The CEO of a credit union evaluated the current state of his company and concluded that they needed to build revenue. Credit unions typically do not have salespeople; instead they depend on marketing efforts to attract new members. Employee customer service efforts traditionally target member retention. Yet persuading members to use more services, and thus increase credit union revenues, is not given serious attention.  As we met, the CEO made it clear he wanted a cultural shift towards a sales culture to complement their strong customer service.

We listed all the products and services the credit union offers and quickly saw the substantial revenue increases possible with even a few more loans, new credit cards and home refinances (to name only three) would make. The CEO sensed some resistance from his branch employees to sell these products and services. We conducted surveys and interviews across the branches and discovered he was right. In fact, there was outright hostility towards the suggestion that they “sell.” Common complaints were “If I wanted to sell, I’d have gone into sales. And I hate sales and I hate salespeople.” Clearly we had to change the perception of what sales means and produce a method that was non-threatening to branch employees. In a series of interactive workshops, we never used the word sales at all. Instead we spoke of offering products and services that have real value to their members. For example, tellers were given simple language to use so they could easily make members aware of the latest loan specials, or the new credit card rate just announced. As they practiced with each other, perceptions changed as they understood that offering these products and services by simply raising awareness was benefitting the members. How could they not do that?

The results were clear and convincing. Credit union employees became more aware of just how valuable their products and services really were. As their belief increased so did their desire to offer these to the members. They saw that truly exceptional customer service included letting members know what tremendous value there was in taking advantage of all the credit union had to offer. Consequently, sales increased by double digits and to the delight of both management and employees, customer service scores actually increased.