Monterey
Credit Union
Six years ago if you had applied for a loan at Monterey
Credit Union you would have received prompt, courteous service,
but not much else. Cross-selling value-added products like
credit insurance wasn't part of the culture at Monterey CU.
"We were strictly order takers," recalls Chief
Executive Officer Stewart Fuller."Our credit insurance
participation was about seven percent."
Fast-forward to 2005. The six-branch, $200 million community-based
credit union now boasts a 55-percent credit insurance rate,
which translates to about $33,000 monthly. What happened?
This amazing transformation was the result of Monterey CU's
deliberate effort to forge a sales culture where none had
previously existed.
The first step was signing on Finegold for intensive training.
Then Finegold’s reps worked with Monterey CU's staff
to provide ongoing sales training and support. A long-term
incentive program was developed and new member service representatives
were hired who were specifically trained in sales. Meanwhile,
Kuepfer rewrote the loan and collection guidelines to reflect
the CU's new focus on selling.
"We're a needs-based CU, and we've really trained our
employees to ask questions, listen for members' needs and
advise accordingly,” explains Fuller. He thinks that
that a 55-percent credit insurance participation is “about
right” noting that the key is to promote the benefit
without pushing it on members.
"Now that there are better loans on the books and our
loan officers are meeting credit penetration and cross-selling
goals each month,” Fuller says, “we've cut our
losses in the collections area by two-thirds."
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