In the January 2010 issue of Bank Investment Consultant magazine both Truebridge and one of our clients, AnchorBank, were highlighted in an article.  The title of the article is "Teach Your Clients Well: How Truebridge's turnkey system made referrals easier for Anchor's branch staff" and it was written by Steve Garmhausen. 

Read and download the article

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about how AnchorBank is using the Truebridge system to generate referrals, contact Luke Owen at 800-476-6118 ext. 104 or send in a request to learn more about the EducateFirst Financial Marketing System.

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 - As seen in the section, The Lobby, in the November 2009 issue of Community Banker 

It's no secret across the banking industry that cross-selling has fallen far short of its early promise. That fact makes the success of Sovereign Bank all the more impressive.

Sovereign, a $78 billion-asset institution based in Philadelphia, has seen referrals to its retail investments unit rise between 15 and 20 percent in each of the past three years. "And the quality of those referrals has been higher as well," said Casey Roberts, a Sovereign senior vice president, who is director of retail investments.

Sovereign is not the only bank that has solved the cross-selling riddle: A growing number said they have dramatically improved results by throwing away the traditional playbook and using a customer-centered approach. Partnering with Boston-based Truebridge Financial Marketing, they have implemented a new, low-cost marketing system that uses customer education to deliver more loyalty and profitability.

"Our improvement over the past five years in cross-selling has been remarkable," said Gerard Lavoie, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Dedham Institution for Savings, a $1 billion-asset mutual institution in Massachusetts.

THE QUEST FOR CROSS-SELLING

There's no question that cross-selling is the Holy Grail of banking. It allows banks to win a greater share of customers' wallets, and it ties those customers more closely to the institution.

"The more products and services customers buy from you, the stickier they will be," said Mark Primeau, president and chief executive of Laconia Savings Bank, a $970 million-asset bank in New Hampshire, "and the more likely they'll be to seek financial answers from the institution over their whole lives."

What's more, growing sales among existing customers is a way to stretch a bank's marketing budget during the tough economy.

"It's much easier to cross-sell to existing customers than it is to acquire new ones," noted Primeau. It's far more cost-effective, too: With today's thin profit margins on most products, having a one- or two-product relationship with customers is "rarely going to be profifitable in and of itself."

Matching customers with additional products can have an outsized impact on revenue. For instance, just five new appointments per week at a branch can add $160,000 in gross annual revenue for that single branch alone, according to industry experts.

GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY

Adopting a new marketing system is the last thing that many financial institutions are interested in these days. Most are in survival mode-slashing expenses, wrestling with new regulations and focusing their marketing efforts solely on deposit growth.

The industry is missing an important opportunity, however. The upheaval in financial services over the past year and a half has left bank customers with "a crying need for financial education and knowledge," Primeau said. By offering education, banks can cement customers' trust while deepening relationships, he said.

Truebridge combines three tools that banks can use to efficiently generate new business: an online financial education center that provides clear, authoritative information on hundreds of financial topics; training that shows frontline employees a simple new way to create dialogue with customers; and a rep calendar that empowers those employees to make and confirm sales appointments on the spot.

CROSS-SELLING CHALLENGES

Banks have been free to reap cross-selling riches since sweeping regulatory changes opened the door two decades ago, but success has been limited.

Two obstacles to cross-selling loom largest, according to a survey of 120 U.S. financial institutions by the Bank Insurance & Securities Association and Truebridge.

First, banks' images are simply too narrow. Despite years of marketing efforts, customers simply don't see banks as places to go for products other than checking accounts and home loans.

And bankers simply have not figured out how to get their branch personnel to make referrals. At the root of most banks' disappointing referral rates, executives say, is a simple fact: Banks' efforts to get frontline employees to think and act like sales people have not worked.

Truebridge's approach addresses these issues, bankers said. At its center is an educational platform tailored not to the products the bank wants to sell but to the needs of customers.

Using Truebridge's "quick guides," customers can get an education in minutes about topics from buying a house to investing for education to retiring. Each bank-branded guide provides a photo, contact information and greeting from the bank's product expert who is closest to the potential customer.

When front-line employees distribute the guides, they are not placed in an uncomfortable sales role. The system makes it easy to offer customers educational information in a way that starts dialogue and makes for natural referral generation. Indeed, the customer helps start the dialogue by using a form to check off areas he's interested in learning more about.

