****As Seen in CU Business Magazine in February 2020****
A few years ago, my extended family, which included my wife,
my three kids, my parents, my sister, and her family, took a vacation to a
major theme park across the country.
In order to make the most of our time at the park, we hired a travel agent to help us get everything organized. This included where we would eat, tickets reserved for the most popular rides and even a route that we would take in each park. While he helped us meticulously plan our vacation, probably the most important bit of advice we received from the travel agent was to remember to bring a pair of good shoes.
If you’ve ever been to a theme park, you know the majority
of your time is spent standing in lines and walking from one end of the park to
the other. This advice made sense. A comfortable pair of shoes is essential and
everyone heeded his advice. Well, almost everyone…
You see, while I made sure my wife and children were all set
with good shoes, I had already spent several thousand dollars on the vacation. I
was not thrilled about spending another $60 on a pair of “good shoes” for myself.
So, I decided I would be budget conscious and just wear a pair of shoes I already
owned that were “comfortable enough”.
While I was pretty darn proud of myself for finding a way to
save money, in the back of my mind I knew this was probably a bad decision.
Sure enough, by day four I was absolutely miserable. My feet hurt so badly the
thought of standing in another line was almost unbearable and I began taking any
opportunity I could to sit down. This resulted in missing some of the rides my
family was going on and slowing down the group as I hobbled from one part of
the park to the next.
After watching me for a day, my Dad pulled me aside and asked if he could buy me a pair of shoes. When I told him my logic in not buying new shoes was to save money, he told me in so many words that this line of thinking was absurd. He said, “You mean to tell me you would ruin a vacation on which you’ve spent thousands of dollars, to save a few bucks?”
As that settled in, and I pondered about my bruised and sore
feet, I realized how narrow-minded and cheap I had been. What had that decision
actually cost me? Probably a lot more than the price of a pair of good shoes. Certainly,
it cost me time making great memories with my family and you can’t put a price
tag on that.
A Good
Pair Of Shoes for Credit Unions
A few years later, I was attending a convention as a sponsor
and exhibitor. During the breakout sessions, while credit union employees were
in their classes, I took the opportunity to connect with the other sponsors; companies
that offer core systems, loan processing systems, marketing solutions, business
services, branch construction, CRM/MRM systems, and branded checking accounts. As
we discussed what they offered, the question would come up about what we do for
credit unions. I would explain that SalesCU provides credit union-specific sales
training programs to help credit unions capture more of their members’ business
and cultivate primary financial relationships. In many situations, the reps
would say something like, “I wish our clients did a better job at training
their employees to sell,” or “We should talk with you about creating sales
training for our clients,” or “If only we could get our clients to sell better,
our product would be so much more valuable.” Of course, I would absolutely,
100% agree.
It got me thinking. Credit unions spend millions of dollars
each year on:
- Their core system, MRM solution, and LMS
- New branches and remodels
- ITMs and cross-trained, universal employees
- Paying their staff
How much of the money devoted to these areas and systems is
lost because employees are not properly trained to maximize these investments
through sales? How much more value could credit unions create with employees
who know how to sell? The answer, of course, is difficult to quantify, but it’s
reasonable to assume it would be significantly more! Let me share a few
observations from my discussions at the convention.
Sales
Trained Employees Needed
One of the exhibitors with whom I spoke represented a
company which provides an appointment setting and lobby management system. The
rep told me their system’s value is in providing the member with the ability to
directly schedule appointments in order to meet or speak with an employee about
the product or service they need. Because of that, their clients are twice as
likely to close the requested product. These are amazing results, however, the
rep shared that with their product, they do not see an increase in cross-sales.
Intrigued by this shortcoming, I asked what he thought was
the reason that they weren’t seeing cross-sales increase. He said it was due to
a lack of sales training. He went on to say that while their system helped
employees meet with more members who would normally fall through the cracks
because of improper follow-up, the employees’ behaviors weren’t changing. They
were still order takers.
Another of the exhibitors I spoke with at the convention
that day was the owner of a marketing consulting company. He told me about the
amazing work they are doing for their clients to create thousands of sales-qualified
member leads. Their process is creating a 5% closing rate for new checking
accounts, credit cards, deposits, and other loans. They are also building
marketing channels to bring in new members. However, when asked what is happening
to the other 95%, he answered that they die on the vine.
My initial thought, when he said this, was that this list
would be an amazing outbound sales opportunity. So, I asked if any of his clients
were making calls on the 95% that aren’t closing with the initial contact? He
said they strongly recommend it. He mentioned that some clients try, but their
success rate is really low due to employees not making the calls or simply not
being effective when they do.
I heard similar feedback from other solution providers at
this convention.
Boost
Success With This
So, why not provide sales training with the launch of a new system and solve this shortcoming? When compared to the cost of these complex systems and solutions, sales training is extremely affordable and can provide significantly more value to the success of the initiative. Sales training is that pair of “good shoes” that make the larger investment more worthwhile. Sure, a credit union can gain a short term victory by avoiding the expense, but how long will that last before they begin feeling the pain (pun intended).
As illustrated above, a credit union employee’s ability to
sell, or lack thereof, is the bottleneck of success. While the other systems and
solutions can bring more efficiency, and even more business, on their own, they
only treat the symptom and not the disease. When all is said and done,
employees who were ineffective at selling before will still be ineffective with
more expensive tools in their hands.
So, the most important bit of advice I can give you is this, don’t forget a pair of good shoes! And don’t forget to invest in sales training for your employees.
Come to one of our live events near you! Or schedule a time to chat with us about how we can help you boost sales at your credit union.
