Insurance As A Member Builder

How's this for a best practice in SEG development: get someone else to sell the credit union for you.

That's exactly what Conseco Services tries to offer when it goes into various firms offering special insurance programs only to those people who sign up to join the credit union, according to Ron Bendes, SVP-Sales and Bob Hunt, FVP-Specialty Markets for Conseco.

"There's no cost to the credit union," said Hunt. "What we essentially are is a virtual addition to the marketing arm of a credit union."

In particular, the Carmel, Ind.-based firm has the resources to market to an employee group around the clock, catching all of the shifts at a given SEG, instead of just hitting them between 9 and 5 Monday through Friday.

While the focus of Conseco's program is to garner new members for a credit union by penetrating an existing SEG, the firm can and does reach out to existing SEG members to cross sell other CU products and services.

"Working with us allows a credit union to focus on their products and services and their service itself-their core competencies-and let Conseco handle the marketing for you," said Bendes.

Conseco handles CU Appreciation Days and even does some direct mail, as well. And in offering a variety of insurance products and services, such as the cancer care program, for example, the firm is offering yet another benefit that is only open to members of the credit union. (c) 2006 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER