses a combination of workshop activities, lecture, discussion, real life case
studies and other activities to sharpen participants’ vision and planning skills. Participants
are asked to prepare a brief case study using an existing or prospective firm. They are
instructed to select one of these examples based on its strategic importance in terms of
revenue, industry, or senior management agendas. They could also chose a client company
that seems to be “at risk” or a sale that went wrong. The participants will work with the
case studies in the class sessions so at the conclusion they will have a real-life plan for
dealing with that relationship in addition to having mastered the skills to effectively plan for
other key accounts.
I. Relationship Dynamics: Most Bankers understand how relationships are supposed to work,
but few know what to do when things go wrong.
A. How they work
B. How they change
C. Evaluating relationship styles
D. The importance of planning for the client’s and the bank’s success
II. Relationship Management Tools: Relationship Management is not just selling more and
more bank products and services. It is building a base of mutual trust and becoming one of
the few that is called on to help that firm when organizational issues arise
A. Being a “Relationship “Manager”: How much can you actually manage?
B. Leveraging Your Relationship Investments: Using your time to do things that help you
achieve several goals
C. Analyzing the Decision-Making Structure
D. Team-Building: Working with others internally and externally to build stronger ties to
the client. Creating internal teams
III. Using a Focused Relationship Strategy: Bankers have many clients and prospects and
they all require different expenditures of time and attention. Your staff must learn to
prioritize clients so they can focus their scarce resources wisely.
A. Targeting Key Clients: Looking for the existing and prospective clients that are worth
investing in a focused relationship strategy
B. Climbing the business relationship hierarchy: How to go from selling commodity-like,
price sensitive products to being viewed by the company as an external asset who
solves organizational problems
C. Evaluating Your Current Relationship Position: What do you know about the
company? How do they see you? How do you see yourself, the relationship and
them? How do you want to be seen?
D. Setting strategic relationship goals: Changing your way of viewing the relationship
and articulating your goals in terms of bringing value to the customer. What are
your target revenues, target dates, target events, target decisions?
E. Focusing Your Relationship Investment: Identifying which actions are likely to help
you reach your target
F. Knowing When to Say When: Dumping lost causes and sorting through marginal
opportunities.
G. Dealing With Lost Business: Understanding the client’s mind-set; debriefing and
analyzing what was actually said, not just what we heard
IV. Developing a Relationship Action Plan: Good relationship management requires
planning. Learning these planning techniques will change the way you see a relationship
from the very beginning.
A. Setting objectives: These are stepping-stones toward your overall relationship goal.
They provide incentives to keep you moving forward
B. Creating milestones: Points where you measure your progress
C. Closing the Gap: Recognizing the point in all relationships when its time to step up
your efforts to get where you want to be and doing something about it
V. Summary
Companies do not live in a vacuum. There is a constant flow of factors that affect the firms
which come from inside and outside the organization. External factors such as: Market
demand fluctuations, interest rate changes, competition, access to key suppliers, cost of new
machinery, new technologies and regulatory issues are just a few that bombard all firms.
Internal issues including: Political issues, managerial changes, and other pressures from the
board, access to qualified and talented staff and a host of other issues also affects firms on a
daily basis.
As companies change, no matter what the reason, your people must be able to help that firm
cope with the changes, many of which will affect cash flows, both long and short-term, as
well as assisting them in keeping control over their financial profile. Understanding where
your prospects and clients are going can help you to make the kinds of recommendations to
the firm that will draw you into the trusted circle of advisers, so you are not just another
banker.
This session will teach your people how to think more like a strategic planner and focus on
issues beyond the sale of your products and services to help the client leverage what you offer
for their gain. That is how you build and maintain key relationships.
Strategic approach to account planning, managing important relationships.
“Building & Managing Key Relationships” is a two-day course taught on site. It is designed
for individual relationship or treasury managers with attendance limited to 12-15 people. As
an option, the class can be configured for 4 to 6 sales teams or cross-disciplinary teams,
including members from relationship management, various product specialty areas,
customer support, operations, product management and other relevant areas. A team can
include between three and six people.