Selling Structured Trade Finance Solutions

Name: Selling Structured Trade Finance Solutions
Availability: InStock

A practical course that equips participants to identify client needs and structure trade finance solutions through financial analysis and consultative selling

London Eye Ferris wheel against the background of the River Thames and Big Ben at distance

Live virtual class | Delivered over two half-day sessions | 7 CPD hours

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In-house pricing available – often more cost-effective for teams of 10+

Download: Course Outline

Develop a CFO and Treasurer mindset when assessing client priorities and financing choices.
Move beyond product-led conversations by linking business objectives to financial challenges.
Translate analysis into a clear opportunity hypothesis and more relevant client dialogue.

Session 1: Thinking Like a Corporate Treasurer

Purpose: Understand the objectives, measures and decision criteria that shape a corporate client's financing choices.

The Corporate Treasurer's World

Liquidity management and working-capital optimisation
Funding diversification, cost reduction and balance-sheet efficiency
FX exposure and counterparty-risk management
Supply-chain resilience and support for corporate growth

Understanding Treasury KPIs

Cash conversion cycle, inventory days, receivable days and payable days
Net debt, interest cover and liquidity ratios
Return on capital employed and the relationship between profit and cash

How CFOs and Treasurers Evaluate Funding Solutions

Cost, flexibility and scalability
Accounting and regulatory implications
Operational complexity, implementation risk and resilience

From Product Selling to Consultative Solutioning

Why product-led selling fails
Business objective -> financial challenge -> solution -> measurable outcome
Common buying triggers: growth, M&A, margin pressure, supply-chain disruption, geopolitical events and funding-cost changes

Practical exercise: Treasury Priorities and Buying Triggers Workshop. Teams compare the priorities of the CFO, Treasurer, Procurement Director and Supply Chain Director, then identify the commercial objectives behind a series of apparent product requests.

Session 2: Treasury Forensics: Diagnosing Opportunities Before the Meeting

Purpose: Use available information to form an evidence-based view of a client's financial pressures and potential structured trade finance needs.

Sources of Intelligence

Annual reports and financial statements
Investor presentations and earnings calls
Rating and credit reports
Industry publications, market intelligence and news flow

The Treasury Forensics Framework

Funding stress and liquidity pressure
Working-capital deterioration and growth constraints
Supply-chain, customer and supplier concentration risk
Cross-border liquidity and restricted-cash issues

Warning Signals and Diagnostic Indicators

Rising inventory or receivable days
Higher funding costs and weakening interest cover
Restricted cash balances and covenant pressure
EBITDA pressure, supplier concentration and supply-chain fragility

Practical exercise: Annual Report Investigation. Teams analyse extracts from a fictional multinational's financial and non-financial disclosures, identify the strongest warning signals and develop an initial view of its treasury concerns.

Session 3: The Art of Discovery

Purpose: Convert preliminary analysis into a purposeful client conversation that uncovers priorities, root causes and decision criteria.

The Three-Layer Questioning Framework

Operational questions: how the business, supply chain and payment cycle work
Financial questions: where cash, liquidity, funding and risk pressures arise
Strategic questions: what the client is trying to achieve and what could prevent success

Deepening the Conversation

Moving from surface issues and stated requests to root causes
Testing assumptions developed during pre-meeting analysis
Active listening, summarising and follow-up questions
Handling resistance without reverting to a premature product pitch

Practical exercise: Discovery Role Play. In pairs, participants conduct a short client meeting based on a treasury scenario. Observers assess the quality and sequencing of questions, listening skills and ability to uncover the underlying objective.

Session 4: Integrated Case Study: Manufacturing Company

Purpose: Bring together the analytical and consultative frameworks in a realistic client-origination exercise.

Case Materials

Selected financial statements and working-capital data
Industry and supply-chain information
Corporate strategy and treasury profile
Recent developments affecting liquidity, funding and growth

Team Challenge

Identify the client's principal commercial and financial objectives
Diagnose the most important working-capital, liquidity and supply-chain issues
Separate evidence from assumptions and identify information gaps
Prepare a sequenced set of discovery questions
Formulate and justify initial structured trade finance opportunities

Team presentation: Each team presents its diagnosis, discovery plan and opportunity hypothesis. Facilitated feedback tests whether the recommendations address the client's underlying objectives rather than merely matching products to symptoms.

Individual action planning: Participants are encouraged to identify three insights, one current client opportunity and one action to implement immediately after the course.

With more than 30 years of experience in corporate financial analysis, institutional investment management, investment banking and strategic advisory, the trainer specialises in helping financial professionals connect financial analysis with commercial decision-making.

His career includes portfolio management roles at Ivory & Sime and Cazenove Fund Management, followed by Global Head of Research at UBA Capital. Throughout this time, he analysed companies across international markets, focusing on financial statements, working-capital performance, liquidity, cash flow and financing requirements to identify corporate and credit risks.

He has advised companies on financial modelling, business planning, cash-flow forecasting, capital raising and financing structures, including working-capital analysis and liquidity planning. He also designs and delivers executive programmes in financial statement analysis, corporate finance, credit analysis, financial modelling, equity capital markets and structured trade finance.

He holds a Master's degree from the University of Edinburgh and Chartered Institute of Bankers certificates in Accountancy and Economics. He has delivered training programmes in English and French for financial institutions and corporate clients across Europe, Africa and Asia.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

Explain the principal treasury objectives and the criteria used to evaluate financing solutions.
Interpret core working-capital and liquidity indicators, including the cash conversion cycle.
Recognise buying triggers and distinguish a client's commercial objective from a product request.
Apply a structured treasury-forensics framework to public and client-supplied information.
Identify warning signals relating to inventory, receivables, funding costs, liquidity and supply chains.
Use a layered questioning framework to progress from symptoms to underlying causes.
Prepare discovery questions and formulate relevant structured trade finance opportunities.

The course is designed for professionals who originate, develop or support trade and working-capital solutions for corporate clients, including:

Corporate and commercial banking relationship managers
Structured trade finance and trade-finance sales specialists
Transaction banking and working-capital specialists
Corporate coverage and client-origination professionals
Product specialists seeking a more consultative approach
Credit, risk and other partners who support client solutioning

Clients do not buy trade-finance products simply for their features. They buy solutions to commercial problems: trapped cash, funding pressure, supply-chain vulnerability, growth constraints and cross-border risk. This practical course develops the analytical and consultative skills required to identify those problems and turn them into credible structured trade finance opportunities.

Participants learn to think from the perspective of a CFO or Treasurer, interpret financial and non-financial information, recognise working-capital warning signals, conduct deeper discovery conversations and formulate an initial solution hypothesis. Exercises, role plays and an integrated case study ensure that the frameworks can be applied immediately to real client situations.

The programme combines concise technical input with active application. Participants work individually, in pairs and in teams using: