Building a Bridge...

Greetings...

This weekend, I was helping my 17-year old son with a physics project-- building a bridge from toothpicks.

The project is an interesting dilemma...build a bridge to specific dimensions using nothing but regular toothpicks and white Elmer's glue.  The project is worth 50 points for the quarter and the student who's bridge holds the most weight among ALL students earns another 50 bonus points!  One would think that you simply use a ton of glue and hold it all together...that is where you would be incorrect!

The "trick" to the best bridge design is NOT the glue...its the physics of the toothpick placement!  The glue provides stability and flexibility but the true ability to do the heavy weight is the distribution of the weight across the bridge (for us, the organization).

So...there is my connection.

We work with MANY banks and credit unions around the country.  Most that are performing well but others not so well....the difference?  Its not the glue holding the organization together-- its the design of the teams!  The best teams works together and each contributes and takes some of the weight and helps the other teams.  This is one effective bridge design...the "Warren Truss" design.  It will hold and is a fine design.  However, it will not hold the most!

Here is what I mean...each bank and many CUs have a retail group, lending, investment group, and business lending.  If they operate separately-- no matter how much glue is applied to hold them together-- if they are not designed to be one unit with multiple entry points and really work together, then they are destined to fail.  Here is the design that is truly interrelated, "Warren Truss Subdivided" designed bridge...this will hold the most weight and it designed to be integrated and work as one unit.

Remember, glue is important-- as it gives stability and flexibility.  But the best design is one where everyone ACTUALLY works together, supports one another, and is seamless in distributing the work and weight!

Cheers!

Bruce

Are Sales Campaigns Making You Pushy?

Internal Sales Campaigns are often a useful tool to provide focus for staff, track results, and manage progress toward strategic goals. However, when financial institutions create sales campaigns around a specific product or service, it is important that the sales staff don’t become so eager to meet a sales campaign goal that they sacrifice fulfilling customer/member needs.

For instance, if a prospect walks into your branch during a sales campaign, would your front line staff immediately discuss the campaign product with them, or would they talk to the prospect about their needs and make the best recommendation for their life? Talking about the campaign might have an immediate positive impact on your campaign results, but will likely cause a higher risk of attrition if the prospects needs aren’t being met. Clearly, if your sales staff has a discussion to create a customized solution for their prospect, the prospect will have a more positive experience and be more likely to remain a customer/member overtime.

Therefore, it’s important to keep sales delivery a priority during your sales campaign, here’s how...

• Training – Provide sales training focused around customer life stages. When you roll out a campaign, clearly communicate that the sales delivery must be maintained.
• Set Appropriate Goals – Ensure that your goals are not counter-productive to customer needs. Keeping goals specific to new households, cross-sell ratios, or general product lines will provide your staff the flexibility of choosing products that are the right fit for customers/members and also counting towards a campaign.
• Prequalify – Continue to have conversations during a campaign around your product, but make sure to prequalify customers. You can prequalify customers through an MCIF system, core system, or simply through a discussion.

Campaigns come in all shapes and sizes, but when you’re determining your campaign specifics, make sure that campaign goals will not be met at the expense of customer/member needs. Doing what is right for the customer will help to strengthen your relationship and increase retention.

Best,

Jamie

The Economy is Right for Onboarding

Some of the most successful companies in the world DON'T have onboarding!

McDonald's has the classic, "would you like fries with that?" At Old Navy, you're lucky to have a kid ring you up who's not too busy texting his girlfriend.

But you're not peddling burgers or capris. You're dealing with people's money! And in this economy, that's darned important.

Particularly in this economy, your customers are looking to you to help them save money, lower payments, buy something new and generally give the peace of mind. Something they don't ask for from fries and jeans!

And the beauty of it is ... you CAN help! And that's what onboarding is all about. Creating a process to communicate with your customers.

• Segmentation: Understand which of your products a customer is likely to need - and when
• Timing: Know when and how often to talk to the customer. There is no one-shot silver bullet
• Purpose: Know the objective of every piece of communication. Are you trying to get them into new products, make them more loyal or make the customer more efficient?

With the right onboarding program, your staff will appreciate having direction, a process and tools and your customers will appreciate your bank or credit union actively participating in trying to help.

Want to learn more about onboarding? Join MarketMatch's FREE Brown Bag Lunch webinar on Friday, August 20. To register, simply click here.

4 Things to do AFTER August 15th

Despite your best efforts, your customers and members will likely learn about the Reg. E changes while shopping on August 16th.

You've sent them letters, called them at home, talked to them at the teller line and delivered emails ... but don't assume that your customers are ready for the Reg. E changes on August 15th.

In a recent survey by the Federal Reserve, only 3 of 9 participants understood the changes after reading an opt-in notice.

So, from a communications standpoint, August 15 is not the finish ... but the starting line. What should you do now?

1. Proactively Communicate with Declined Customers ASAP

The faster you can recognize and act on a declined debit card, the better. If you can call ... call. If you can send an email, that's fine too. If you have to, send a letter. The goal is to communicate with the customer BEFORE they call you to complain.

It's important for your staff to assume that EVERY declined debit card is a surprise to the customer and that it hit them at the most inopportune time and when they had no cash on hand.

• Be empathetic but not apologetic
• Assure them that this new federal regulation has impacted ALL financial institutions
• Let them know that you made several attempts to educate them and that you ultimately acted on their wishes
• Provide them with an easy way to opt-in now to avoid future declined cards at point of sale or at the ATM

2. Prepare Your Front Line and Call Center

• Again, make sure your staff is empathetic and assumes the worst case scenario for the customer
• Make sure that the team understands the Reg. E basics
• Arm them with a list and/or samples of all of the Reg. E communications that customers have been sent over the last few months
• Provide them the tools to help your customers opt-in immediately to avoid future issues

3. Add Opt-in to Your On-boarding Program

It's never too late for a customer or member to opt-in. Make sure that you're communicating, with real-world examples, what can happen if you opt-in (fee for convenience) vs opt-out (possible decline at transaction).

4. Communicate Reg. E Changes to Merchants & SEGs

This regulation will impact local merchants as customers will be declined more at the point of transaction. Use this as an opportunity to build relationships with existing and prospective local merchants by providing free education on the regulation.

Take care,

Eric

937-426-9848

egagliano@MarketMatch.com

Life Cycle Financial Sales Training... Part II

The birth of a child is an exciting time, no doubt. Life changes so quickly. Values get reevaluated. New perspectives evolve. New priorities emerge. Yes, that one day when a child is born, much changes.

In our financial lives, the birth of the first child means you are now a "Charlie", as I call it. No longer a single individual or married couple, you are now a family.... and families have different financial needs than their non-parental counterparts. As we train bankers to develop deeper customer relationships, we include financial counseling tips that bankers can use to really make a difference in their customers' lives. For the "Charlies" and "Deltas", families with preschool aged children or school age children respectively, there are some important conversations we should be having.

Probably the most important is to review the topics they should already have mastered, learning the savings habit and taking care of their credit score. After revisiting that, we can move on to a few new topics, savings for the child or children's college education (or just savings for the child) and starting long-term savings for long-term goals or retirement. By now, this young family has some goals, whether short term goals or long term goals and they need to be planning to create that future....
We can help our customers by talking about the need for mortgage loans to buy that first home (or a bigger home as the family expands).
We can help our customers by asking if they have started participating in their employer's 401(k) plan. If not, that is the number 1 recommended savings vehicle, especially when the employer gives a matching contribution! You can't beat matching with any other investment out there. And if they are participating in their 401(k) plan, we can remind them that they can also deposit up to $6000 per year into their own IRA plan and build an additional retirement nest egg. When our employees are well-versed in the IRA rules and regs, they can talk to many customers and help them plan an annual contribution program ( of course, customers should consult with their tax advisor regarding deductibiity).

If we are helping our customers move through each life cycle stage with just a few of the basic financial planning tenets in place, we will know that we have not only made a difference in their lives, but that we have developed a loyal customer as well.

Next time, we'll look at how we can be helping our "empty nesters" and retired "foxtrots" also.

Are you including life cycle financial selling in your basic bank training? If not, we can help. If so, please let me know what you do. If you are passionate about financial education like I am, please email me at slovejoy@marketmatch.com.

Until next time,

Sharon