Don't Begin Your Next Planning Session Until You Can Do This!

The Super-Duper Credit Union/Community Bank member/customer is family focused. She is a married woman with a good job, but (combined with her husband's income) making just enough to support her family's comfortable lifestyle. She has one or two young children and a husband who likely earns a little more than her. They live in a 2 bedroom home in a middle class neighborhood with lots of swing sets and have been there for 5-10 years.

Retirement seems like a pipe dream. Though they invest a little through their employers, it is not the focus. They are more concerned with meeting monthly bills and still squirreling away some savings for their children's future college bills - who's majority will ultimately be financed through student loans.

Her time is divided by maintaining a career that she is proud of, raising children that she loves dearly, supporting her kid's activities, volunteering for community groups, exercising 3-4 times per week, and trying to salvage a relationship with her husband, family and friends where she can find time. She has replaced time on the phone with her friends with frequent pictures and updates of the kids on Facebook.

Because her husband is "busy earning more," or because she's more responsible, she's in charge of most of the family finances. While she is technologically savvy, she received her first email account when she started her first real job, about 20 years ago. That said, she writes more checks than she probably should but is beginning to see the efficiency of online banking and starting to trust it more. She's certainly not an early adopter of technology - but she LOVES her i-Phone.

Though she and her husband each switch cars every 3-4 years, they do not lease. They want the look and amenities of a BMW or Mercedes without the hefty monthly payments.

---------------------------------------------------

The off-site hotel is set and the golf reservations are made. You know how you'll entertain your Board and they are looking forward to a weekend together. Now, it's time to begin the REAL pre-work to your planning session.

As credit unions and community banks, everything we do is 

built around our members and customers ... EVERYTHING!  

You, of course need to be prepared to talk business: How will we decrease loan loss while still being open enough to grow the portfolio? How will the health care act effect us? How do we increase non-interest income without establishing big-bank fees? Are there new markets that we should look at? Do we want to merge (or be merged)? Are we over or under staffed?

This is all vital to discuss, but before you break into THAT agenda ... think about who you're doing it for.

Can you tell a story like the one above? You need to!

The days of being all things to all people is over. Your margins shrank years ago and have little promise of coming back any time soon. Your marketing budget isn't limitless. You need loans NOW and your 65 plus year old members simply aren't borrowing like you need.

So you need to focus! You need to determine who in your market(s) you are attracting now and who you WANT to attract. You need to understand your best customers and what makes them the best. Then learn everything you can about them. 

When you can tell a story about your customer: where they live, where they work, what they do for fun, what drives them, what they fear, what they care about ... then you can start making strategic decisions on your product suite, pricing, branching, tech investments, your website, and your marketing message.

Related Articles:
The Great Storyteller Gets the Audience
You'll Never Get Everyone to Love You
Mirror Mirror

We bring these marketing philosophies to credit unions and community banks nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too. Contact us to see how.

With more than 260,000 visits worldwide, we hope that you enjoy this blog.  If you find it helpful, please share it with your colleagues. Also, check out our YouTube Channel for short video blogs about financial marketing.  

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker. Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

Here are the conferences where you can find MarketMatch.

See our story here. (click)

Chat with me LIVE! (click)

Or email me directly (click)

937-426-9848

Follow me on Twitter @egagliano

8 Life Stages You Should Market To

Do you remember when Gen X was a bunch of flannel-wearin', Nirvana-listenin', baristas living in Mom and Dad's basement -- and that was the extent of their ambition?

Fast forward to today, when Gen X is driving a minivan to their kid's activities, meeting a monthly mortgage payment, trying to save for a seemingly nonexistent retirement and ... well ... writing an amazing weekly blog about financial marketing and consulting credit unions and community banks on how to better utilize their marketing resources!

As marketers, we understand that segmentation is little more than politically correct stereotyping.  

It's our job to stick everyone in the world into some kind of bucket.  Traditionally, we've done this based on generational criteria: The Greatest Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, Millennials, Gen Next.

The problem is that generations grow up - they evolve.  Segmentation based on generation is a moving target.

Now, consider this ... when Ben, my first child, was born, EVERYTHING changed!  That week, I picked up the phone and started learning about life insurance.  We bought a minivan for the power sliding doors.  During the "nesting" phase, we remodeled the house, prepares a nursery and did all but pad the walls in child-proofing.  All of this had some financial and banking ramifications.  And you know what?  My needs as a new parent were essentially the same in 2003 as a new parent's needs in 1983 and will likely be in 2023.

