We are all aware of the value of small business customers, so attracting and retaining these highly profitable customers demands a high priority. The fly in the ointment is that small businesses are a heterogeneous group, and the differences exhibited by them present a formidable sales and marketing challenge for financial institutions.

However, understanding how your target market varies can provide the insight you need to meet this challenge. The existence of these differences argues for a segmented approach to this target audience (see chart for segmentation model).

Institutions have long used retail segmentation models successfully. Using a counterpart model for small businesses can help you extract maximum value from all segments (not just the highly competed segments) and provide the competitive advantage you need.

Join Katy Koenig for this session as she shares the latest small business banking research on how business segments vary in:

• The importance placed on different aspects of their financial relationships

• Factors that would cause firms to switch to another provider

• Differences in attributes based on who they consider their main business provider: a multi-state bank, a local or community bank, or a credit union

• Transaction channel usage and frequency and what that means to providers

This session is appropriate for senior financial services executives with responsibility for Retail Banking, Small Business Banking, Marketing, Business Development, Marketing Research and Strategy groups.