14 AI Prompts to Help Bankers Understand Your SMB Clients Better
By Ben Udell, SVP, Product Marketing and Innovation at Marquis
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Executive Summary
- Small businesses face innumerable challenges that are often not apparent to the uninitiated. Even companies in the same industry can have widely divergent needs.
- Many retail bankers, especially new ones, often don’t have deep experience with small businesses generally, or knowledge of the specific challenges in the industries they are expected to support.
- AI can be a powerful tool to help bankers research SMB clients’ needs quickly, and fashion services and products to meet their unique needs.
Walk into any small business across America and you’ll find passion, hustle, and the relentless pursuit of growth. Whether it’s a bakery that starts baking at 4 a.m. or a family run landscaping business juggling seasonal contracts, small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. And they need more than just basic banking; they need bankers who understand their unique needs.
But here’s the challenge: Many retail bankers, especially those newer to the industry, don’t have deep experience with the unique needs of small businesses. They might not know how cash flow cycles work in a restaurant, what a home services business really needs during its off-season, or the online banking needs of an accounting firm. These small businesses often operate in this middle ground between a retail customer and large commercial businesses.
This is where we hit a critical gap that has held many banks and credit unions back from truly servicing these important customers. But today, there’s a powerful new ally: Artificial Intelligence.
Helping you improve how to service the needs of small businesses is an amazing everyday use case for AI. It’s the perfect opportunity to complement and quickly upskill a banker’s knowledge to better service and solve small business needs.
Imagine giving every banker access to real-time insights about a customer’s industry. Or delivering targeted training that helps them understand the difference between gross margin and net profit, or why a seasonal business might need a line of credit in February. AI can do that and more with basic prompting and engaged bankers.
Current AI tools, like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, can help banks and credit unions rethink how they connect with small businesses. With easy-to-use prompts bankers can immediately and dramatically improve how they connect and build better relationships, giving innovative banks and credit unions a competitive advantage.
Industry Insights at Your Fingertips With AI
Every small business has a story and no two are alike. A salon owner managing chair rentals and inventory turnover. A boutique retailer juggling online sales, vendor relationships, and seasonal inventory. These businesses need someone who understands their industry and how their bank or credit union can help them with their financial needs.
Robyn Lambrecht, SVP Retail Banking Solutions at Lake Ridge Bank, sees this challenge firsthand. She points out, “When you layer on all the different types of businesses we service, it’s impossible to build training to understand and address all these needs. AI can easily act as a mentor or tutor, complementing my training team’s support. AI is a very impactful way to make a meaningful difference when you need to understand and connect to a customer’s financial needs.
AI for Real-Time Industry Understanding
Imagine this: A banker is scheduled to meet with a prospective customer who owns a commercial cleaning business. They’ve never worked with a company in that sector before. What do they need to know? Instead of skimming outdated blogs or guessing their way through the conversation, the banker can ask AI:
Prompt Example: “What are the biggest financial challenges small commercial cleaning businesses face?”
AI might respond with insights like: Delays in customer payments and the impact on cash flow, high upfront costs for supplies and equipment, seasonality to staffing, and inconsistent income streams.
Now the banker has immediate context—and can tailor their questions accordingly. A follow up prompt will help the banker dig in deeper and learn more.
Prompt Example: “What banking products and services are most helpful for a small commercial cleaning business that needs to manage high upfront costs for supplies and equipment? Give me five questions I can ask to understand if this is a paint point and something I can help solve?”
AI enables the banker to stop asking generic questions and focus on specific small business needs with more powerful questions.
Understanding the Industry Behind the Business
The magic of AI lies in its ability to provide fast, specific insights tailored to different industries. Eric Brotherson, Business Intelligence & Analytics Manager at Erie Federal Credit Union, shared his history with helping their credit union staff improve their industry knowledge. “We service a diverse member base with countless small businesses. It’s impossible to truly appreciate how they’re all different. AI can help credit union staff gain quick knowledge and some appreciation for the members’ situations. I don’t think members expect our staff to have deep knowledge of every type of business, but the professionalism of spending time to understand their business and needs make a huge difference when you’re building long term relationships.”
Here are more prompt examples you can try, note how they can be generic or specific and detailed.
Prompt Example: “Explain how seasonality affects cash flow in the landscaping industry.”
Prompt Example: “I’m working with a customer who runs a home-based online business, and I want to better understand their typical deposit needs. Please explain the common financial challenges these types of businesses face and what banking solutions are usually most relevant. I’d like to be prepared with insights I can use to support their growth and anticipate future needs.”
Prompt Example: “I’m a retail banker preparing to meet with a new small business customer who owns a boutique that sells vintage clothing at their store and online. I don’t have experience working with this type of business, and I want to better understand how it operates and what typical financial and banking challenges it faces. Ask me a series of questions that will help me learn more about the customer’s business model, cash flow patterns, and potential financing or service needs. I’d also like to know what banking products are typically helpful for a business in this space, and how I might identify opportunities to offer valuable support. The goal is to have a confident, informed, and consultative conversation with the customer that builds trust and delivers relevant solutions.”
AI isn’t replacing training or experience, it’s speeding it up and making it more relevant and personalized to the banker and the customer. The last prompt demonstrates how you can use AI as a mentor by asking, “Ask me a series of questions…” A helpful tip for learning is to use a prompt that tells AI to act as a mentor, tutor, or teacher.
Prompt Example: “I don’t know anything about this topic and I’m not sure where to start. Act as a trainer and ask me questions to help determine what I really need to learn.”