As bankers (and credit unioners), we are needed MOST during life's big changes.  Our job is to identify those needs and translate them into product solutions.

If you've been a long-time reader of this blog, you've read it; if you've heard me speak, you've heard it; if you are a client, you're likely implementing it.  Consider segmentation based on Life Stage.

There are certain events in nearly everyone's lives that we can predict and that generate specific financial needs.  This list may not be definitive, but it's a great start to get your brain moving:

School Years
From high school through college, they are building a base for their financial future.  It's time to establish great savings habits and manage any debt accrued in school.

Marriage
As two lives become one, there is often a consolidation of checking accounts, a new home, wedding and honeymoon expenses.

New Home
If you're not automatically bundling a credit card with your mortgage, start today!  Old stuff is never good enough for a NEW home.  They also need to start saving for those surprise expenses that homes have a tendency to through our way.

New Baby
Nothing changes financial priorities faster than the pitter-patter of little feet!  

Empty Nest
With fewer mouths to feed, empty nesters often enjoy extra disposable income.  Will change savings habits and often will looks to downsize their home.

Grandparent
They may want to help secure the future of a whole new generation by helping their children and spoiling their grandchildren.

Retirement
With more time to focus on themselves and on their loved ones, retirees look to stretch the savings that they've worked decades to build.

Owning a Business
Though there are similarities, business banking and personal banking are different.  These entrepreneurs are looking for sound advice and ways to better manage their money.


Once you've identified the relevant Life Stages, think about these folk's needs.

• How do they save and spend?
• How do they borrow and for what?
• What are their needs in the near future?
• What conveniences do they want and need?

Finally, assign the most likely products and services to fulfill those needs, then you can:

• Bundle products, 
• Package your bundles in ways that will differentiate you and facilitate meaningful conversation with your customers (see samples from the above photos),
• Train your sales staff to narrow the focus of their discussions and
• Fine tune your targeting of external and internal communications

FOR ANOTHER BLOG ON TARGETING 

AND SEGMENTATION, CLICK HERE.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

With nearly 185,000 visits worldwide, we hope that you enjoy this blog.  If you find it helpful, please share it with your colleagues.  Also, check out our YouTube Channel for short video blogs about financial marketing.  

We bring these marketing philosophies to credit unions and community banks nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too.  Contact us to see how.

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker.  Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

Here are the conferences where you can find MarketMatch.

See our story here. (click)

Chat with me LIVE! (click)

Or email me directly (click)

937-426-9848

Lessons From a Hundred Bank Experiences

I’m a career marketer.  Growing up as an ad agency account executive, maturing as a credit union marketing VP and now honing my skills as a marketing consultant for financial institutions.  If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from all of my experiences … no matter what industry you are in, no matter what segment you target, no mater what product or service you are peddling … the customer experience is king! 

That’s why, when sizing up our credit union and community bank clients, we often start by “shopping” their branches and those of their competition.  This has allowed me to experience, first hand, how more than a hundred branches hit a home run with members & customers – or completely screw it up.

Here’s what you can learn from a hundred credit union and bank shops.

THE PROCESS

First, you can do this exercise with your competitors yourself.  We simply enter the branches as if we are unhappy with our current bank and are shopping for a new checking account. 

Now here’s the tricky part.  After asking for checking information we simply shut up!  From there, let the shopped employee shine or fail.

What should you measure?

Make sure that you measure the exact same criteria across all shops.  This will keep a subjective exercise as scientifically objective as possible.  We measure on a 1-10 scale across three main areas:

1. Service

• What is the image of the branch?  Is it clean?  Professional? Comfortable or staunchy?
• Are you greeted promptly?  Do they even bother to look up or smile?
• Do they make eye contact during your conversation and are they courteous?

2. Sales

• Do they ask qualifying questions to determine your needs and wants?
• How is the product presentation?  Do they simply read the brochure or do they have a unique way to present their offerings?
• Do they offer a useful cross sell?
• Do they attempt to close the deal and help you leave as a new customer or member?

3. Overall

• Given the total experience, would you open an account with this institution?