Using Truebridge's intranet resource center, bankers can instantly schedule meetings with product experts in the customers' areas of interest. Banks that partner with Truebridge report that frontline employees have embraced the simplified, customer-driven process. "The quick guides take some of the pressure off," said Dedham's Lavoie. "They take the hard sell and make it consultative."

Even if the customer wants nothing but a checking account, his perception of his bank has evolved. He understands that the institution can help him with everything from buying a house to saving for retirement to protecting his family.

Download Article (PDF)

-Contributed by Jack Wilkins, a freelance writer in Connecticut, for Truebridge Financial Marketing.

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We have added a new program to EducateFirst Content Marketing System called the "Education First" recognition program.  The program works hand in hand with our in-branch training process, which teaches employees to use the educational materials (Quick Guides) to start dialogs and generate referrals.

Upon completion of either the online training modules or through a customized training webinar, employees will receive in the mail a certificate and cover letter signed by their manager that reinforces the importance of using education available in their online Financial Answer Center and downloadable Quick Guides as a dialog starter.  Also included is a one page "cheat sheet" as a helpful reminder for how to use the marketing handouts and Quick Guides during a routine customer transaction. 

If you would like to learn more about this program, please contact your account manager at 800-476-6118. 

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U.N. Credit Union Cross-Sells for Fast Wealth-Unit Growth

By - Matt Ackermann

A few months ago, Stephen J. Ryerson got an e-mail from a customer in Sarajevo looking for automobile insurance.

To most financial services companies this would seem odd, but when you work for a credit union that caters to employees of the United Nations and their immediate families, nothing is unusual.

"'Flexible' and 'nimble' are my middle initials these days," said Ryerson, the president of United Nations Federal Credit Union's wealth management arm, UNFCU Financial Advisors. "There is just nothing typical about what we do. We aren't Bank of America or Merrill Lynch. We are meeting the needs of international customers our way."

This mentality has helped beef up the credit union's investment business, and it is a cross-selling example that even big companies could learn from.

A survey of 4,600 Americans by Forrester Research said that four in 10 are open to buying more products from a single financial services company but, because of "a nearly industrywide failure to cross-sell," most do not.

On average, consumers own nearly nine financial products - but just 2.5 of them with any single company.

Ryerson would have loved even that kind of production when he was hired in 2003. "We had an investment program, but it was not progressing the way management hoped," he said. "I came in, and the first order of business was to examine what we were doing and change everything."

The $3 billion-asset credit union, which has about 85,000 members, had $25 million of assets under management in its financial advisory unit and generated less than $1 million in annual revenue, he said.

Thanks to a new brokerage partnership with Raymond James Financial Services and a marketing initiative with Truebridge Financial Marketing of Boston aimed at cross-selling, UNFCU increased its assets under management nearly sevenfold in the past five years, to $170 million, and added offices in Vienna and Geneva, Ryerson said.

"I think we have made progress, but really we have barely scratched the surface," he said. "Currently, we are only penetrating 2% of our customers. A successful program has to be double-digits. If we can get to even like 6% or 7%, you are talking about more than $500 million in assets within five years."

UNFCU began working with Truebridge in June 2004 to educate the credit union's platform representatives about the products the wealth unit offers. Ryerson said Truebridge has helped increase cross-selling significantly through both of the credit union's branches in New York - one in the U.N. headquarters and another at a U.N. facility across the street.

Truebridge has increased the number of leads UNFCU has received from platform reps by 10% to 15% annually, Ryerson said. "This service really pays for itself," he said. "The cost of this service is pretty modest, and the return has just been exceptional."

The marketing firm offers materials to educate customers. Stewart Rose, the president of Truebridge, said it is offering its services through 24 banks and credit unions and has five or six more in the pipeline. Its service is offered on a subscription basis, he said.

Other credit unions and banks, including Sovereign Bancorp, are also using the service to increase referrals. Rose said Sovereign has increased referrals to its retail investment unit by 15% or more for three years straight since beginning to use Truebridge.

"If you look at cross-selling, it is really top of mind right now for bank executives," he said. "It is one of the top objectives for banks and credit unions. We want to help them develop revenue by helping them generate referrals."

Educating customers is vital to improving cross-selling, outsiders say.

