It’s strategic planning season. Credit unions across the country are deciding what it will take to be successful in the coming year and beyond. Goals are being evaluated, initiatives are being prioritized, and resources are being allocated. How do we grow the credit union, deepen member relationships, and better serve our communities?
Most executive leadership teams recognize that, while credit unions are not-for-profit cooperative financial institutions, growth is fueled by revenue, and revenue is driven by sales activity. That naturally leads to one of the biggest strategic questions they’ll ask this year:
How do we generate more sales while staying true to our credit union values?
That’s an important question because credit unions have always been about People Helping People. Leaders want employees to improve members’ financial well-being, not pressure them into buying products they don’t need. As a result, many leaders become hesitant to invest in building stronger sales cultures. They want the sales, but they hope those sales will come through passive approaches rather than intentional sales leadership.
Over the years, I’ve seen executive teams make the same four mistakes over and over again. Each one is well intentioned. Each one seems like it should work. Yet none of them addresses the real reason sales cultures struggle. Let’s look at each one and why they so often fall short.
Setting Goals that Team Members Aren’t Accountable For:
I remember working with a credit union several years ago. They reached out because they had been telling their team to sell for years with little improvement. The VP of Retail Operations told me her managers were resistant and often said, “We see the same members over and over again.”
The branches had sales goals, and those goals were discussed regularly. But nothing seemed to change.
She asked me to spend a day shadowing some employees. The first branch I visited was in a small community where the tellers knew nearly every member by name. Yet I didn’t hear a single sales conversation.
After one teller had helped several members, I asked her to pull up their accounts. Every member she had served had opportunities the credit union was missing. Several were making credit card payments to other financial institutions. Others had opportunities for deposit growth, children’s accounts, or additional loans. One member had even mentioned they were preparing to sell their home and buy horse property.
Before leaving, I met with the branch manager and asked about the sales coaching and training she was providing. She admitted there hadn’t been much because they were busy, and members usually asked for what they needed.
Then I asked about her sales goals.
She admitted she didn’t know what they were. She said she would ”have to look them up.”
I asked why she didn’t know them by heart if they were truly important. Frustrated, she replied, “Why? We never reach them anyway.”
“So, what happens when you don’t?” I asked.
“Nothing,” she said. “We just don’t get all of our bonuses. Sometimes the CEO even adjusts the goals so we can still earn them.”
That conversation explained everything.
When sales goals have little accountability, they become discretionary. Leaders focus on the responsibilities they’re held accountable for, and employees follow their lead. Since taking orders is easier, safer, and carries no real consequences, it becomes the default behavior. Until sales goals become expectations rather than suggestions, they’re unlikely to produce meaningful change.
Sales goals only drive results when they’re tied to real accountability. Without that connection, goals become suggestions employees can quietly set aside.
Delivering One-off Sales Training:
Another mistake many credit unions make is believing that training alone will solve the problem. They hire a company to deliver sales training or build a program internally, hoping it will send the right message, build confidence, and get employees selling.
Unfortunately, one-off training workshops rarely leave a lasting impact. They often generate a bump in sales activity for a few weeks or even a month, but before long, employees slip back into old habits and performance returns to where it was before.
Training is an essential part of building a lasting sales culture, but by itself it isn’t enough to create long-term behavior change.
The reason is simple. Training is only the starting point. Employees need clear goals, ongoing coaching, and accountability. They need an environment that expects them to apply what they learned every day. Without those things, even the best training eventually fades, and employees return to doing what they’ve always done.
Using Incentives to Entice Team Members to Opt-in:
I’ve seen many credit unions roll out sales compensation plans with bonuses and incentives, hoping they’ll motivate employees to sell. The logic seems sound: people are motivated by money, so if we pay them for sales, they’ll naturally sell more.
I once worked with a credit union that hadn’t sold a single GAP policy in nearly two years. The problem wasn’t that members didn’t need GAP. The problem was that loan officers rarely offered it, and when they did, the conversation was very unconvincing.
To solve the problem, the credit union introduced a $200 incentive for every GAP policy sold. They figured no one would pass up an opportunity to earn an extra $200.
They were wrong.
The following year they sold a few GAP policies, but every one of them was because the member specifically asked for it.
For a salesperson, a $200 GAP incentive is a dream come true. For an order taker, it simply makes them hope even more that the member will bring it up first.
I’m a strong believer in sales compensation plans. They can help attract and retain talented salespeople, reward high performance, and encourage great salespeople to push themselves even harder.
What they don’t do is create salespeople.
A compensation plan doesn’t replace leadership, coaching, clear expectations, or accountability. It rewards the behaviors that already exist. If selling isn’t expected and reinforced every day, no bonus plan will transform order takers into relationship builders.
A reward at the top of the stairs doesn’t guarantee anyone climbs them. Incentive plans only pay off when coaching and expectations already have employees moving in the right direction.
Using Software to Get Team Members to Engage:
When goals don’t create accountability, training doesn’t stick, and incentive plans fail to move the needle; many credit unions turn to SaaS—yes, Software as a Solution.
Of course, I don’t mean SaaS in the traditional sense. I mean the belief that a new CRM, core system, loan origination platform, or digital banking solution will finally get employees to engage members in sales conversations.
Don’t get me wrong—these systems can be incredibly powerful. Many are designed specifically to support sales by identifying opportunities and prompting employees with relevant products and services while they’re helping members in the branch, over the phone, on video, or through digital channels.
The problem is they don’t transform someone into a salesperson.
When these tools are put in the hands of trained, motivated employees, they amplify what those employees are already doing. But when they’re put in the hands of order takers who avoid sales conversations, those prompts become just one more screen to click through before completing the transaction and sending the member on their way.
Software can identify an opportunity, but it can’t create curiosity, confidence, or commitment to having the conversation. Like training and compensation, it’s a tool, not a substitute for building a strong sales culture.
The right software can surface member opportunities, but it can’t build the curiosity or confidence to act on them. That still comes from coached, engaged employees.
As your executive leadership team finalizes its strategic plan for the coming year, don’t remove sales goals, training, incentives, or technology from the plan. All of them have an important role to play. Sales goals create direction. Training builds knowledge and confidence. Incentive plans reward performance. Software helps uncover opportunities. The mistake isn’t implementing these strategies—it’s expecting them to create a sales culture on their own.
A strong sales culture is built through leadership. It requires clear expectations, consistent coaching, accountability, and leaders who reinforce the right behaviors every day. When those pieces are in place, goals, training, incentives, and technology become powerful tools that accelerate results. Without them, they become expensive attempts to solve the wrong problem.
So, as you finalize your strategic plan, spend less time asking, ”What new sales initiative should we implement?” and more time asking ”What needs to change in our culture?”
Do your team members clearly understand that sales engagement is an expectation of their position? Are your leaders prepared to coach and develop those skills? Are you willing to hold people accountable when those expectations aren’t met? And are you hiring people who genuinely want to engage members and help them find better financial solutions?
If the answer to those questions is yes, then invest in the goals, training, incentives, and technology that will support them. But start by building the culture. When you have the right people, with the right expectations, being led and coached the right way, you won’t have to find creative ways to get your team to sell. They’ll already be doing it.
