The Missing Link for CU Growth

Constance Anderson Credit Union Consultant

Everywhere I go, there are concerns that credit unions as a whole 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 1 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.

No longer can the marketing department be tasked solely with membership acquisition.  In today’s hyper-competitive market, advertising has lost its effectiveness.  While marketers have turned to other strategies for gaining market share—including aggressive business development—they cannot do it all.

That requires specially trained branch or market 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 recently 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.

I have seen branch managers and MSRs increase their on-site SEG enrollments by 100 percent with the proper sales training.  What’s more, when they bring new members on themselves they are more likely to develop the relationship once they return to the branch.

So the next step for credit unions that have a strong marketing and sales 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.

Marketing 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 is leading national authority on credit union marketing, sales and growth strategies. She has been a featured speaker at the CUES Annual Convention and is co-creator of the CUES School of Sales and Service.  She has been an instructor at the CUNA Marketing School, the CUNA Marketing Management School, and the Southwest Management School.  Anderson consults with credits unions across the U.S. on gaining both marketshare and walletshare through brand positioning and development of a sales and service culture inside the credit union. She will be presenting "Way to Grow! Developing Your Member Base in a Crowded Market" at MAC's 2008 Conference.

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