1

2

Contents

Executive Summary 4

Introduction 4

What Leaders Do 4

Coastal Federal Credit Union (Case Study) 6

The Ends and the Means: Goals and Accountability 8

Greater Nevada Credit Union (Case Study) 9

Where Expectations and Results Meet 10

America’s Credit Union (Case Study) 11

Red Canoe Credit Union (Case Study) 12

Conclusion 14

Acknowledgements 14

About the Author 14

References and Resources 14

3

A Note from the Operations Sales & Service Council

Member Resources Committee Chair

Thank you for downloading “The Big Three in Winning Sales Cultures: Leadership, Goals, & Accountability.”

The Operations Sales & Service Council’s Member Resources Committee, which is comprised of fellow Council

members, is responsible for producing these white papers. The Committee chose to pursue a paper about providing

leadership around goals and accountability as part of the Leadership Series.

After reading the paper, join the discussion in the Council Community. We’d like to hear your thoughts, questions,

and advice, as well as continue the dialogue on this important topic beyond the white paper itself. How do

leadership, goals, and accountability affect the sales culture in your credit union?

Thanks for reading and being a member of the CUNA Operations Sales & Service Council!

Julie Linch

Chair, Operations Sales & Service Council Member Resources Committee

SVP-Retail Delivery

Directions CU

Sylvania, OH

4

Executive Summary

The effective development of a sales and service culture begins at the top, as credit union leaders position sales as the

ultimate form of service by connecting members with products and services that will save them money and time and help

them achieve their financial goals. On that foundation, a credit union identifies its organizational goals for strategic growth

and financial viability and translates those objectives into sales goals for branch teams and frontline staff. Training,

coaching, time, and resources to fulfill their sales responsibilities are necessary for employees to assume accountability to

do their part in a sales and service culture. This white paper explores the interactions of these three pillars supporting

successful sales cultures through case studies profiling the efforts of four credit unions.

Introduction

Leadership, goals, and accountability are the way that

things get done in a successful sales culture.

A commitment to sales as the highest form of service—

connecting members with products and services that can

help them meet their financial goals—must begin with the

CEO and executive team. That commitment forms the

foundation on which to develop clearly stated goals that

support the credit union’s strategic direction and guide the

training and coaching that equip frontline staff with the

skills and support they need to take ownership of

achieving those goals.

In an article for Community Banker, Margaret Kane

identifies key areas where community financial

institutions need to improve in order to sustain their sales

efforts for the benefit of both accountholders and their

organizations:

The CEO must articulate a vision for a member-centric

sales culture and lead in the development of a business

plan that operationalizes that vision.

Sales goals must be ambitious and achievable at the

branch and individual level, and staff require training

and clear direction to perform sales activities.

Service must be delivered at peak efficiency, so

employees have the time to undertake such activities as

conversations with members to identify cross-selling

opportunities and follow-up phone calls.

HR must dedicate adequate resources to develop and

support well-defined job descriptions, job evaluations

based on specific performance criteria, and regular

coaching and feedback processes.

Executives, managers, and frontline and back-office

staff must stay the course over the long haul that may

be required to operationalize sales alongside member

service.

These principles are illustrated in the case studies featured

in this white paper.

What Leaders Do

In a successful sales culture, credit union leaders do

indeed wield the baton to set the “tone at the top” that

sales is fundamental to member service and to the credit

union’s financial performance and long-term viability. In

fact, a credit union can only effect lasting cultural change

if its CEO “defines the future and inspires people to want

to do the hard work, the work that real change requires, to

get there,” said sales culture expert Michael Neill,

president of Michael Neill & Associates, in an interview

for Credit Union Management.

Echoing that perspective, Peoples Bancorp CEO Chuck

Sulerzyski suggested at the 2014 BAI Retail Delivery

conference that community financial institutions should

operationalize the maxim that “culture eats strategy for

lunch.” Defining culture as “what your folks say to clients

when nobody’s looking,” Sulerzyski said an effective

sales culture is based on clearly defined goals and

behaviors for every employee established and promoted

by executives and managers. In a year when the demand

for checking accounts was declining, Peoples Bank grew

its checking account base by 5 percent, even though the

service is not free and not advertised. Sulerzyski

attributed that success to Peoples Bank training its staff to

engage in fruitful conversations with customers and

supporting that training with supervisors sitting in on

customer-staff interactions and providing practical

feedback based on those observations.

They Talk the Talk

A common lament is that employees consider sales a dirty

word, at the other end of the spectrum from service.

A Texas community bank launched its sales and service

culture with an internally developed “Discovery

5

Training”—as in discovering customers’ needs for new

products and services—so that managers wouldn’t have

to use that terminology. But can a culture that eschews

even using the word sales guide frontline staff to develop

the skills and behaviors needed to guide members toward

products and services that can help them achieve their

financial goals?

In contrast, at Pegasus Community Credit Union, John

Tatum, vice president of strategic lending, promotes a

view of sales as a positive way to deliver meaningful

value to members. That approach has resulted in steady

loan growth for the Dallas credit union, according to a

recent Credit Union Times profile: Pegasus Community

CU’s loan growth ratio for 2014 was 70.97 compared to a

peer average of 7.75.

Frontline staff are more likely to embrace their sales

responsibilities when they are extremely well versed on

the benefits and features of credit union products and

services and comfortable conversing about them, Tatum

contends. Toward that end, Pegasus Community CU

offers its products and services at cost to employees to

encourage them to use those products so they can speak

from experience in sharing features and benefits with

members and provide feedback on how those offerings

could be improved.

