The Secret to Boosting Credit Union Memberships

Credit union membership has been on the rise for the last decade. In fact, membership has increased nearly 30% in the last 10 years, according to recent CU Times article by NAFCU’s B. Dan Berger.

However, credit union business development professionals may just be scratching the surface. There are more accounts to win and products and services to sell.

Business development teams are hustling to generate new accounts. But, exactly how efficient are they with their hours each day? Are they using their time to the best of their ability?

Probably not.

The problem is that professionals aren’t as productive as they could be. While technology has been a major contributing factor, there are other culprits – like constant requests from colleagues, unnecessary meetings and distracting work environments – that have hindered productivity.

The good news is that these distractions can be minimized. In fact, there’s a huge opportunity for most business development teams to increase productivity and results without hiring more staff.

Here are three strategies to help your business developers make the most of their time, allowing them to focus on securing more memberships.

1. Start the day off strong. Most people have work morning routines. When they arrive on the job, they do the same things every day. Most of these routines involve wasting time and set the table for wasting more time later in the day.

I used to show up at work, start my computer, and spend time scanning the latest headlines and sports scores. Then I’d respond to emails. Then I’d move on to my to-do list, tackling whichever item stood out the most.

Did I tackle the one that was most important? Did I do it when I had the most energy early in the morning?

Not usually.

Think of energy, focus and willpower like wells. Once water leaves a well, it eventually fills back up, but it takes time. If your business developers start the day on empty activities (time you waste), like internet browsing, or mandatory activities (time you feel you must spend), like checking emails, they’re essentially stealing energy that should have been spent on investment activities (time that generates outsized returns) like prospecting to secure new accounts.

Have each member of your team identify, in advance, their “greatest impact activity” (GIA), and start with their GIA first thing each day. Your GIA is the one activity that will provide the greatest return on time investment. To boost memberships, business developers should dedicate effort to prospecting and making outbound outreach. This might be their GIA for that day. Tackle this first every day when mental energy is at its peak.

2. Tune it out by turning it off. We live in a world of constant digital distractions. A Deloitte study from 2017 showed that people checked their phones 47 times a day. Participants between ages 18 to 24 actually checked 86 times per day.

People are attached to their phones, constantly looking for signals that they have something new to review. These frequent interruptions cause team members to check out of what they should be doing.

While phones are big distractors, email inboxes can be just as bad. I worked with a colleague who always checked new emails the moment the email arrived. They’d be working on a critical project. However, as soon as the Outlook notification popped up, they read the message. Every email that came in, whether it was important or spam, somehow took precedence to deal with over their top business priority.

This person stated they valued being a good communicator. That’s good! However, they were also routinely late on deadlines and short on achieving goals. That’s not good.

Encourage your business development team to turn off their alerts or put their phone in a place that won’t tempt them. This will help them stay focused on the task at hand.

If email notifications are problematic, close out of your email application, or simply create an out-of-office message indicating that you’re not available at the moment. People can wait. If their message is truly urgent, they’ll find a way to get in touch with you.

3. Get your priorities (and non-priorities) in order. Some professionals have ridiculously long to-do lists. While that might not seem like a big problem, it actually is.

Encourage your team to take a hard look at their work load and determine the real priorities. For items that don’t make the cut, make a “to-don’t” list. Putting items on this list doesn’t mean that they won’t get addressed at some point. It just means that now is not the time.

Long to-do lists can be mentally taxing. Don’t let that added stress prevent your business developers from achieving their goals.

Credit union leaders need their business development teams to maximize productivity. Team productivity leads to increased memberships. It’s not going to happen overnight, but if business developers can start the day with their GIA, eliminate distractions by turning off alerts and be mindful of their to-do list by creating a to-don’t list, it can make a substantial difference and produce impressive results.

Mike Schultz is President of RAIN Group. He can be reached at mschultz@raingroup.com.