By Jim Jerving
Almost all members are open to suggestions about products and services that improve their financial well-being. According to Michael Neill, CSE, 98 percent of members surveyed responded that they would feel favorably toward an employee who recommends a product or service that would improve their financial well-being.
In contrast, only 45 percent of members surveyed felt positively when asked the same question without the final words “improve your financial well-being,” notes Neill, president of CUES strategic provider Michael Neill and Associates, Atlanta, and its credit union sales and service consultation-based program, ServiStar.
Members react favorably to employees who help them fill a need compared to those employees who merely try to sell them a product.
Focusing on serving needs in a sales situation is called a “consultative” approach, and is in direct opposition to a culture concerned only with pushing products, whether the member needs that product or not. The consultative approach focuses on solving financial problems with solutions tailored to the member’s unique set of life circumstances.
The member-staff interaction for opening a new account is a good place to start the consultative approach. If a member asks about a checking account, for example, the employee can ask questions that uncover the member’s financial needs, instead of merely giving checking account rates and fees, and pushing the product of the month.
Questions that can help draw out members’ needs include: What are your financial goals? What frustrates you most about your current banking provider? After determining needs, the employee recommends the account most suitable for the member.
Jim Jerving is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to credit union industry publications.
Get more information about credit union consulting on sales and service available through ServiStar.