In addition, as a leader of its sales culture, Tatum actively

demonstrates the concept of sales through conversations

by communicating regularly with existing and

prospective members via phone and social media and

arranging to meet prospective borrowers at a time and

place of their convenience to close the deal. He and other

managers monitor the rate of loan applications and

closings on a daily and weekly basis and meet with

employees to review goals, share success stories, and

address potential needs.

They Connect Sales and Service Through Training

As a former community bank CEO, Jim Bexley insists

that top executives must embrace and promote sales

before they can expect employees to do so. By

emphasizing that selling is a constant focus of the

organization, the CEO and other executives take the lead

in developing and maintaining a corporate culture in

which frontline staff better understand the need to actively

engage in sales training and apply what they’ve learned.

In fact, Bexley recommends that the CEO occasionally sit

in on and observe employees’ sales interactions, just as

other managers do, to underscore the organization’s

commitment to sales and service.

Training must reinforce sales and service skills, he adds.

If sales bring new business in the door only to have those

accounts exit because of poor service, the credit union is

worse off, not better, because it has likely lost those

members forever. As with sales, consistent service quality

requires buy-in throughout the organization.

They Coach the Coaches

Reporting on the impact of business coaching, researchers

Claudio Pousa and Anne Mathieu define coaching as “a

one-to-one process of helping others to improve, to grow

and to increase work performance by providing feedback,

encouragement and raising awareness … a developmental

process that enables and empowers people and opens new

opportunities for learning through which improved

performance is attained.” The coaching relationship must

be based on mutual trust and respect to facilitate open

communication, a collaborative approach to developing

sales skills, a sense of empowerment, and a tolerance for

errors as a path to learning and improvement.

In their research, Pousa and Mathieu studied the

application of LMX (leader–member exchange) theory in

which leaders aim to develop positive and productive

interchanges with subordinates that influence attitudes,

behaviors, and output. The study of Canadian bank

managers and employees found that effective coaching

improved employees’ customer orientation (in adapting

their customer service approach to work harder to

understand customers’ needs, to adapt their presentation

of product and service information to meet those needs,

and to facilitate customers’ analysis, selection, and

satisfaction) and simultaneously decreased employees’

sales orientation (defined in this study as using “selling

techniques and manipulative tactics to convince

customers and get the sale” even if it runs counter to their

long-term interests).

They Set the Right Tone

The Wells Fargo situation, widely reported in Fall 2016,

provides a cautionary tale of what can go wrong when

sales are pushed to the exclusion of customers’ interests.

Employees of the banking giant, under fire to meet high-

stakes sales goals, opened more than 2 million accounts

in customers’ names without their consent. Wells Fargo

fired 5,300 employees and agreed to pay a $185 million

fine to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The

damage to its reputation and fulfilling a promise to

compensate customers for any losses will likely drive the

costs of the scandal much higher.

Could credit unions open themselves to the same abuses

by promoting a sales and service culture? Rod Snyder,

who helps lead sales efforts at Red Canoe Credit Union,

says, “The Wells Fargo issue has sparked a few

6

conversations about our sales and service culture—mostly

for the good. The central purpose of our sales philosophy

is to look for ways to help our members with their

unperceived and unique financial needs. We are trying to

solve problems, not create them by giving members

products they don’t need.”

Along the same lines, at Greater Nevada Credit Union,

“we have to make sure that we emphasize all important

areas of employee and branch performance and don’t

focus on sales above all other things,” says Vice President

of Member Services Tom Wambaugh. “Also, having

disinterested non-incented employees such as myself

inspect sales successes and periodically review sales is

important to head off bad habits before they become a

cultural norm. We have a zero-tolerance policy for

gaming the incentive plan and anyone found guilty of

such a practice is dismissed.”

At Coastal Federal Credit Union, CEO Chuck Purvis used

the Wells Fargo scandal as a “teachable moment,”

sending a letter to all employees “as a simple reminder of

how we are different and how we can take care of our

membership yet be profitable at the same time,” says

Senior Vice President Jim Pack. “Coastal has and will

continue to monitor our sales activity to ensure that we

are not taking advantage of our membership base.”

Raleigh, NC • $2.6 billion in assets • 212,000 members • 440 employees • 22 branches

Coastal Federal began shifting the focus of frontline member interactions from “order taking” to a sales culture about eight years

ago. “We’re trying to help the staff understand that ‘sales’ is not a bad word. It’s really a form of service,” Pack says. “We want to

provide tangible benefits to our membership in five areas: We try to help them save money, we try to help them make money, we

will lend them money, and we want to save them time or provide convenience in some way.”

Frontline staff are trained to promote these benefits to members in conversations, emphasizing loan and deposit rates, new delivery

channels, or convenient teller hours, for example. “That’s the essence of how we try to approach the sales process—to add value,”

says Pack, a former banker who joined Coastal Federal to help the credit union introduce its sales and service culture.

The executive leadership team and branch management are on board with the sales culture, as are many branch staff hired in recent

years with the expectation that their job involves sales. “It took our long-tenured employees longer to buy into the change, but most

are performing well today,” he notes. “It’s a little bit of a push and pull from that perspective, but the buy-in from the management

is definitely in place.”

Solid Growth

Despite some lingering objections, Coastal Federal’s approach to sales has paid off. From 2010, when the sales culture formally

launched to the end of 2012, total sales increased 27 percent, with deposit growth up 23 percent and loan growth increasing 42

percent over those two years.

A key ratio Pack follows, sales per employee per day, increased 61 percent over the same period, from 1.58 sales per day per FTE

in 2010 to 2.63 by the end of 2012. That average as of October 2016 was 2.97. This metric includes only accounts opened and loans

funded. Services like online banking and bill pay may help build member relationships, but new deposit accounts and loans are

“the heart and soul” of this business, he says.

