Sales management in corporate client divisions is cumbersome, expensive, and often lacks foresight. The challenge to overcome is a segmentation approach based on past performance, not future potential. Any bank that wants to grow efficiently must fundamentally rethink their approach.
Managing a corporate banking division is like a challenging mountain ascent: the summit – sustainable revenue growth – is ahead, but inefficient routes are blocking the path.
To understand the pitfalls of conventional segmentation, let's explore corporate banking through the following six lenses:
1. The blind spot in corporate sales
The situation is clear: the corporate banking divisions of many banks are facing structural barriers to growth. Despite rising client demands, increasing regulation, and pressure on margins, they often lack a systematic approach that intelligently focuses their sales efforts, capacity, and offering on the most relevant clients.
The issue rarely lies in the product itself, but in the underlying management logic. In many institutions, customer segmentation is still based on simple criteria like revenue size, credit volume, or historical earnings. This perspective may feel familiar, but it is dangerously deceptive. Why? Because it ignores where and how future business is generated.
The consequences?
- Capacity is wasted on low-margin or low-affinity clients
- Relationship managers are working at their operational limits, but their efforts are poorly targeted
- High-potential client groups receive too little attention – or aren't identified at all
A sales organization that operates this way is, at best, optimizing the status quo. Growth is left to chance.
2. Potential-based segmentation: A new management standard
Instead of a retrospective view, what’s needed is a forward-looking perspective:
A potential-based segmentation model evaluates not what a client previously was, but what they could be. It combines internal customer data (e.g., product usage, transaction behavior, contribution margin) with external information (e.g., industry trends, financial ratios, market environment). Enhanced by intelligent clustering methods and AI-driven predictive models, this creates a robust client screening process.
The result:
- A valid assessment of customer potential (not just current revenue)
- Clear assignment to segments with defined service strategies
- Prioritized sales triggers for sales, product management, and leadership
In short: With these methods, banks create a reliable basis for deploying scarce resources where they will have the greatest impact.
3. Why old segmentation models no longer work
The reasons for this paradigm shift are not just technical – they are strategic.
Three fundamental shifts are driving this change:
(1) Client behavior has changed
Corporate clients operate far more dynamically today. The number of banking alternatives has grown, as have expectations for individuality, speed, and digital services. A once-strong client relationship no longer guarantees future revenue
(2) Margins and resources are shrinking – simultaneously
The resources required for regulatory compliance, documentation, due diligence, and monitoring are increasing. At the same time, margins are being squeezed by competition and interest rate volatility. Effectiveness is replacing volume as the key success factor
(3) Data availability has fundamentally improved
It has never been easier to systematically capture internal client behavior and enrich it with external data. The challenge is no longer the availability of data, but rather how to interpret it intelligently.
The logical consequence: Segmentation must become more dynamic, more granular, and more potential-driven.
4. From theory to impact: What modern segmentation delivers
Successful banks that have adopted potential-based segmentation report clear, measurable effects:
Impact | Lever | |
|---|---|---|
| +20-30 percentage point increase in net sales time | Focusing sales on relevant clients significantly reduces overhead | |
| +15-20% efficiency gains in service | Aligning service depth with potential leads to better resource allocation | |
| +10-15% revenue growth | Unlocking value through targeted development of underserved clients |
But the qualitative improvements are just as crucial:
- Advisory becomes more relevant because discussion points are data-driven
- Clients experience the bank as an active sparring partner, not just a reactive product provider
- Management of client portfolios becomes clearer and more reliable
5. Technically integrable – without a major IT overhaul
Advanced tools like Simon-Kucher's InsightPredict are designed to address exactly these challenges and are compatible with typical system landscapes (e.g., Atruvia). They use existing customer data (including CSV, RPA, API), process it in an external engine, and feed the segmented and prioritized results back into the core banking system.
The implementation is deliberately lean:
- No new system or development needed – just integration via standard export
- Proof of concept possible in less than 10 weeks
- Direct connection to CRM and sales trigger logic without IT restructuring
A key advantage of this tool-based strategy: Business departments retain full control over management principles and sales initiatives – without getting lost in endless IT specifications.
InsightPredict – Features
- Automated, potential-based customer segmentation
- Based on customer data, usage patterns, and external sources (e.g., industry information)
- Clear, actionable framework for prioritizing sales resources
- Recommendations for steering the client relationship (intensive, personal vs. efficient service models)
- Product recommendations to support targeted client outreach
- Sales support via data-driven suggestions for tailored offers
6. Segmentation as a launchpad for sales and organizational development
Modern segmentation is not a standalone project. When done right, it is the starting point for a holistic transformation of sales, management, and client service.
Three typical areas for further development include:
- Capacity planning and client coverage models: Which client gets what kind of support is no longer based on gut feeling but on economic logic
- Product portfolio management: Affinities and gaps in product usage become visible and can be addressed with targeted measures
- Channel and role models: Whether to use personal advisors, a service center, or self-service options becomes a strategic choice
The most critical lever for any bank is the combination of a data-driven view of the client with controllable, actionable execution.
Conclusion: Less effort. More impact. Higher returns.
Segmentation is the foundation of any sales strategy – especially in corporate banking. Yet many banks are still operating on foundations built on sand. Those who continue to base their management decisions on historical revenue will miss out on growth opportunities – and lose clients before their true value is even recognized.
Potential-based segmentation is not just a trend – it's the new standard. It is technically feasible, economically sensible, and operationally effective. Banks that act now will not only secure efficiency gains but also strengthen their role as a relevant partner to their clients.
The right time to rethink your segmentation logic is not 'later' – it’s now.
Contact our Simon-Kucher experts to learn more about how you can anchor potential-based segmentation in your business processes.