This simple process, when compared with an honest evaluation of your own institution’s branches will show you where you are better, where you are weak and most importantly where you can leverage differentiation against the competition.

WHAT WE’VE EXPERIENCED

After more than a hundred branch experiences, I can sum up what we typically find in one of three categories: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.  Which would your branches fall into?

The Ugly: “The brochure handoff.”  These are the quickest shops as the staff simply handoff a checking brochure without even a conversation.  In one instance, I was handed the bank’s “product Bible” – a 50 page book – where I was expected to leaf through and find the page on checking myself.  This happens more often than any of us would like to believe.

The Bad: “The crutch.”  This is the most common type of shop, where the staff literally reads the product brochure to the potential member or customer.  I’ve even had tellers tell me all about their 50+ Senior Checking.  As a 40 year-old man with the heart of a 20-something, I take particular offense to these institutions!  The lesson here is to think about the “tools” that you are giving your frontline staff and how they may actually be used in real life in your branches.

The Good: These are the best shops, where staff asks relevant questions, recommends products based on the conversation and shares personal experiences of how they use the products.  The best-of-the-best treat you as if you are a guest in their home – offering you refreshments and walking you to the door when you leave.

TIPS

Each market has it’s own flare and each institution can learn something different from this exercise, but here are a few tips that we can all take away.

1. Get ‘em talking

Ask basic questions designed to generate meaningful conversation.

•       About their family

•       About their work

•       Where they bank now

•       Why they want to change

•       How they plan to use the account

2. Listen before you talk

It’s not a test! When a prospect asks about your checking account, they don’t want you to prove that you know all of the products that your institution offers.  They only want to hear about what’s relevant to them.

3. They came in for a reason

They got off their couch and drove past several other banks to get to your branch.  They walked into your branch for a reason.  Ask to open the account now!

4. Don’t give up

I’m sorry marketers, but your brochures are not THAT dazzling!  You can’t simply let a prospect walk out the door with a brochure and expect them to ever come back.  Put a follow-up process in place.

5. Don’t be afraid to get personal

Too often banks and credit unions forget that we are the gatekeepers to our customer’s money.  What could possibly be more personal than that?  If something is important to a customer, we can somehow affect it.  Here are some ways to get more personal with your front-line conversations:

Personal product use
“I love our online banking … it’s soooo easy!”  This is a much more powerful phrase than, “Would you like online banking?”

Personal experience
“Congratulations on your new baby!  When my first child was born, I found these products really helpful.”  You can’t use this with every interaction, but when you can, it’s gold.

Case history
“I had a customer who went through that once … here’s how we helped…” Every day, we affect people’s lives.  It will comfort a customer to know that you have helped out others in their situation and will build valuable trust.

Above all, Marketing is the art of communication, not simply in 30-second or 1-page snippets, but in all interactions.  Just as Marketing is responsible for driving traffic into the branches, it should be equally responsible for managing the communication processes that fulfill the advertising promises.  By learning from other institution’s successes and missteps, we can all provide a better experience.

Learn more about Experience Shops in our FREE WEBINAR on Friday, May 18 from 1:00 - 2:00 est.  Click here to sign up - hear from a credit union CEO who has seen positive change from the process.

If this article looks familiar, it ran on CUinsight on March 30, 2012

Banking's First Life Stage Ad. An Inspiration. A Warning.

In 1970, Crocker Bank in San Francisco was an old fashioned bank with old fashioned customers who had one foot in the grave (sound familiar?).


They were facing competition by other banks who had exactly the same products and exactly the same "traditional" service. If you think we're all a commodity now ... look at banking in the 60's and 70's! This was the age where the biggest toaster won the business.


In short, Crocker had NOTHING of note to offer or advertise. So they turned to Hal Riney and Partners, a local ad agency who decided to focus solely on a younger demographic. They got the Carpenters to write and record a song ... not a JINGLE, but a song ... and created a TV campaign around it. This song, We've Only Just Begun, turned out to be a #1 hit.

The concept was elegantly simply, monumentally groundbreaking and tragically flawed.

You've got a long way to go.

We'd like to help you get there.