Member and employee satisfaction also rose after the sales culture was implemented, with the credit union’s Net Promoter Score

rising from 58 percent to 64 percent and employee engagement scores increasing as well—even during a period in which Coastal

Federal consolidated its branch network from 22 locations to 15, reduced staff, flattened its management hierarchy, and eliminated

some of those positions. The employee engagement ratio is currently 3.2 to 1 (engaged to disengaged) and has been on a steady

upward tick.

Though the Coastal Federal’s overall NPS has dipped in recent months as the dust settles on conversions of the core, digital banking,

and credit card systems, “transaction surveys for our sales team are excellent,” Pack says. Digital branch staff who handle online

accounts and loan applications currently have a 93 percent favorable rating, and branch employees have earned an 83 percent rating.

Coaching Toolkit Branch managers have received extensive training in coaching routines based on sales results and a toolkit to guide weekly one-

on-one check-ins with staff to talk about what went well during the previous week and how they will work to meet sales goals.

They are also trained on how to sit with employees during member service encounters and then to guide employees through a self-

assessment.

Continued next page…

“I can tell any employee that they should do these three things better. But if I can ask open-ended questions and they

explain what they think they need to do better, they’ve learned on their own, and there’s a much greater chance that

will stick with them and a greater chance of positive change,” Pack explains. “Accountability is about the numbers but

also tangible routines that we follow and monitor.”

The manager’s toolkit compiles information available online and in paper form based on training modules on subjects

Coastal Federal Credit Union: The Proof is in the Numbers

7

“I can tell any employee that they should do these three things better. But if I can ask open-ended questions and they explain what

they think they need to do better, they’ve learned on their own, and there’s a much greater chance that will stick with them and a

greater chance of positive change,” Pack explains. “Accountability is about the numbers but also tangible routines that we follow

and monitor.”

The manager’s toolkit compiles information available online and in paper form based on training modules on subjects like engaging

employees, making outbound sales calls, making sales referrals, establishing a performance plan, conducting quarterly reviews,

and recognizing high performers. These trainings were conducted every two to three weeks over a 12-month period. Staff sales

training began with the rollout of an onboarding program, the “3-2-1 Launch to Loyalty,” which provided a concrete routine for

frontline employees to engage new members. Three days after enrolling a new member, the employee sends a handwritten thank-

you note for joining Coastal Federal. Two weeks later and again in another month, the employee follows up to ask about other

products and services that might save new members time and money.

The program “helped to introduce staff to how to create loyalty, how to better onboard members, and even how to make a telephone

call,” Pack says. “A lot of them had never been asked to do that kind of work before. We also trained the managers on how to make

referrals to our mortgage team, commercial lending group, our management team, and our realty company. We’d train them and

practice that, and two to three weeks later, once we felt they were comfortable, then we would start training the staff as well.”

Coastal Federal tellers are centralized in one location, serving members through a video teller network, so the credit union’s 22

branches are staffed with member service employees referred to as account managers and relationship managers (based on level of

experience and tenure), led by branch managers. New tellers participate in an “Opportunity Spotting Workshop” to learn how to

identify potential sales in conversations with members while they’re conducting transactions. If a member mentions a new

grandchild, for example, the teller might offer to connect them with a wealth management specialist to discuss setting up an

education fund for the newest member of their family. If a member who doesn’t have a Coastal Federal credit card mentions an

upcoming trip, the teller could suggest that the credit union’s Visa card might come in handy.

What tellers don’t do is ask every member who steps up for service if they’d like a Visa card, Pack notes. “But if the member

mentions something where there might be a way we can show a tangible benefit, we’ll ask a couple follow-up questions and refer

them to the appropriate staff members.”

Goal Setting

Sales goals begin with projected growth rates identified in budget planning and extended to balance sheet projections for deposit

and loan trends. Vice presidents of the retail, consumer lending, and mortgage departments then apply those projections to develop

sales goals to meet those targets. “If we know we need to grow about 4 percent and we expect 3 percent run-off, we can work

backward to how many applications we would need, based on our historical pull-through rate,” he explains. “Then we break that

down by location and then down to the individual. That’s how we build our performance plans for the year.”

Though individual staff sales goals tend to be evenly divided at each location, branch goals are not set uniformly but based on

historical patterns for loan and deposit generation and volume of business. Since sales at branches located in SEG buildings and

campuses tend to be lower, projections reflect their role of maintaining relationships with those select employee groups. Branch

managers are sometimes involved in the goal-setting process, but Pack says “I don’t think we’ve grown the culture enough where

we would have the accountability upstream” for employees to help set their own goals.

Keeping the Culture Strong

Pack compares the work of maintaining a sales culture in which employees own their goals to that of a park ranger directing hikers

out on a day trip: She takes them to a starting point; makes sure they are equipped with water, a compass, a map, and a backpack;

offers training on how to use the equipment and follow the trail of their choice; and tells them that everyone will meet at the

endpoint at a certain time. It’s up to the hikers to decide which path they will take to get to the rendezvous on time.

“From an accountability perspective, individually we give employees a good deal of latitude on how best to meet an objective. For

example, I have some folks who are really great at identifying opportunities when they’re sitting with members, so they might see

fewer people but get a lot more business than someone who has to spend more time on the phone,” he notes. “From a training

perspective, if they’re struggling in a certain area, then we can offer different types of training and different ideas on how they

could do a better job.”

