Primerit in Las Vegas Recharges Its Sales Program

Primerit Bank, a $1.8 billion-asset savings bank in Las Vegas, is retooling its investment products marketing program.

In mid-October, Primerit relaunched its mutual fund and annuities sales program under the banner of Prime Investment Center.

The program, which covers 25 branches, has been operated since 1990 with marketing support from Seattle-based GNA Corp., a unit of General Electric Co.

The new name puts Primerit's imprint on the sales effort, which GNA continues to staff, said John Dodgion, the savings bank's executive vice president.

But the changes are more than cosmetic. Primerit also added the GE Funds to its product menu, increased its brokerage sales staff, overhauled its sales strategy to deemphasize referrals, and redesigned its marketing materials.

Primerit is dealing with a problem common to many financial institutions.

In the early 1990s, banks and thrifts raked in strong investment sales, only to see demand plummet amid market turmoil in 1994 and 1995. Sales of bond funds, which had been particularly popular in the bank channel, shriveled up as interest rates climbed.

"We had to make a decision here, and our choice was to relaunch the program," Mr. Dodgion said in a telephone interview.

The Prime Investment Center name "provides a little bit better tie-in with the bank," he said. The new name is enough like the bank's to play on the affinities of customers, but distinct enough to avoid confusion, he added.

Indeed, Mr. Dodgion said, Primerit took pains to draw clear distinctions between the bank and the investment center, and consulted with the Office of Thrift Supervision.

"It so happens the regulators were in the bank doing their exam while we were thinking this thing through, and we talked to them about it," he said.

Mr. Dodgion said a key change will be to ease the program's dependence on referrals from branch employees. To accomplish that, he said he has established "very direct sales goals" for account executives.

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