For a long time, credit unions have had a love/hate relationship with sales. They recognize the vital role it can play on growth, but it can also make them look very bank-like. More often than not, the industry has let the fear of becoming too much like a bank outweigh their need to sell to members and prospective members. As a result, credit unions, as a whole, are at a crossroads: continue to contract and struggle to deliver for our communities or deepen relationships with every member and sell them on solutions that’ll bring them the financial peace they crave.
Over the years, the definition of “sales” in credit unions has evolved roughly:
- Transactional: Basically providing fundamental loan and deposit products and conducting the transactions necessary to fulfill on both.
- Service: Delivering those transactions in a very friendly and positive manner; it was all about creating a family-type environment.
- Service-to-sales: Not a hard-core sales (that’s what Wells Fargo did) but as part of serving the members, mention product and service offerings
- Awareness & advice: Today’s consumer expects, even demands, this approach; a proactive approach where members come to us first for their present and future needs.
The basic service-to-sales approach has outlived itself as members and, more impactfully, prospective members are inundated with “mentions” of financial products and services in their daily lives. When you mention yours to them, they’ve likely already been offered the same thing by someone else. Just because you give them “wow!” experience, you’re not that much closer to winning their additional business because those “other guys” are making it so tempting and easy.
One really significant difference between the previous sales approaches and what’s needed today: in the past, credit unions have been able to take a latent approach, basically waiting for members to come to them when they had a need. Today and in the future, sales must be a highly active initiative where credit unions are consistently being proactive in identifying and anticipating members’ needs and being the first to offer a solution.
As you wade into strategic planning for next year, think how monumental it would be to your credit union’s growth if you did just these two things:
- Deepen relationships with every current member—what would it do to your growth if you sold just one additional and active product to each and every member? Not only would you create significant growth but think about how it would strengthen their loyalty to your credit union. It could go a long way in slowing down that maddening attrition where one member’s going out the back door while another is coming in the front.
- Follow-up with every new member—we’ve all heard about the advantage of having an onboarding program—it’s been documented for over 20 years now. How many of you are still doing it thoroughly and consistently? Sadly, based on experience, too many credit unions find this valuable process too challenging to do. Too many claim, “We don’t have time for that.” It doesn’t have to be complicated—a nice blend of marketing and frontline efforts will go a long way.
NOTICE: not a single mention of a huge wave of new members or mergers or markets or branches or products! What if you spent the next twelve months focused largely and intently on your current membership? What if your number one priority was to create and perfect an “awareness & advice” culture? Synthesizing targeted marketing, retail, and data with revised products, training, and metrics. How different would your financials look next year at this time?
As fewer young consumers are knowledgeable about credit unions (73% of college students didn’t know what a credit union was—Gartner) and overall consumer expectations are being elevated, the credit union brand reputations are under attack. Look at your social media posts and ratings . . . and where do most consumers start their searches today for a new financial services partner? Google reviews! It’s certainly not improbable for you to attract new members but don’t miss out on the golden opportunity presented by your current members.
We’ve talked for years about how much more expensive it is to attract new members than it is to retain current ones. But this isn’t primarily a cost-saving initiative (although it should give you better ROI). This is an initiative of leveraging the foundational trust, brand reputation, and positivity you’ve already established. An “awareness & advice” initiative focused on current members positions you to both grow and retain, simultaneously.
There are five steps to deploying an Awareness & Advice culture at your credit union:
- Create your “way”: Clearly define why you need to take this next step and what, precisely, it means to every employee.
- Train & coach: Show each of those employees exactly what they need to do bigger and different in the future in order to live your way.
- Align marketing, retail, and data: No more silos; each area now has a unified priority—establishing and executing strategies for deepening relationships.
- Establish resources: Like all prioritized strategies, this type of initiative will require some upfront investment in technology, software, training, and people.
- Change metrics: Product specific performance metrics will be far less significant as relationship focused metrics gain prominence on your scorecards.
By investing in this type of sales initiative, credit unions will be positioned for the type and amount of growth they need to remain financially viable, make their members financially successful, and fully live their mantra of “people helping people”. You can’t do it without an "awareness & advice” sales approach . . . but you can most definitely do it!
If your credit union is ready to make this investment in the right kind of “sales” to fuel your growth, our consultants are poised to help. We’ve ridden the wave of credit union sales for over 25 years and know the keys to success and potholes to avoid. Further, we understand today’s credit union challenges and have the tools and resources to help you rise to meet them. Visit us at fi-strategies.com/contact-us/ and let’s talk about creating the right kind of sales environment at your credit union today.