Managers emphasize both individual sales goals and the contribution of each employee to team goals at the branch and department

level. “I think every employee understands they are responsible for their level of accountability, and managers are also responsible

for holding employees accountable for the goals that have been set,” Pack says. “We’re really trying to develop this culture where

everybody is accountable for what they’re expected to do—to provide better service for members and better results for the

organization.”

Concludes next page…

8

The Ends and the Means: Goals and Accountability

“Accountability is about setting clear expectations and

outcomes and then managing and monitoring the process

to ensure that the activities that we’re asking for are being

done,” Pack says. “With the performance plans we put in

place, we’re very specific about what outcomes we want.

We will also give them the tools, the training, and the

time, if they need to make phone calls in some cases, to

do those things.”

The dictionary definition of accountability is “an

obligation to accept responsibility or to account for one’s

actions.” But accountability is also an opportunity to

excel, suggests Snyder, of Red Canoe CU. “We have sales

goals and expectations for our member-facing employees,

and we build all of that around contributing to the overall

corporate success.”

The business research literature agrees that setting sales

goals at the organizational, branch, and individual

employee levels is just the first step toward effective

accountability. Managers should also meet regularly,

weekly or every other week, to discuss employees’

progress toward their goals and strategies to improve

results. Providing a mentor for frontline staff who are

having difficulty meeting their goals and regularly and

prominently recognizing top performers can help to

inculcate sales as a necessary, doable, and rewarding job

responsibility. Finally, employees should be held to

clearly intertwined sales and service standards as a path

to build business and strengthen member relationships.

That connection between sales and service is borne out by

the results Del Norte Credit Union charted after

implementing its sales and service program: Overall

member loyalty, as measured by the likelihood that

members will bring all their loan and deposit business to

the credit union and that they will recommend the credit

union, increased 45 percent, according to a Credit Union

Clear expectations communicated regularly are crucial to gain consensus about the importance of sales, he adds. “We let them

know what’s expected of them, what timeframe it’s expected within, what tools they have available to meet those expectations, and

what we expect the outcome to be. Even if they disagree, if we can explain the rationale behind the decision, that aids in buy-in and

engagement.”

Using Technology

Technology support for its sales system remains a work in progress at Coastal Federal, which converted its core system to Jack

Henry’s Symitar two years ago and is now working to implement its member relationship management system, Synapsys. “What’s

on our road map for the next 12 to 18 months is to start to build out the capabilities of that tool to better track member interactions

and feed possible leads to tellers and other branch staff,” Pack says.

The credit union tracks and shares progress on meeting sales goals monthly through a data warehouse (Symitar’s Advanced

Reporting for Credit Unions, or ARCU system) accessible to all employees, who can compare their performance with peers at their

branch and throughout the organization. Coastal Federal also updates and shares its financial reports with staff monthly, quarterly,

and annually.

Rewards and Recognition

All employees participate in a corporate gain share program, though Coastal Federal does not offer incentive-based pay for meeting

or exceeding sales goals, instead providing “very generous competitive base pay,” Pack says. Top sales performers are honored at

quarterly recognition events, typically an evening out hosted by the Chief Retail Officer or CEO, with small prizes given to all

attendees. Branch managers and vice presidents also have the discretion to offer rewards and plan recognition events for their

offices or departments, and the tellers who generate the most referrals also qualify for rewards and recognition.

Coastal Federal purposefully steered clear of offering financial incentives in the early stages of establishing a sales culture to avoid

encouraging behaviors inconsistent with its approach or to tie the credit union to a program that might prove more costly than

expected. With the culture now well established, the credit union might roll out a different compensation approach with lower base

pay and sales incentives for special teams such as an outbound calling unit, but those decisions are still down the road.

The credit union has procedures in place for dealing with lackluster performance. Employee effort and attitude are key, Pack says.

“If we have made a hiring decision and put someone in a role that they’re putting effort into and they have a good attitude but just

can’t do it, then we’re going to find a role that’s right for them,” he says. “We’re going to take that upon ourselves to say we created

this situation, and we’re going to help find a better situation for you. On the other hand if an employee is underperforming and

lacks effort and attitude, we probably aren’t the right company for them to work for.”

9

Management article by Kristen Gilpatrick, and the

percentage of “highly satisfied” members rose from the

40s to 58 percent.

In the same article, Mike Neill makes the point that

implementing and maintaining a sales and service culture

is “at least an 18-month, 65-step process with actions such

as leadership development, coaching, sales and service

training, employee recognition and accountability, [back

office] support, and employee selection.” Throughout that

process, credit unions should prepare to embrace progress

over comfort and stability, commit to and communicate a

vision of cultural change, and create short-term wins to

inspire a long-term commitment. Attrition should be an

expected part of that process, as employees who are not

comfortable with a sales approach depart, he adds.

Carson City, NV • $636 million in assets • 53,000 members • 192 employees • 12 branches

In 2010, Greater Nevada CU launched several major operational changes to enhance its sales-service culture, including a move to

a universal agent branch staffing model. Tellers and member service reps were retrained to handle any and all member transactions

(all branch staff are now referred to as member service representatives). Member feedback shows they appreciate service

improvements that have resulted from this shift, and frontline employees responded positively to expanded responsibilities,

Wambaugh says. Soon thereafter, the credit union introduced internally developed sales training and goals. “Our view is that sales

is really the flip side of the coin of service. You don’t do one without the other, and you don’t do one to the detriment of the other,”

he notes.

Simple Sales Metrics

About six months after branch employees had settled into their new roles, Greater Nevada CU introduced its central sales metric—

that each employee generates an average 1.5 sales or referrals to the credit union’s centralized consumer and residential lending

departments per day. Within a year, between 50 percent and 75 percent of employees were regularly hitting that target, and that

performance has improved steadily. Over the most recent six months, virtually all employees have met or exceeded this sales goal.

