Rekindle SEG Relationships

Have your relationships with select employee groups (SEGs) gone stale?

Spice them up with these ideas from “Developing Strategies for SEG-Based Credit Unions,” a white paper from the CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council:

• Improve close ratios during business development and community events. Ask for the sale and make the process seamless. If your credit union provides a clear advantage over other providers, SEG members will sign on.
  
  
• Train branch managers. While most branch managers have an operations background, business development requires good communication skills and a passion for the job. To improve their business development skills, branch managers must hone their networking abilities and spend more time in the communities they serve.
  
  
• Acquire an agreement. Striking a written agreement to provide services to a SEG can aid credit union recognition among SEG employees—and there’s no downside to the credit union. As long as the agreement doesn’t hold the SEG to a business obligation, most are happy to sign.
  
  
• Pay for SEG access. Neighborhood Credit Union in Dallas, for example, pays Six Flags Over Texas a set amount and in turn receives several business development perks, such as meetings during new-employee orientations and in-park signage. As a result, Six Flags employees are active credit union users, and Neighborhood has great name recognition in the community, especially among younger people.
  
  
• Market within SEGs. Use your top brand ambassadors to “sound the drum” about credit union products and services. Some credit unions focus on the exclusivity of membership and the related benefits to differentiate their institutions from others.

For more information, visit cunamarketingcouncil.org.