3 Ways to Grow Customer Loyalty [Bank Cross-Selling Marketing Plan]

A lot of bank customers or credit union members utilize their Financial Institutions just for loans, but it's also important that you promote other products/services and find creative ways to deepen relationships with these valuable customers. After all, most institutions would like to seen as their patron's primary financial institution (PFI).

But keep in mind that customer success is a combination of retention and up-selling or cross-selling. And even in today’s digital banking environment, people still want to buy from people they know, like and trust.

Bank Cross-Selling Marketing Plan

Here are three proven ways your credit union or community bank can do a better job of cultivating customer loyalty and drive cross-sales of new products and services. 

Marketing Plan Step 1. Put a Dollars and Cents Number on Potential Value

In any sales cycle, in order for someone to make the decision to purchase, they must have a few things… They need to feel a sense of urgency, see proven value for a potential new product, and understand that there is a clear gap that won’t be filled with inaction, should they NOT buy whatever product or service being considered.

Rather than just broadcasting ‘great rates and customer service,’ your institution needs to better define the dollar value and financial incentive for existing customers or members to increase their relationship with you.

If you have a new auto loan application come through, make it part of the lending staff’s workflow to identify three other ways your credit union or bank can save the applicant money on other products or services even if they aren't directly related to the car loan. And have your team put a monetary number on those possible benefits or suggestions. 

So if you can beat their line of credit rate explain this in dollars and cents. Your staff should be trained to use language like… ‘we can save you $350 in interest over the next 12 months, or $3500 over the course of the life of the loan.’

Rate talk is cheap and somewhat meaningless for many bank customers, but who wouldn’t want to save $3000+? Putting a dollar amount on the new product value you are suggesting to your current customers is key to successful up-selling. 

Marketing Plan Step 2. Be Consistent, Timely & Helpful

I can’t even keep track of the number of times we have to remind clients about importance of consistency in the follow up process. Do you want to know why a specific campaign or rate promotion didn’t lead to the growth you needed? Ask yourself these questions...

• Did you have staff assigned to follow up on a daily basis with the leads you generated?
• Did your team follow up within ONE day of a new lead being identified?
• Did each lead get 2-3 phone calls and 3-5 emails, either from a staff member or via automated nurture campaign?
• Did you send useful, educational information to support your customer’s financial decisions?
• Did you provide visible value BEFORE you tried to sell your new product or service?

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘NO’ then your institution won’t be reaching your digital growth goals any time soon.

Now some might push back and ask... why aren’t customers motivated enough by the offer itself to just apply online? Why should we have to task staff to follow up? The answer is tricky. 

Remember, the average banking customer considers 8.9 sources of information when making a new account or product buying decision. So, your offer or marketing campaign might only be one or two of those sources of information in their buying journey.

People also still like to buy banking products and services from other people, because of the complicated nature of the products. Typically you can't count on taking all of the human interaction out of the sales process.

Your goal should be to get in front of your existing customers a few more times each year with other information that will help them make a decision that will benefit them. This is why we recommend sharing blog or other useful content, in addition to sharing details of any product specific information.

Train your staff to be more of a friend to your customers, giving good advice, and being a trusted advisor first, and then the up-selling will come naturally if your offers truly are a good fit.

DOWNLOAD NOW: The Ultimate Guide to Successful Inbound Marketing for Financial Institutions

Marketing Plan Step 3. Your Staff Must Have Time and Accounability

You can’t accomplish Marketing Plan Step 2 (see above) without the staff in place to do it! And if your team doesn’t have the bandwidth to prioritize cross-sales within their day it simply will not happen.

It is time for CEOs and senior managers to ‘put their money with their mouth is,’ and hire sales people to make room for this process.

In addition to time, your sales staff will also need to be held accountable for their cross-selling efforts. Tracking phone calls, meetings and emails, in addition to new accounts opened, will be key to motivating your team towards success.

This new cross-selling priority won’t translate to new accounts or loans overnight, so you have to celebrate the sales activities and tactical steps your staff is accomplishing each day, as they work their way toward new account and loan goals!

All too often we see marketing and member service staff who are overworked and lack the time or accountability structure to achieve success. Without both of these your cross-selling efforts will fall flat every single time.

For more information on growing your Credit Union or Community Bank contact us today! 

(Originally published as a GUEST BLOG for CUInsight)