Though that metric has remained constant through the years, the categories of product emphasis may change based on the credit

union’s financial goals, he notes. “We’re always interested in bringing in car loans and checking accounts, but there have been

periods when we’ve been less keen on opening other deposit accounts. An MSR referring a member for a money market or CD

might not see it count toward meeting the goal.”

Familiarity with product features and benefits is crucial to support sales success, Wambaugh says, so new employee training begins

with the basics—running a cash drawer and performing transactions—and then moves on to developing knowledge of consumer

and business products and learning sales skills and techniques. “We consider the sales goals to be just one of several important

elements of the job. MSRs need to be able to count out a cash drawer, perform transactions accurately, and meet sales goals,” he

adds. “Failure to meet sales goals is the same as failure for any other job requirement.”

Branch managers are encouraged to meet regularly one on one with their staff, typically every two weeks, whether they’re doing

well or struggling. Those meetings may take 5 minutes or an hour, depending on whether there are issues with sales or service

performance to review and coach. Branch managers also check in regularly with two regional managers, who report to Wambaugh.

Greater Nevada CU aims for transparency in tracking sales performance, with dashboards readily accessible to all employees online.

Cash incentives are clearly laid out, so MSRs can track their performance against peers and estimate generally how their incentive

compensation compares as well. “Transparency makes it much easier to talk to individuals about their performance,” Wambaugh

says. “They know we’re going to talk about sales as well as every other aspect of their jobs. When we have discussions with MSRs

on a weekly or every other week basis, it’s very easy for them to know what the conversation’s going to be about. There should

never be a surprise.”

“If somebody is not doing well, they’ll work together with their manager to try to determine the cause. The manager can offer

training, coaching, and one-on-one mentorship, to help someone succeed in their goals,” he adds. “If the MSR decides this job is

not for them, their manager may help them find another position with the organization.”

Beyond staff goals that each MSR produce 90 sales or referrals per quarter (45 for peak-time employees working half-time),

individual branches also have specific goals to grow membership and meet revenue expectations. For the most part those goals are

set by Wambaugh in consultation with branch managers; occasionally, he notes, a branch manager says, “I think this goal is too

low. I don’t think it will challenge my staff enough.”

Concludes next page…

Beyond staff goals that each MSR produce 90 sales or referrals per quarter (45 for peak-time employees working half-

time), individual branches also have specific goals to grow membership and meet revenue expectations. For the most

part those goals are set by Wambaugh in consultation with branch managers; occasionally, he notes, a branch manager

says, “I think this goal is too low. I don’t think it will challenge my staff enough.”

MSRs submit sales and referrals through the credit union’s DNA core system, which supports a minable database on

Greater Nevada Credit Union:

Pivoting Toward Sales as the ‘Flip Side of Service’

10

Where Expectations and Results Meet

Sales and service cultures are coming of age in credit

unions across the country, offering lessons and results that

can be applied and reproduced. Almost a decade ago,

prior to the Great Recession, Rory Rowland, president

and founder of Rowland Consulting, conducted a five-

year study of top-performing credit unions in the upper

Midwest. Though that region had not experienced the

same high rates of growth as the West and Southeast in

the early and mid-2000s, some Midwestern credit unions

still managed to post enviable membership expansion and

household product penetration.

Rowland’s white paper, “How to Create a Service Selling

Culture,” found that credit unions with strong sales and

service cultures thrived even when they were not in boom

regions by:

relying on leadership to promote sales as a key

responsibility in providing superior member service and

in helping the credit union achieve its financial goals;

hiring staff with an affinity for sales and training and

coaching all employees to fulfill their sales and service

duties; and

setting expectations that employees will take ownership

for sales goals and clear a high bar for member service.

At Greater Nevada Credit Union, for example, managers

and employees alike are proud of its 96 percent “satisfied”

or “very satisfied” ratings on member surveys and of the

credit union’s first-place finish in “best financial

institution” readers’ polls in the communities it serves,

Wambaugh says. “We have also been recognized as one

of three best places to work by a local publication among

all local employers between 100 and 500 employees.

The combination of sales and service has helped Greater

Nevada Credit Union achieve 68 percent checking

account coverage with its members, up from the high 50s

seven years ago. And the credit union has grown its assets

from $465 million to $633 million since 2010. “I firmly

believe that invigorating our culture to emphasize that we

serve members and that is what leads to sales success has

been a huge part of our growth over the past several

years,” Wambaugh adds.

These criteria continue to guide efforts to build sales and

service cultures, as the case studies shared in this white

paper exemplify, including the range represented in the

following two case studies profiling sales cultures at

America’s Credit Union and Red Canoe Credit Union.

Sales and service are the intertwined responsibilities of all

MSRs submit sales and referrals through the credit union’s DNA core system, which supports a minable database on sales

performance and generates daily sales reports to a dashboard accessible to all staff.

Rewards and Recognition

Engaging employees in Greater Nevada CU’s sales culture starts with recruitment and an on-boarding process that emphasizes that

sales is part of the job. “We don’t try to make sales out to be a difficult part of their jobs, a mountain they need to climb,” Wambaugh

says. “If they serve 130 to 150 members each day, their sales goal amounts to 1 percent of those interactions. Their job entails

finding ways to improve the lives of members with a new product or service, and our sales goals are very reasonable.”

