Nations Trust Bank Advanced Sales and Negotiation Skills Programme
A cultural transformation in corporate relationship banking designed and facilitated by Shajeev Wanigasekara whilst at Bridge Management Training Limited.
"The transformation in the team was immediately evident"
Inspire a mindset shift in the corporate banking team from that of service provider to trusted advisor, with the aim of creating a new culture of professionalism in client relationship management.
The programme was created at the request of Hemantha Gunetilleke, Deputy General Manager in charge of Corporate Banking at Nations Trust Bank at the time, who recognised that the team included several talented, capable individuals needing development in a specific set of skills along with a boost in personal confidence to reach a new level of sophistication. Hemantha specifically engaged Shajeev Wanigasekara at Bridge, based on his experience of having previously worked with him at HSBC.
The 3-day programme designed by Shajeev introduces tools and practices to manage one’s personal resourcefulness, engage with clients to build trusting relationships, conduct a consultative client conversation and negotiate effectively to achieve win-win deals. Skills learned are embedded through a series of practical activities that enable participants to contextualise the learning by experiencing them in practice. The programme culminates in a complex client case study (based on a real life scenario) involving a professional corporate role player, which provides the participants with a truly memorable experiential learning opportunity.
As well as designing the programme and writing the case study, Shajeev has been the programme lead since 2016, heading the facilitation team conducting the programme.
Corporate Banking’s profits have grown by 300% since 2016 and the department’s contribution to Nations Trust Bank’s overall profitability has grown from 17% to 50%. Crucially, from the perspective of long-term sustainability, Hemantha Gunetilleke says there is a now a distinctly different culture in the corporate banking team, with a skilled team full of confidence in its ability to add value to its customers.
"The skills and learning that Shajeev introduced to our people have yielded phenomenal business results"