Simple: All the campaign did was reflect on the target's lives in a way that touched them. No old white guys in pinstripes, no handshakes, no branches, no rates.
Groundbreaking: Crocker Bank differentiated itself from rates and toasters. The target was drawn to the bank in swarms.  
Flawed: The bank needed deposits and the 20-something crowd had none to give. What the demo needed were loans and the bank was too conservative to lend to them. The campaign was pulled - but they franchised the campaign to other banks all over the country.


The Lessons:

• Life stage works!
• Banking is 2 parts emotion and 1 part commodity
• Real value can win over price
• Differentiate, differentiate, differentiate
• If you're going to work with an agency, make sure they understand your balance sheet.

In 42 years, little has changed in our industry.  Most banks rely on rates - or the best Free Checking ... we've moved on from toasters to Gas Cards ... and few financial institutions seek to differentiate themselves.  I truly believe that if you updated the look of this ad for 2012, it would work today in most markets. 

How are you differentiating and adding value?

Learn more here.
Chat with me LIVE!
Or contact me directly (click here).

MarketMatch is a full-service marketing firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate MOMENTUM and yield the greatest RESULTS for your bottom line.

Managing To The Customer's 1%

Lets face it.  Regardless of your great checking product or competitive rates or fancy branches, when it comes down to it, customers really want convenience and assurance.

 

The convenience is the acquisition phase. In most cases, the FI with the most branches wins market share.  But we can get into the discussion of covering the footprint vs brand awareness and differentiation in a different blog.

Today, I want to discuss retention and relationship depth … the assurance phase.

When it comes to existing customers, here’s the REAL secret …

99% of the time, your customers just want you to do your job!  Don’t screw up!

It’s what happens in the other 1% of the time that really helps you to stand out. That other 1% -- when they’ve mismanaged their budget, want to make a major purchase, are experiencing a significant life change, need guidance.

Our rally cry as bankers should be to shine during the customer’s 1%.

• Train to spot the 1%: Your staff should understand this 1% rule and know the difference between a need to simply do their jobs and a need that will change a customer’s life.
• Life Stage: To help identify many of your 1% situations, understand the events in a typical life cycle that impact someone’s finances.  Define the events, understand the customer needs, present solutions, provide front-line tools and train, train, train.
• Tell your story: Your staff impact customer’s lives every day.  Your bank or credit union has helped many customers tell their life stories.  You’ve helped them buy their first home, manage their budget so they can keep their home in times of trouble, you’ve helped to retire early or restructure finances when priorities change with the birth of a child.  You should share these stories inside and outside of your branches.

Being prepared for the customer’s 1% will help to create more loyal customers, will increase referrals, and will help deepen relationships.  Keeping their accounts accurate and not charging ridiculous fees is expected – for the day-to-day stuff, people only notice when you drop the ball.  But, being there for customers when they REALLY need you is what gets them talking and keeps them with you.

MarketMatch is a full-service marketing consulting firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate MOMENTUM and yield the greatest RESULTS for your bottom line.

Learn more here.

Chat with me LIVE!

Contact me directly.

2 Word Secret to Front Line Sales … or … 5 Steps to Sales Success

The Moment of Truth

A customer enters your branch … they stop, and scan the lobby, taking note of the décor and atmosphere. They then stride up to an available teller and say…

“I’d like some information on your checking accounts.”

This is the moment of truth!

Nearly every marketing effort ends with your front line staff. Whether it’s a walk-in customer or traffic generated by highly-targeted marketing, your front line staff define the success of your bank or credit union.

At MarketMatch, we’ve shopped, literally, dozens of banks and credit unions from around the country and we’ve seen every possible response to “The Moment of Truth” and I have a theory…

You can study all the psychology, sociology and sales training material available, but front line success comes down to two simple words:

Meaningful Conversation

Your goal, as the marketing professional/trainer/market share acquirer/attrition reducer/cheerleader is to help your front line staff have meaningful conversations and follow 5 simple steps:

1. Ask questions
2. Listen … REALLY listen
3. Hear the hidden financial needs
4. Transition those needs into product recommendations
5. Explain how the product benefits will help the situation

Here are some items to consider:

Tools

Provide your team with easy to complete forms that guide them through meaningful questions about the customer’s family, job, hobbies, other bank accounts, goals for their banking relationship, what do they like/not like about their old accounts, etc. These questions will generate all the meaningful conversation your sales team can handle.