Top sales performers, who may regularly exceed goals by 200 to 300 percent, receive both monetary rewards and recognition from

their employer. Incentive pay for sales and referrals averages $200 to $300 per quarter, but some MSRs earn $1,500 or more above

their base pay. Sales performance also factors into annual reviews and base compensation decisions—and career advancement. At

least four branch managers or department managers had previously proven themselves through the sales and service culture,

Wambaugh says. “We’ve seen a lot of internal promotions because people have proven themselves in sales and other aspects of

their jobs.” In addition, sales leaders receive awards from the CEO at an annual all-employee staff meeting, and the credit union

hosts a “Rec Room,” or recognition room, a live-feed online portal where managers and peers can recognize strong sales

performance or excellent service delivered by an employee.

Reflecting a commitment to open communications, Greater Nevada CU vice presidents make the rounds to different branches each

month to share key business information and pick up feedback. During those visits, sales leaders may get a shout-out. “If an MSR

who doesn’t necessarily have a lot of contact with executive level staff is recognized by a vice president at a branch meeting, that

can go a long way as a form of recognition,” Wambaugh notes. Greater Nevada CU also showcases personal stories shared by

members as a way to emphasize the impact of its sales and service culture. “A member tells us, ‘I didn’t think I’d ever be able to

afford this car, but your member service rep took the time to explain all the options. It took me a few months to repair some aspects

of my credit, but now I drive my dream car,’” he relates. “We hear and celebrate stories like that all the time. That’s a huge measure

of success for us—a wonderful thing.”

11

credit union staff—led by the CEO, executive team, and

management level; supported by marketing, technology,

finance, HR, and other departments; and carried out by

frontline employees. In short, improving sales improves

member service—and vice versa.

DuPont, WA • $615 million in assets • 47,000 members • 200 employees • 16 branches

When America’s CU rolled out its Creating Member Loyalty Program with CUNA in 2004, “we didn’t really call it sales because

it was such a scary word at the time,” says Training Solutions Manager Michelle Britt. “It was a challenge because people thought

the organization was going in a direction that wasn’t for a credit union. We had a battle moving on to a sales culture, but you can’t

do business without sales.”

At one point, America’s CU had both a vice president of sales and a vice president of service, and executives sought to address

employees’ concerns about the increasing emphasis on sales through “town hall meetings” and a series of communications. Sales

and service have since been combined into a single vice president’s position, and the credit union continues to offer evaluation

training for managers to guide staff on their sales duties and sales training for frontline staff. The concept of selling remains

challenging for some employees, says Britt, who describes the current culture as “sales-associated.”

“The goal of our frontline staff is to have conversations with members. The more conversations you have, the more information

you’ll get and the more you’ll notice that there’s something members need in order to have a serving relationship with them. That’s

the credit union way,” she says. “We tell them that if it feels wrong, then they’re probably doing it wrong. We try to explain that,

yes, we’re a credit union, but we need to do business to stay afloat. It’s always a work in progress.”

Many of America’s CU new employees came from big banks and other credit unions where they were uncomfortable with

requirements to meet sales quotas, Britt notes. “We explain to them that we don’t have a point where employees will get fired if

they don’t meet a quota. We do have goals at the branch and individual level. There isn’t a negative outcome for not making a goal

on an individual level, but we do take the opportunity to coach, which results in confidence, competence, and ultimately, sales!”

There is a monetary bonus for managers and frontline staff at branches that meet or exceed sales goals, and branch managers also

have a reward and recognition budget so that they can offer gift cards and other forms of more spontaneous awards to employees.

The credit union’s top three sellers are presented with plaques at quarterly all-staff meetings where branch performance totals are

announced.

Sales goals encourage staff to converse with members about the benefits and features of deposit and loans accounts and related

services, such as a checking account with bill pay or an auto loan with credit protection or an extended warranty. Ancillary lending

products offer the best monetary incentives.

Employees participate in setting their sales goals. “We sit down with each person individually and ask them how they would like

to set their goal based on what they did last year and the branch’s goal for this year,” Britt explains. “Along the way, monthly and

bimonthly, we see where they are, and if they’re behind, we ask what we can do to help.”

In terms of training, three regional operations officers make the rounds to branches to “coach the coaches” on sales training for

frontline staff, which can be a challenge for “working managers” who are also responsible for maintaining their own cash drawers,

opening accounts, and funding loans along with their managerial duties. Given the volume at some branches, it’s hard for those

managers to juggle supervisory, training, and member service responsibilities, Britt notes.

The credit union tracks branch performance, and branch managers monitor how their employees are progressing toward their goals.

Typically, about 70 percent of America’s CU branches achieve all the goals on their scorecards, which include operational

objectives such as accurate transactions and clean audits as well as sales and referrals. Branch goals are based on the organization’s

strategic aim to expand membership and return on assets, with an emphasis on increasing checking accounts and loan volume and

building its credit card base.

Efforts to build a sales culture at America’s CU are gaining ground, as evidenced by its asset and membership growth: Assets have

grown from $421.8 million in 2013 to the current $615.5 million, and membership has increased from 37,900 to 47,000 over the

same period. However, the word sales remains “a sensitive topic,” Britt says.

The credit union is currently discussing the creation of positions for a sales manager and regional sales coach to keep the momentum

going. “Credit unions are a very different beast from banks, but we need to compete,” she adds.

America’s Credit Union: Sales Culture ‘a Work in Progress’

12

Longview, WA • $700 million in assets • 56,000 members • 220 employees

Red Canoe CU launched a concerted effort to develop a sales and service culture nearly a decade ago, acknowledging that building

member relationships “takes a lot more than being fast, accurate, and friendly,” says Rod Snyder, AVP/Sales and Branch

Performance. In rolling out its sales culture, Red Canoe worked with CUNA’s Creating Member Loyalty program to help structure

its sales approach and train managers in sales coaching.

