OXFORD FINANCIAL SERVICES TRAINING Specialist training and coaching for retail bank staff, managers & executives MUNGO DUNNETT ASSOCIATES
Our Specialism About the company 2
Introducing Oxford Financial Services Training We are a specialist firm of highly experienced individuals from the retail banking sector. We are consultants, used by numerous banking organisations both large and small to bring best practice and expert advice to their activities, in areas such as customer acquisition and retention, cross-selling and achieving sales through service. We are also specialist trainers, with extensive experience of teaching, coaching and guiding banking personnel at all levels of seniority from branch staff to board members. This is what makes us unique. We are not only experts in the training and the passing on of knowledge in interesting and engaging ways. We are also among the most respected consultants operating in the retail banking world, widely used as expert practitioners. This allows us to deliver exceptionally focused and commercially valuable training, rooted in the key activities and behaviours that make the biggest practical difference to banks performance. We have created a centre of excellence based on best practices and understandings obtained by working with best-in-class retail banks. Our highly interactive training interventions and leadership programmes ensure that leadership and front-line teams at all levels have the skills, sales strategies and service process and tools to achieve their objectives and implement the bank s strategy in a competitive environment. We would be delighted to work with you and your people in the areas outlined in the following pages. 3
Sales Training sales & service at the front line Branch managers The single most critical aspect of any retail bank s sales performance is the branch manager. We assess and improve the skills of branch managers or sales team leaders in driving sales and managing sales performance including how to build a high performing team, how to improve sales force productivity, and how to move from product-led to solutions-led selling. We also train branch managers to be managers an essential skill often forgotten in the focus on the sales process. We train managers to lead their teams, to manage people issues, to manage talent, and to act as a suitable role model for the next generation of sales leaders. 4
Sales skills training Training of telephone staff Behavioural competencies Training the trainers Recruitment of sales staff We work with groups of staff in customer-facing positions, to improve their ability to open dialogue with customers, to understand the product set and discuss it correctly, and to identify opportunities for sales arising from everyday customer service activities. We have a range of motivational training programmes based around role plays and individual activity, and focus on establishing and maintaining high levels of enthusiasm and energy within the group. Our courses include exceeding customer expectations, understanding customer service principles in retail banking, effective selling techniques and how to exceed your personal performance objectives. We are also experts on behavioural psychology and the way in which telephone conversations function most effectively; we carry out substantial consulting activity in this area. Using these expert skills we carry out assessments of call centre activity, and train staff and managers in best practice in telephone sales and service skills. Training often focuses only on technical skills, and recruitment of staff often focuses simply on the ability of staff to understand and carry out processes. We are experts in behavioural competencies the means by which staff can achieve a more effective outcome by adopting certain conversational styles, and being better attuned to the other person s preferred conversational style and personality. We train these behavioural skills. We can deliver these competencies based on our own methodology, or we can work within a competency framework already designed by your HR department. We can also lead the design and implementation of a tailored competency framework for the bank, and help the bank to use this for talent management and succession planning. We train banks own trainers in all of the above techniques, to allow the bank to deliver our training programmes after our engagement has finished. We profile the most effective performers in your own bank, or bring a profile of the most effective type of performer from other bank engagements. This allows banks to seek new sales staff on the basis of precise skills and characteristics, so making successful recruitment much more likely. 5
Technical banking training detailed training in effective retail banking 6
Middle managers Leadership development In-house workshops Introduction to banking A major part of our consulting activity involves the transfer of best practice in effective and profitable retail banking. This can also be done in a training environment, where we work with one or a number of key middle managers to teach best practice, and enable these managers to lift the performance of their own team. Our middle manager training covers best practice in banking product development, segmentation and innovative proposition development, management information, customer contact strategies, retail customer demands, multiple channel delivery, operational efficiency, stakeholder management, team building and performance metrics. We carry out leadership development programmes for managers and team leaders. Our leadership programmes are all behavioural based, and as members of the British Psychological Society we are licensed to deliver a number of accredited intervention such as SHL and Myers Briggs. Our development courses focus on developing delegates understanding of their leadership style, developing high performance teams, creating and sustaining high performance cultures, building talent and capability, building an effective operating plan and leading with authenticity. We also deliver accelerated courses in sales practices, in the creation of a customerfocused culture, and in all of the above areas in the context of one or two day workshops. Although this allows for less individual staff engagement, it allows an entire team access to the outlines of our best practice, and can be a rapid (and effective) way of bringing best practice into the organisation. For banks seeking to build their own talent by hiring managers from other sectors, or by hiring promising individuals just beginning their careers, we provide wide-ranging introductory courses. Our courses are intended to introduce delegates in an engaging way to the basic practices and competencies of banking. The purpose is to allow new recruits to arrive with a level of comfort and understanding in what is sometimes seen as a highly technical business sector. 7
