Building Small Business Acumen

Learn how to “speak the language of small business owners” in order to have more meaningful conversations that demonstrate understanding of a business’s operations, goals, and challenges.
Learn how to “speak the language of small business owners” in order to have more meaningful conversations that demonstrate understanding of a business’s operations, goals, and challenges.
Gain the foundational knowledge needed to understand how a small business operates, assess its management—and management’s strategies—and evaluate its financial information, in order to submit a quality loan request.
Learn to conduct high-impact conversations that uncover small business borrowing and cash management needs and yield the information needed to submit a well-prepared loan request to underwriters.
Learn to use the Decision Strategy™ to analyze small business opportunities, including industry, management, business and guarantor financial condition and cash flow, and to structure a loan that skillfully mitigates risk.
Equip relationship managers with a systematic approach to learning about a customer’s business, developing—and then sharing—financial insights, and positioning approvals, counteroffers, and even declines in ways that strengthen relationships.
Learn to prepare high-quality credit write-ups that articulate a clear and compelling—yet succinct—analysis of a business’s management, industry, financial condition, and cash flow.
Explore fundamental accounting concepts, study the composition of a complete set of business financial statements, and identify potential accounting risks, all from the lender’s perspective.
Learn how to improve business customer prospecting by building a network of centers of influence, skillfully prioritizing leads, and successfully converting telephone calls into appointments.
Learn how to thoroughly and accurately evidence business and consumer loan transactions, including commercial real estate-secured loans and home equity loans and lines of credit.
Learn to detect and evaluate early warning signs of problematic loans in order to take the appropriate actions to mitigate the contributing factors and protect the financial institution.
Define your retail organization’s sales, service, and management priorities and build organizational alignment around the path forward as you prepare to launch a retail training initiative.