By asking AI to ask you questions you can use the collective knowledge of your AI tool to uncover new ideas, insights, and approaches you may not have the insight to even consider.
AI is an Amazing Trainer
A common pain point in banking is banking language itself. Many small business customers are intimidated by products like “sweep accounts,” “treasury management,” or “merchant services.” Some bankers are too; they simply don’t have the training or repetition needed to be experts. Robyn Lambrecht noted that for many retail bankers, “they just don’t have the life experience to connect with small business owners. Whether the banker uses AI to assist them, or the training team uses AI to create more impactful training, we can create personalized learning to specific needs. Which allows their confidence to improve quickly.
Prompt Example: “Explain merchant services in simple terms. Highlight how it helps a small business that does home repairs. Provide relevant examples so I can be educated when I meet with my customer. List in a table 10 features and benefits of this service and relate it to cash flow and collection of payments.”
When a banker understands the terminology and can explain it in simple, relevant ways, they earn trust. They stop sounding like a rep selling a product and start acting like a financial partner helping a business grow.
AI as Your Conversation Coach
Knowing what a term means is one thing. Knowing how to use it in a conversation that builds trust and solves real problems? That’s where the work happens. This is where AI steps into a more human-centered role to teach and coach. It gives bankers a safe space to practice, refine their messaging, and prepare for the nuances of live conversations without the pressure of “getting it right” in front of a customer.
Let’s say you’re walking into a meeting with a restaurant owner who’s had unpredictable cash flow over the last six months. You want to be helpful and empathetic, but also strategic.
Prompt Example: “Simulate a conversation between a banker and a restaurant owner who’s looking for a line of credit to handle fluctuating cash flow. Include 5 questions the banker should ask to understand their financial health. Make sure to show empathy because the cash flow has been stressful.”
This gives you a practice run. You can look at how a conversation might flow, what questions show insight, and what signals to listen for. And by asking for empathetic questions or statements you can further humanize your interactions.
Eric Brotherson thinks this is an underappreciated strength of AI. “If I’m unsure of how to ask a question or present a topic. Or maybe I’m not sure how to best address a topic that’s sensitive, I simply provide background to AI and ask for insights and alternative approaches. It’s easy to use AI to gameplan your communication and that leads to better conversations.”
Prompt Example: “Act as a business coach. I’m preparing to meet with a landscaping company. What indicators should I look for that might suggest a need for equipment financing? Help me script a few open-ended questions to uncover their goals. Then list for me common landscaping equipment that would need financing and describe the equipment so I’m educated. This company works in Madison, WI and does year round work.”
It’s a real-time workshop tailored to your customer. AI will pick up on the location and in seconds give you deeper understanding of the business.
Script Before You Speak: Prepping for Real-World Conversations
AI can help bankers figure out how to bring up sensitive topics, position solutions without sounding pushy, or explain financial concepts in relatable terms. Best of all, you can ask AI to generate many questions, helping you find just the right question for the greatest impact.
Prompt Example: “Help me script how to talk about credit card usage with a business owner who might not have the best revenue in the current economic environment. I want it to be conversational and easy to follow. Give me 10 questions I can ask.”
Prompt Example: “Write a sample script where a banker introduces the idea of a line of credit for a business that has very seasonal cash flow. Assume this customer is not aware of the benefits of a line of credit or doesn’t think they’ll qualify. Make it friendly and consultative with clear benefits to how a LOC works.”
Scripts like these give bankers a foundation to build from and the flexibility to adapt in real time.
Learning in the Flow of Work
Bankers don’t have to wait for a monthly training, half-day workshop, or a mentor’s free time. A bank or credit union’s training team, which is also likely to be less experienced with small business needs, doesn’t have to create training.
Prompt Example: “I just met with a business owner who mentioned equipment leasing, but I didn’t fully understand the pros and cons. Help me break it down and identify follow-up questions I can ask in our next conversation.”
This kind of real-time coaching transforms feedback into action. It locks in learning through context exactly when the banker is most motivated to understand. One of the reasons AI tools are so powerful in this space is because they’re flexible. The prompts don’t need to be perfectly written. They can be quick and casual, or long and structured.
Prompt Example: “What’s a good question to ask a coffee shop owner about how they’d like to monitor their cash flow with our online or mobile app?”
Prompt Example: “I’m preparing to meet with a business that repairs HVAC systems. What financial challenges are typical in this field? How can I assess whether they need help managing payments, and what banking tools might be a good fit with a focus on online banking tools? Include a few questions and tips on how to open the conversation naturally and understand their comfort and knowledge of our online tools. What are potential concerns I should be prepared to address.”
AI as a Partner, not a Replacement
AI doesn’t replace work, it enhances it. None of these prompts or the AI tools behind them take the place of human connection, lived experience, or relationship-building. What they do is accelerate learning, help bankers show up more prepared, and enable deeper, more confident conversations with small business customers. AI won’t replace the wisdom of a seasoned banker, but it can help a banker with less experience think more like one.
Here’s the key: the magic happens through engagement.
Typing a single prompt into ChatGPT or Copilot and skimming a few sentences won’t unlock the real power. The value is in the back-and-forth, the follow-up questions, the curiosity, the iteration. When bankers treat AI like a mentor, tutor, or coach through a “discussion” they get growth, clarity, and insight they can take into every customer interaction.
This is how we improve banking relationships. This is how we bridge the gap between knowledge and connection. And this is how we make AI a trusted partner in the future of small business banking.
