In the current economic context, some financial entities are directing their commercial efforts towards attracting and developing small and medium-sized companies with low risk and high potential value, taking advantage of their financing needs and transactional services.

Cognodata has developed a series of tools to develop the SME business, which incorporate some of the Customer Management techniques used successfully for Retail Banking, which allow improvements in the income statement of over 35% and a very significant impact. positive in customer loyalty.

The differential value contribution of this new methodology is based on three pillars:

1.1. Recruitment of SMEs

During the recruitment process, there are several factors that influence the decision of an SME when opting for one entity or another, the most important being:

  • Profile of the relationship with the financial institution
  • Price offered and price received for the current service
  • Business process followed by the sales force
  • Differential value services for certain sectors of activity

Cognodata has developed analytical models to estimate the potential business of SMEs, which allow the best acquisition opportunities to be identified. Additionally, the identification of twin SMEs in external databases of the best SME clients allows the entity to increase the ratio of attracting new high-potential clients.

An approach to capturing by segments, with an appropriate differentiation and price strategy, allows the rate of capturing of SMEs to be increased by between 40% and 75%.

1.2. Activation and early development of clients (Example of capturing with POS)

Once the SME has been captured with the POS product, it is necessary to install it, activate it and increase its use in a short space of time, since the appearance of unresolved technical problems in a short space of time will lead to inactivity.

In this sense, Cognodata has developed a campaign control system that manages to move clients through the different phases of the acquisition cycle and that manages to increase by more than 30% the clients that reach the desired link stage. The effectiveness of segmented actions to stimulate use is much greater in the early phases of the life cycle.

2.1. Life cycle management

The management of the commercial relationship with SMEs is very different from that carried out with private clients, since it is carried out with greater supervision of the commercial managers and with a more integrated vision of the products and services that they maintain in the entity.

In this sense, it is critical to accurately identify the relationship level of this customer segment by calculating a bonding score, which allows it to be disaggregated into the different needs of each customer, to determine their journey by product and define alerts for Disengagement and sales opportunities by tour:

  • Disassociation alerts: they allow early identification of possible customer abandonment, analyzing the evolution of the score of each of the customers by periods
  • Support for cross-selling: through the generation of planned commercial actions to attract customers with a bonding path
  • Monitoring of commercial activity: analysis of the active management or not of the sales force, through the periodic evolution of the score of each of the client portfolios, allowing to anticipate and identify specific situations in the commercial network

2.2. Economic Networks

Entities do not usually have knowledge of their clients’ transactions due to the high volume of information and the complexity of its treatment. The identification and analysis of transactions between client and non-client companies of the entity allows the identification of business opportunities and risks.

Cognodata has developed a system that makes it possible to identify the monetary flows between client and non-client companies of the entity and to prioritize the most important commercial opportunities and risks, applying “text mining” techniques for their identification.

The knowledge acquired regarding customer transactions is structured in a computer tool, the Economic Network Manager, the use of which generates a competitive advantage for the entity in the management of the company portfolio:

  • Identification of key flows that generate business opportunities (eg factoring, renting, social security, abroad, etc.)
  • Identification of non-client companies with a high business trajectory
  • Identification of default propagation risk alarms

3. Price management strategies

Price management is one of the most powerful margin generation levers that company management departments have. Our experience tells us that there is an absolute dispersion in the execution of prices for segments of companies that, given their risk characteristics, size, etc., should have similar prices. The first step to carry out adequate price management is to reduce said variability, thus achieving between a 10% and 25% increase in margin.

Managing price increases for business segments with little price sensitivity in favor of the entity can increase the income statement by more than 15%. To achieve these benefits, it is necessary to adopt the following initiatives:

  • Establishment of a pricing strategy, taking into account the price sensitivity of certain segments and the desired margin and share objective
  • Establishment of rules and controls on decisions that can cause significant deviations from pricing policies
  • Automation of approval processes and exception tracking
  • Improvement of the quality of the decisions regarding the price adopted by the commercial network, providing information that helps:
  • n negotiating the price with SMEs
  • To align the commercial incentives of the network with the business objectives of the entity

The set of pricing strategies must be presented in a context of benefit to SMEs, emphasizing the added value of these policies.

4. Conclusion

The economic crisis and the movements in the financial sector are generating important challenges for some entities, but also opportunities to gain market share in the SME segment, for which access to financing has become one of their main problems.

Financial entities that take advantage of opportunities for early acquisition and development, carry out adequate life cycle management and use pricing as a management lever are achieving growth in the income statement of over 35% and a very positive impact on the loyalty of its customers.