Deal Management for the 21st Century

 During the pre-pandemic time, corporate banking was on the rise across the world. In 2019, North and South America were top performers, registering a 19.5% growth in corporate lending. The 

sector thus saw extraordinary disruption and delays as the events of 2020 transpired. Corporate banking took a blow, but as the globe adjusts to the new normal brought on by the pandemic, the buzz in this sector is likely to rise again. Banking, on the other hand, may never be the same as the industry's digitalization has accelerated due to COVID-19.

It has also increased its focus on client-centric business strategies in order to assure customer satisfaction and loyalty. The new rule of the game is hyper-personalization, and corporate banking isn't immune to implementing hyper-customized interaction models for improved business outcomes. This refers to more than simply marketing and outreach initiatives. In the future years, processes critical to the banking sector, such as handling negotiations and agreements, will need to be redesigned with a strong technological focus to ensure more transparency, client involvement, and income.

Why should there be a change in the way deals are managed?

Banking has been moving forward on the digitization path for years, according to industry observers. So, why is there a fresh sense of urgency in moving these projects forward? This is because of two factors.

The first is the pandemic that transformed the world as we knew it virtually overnight. 

Technology provided continuity, access, and an illusion of routine when work, business, and life were interrupted. And it will continue to play an important role in industries such as banking, where contactless transactions are expected to expand even after the pandemic.

The second factor is the modern customer and what they demand from their banks. Customers today want a higher level of personalization, greater autonomy and control over the banking process, more choice and transparency since they are much digitally-savvy and informed.

Customers would want banks to not just know them but also to be seamlessly interwoven into their lives by 2030, according to KPMG. They anticipate automated, straightforward, and user-friendly operations that will reduce the amount of time and effort spent communicating with banks. This also applies to corporate banking and the deal-making process.

Deal Management in a Bygone Era

Customers and sales managers negotiate banking agreements that cover specific product portfolios. Discounts and offers were traditionally calculated based on broad segmentation efforts such as area and firm size. These were not particularly personalized in the absence of significant data analytics techniques.

Automating Deal Management

Automated deal management tools can be game-changers in this situation. These platforms assist banks in establishing explicit norms and processes for discussions and transactions. These systems are designed to cater to a "segment of one" – a hyper-personalized customer segmentation approach that will give the best pricing for them based on an in-depth analysis of their needs, current business and interaction modes, future development potential, and much more.

The product manager starts the process by establishing the best pricing for the product. They then use in-depth data-driven consumer segmentation insights to come up with a variety of discounts and offers that may be given to a specific client. By standardizing the negotiating process and developing price governance models with negotiability restrictions, it provides the sales manager with a broad framework within which they must operate. The framework is extremely adaptable and is built on data-driven insights for critical elements such as profitability, revenue effect based on commitment, and real-world business simulation.

A high level of visibility and transparency is ensured through proper documentation, the use of relevant technologies, consistent reporting, clear communication with the client, and their recorded sign-off on the final agreement. Every promise made across product and service lines can be readily tracked and managed, with progress being assessed on a regular basis. It also gives you more influence over the deal-making process. The sales manager, for example, has some leeway in terms of offering discounts outside of the set limitations.

However, they must first obtain clearance from the product manager. If the product manager takes too long to approve a request, the system will alert you and escalate the situation to the next level of approval. This guarantees that offers and contracts are processed more quickly. In a nutshell, automated deal management systems may shorten the deal management lifecycle, reduce deal closing time, reduce revenue leakage, and maintain transparency and compliance.

Deals, discounts, and special offers have always been a part of business, and they will continue to be in the future. The customer's expectations is the only aspect that has altered. They expect individualized discounts and offers, as well as more control and insight into the process and a smooth experience. Banks desire revenue-generating agreements, long-term client relationships, and a procedure that is rule-based, clear, and organized. Both parties' criteria are met through automated deal management tools. Manual, error-prone procedures must be replaced with state-of-the-art automated solutions that can satisfy changing customer needs and fit the increasing requirements of the new business landscape as the globe moves on from the pandemic's disruption.