By Constance Anderson
Everywhere I go, there are concerns that credit unions as a group are hardly growing. Despite expanding their membership bases to entire communities, adding underserved areas in some cases and signing up innumerable borrowers via indirect lending, the movement saw 2006 membership growth of just over one percent.
Where’s the missing link that can help potential members evolve into actual members? While evolutionists have searched the world for missing links in fossil form, I submit that credit unions need look no farther than their branches.
That’s because whatever growth strategy a credit union’s leadership team chooses, there is only one way to maximize its return on investment. The credit union must have a trained, willing member growth and relationship development team that can maximize and accelerate positive return on investment for branches by reaching out to new markets.
That requires specially trained branch managers. But few credit union branch managers are equipped today to develop the markets within their branch radius. They lack the tools, the training—and the incentive—to operate as branch business developers. Locked in an operational mindset, they do not identify unique market opportunities or reach out to their natural branch markets. In some cases they don’t feel empowered enough or confident enough to act as internal entrepreneurs who recommend new products, promotions, and member development strategies inside or outside their branches.
Here’s how it could work
In one credit union where I consulted, a branch manager took the initiative to visit homeowners’ associations in his branch area. He talked about the credit union’s mortgage program and how it could help first-time homebuyers. He also talked about the credit union’s home equity loan program.
This branch manager’s mortgage loan totals were double those of similar branches. If the credit union could train, coach, and incent other branch managers to do the same, it could double its assets and grow its membership without adding a single branch or spending an additional advertising dollar.
So the next step for credit unions that have a strong sales and service culture within the branch is to go beyond the branch. I’m not talking about a high-pressure bank sales model and quota system. I’m talking about a planned, systematic initiative based on proper training, relationship building, and the pursuit of unique, underserved and underappreciated niches within the branch radius.
To be successful, credit union leaders must invest in helping branch managers and their designees grow into their natural roles as community outreach officers, especially as credit unions begin to offer small business services.
Credit union leaders must work with their natural business development force of branch personnel to nurture their talents and empower them to become internal entrepreneurs. It’s the missing link in credit union growth.
Constance Anderson, president of Anderson & Associates, Jersey City, N.J., consults with credit unions on sales and service culture development through the ServiStar program. In partnership with CUES, she also provides branch manager training and other member development consulting through CU Membership Strategies: A Comprehensive System for Growth, a brand new offering.
CU Membership Strategies offers, among other services, a comprehensive university of courses that train branch managers and their designees to develop new member relationships with small business owners and select employer group representatives as well as to coach their employees to develop deeper relationships and referrals within the branch. Course attendees are challenged to create branch-specific promotions that drive growth, implement strategies to stem attrition, and reach out to new members to build loyalty. Through a series of classes, assignments, and personal coaching, branch managers build the confidence and acquire the tools they need to be successful in helping the credit union achieve its net member growth goals.
Hear Constance at CUES Annual Convention: Marketing & Technology for Credit Union Directors. Or sign up for her CUES Webinar, "Way to Grow," scheduled for May 10.