Executive training leadership, coaching & customised executive courses 8
Executive coaching and mentoring Senior team development Executive courses in Oxford We work with individual members of banks senior management to provide a range of tailored services. These can involve one-off engagements, or a regular series of meetings or conversations as and when required by the bank. All these engagements are carried out on a confidential basis, but allow the bank access to our extensive knowledge of bank strategies and practices. The mentoring engagement will take place at the bank, but also involves free guest access to our Masterclasses in London, and introductions to senior management at banks in the UK. We carry out close engagements with banks senior teams, to assess and improve their ability to function as high performing units. We carry out psychometric-based assessment of the team members and the composition of the senior team, and identify areas for improvement. We work with individual team members to coach additional skills, and facilitate team sessions to improve the team s ability to drive the bank s strategy. Our work also has significant benefits for the bank s succession planning. We also provide short, intensive courses for individual members of senior management, or a small group of senior managers. These courses are private (not involving any other organisation), and are designed specifically to meet the specific requirements of each bank. The executive courses last for between one and eight weeks, and take place in Oxford at one of the Colleges of Oxford University. The host College for each course is selected to make an appropriate fit with the topic of that course. Executive accommodation is provided in central Oxford, near to the Colleges, and it is generally possible to provide access to the full facilities of the College, and to arrange access to the University library. The tuition is coordinated and delivered by our senior team, and hosted by the College. Each course is separately tailored to the requirement of our clients, across a range of topics including detailed best practice in retail banking, wider elements of global finance, people management and leadership skills. A Certificate of Attendance is provided upon successful completion of the course. The courses provide in-depth access to the body of knowledge and expert practitioners both within our consulting practice, and from leading academics, and also access to our client banks in the UK and to our regular Masterclasses in London. 9
Summary: our activities We are expert in all of the following areas: 1 Branch Manager training 2 Sales skills training for branch staff 3 Training of telephone staff 4 Behavioural competencies 5 Training the trainers 6 Recruitment of sales staff 7 Technical training of middle managers 8 Leadership development for managers 9 In-house workshops on sales and customer service practices 10 Introduction to Banking courses 11 Executive coaching and mentoring 12 Senior team development 13 Tailored executive courses in Oxford Our approach We deliver fast-moving, high-calibre and engaging training and development, geared precisely to the needs of each bank and each specific engagement. As training specialists, we are uniquely placed to understand the most important people practices and technical skills necessary for effective retail banking. We bring this combination of skills to the creation of separate training programmes to the exact requirement of each of our clients. Banks value us for our ability and willingness to listen precisely to their needs, and tailor our work accordingly. It is vital to us that clients find us reliable, technically expert, but also easy and fun to work with. When training becomes change Whilst we are experts in training specific skills central to profitable banking, we are also deeply interested in our clients longer term performance. Reinforcing new skills through the implementation of revised support structures and improved processes prevents the return of old habits and gradual erosion of change that often begins almost as soon as the training engagement ends. Our work is focused on ensuring that our lessons stay in the mind and the behaviours of staff; and ensuring that the bank s own training department has absorbed our practices and can continue to keep competencies on track after our engagement ends. We also share a delight in developing long-term relationships with our clients, so that we can nudge the bank back on track whenever we are called on. There is also a wider purpose to our work. The most difficult thing for a bank to achieve is often the alteration of its culture: the series of ingrained practices and attitudes that characterise life as an employee, and also as a customer, of that bank. Where our training engagements can create the greatest change and commercial impact is where we work alongside you to define what the bank really wants to stand for, and the behaviours and practices that will create an appealing and truly differentiated position in the local market. In combination, our consulting and change management skills can help you to define and adopt a new customer-focused working model that positions the bank successfully for the longer term. 10
Oxford Financial Services Training 11 Polstead Road Oxford OX2 6TW England T: +44 (0) 1865 311966 W: www.md-as.com E: info@md-as.com