Case study: developing trade finance specialists in more than 30 countries

The brief

The client is an international bank with trade finance teams spread across Latin America, North America, Europe and APAC. It asked us to build a development programme for its trade finance specialists and, alongside them, the managers responsible for their performance. The programme was delivered in more than 30 countries.

As with all our client work, the details are anonymised. We do not name the bank, and we do not publish internal performance data from the engagement. What we can share is the shape of the brief and the design principles that a programme of this scale requires.

Why trade finance is a demanding sales environment

Trade finance sits inside one of the most regulated and risk-aware parts of financial services. A corporate client buying letters of credit, guarantees or supply chain finance is rarely making a single decision. Treasury, procurement, legal and the bank's own credit and compliance functions all have a say, and each looks at the deal through a different lens.

That changes what good selling looks like. A trade finance specialist needs to:

• understand the client's supply chain and cash conversion cycle well enough to spot where risk and working capital pressure sit;
• structure a proposal that the bank's own risk teams will approve;
• explain value in terms a finance director recognises, such as cash flow, certainty of payment and counterparty risk;
• build trust over long relationships where the product is complex and the stakes are high.

These are consultative skills applied inside a tight regulatory frame. A generic sales course would miss most of them. The specialists in this programme were also experienced bankers, so the content had to respect what they already knew and focus on the conversations where commercial skill makes the difference: opening a relationship with a new corporate client, widening the range of products a client uses, and defending margin when competitors offer cheaper structures.

Why the managers were part of the brief

Including managers was a deliberate choice. Our own material on sales leadership cites research from Gartner, McKinsey and the Corporate Executive Board showing that effective sales coaching can improve performance by 19 to 26%. Equally, sales teams forget around 80% of what they learn within 30 days unless something reinforces it.

In a bank, that reinforcement has to come from the line manager. Specialists return from a workshop to a pipeline review, a credit committee and a set of client meetings. If their manager uses the same language and the same tools in those moments, the new behaviours survive. If not, they fade. Managers in a global bank also carry heavy administrative and risk responsibilities, so coaching tends to be squeezed out unless it is built into existing routines such as pipeline meetings. So the programme gave managers two roles: learners in their own right, and coaches who keep the method alive between sessions.

Delivering one programme across four regions

Running a programme in more than 30 countries raises practical questions that a single-country project never meets. The approach we use for international work rests on three principles.

1. One common framework. Every country works from the same core model, tools and vocabulary. A specialist in Mexico City and a manager in Singapore should be able to discuss a deal using identical terms.
2. Local delivery by resident consultants. Gyroscope consultants live in the markets they serve. They adapt case examples, pace and facilitation style to the local business culture and, where needed, the local language.
3. Hybrid formats. Our Financial Services work blends digital learning, AI-powered coaching and facilitated sessions, so people can practise between workshops and the programme can reach small country teams efficiently.

This combination gives a global head of trade finance consistency and regulatory credibility, while each country team experiences a programme that feels built for its market.

Lessons for other multi-country banking programmes

Several points apply to any bank planning similar work.

• Start from real deals. Exercises should use structures and client situations the specialists actually see. Credibility with experienced bankers is lost quickly if scenarios feel invented.
• Bring risk and compliance into the design. If the internal approval process is part of the sale, it belongs in the training.
• Plan the reinforcement before the launch. Decide how managers will coach, which tools they will use and how practice will continue after the first module.
• Agree what you will measure. We use the Learning-Transfer Evaluation Model (LTEM), which looks beyond attendance and satisfaction to decision-making competence, on-the-job behaviour and commercial impact. Setting those measures at the outset makes later evaluation far easier.

Is this relevant to your organisation?

Our Financial Services examples also include key account coaching for the global relationship leaders of a top-tier insurer and multi-country programmes for one of Europe's leading insurers. If you are planning development for specialist sales teams across several countries, we would be glad to discuss how a common framework with local delivery could work for you.

Frequently asked questions

RH

About Richard Higham

Richard has 35 years' experience driving sales growth. As a managing partner in a global sales performance consultancy, he has won, designed, and led projects for Big 4 firms and global banks, as well as for PE investments and mid-caps — shaping strategies, structures, systems, and skills for sustainable performance by leveraging the best of the human and digital.