Training

Don’t assume that your team can hear needs and tie them to product. Role-play and provide weekly “Meaningful Conversation” examples. Pick a conversation topic, mach-up some realistic customer quotes, spell out the hidden need and follow-up with products and benefits to address the need.

Programs

Consider programs that will help to focus conversations. I’m a huge fan of a Life Stage approach. Click here for more life stage information.

Experiential Conversation

“I understand that we have an easy to use online banking,” is not as strong as, “I use our online banking and it’s amazing!”

Or what about the power of, “Congratulations on your new baby! When my first child was born…”

There are 3 areas where your staff can share experiential conversations: 1) Personal product use – does your team use your products? 2) Personal experience – what happened in their personal lives that relates to the customer’s story? How did the bank help? 3) Case Histories. Use phrases like, “I once had a customer who went through that, here’s how we helped…” Your team changes lives everyday, share case histories among your staff so each has more stories to tell.

Take care,

Eric

Want to justify your Marketing budget?

A new J.D. Powers & Associates report on shopping and switching rates can not only justify your Marketing budget, but it should also put you on the offense ... and defense.

Here are the highlights:

• 8.7% of customers said that they switched their primary financial institution in the last year (up from 7.7% the previous year)
• Shoppers consider 1.9 banks while shopping (up from 1.6)
• The most common reason to switch is life circumstances
• Advertising/awareness & convenience drives their decision
• Less than half (43%) of customers who purchased an additional banking product did so with their PFI

So what does all this mean?

Go on the Offense

We've been saying it for about 2 years ... their is money in motion! People are switching financial institutions. You need to be in the 1.9 institutions that they consider.

Life Stages: You can differentiate your institution and speak directly to your customers needs through life stage messaging. Click here for more life stage information.

Get them to know you: Awareness drives consumer's decision ... and you're in the awareness business. Use your budget wisely and be on the radar of those folks most likely to be your best customers. Use segmentation and mirror modeling to locate your best opportunities - then focus your budget on them. You likely can't battle Chase, PNC, Wells Fargo and Bank of America dollar-for-dollar. It's not about getting EVERYONE to know you, it's about getting the right people to know you.

Go on the Defense

We can no longer assume that our PFI customers are safe or loyal. Assume that less than half of them will come to you for their next product and more than 8% of all your customers are looking to leave. Pretty scary stuff huh?

Focus on cross sells, strategically bundle your products and focus on your team's training - are they prepared to facilitate the customer conversation?

Not to be a fear-monger, but this report should both scare you, energize you and justify the importance of marketing now, more than ever. Share this with your management team and show up prepared with a plan based on ROI.

Good luck and take care,

Eric

Know Your Audience Better

Our July 16th Brown Bag Lunch session on One-to-One Marketing talked about how useful certain tools like MCIF and CRM are. It also talked about the power of Claritas P$ycle data to better segment and understand who your target audience is, what they do, what media they use, and where they live.

Click here to learn more about our FREE Brown Bag sessions.

More importantly, we talked about how you can still have a robust one-to-one culture even without the tools in-house. That caused me to think, about how you can still have the power of P$ycle-style data on a more conservative budget. It is possible!

Though not as robust as P$ycle data and not as efficient to complete multiple segments, if you can identify a key strategic segment or two, you can collect your own lifestyle information through research. The key is to create a brief survey that touches on your target's hobbies, entertainment preferences, preferred media and financial goals.

Click Here For a Sample Survey.

You have several choices to collect this data. Since this does not, necessarily, have to be a blind survey, you can expect a better than average response rate from a phone survey. Of course, an email (like the above sample) would be faster and cheaper. You can also conduct branch intercepts or have a focus group to dig deeper into each question.

With this data, you can better create lifestyle or life stage marketing, or create a mirror modeling strategy to acquire more customers that resemble your best customer. You can be more strategic in your media buys and more targeted in your grassroots efforts. You'll also have relevant data on a strategic segment to have more intelligent one-to-one conversations about products and services that match their immediate financial goals.

MarketMatch has already made the investment into the Claritas ConsumerPoint system so that you can tap into the valuable data and also benefit from the expertise of our strategic team driving the process.

Of course, MarketMatch can be your resource for all of this. To learn more, email us at egagliano@marketmatch.com, or call 866-501-2233, ext 106.