The program includes a sales leadership strategy module to train managers on setting goals with staff, measuring and assessing

performance, and handling performance issues. Managers learn what a coaching session should look like and how to write effective

action plans to show and support improvement in employee performance. “Training is a key element of the sales culture, but it’s

not the end-all,” Snyder says. “It really comes down to focused leadership from branch managers, middle managers like myself,

and of course, the senior management.”

Having committed to a sales culture just a year or two before the Great Recession struck at full force, Red Canoe, like other financial

institutions, “has been on a bit of a roller coaster since 2008.” Throughout those down years, the credit union kept the focus on

sales leadership and coaching and on increasing its return on average assets. “Without our significant sales effort, I think we could

have seen darker days following that period of time. Instead, we’ve been stable throughout. As an organization, we’ve never posted

a loss.” Now in better economic times, the credit union continues to look for ways to improve performance. “If we don’t keep our

conversations focused on sales, then we revert back to thinking it’s not a priority and all that’s expected is to be fast, friendly, and

accurate. That’s why it’s important that our coaches and our management continue this conversation daily.”

A key focus of sales efforts is on equipping managers with basic coaching skills and on providing regular developmental feedback

to staff. There’s always room for improvement, Snyder notes, but the best course is to ensure that managers are providing constant

and consistent sales coaching. Snyder works with Red Canoe’s leadership and senior management teams to identify key metrics of

credit union performance—return on assets, membership growth, net loan growth and loan protection, and efficiency ratios—and

to translate those measurements into actionable goals for employees. For example, loan growth goals are divided among the

branches “based on their ability and the opportunity of the market they serve,” he says. Member experience is measured in surveys

and reports from mystery shoppers.

Goal Setting

Sales goals at the individual and branch level are based on annual corporate goals determined by senior management and the board.

The share that each branch assumes is based on market area served and number and experience levels of employees. For example,

“this year if we have a $120 million loan production goal and 10 branches, every branch wouldn’t get a $12 million goal in loan

volume,” Snyder says. “Some branches don’t have that opportunity or the staffing or the right membership base. Our corporate

office is our busiest branch, staffed by seven loan officers, so its goal is $22 million in loan production. At another branch with one

loan officer serving a tenth of the number of members, the goal is significantly less.”

Along the same lines, senior loan officers might have higher individual goals than new employees, and tellers have goals for

referrals and successful “save money conversations” with members about refinancing car loans, for example. Branch and individual

sales goals also reflect whether goals for the previous year were met or exceeded; top performers might have slightly higher goals

to continue building on past performance. On the other hand, behavioral goals, such as making a set number of outbound sales calls

weekly, tend to be set at uniform minimums.

Branch managers meet with each employee in December to set goals for the coming year. All employees are assessed on quality

of service; frontline staff have goals for sales referrals and volume of outbound calls, and loan officers have production goals.

Those goals are entered into an internally developed tracking system that employees can check through the credit union’s intranet.

(Red Canoe also employs a contact record management system to help track member conversations, encounters, and referrals.) The

sales system measures progress toward goals, which is referenced in coaching conversations with supervisors, and also stores

coaching notes from those discussions.

Doing the Right Thing

“Our top priority is that employees are asking for referrals the right way and doing it for a reason. When we ask our tellers to engage

members, it’s because we have a desire to help them,” Snyder says. “When we see sales results, our training and coaching and our

language says it’s because employees uncovered 20 opportunities that members were unaware of that now make their banking and

their lives a lot better.”

Continued next page…

Red Canoe Credit Union:

Assembling the Building Blocks of Sales Success

13

For example, Snyder shares this example of an email exchange showing a branch employee’s progress toward achieving sales and

referral goals:

The email included these comments from the employee’s supervisor: “What a FANTASTIC month you had. We are still waiting

for QS scores, although I am confident you have achieved this goal as well. Keep on doing what you are doing, it is working well

for you. I look forward to watching what you will achieve in the coming months. … Thank you for always working so hard and

helping your member save lots of money.” Snyder also sent an email to the employee: “Rock’n it!!!!!! Nice work, Christi!! Just

think … there were 5 members who didn’t even know they could have been doing better until you called them. Looking after our

members is what we do.”

This exchange underscores Red Canoe’s sales–service dynamic, he suggests. “My response was ‘Great job for hitting the numbers,’

but more importantly, there are now five members who are extremely happy that Christi called because otherwise they wouldn’t

know we could save them that money. That creates loyalty. To me, that’s a sales culture, and that’s what we preach. While coaching,

we always refer back to the question of ‘Why are we doing this?’”

Branch managers track sales results monthly for their team, and some share weekly progress with employees. There is a sense of

friendly competition among the branches, and employees can track their results in comparison to peers on the intranet sales reporting

system. Snyder sends a quarterly update on overall sales results to all staff, and year-end totals are reported by the CEO and shared

on the intranet. “We could do a little better job of celebrating and getting more people involved. That’s part of an initiative now

under way for bringing our support teams up to speed when it comes to engagement and tying their contributions to the

organization’s overall achievement,” Snyder says. Red Canoe offers incentive pay to frontline staff who meet their sales and referral

goals, paid out monthly. Branch managers’ at-risk compensation is based on their teams’ performance, and support staff receive

annual bonuses tied to achievement of corporate goals.

