Employees and managers were given ample opportunity to embrace the changes, which included learning new technologies and skills, and actively engaging members. Those who weren't interested in making those changes were given ample time to find a new job.

Those who stayed were provided with training and coaching, and weren't threatened with losing their jobs if they didn't make sales goals.

However, those who refused to put effort into sales activities, yet didn't leave on their own, were let go.

Of the original management team, only Vice President of Marketing Trish Waters stayed.

"When David came back to us, for the first time in the history of this credit union, we had a CEO who understood that if we were going to survive, we had to put the right people in the right places," Waters said.

She quoted Southall's hiring advice: "hire the smile, train the skill."

"Technology today does pretty much everything for you, so you don't need someone who is skilled at money handling," Southall explained. "A successful sales person is a better fit."

The credit union's military-base name had little to do with its field of membership or market positioning. In fact, the base had changed its own name years before.

"We have seen a lot of positive things come out of Innovations, and as a branding piece, it has worked well for us," he said.

Taking advice from Atlanta-based consulting firm Level5, Innovations is in the process of replacing teller lines with dialogue banking, which allows employees and members to sit side by side and watch the transaction be processed together.

"We installed dialogue towers or kiosks, which include cash dispensing machines, inside round, counter-high towers," Southall said. "A privacy screen cuts it in half, so two FSRs can work the same tower."

Not only does the open seating arrangement encourage dialogue about finances, the cash-dispensing feature allows the employee to focus entirely on the member, rather than stopping conversation to count cash. In fact, Innovations has eliminated teller drawers altogether.

"There's a sense in a teller's mind that the drawer comes first, and why shouldn't they think that way? They get punished if it doesn't balance," Southall said. "It interferes with listening and communicating with the member. We've noticed a huge difference where the dialogue towers have been installed."

Scott Gladden, senior vice president of operations, pointed out that the dialogue towers wouldn't work without a sales-minded workforce; and conversely, a sales-minded employee wouldn't thrive in a drawer balance-minded credit union.

"A lot of credit unions hire for cash handling experience, but when you use this technology, you can hire for sales skills and personality, from any service environment," he said.

The credit union also made progress the day it stopped competing with other institutions, and started carving out its own niche in the market.

Because the credit union lacks the economy of scale to compete on price, it delivers top service instead.

"I know that sounds very blas?(C), because lots of people say they have the best service, but we've put things into place that are so different and unique in our county, we've built a reputation for it–the word's out," Waters said.

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