Career Track: Sales Unit at First Union Specializes in Women's Needs

As director of First Union Corp.'s fledgling Women's Financial Advisory Services unit, Debra Nichols has heard it all.

Like the story from the insulted client who was told by her banker to bring her husband in when she wanted to set up an investment plan.

Or the one from the woman entrepreneur who applied for a business loan, only to have a banker direct his questions to her male attorney.

These are sure ways to alienate a customer, Ms. Nichols said.

Hired a year ago as a senior vice president, Ms. Nichols has been charged with shaking up the sales culture at the Charlotte, N.C., banking company by inaugurating a new focus on women customers.

"Our goal is that wherever a woman would go at First Union, she feels like she is being treated with respect and that somebody is understanding her needs as a customer," Ms. Nichols said.

First Union's effort follows those at banking companies nationwide. Last April, San Francisco-based BankAmerica Corp. launched its own women's financial initiative, using educational seminars and links to women's organizations to reach female customers.

Columbus, Ohio-based Banc One Corp. is targeting the women's market as well, offering special products for woman-owned businesses and a dedicated toll-free phone number to take loan applications from women.

At $144 billion-asset First Union, the initiative is still in its early stages. The company installed software in its private banking division Jan. 1 to track its women-focused programs.

Goals have been adopted for each department. Private banking's 1998 target is 180 new women clients.

The company is also sensitizing its business units to the needs of women, redesigning sales presentations, and offering public seminars.

First Union recently pledged $500,000 to the Women's Growth Capital Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based venture capital group that supports woman- owned businesses. In addition, it has formed a partnership with an organization of women business owners in Sacramento, Calif., to give the group discounted insurance programs.

Consultant Peter B. Davidson of Speer & Associates Inc. said First Union's effort is one of many ways that banking companies are trying to segment and target markets.

Ms. Nichols came to First Union from a job as senior vice president/marketing at American Capital Mutual Funds in Houston. Donald A. McMullen Jr., executive vice president and head of First Union's capital management group, knew Ms. Nichols from his tenure at American Capital, and recruited her.

"The general financial community just doesn't understand one subsegment of its customers thoroughly," said Mr. McMullen. "You have to have a fundamental understanding that women need different types of support when they look at financial services."

The revenue potential is hard to pinpoint, said Mr. McMullen. But he believes it is significant. "We're really asking our entire organization to rethink its way of doing business," he said.

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