Recognition contributions

Meeting sales goals is serious business, but at the same time Snyder cites the need “to keep it engaging for staff. You have to have

fun, right?” Two or three times a year, Red Canoe sponsors a targeted campaign promoting sales achievements and the use of

specific sales skills, featuring drawings for prizes, culinary treats for branch staff, and special activities. For example, a summer

campaign emphasized needs-based selling skills, encouraging employees to ask open-ended questions to identify which products

and services might benefit members, around the theme of the movie Vacation. “As employees use these skills to create a superior

member experience, they put their card in a gas can we have on display with the Vacation logo, and we have weekly drawings for

prizes like gas cards,” Snyder explains.

In addition to financial rewards, Red Canoe posts sales success stories and photos on its intranet and offers gift cards, free lunches,

and other prizes as forms of spontaneous recognition. Star performers who maintain a 100-percent quality service rating for a

quarter are invited to participate in a lunch with the CEO. The chief executive takes a dozen or so employees off site for a two-and-

a-half-hour lunch, called the “Club 100 Celebration.”

“I think people really value the Club 100 lunch because they look forward to having a normal conversation with the CEO,” he

notes. “It empowers some people and really matters to the staff.”

Concludes next page…

14

Conclusion

There is no single approach to building a sales-service culture. One constant is that leadership must drive and reinforce the

initiatives, including coaching staff to build their competencies and weaving goal setting and accountability into the process.

Holding the members’ best interests at the forefront of the culture emphasizes how sales are service in action.

Acknowledgements

The CUNA Operations Sales & Service Council appreciates the contributions of the credit union and industry experts who

shared information for this white paper. Among that group, special thanks to:

Michelle Britt

Training Solutions Manager

America’s Credit Union

DuPont, WA

Jim Pack

SVP

Coastal FCU

Raleigh, NC

Rod Snyder

AVP/Sales and Branch Performance

Red Canoe Credit Union

Longview, WA

Tom Wambaugh

VP Member Services

Greater Nevada Credit Union

Carson City, NV

About the Author

Karen Bankston is a freelance writer and editor who has been writing about the credit union industry since 1995. She is the author of

several modules in CUNA’s Staff Training and Recognition (STAR), Volunteer Achievement and CPD Online programs and has written

manuals about mortgage lending, executive career planning, and effective board/CEO relationships. In addition, Bankston has written

several white papers for the CUNA Councils, and she is a regular contributor to industry trade journals. Her business, Precision Prose,

is based in Portland, Oregon.

References and Resources Bexley, James B. “Systematic Selling.” Independent Banker, 64(9), September 2014, pp. 47–48.

Birch, Ray. “What Top Performing CUs Have in Common Beyond Great Stats.” Credit Union Journal, 12(15), April 14, 2008.

Di Giovanni, Miriam. “Tatum Creates Sales Culture Staffers Can Embrace.” Credit Union Times, February 25, 2015.

Gilpatrick, Kristin. “Unlock Sales Success.” Credit Union Management, 34(11), November 2011, pp. 36–41.

Kane, Margaret. “Taking Stock of Your Sales Culture.” Community Banker, 16 (4), April 2007, pp. 44–46.

Pousa, Claudio, and Anne Mathieu. “Boosting Customer Orientation Through Coaching: A Canadian Study.” The International

Journal of Bank Marketing, 32(1), 2014, pp. 60–81.

San Filippo, John. “Focus on Culture, Not Strategy.” Credit Union Times, November 13, 2014.

Sears, Judith. “Igniting New Business.” Independent Banker, 65(8), August 2015, pp. 16–19.

For employees who consistently underperform on sales goals, their managers provide more intensive coaching and support. “If an

employee is not able to engage members effectively, we would be talking about what they’re saying and doing,” Snyder notes.

“That way the manager can figure out which behaviors aren’t producing results and look for ways of changing that behavior or

introducing something new. Any problem or conflict really is rooted in behaviors and outcomes.”

“It all comes back to keeping the conversation current with your employees. If we have a particular effort in front of us, it’s the

responsibility of managers to make sure employees know they’re a part of that,” he adds. “Ideally, accountability is the recognition

by employees of what they need to do and how they need to do it and the knowledge that doing so will earn them some recognition.

You hope that is the inspiration that’s motivating employees. The manager’s job is to make sure employees know what’s expected

of them and how they can achieve that goal. And if employees have any challenges, their managers work with them. That’s how I

would define accountability in a sales and service culture, where the ongoing definition of sales is our desire to help our members.”

15

The Credit Union National Association, Inc. (“CUNA”), through its Council, offers the information and policies within this white paper

for information only. The enclosed information is not prepared, researched or reviewed by CUNA personnel, should not be considered

legal advice and should not be relied upon or substituted for the same. Neither CUNA or the Council provide legal, accounting, or other

professional advice, and these materials should be reviewed with a competent professional prior to use or reliance thereon. Neither

CUNA nor the Council provides any warranties, expressed or implied, regarding the materials published herein. Reference herein to any

specific vendor, commercial product, process or service does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation or favoring by

CUNA.

The views and opinions of the author(s) do not necessarily state or reflect those of CUNA and shall not be used for advertising or product

endorsement purposes, unless a formal endorsement relationship exists with the third party vendor. If you question whether a product

or service is formally endorsed by CUNA you may contact cunawebmaster@cuna.org.

To order a copy of this white paper, please contact councilmembership@cuna.coop or 608-231-4047.

Please reference Stock No. 24639P when ordering.

This white paper series is produced by the CUNA Operations Sales & Service Council. For more information about this series, or about

Council membership, contact:

Council Administration

Phone: (800) 356-9655, ext. 4047

FAX: (608) 231-4061

E-mail: councilmembership@cuna.coop

© 2016 CUNA, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction is prohibited without written consent.