A Culture That Cross-Sells Home Loans
By Wallace Jones
Cross-selling home loans means taking service excellence beyond the “people helping people” mantra with which credit union leaders and employees are so familiar. It means service excellence becomes personal, as all employees make it their mission to not only aid members with what they ask, but also to make offerings available before members even anticipate their own need for them.
It’s a challenge to make service so personal that it sells, especially for something so big and important as a home loan. The last thing you want is to instill a culture that turns your team into pushy “big bank” sales people. Here are three things you can do to start off in the right direction.
- Assess what your front-line staff members know about your home loan department. For example, conduct a survey to find out staff members’ level of comfort in providing your loan group with information about members whom they think might be ready for a particular loan. Front-line staff shouldn’t provide rates or specifics about mortgages, but they should be able to collect information about how to contact a member—and when is the best time to do so. They should also be able to point members to someone authorized to provide further information about home loans. Structure your survey so it helps you understand both what prohibits your employees from cross-selling home loans and what would help them build confidence in making this a part of their daily activities.
- Determine a strategy for staff training to help fill any gaps. In many cases, your loan officer or VP/lending will be fully able to answer all the questions front-line staffers will have about your home loans and when a member might need one. In addition to group training or one-on-one sessions, your credit union can provide front-line staffers with flyers that describe the “who, what, when and where” members can apply for a home loan. Also consider providing some sort of staff incentive or game for them to be quizzed or compete to better retain the knowledge.
