INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - What do the top 100 credit unions in terms of growth have in common? A sales and service culture, according to an analysis by one credit union expert.
Rory Rowland, president and founder of Rowland Consulting, studied top performing credit unions over the last five years, specifically honing in on the upper Midwest, where growth in general has been slow, as opposed to such high-growth areas as Florida and California, then finding the credit unions with the fastest-growing memberships in those otherwise slow-growth regions.
What he found: credit unions with strong sales and service cultures are thriving even when they aren’t in boom areas of the nation, according to Rowland’s white paper titled “How to Create a Service Selling Culture.”
Rowland said he found four key drivers of membership growth, including moving to a community charter, completing a significant merger, and using some type of relationship pricing. But the fourth driver, establishing a service/sales culture, Rowland believes, is the “lowest hanging fruit” – and the step that can be longest lasting.
“With competitive pressures increasing, growth is at the top of every CU’s agenda,” Rowland said. “Credit unions need solutions. A successful service/sales culture can be the foundation for a membership growth strategy that works.”
What is a service/sales culture? It’s the way a credit union does things, how it addresses its members, answers phone calls, and how it treats its staff.
“Each credit union has its own set of stories–parables, tenets, or principles by which all employees from top to bottom live,” Rowland said. “It gives the roadmap as well as the etiquette by which they answer almost all situations thrown at them. The meaning of the service/sales culture is very clear. It is crisp in its focus, detailed in its approach, and everyone knows where he or she fits into the corporate structure. The motto simply could be, ‘Service First, Sales Second.’”
According to Rowland, some of the keys to creating a service/sales culture are:
Obtaining leadership support.
Identifying barriers to change and guiding staff through them.
Establishing a selling process that’s based on listening to members first and discovering their needs.
Hiring the right people.
Setting the service bar high.
Conducting effective training.
Holding productive sales meetings.
“Creating the culture starts from the top,” Rowland said. “Leadership has to make the commitment and make it crystal clear to staff what the credit union’s goals are and make sure the CU remains focused on them. It can’t be the flavor of the month.”
And to make the culture stick, a formalized training program that lets staff know the CU means business is a must.
“The effectiveness of the service/sales culture will only be as good as the training program that’s implemented,” said Rowland, urging CUs not to treat this training as they might education on how to operate the a computer system or complete standard forms. “It’s about getting everyone on the same page.
“To be effective, your organization should formalize the training. All employees, no matter what level, should be required to participate. The training curriculum should be tailored for all team members, from your executives to your newest frontline workers,” he advised. “Too many organizations simply tell managers, ‘Go train the employees.’ The trouble with this strategy is that they neglect to train the managers in the first place. If you expect your managers to properly train your employees you must provide them with the needed training first, and then move down your organization.”
While leadership establishes the tone and training sets things in motion, sales meetings continue momentum and provide focus.
“Make sure your sales meetings focus on getting something done, not just saying a bunch of things. A sales meeting must be focused on accomplishment, and what actions were taken that led to success in the past week,” Rowland continued. “What do we want to accomplish this week? Make sure you have a clear purpose.”
He urged credit unions that at each meeting managers should recognize top performers and share stories and “demos” about successes.
Ultimately, the effectiveness of the service/sales culture lies in the hands of CU staff who make the sale. And sales won’t reach needed levels through order-taking, Rowland pointed out. In the successful service/sales culture, CU staff listen first.
“They need to first understand the needs of the member and determine what the member is really trying to accomplish,” Rowland said. “They need to help the member work through problems, ultimately coming up with a few solutions and aiding them in making the best final decision.”
To obtain a copy of the white paper e-mail Rowland at rory@top100cu.com.