"Product executives must understand that, to effectively cross-sell, their firm must be considered an advocate, have a strong relationship pricing strategy and develop an outreach program that lets potential one-stop shoppers understand the benefits of having a broader relationship with their firm in terms they care about," said Brad Strothkamp, a Forrester analyst.

In addition to traditional investment products, such as mutual funds, stocks, bonds, and annuities, UNFCU has added home and automobile insurance in the past year to help customers like the one in Sarajevo. Ryerson said the unit is also beginning to market through embassies. "Because we are already serving the U.N., we can provide a lot of services to these folks as well," he said. "This is a natural market for us."

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BOSTON, Sept. 14  -- Evidence shows that financial institutions' cross-selling efforts have come up short, but Sovereign Bank is a major exception.

The $78 billion-asset bank has increased referrals to its retail investment unit by 15% or more for three years straight, according to senior vice president Casey Roberts.

"And the quality of those referrals has been higher as well," he says.

Sovereign is one of several banks and credit unions that have significantly boosted their referrals while the industry at large has struggled in its attempts to do so. The institutions credit their success to an innovative system that replaces the traditional hard-sell approach with one that is built around customer education.

"In a financial institution, you can't turn the staff necessarily into salespeople," says Steve Ryerson, a vice president with United Nations Federal Credit Union, in New York, which reports similar success in boosting its customer referral rates.

Sovereign (www.financialanswers.com), United Nations FCU (www.unfcu.org) and a growing number of other financial institutions credit their success to a system developed by Truebridge Financial Marketing, in Boston (www.truebridge.com).

The approach effectively throws away the traditional playbook used to generate referrals, and replaces it with a system that educates customers and encourages them to initiate meetings with investment reps and other product specialists.

The approach may seem counter-intuitive, but it's been welcomed by banks and credit unions looking for a better way to sell multiple products to their customers.

"Their concern has been that, under the conventional cross-selling model, they were just missing too many opportunities," says Stewart Rose, president of Truebridge.

Indeed, financial institutions are dissatisfied with their cross-selling results, according to a survey of 120 U.S. financial institutions by the Bank Insurance & Securities Association and Truebridge. Customers don't realize that the institutions offer things like investments and insurance, and most front-line employees don't produce enough referrals, survey respondents indicated.

"Probably no bank is entirely satisfied with their cross-sell efforts," agrees Sovereign's Roberts. "I don't think anyone would say they've met their objectives in terms of return on investment."

Cross-selling is more important than ever, according to financial institution executives, as banks and credit unions present themselves as trusted partners for consumers bewildered by the financial crisis.

What's more, selling additional products to existing customers is far cheaper than acquiring new ones, they add. And it's lucrative: Just five new appointments per week can add $160,000 in gross annual revenue, according to industry experts. Not surprisingly, 80% of senior bank executives in a survey by Grant Thornton said they planned to increase cross-selling efforts this year.

Contact: Investment Services at Sovereign Bank
Casey Roberts
617-757-5613
www.financialanswers.com

Truebridge, Inc.
Stewart Rose
617-956-5020
info [AT] truebridge [DOT] com

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It’s not just the largest banks that are being painted with an image of excess and irresponsibility. That picture of bankers is permeating into the world of community banks as well. Banks need to move quickly to get their own message out there before the damage gets worse. The question is - what positive message should banks convey? What message will boost their image in today’s economic crisis? The answer lies in looking at what the American consumer wants most today – answers. Their confidence level is at an all time low. They have been turned upside down by this economic calamity. Facing the dramatic erosion of their retirement assets, the plummeting value of their homes, and the increasing uncertainty of their jobs, they are scared and confused and looking for simple and easy to understand answers.

Banks have an opportunity to be there to provide those answers. They can be the source of information that helps their customers make better decisions and avoid mistakes as they go through life – buying a house, saving for retirement, managing their debt, sending kids to college, getting their estate in order. Customer education means going beyond what products “the bank” offers to include helpful information on what “the customer” needs.

This is a value-added service that banks can provide for little cost, and the rewards can be significant: more loyalty and more sales. Banks that become a resource for answers are in place to help their customers with more financial needs, including investments and insurance. It becomes much easier to create dialogues and make referrals. It helps ensure product suitability, a primary goal of regulators today.

A customer education approach becomes the backbone for a positive “education first” message. It promotes fiscal responsibility and financial literacy: a powerful story banks can tell to the media, stockholders, and customers. By doing it right, not only will banks take the offense in shaping a positive brand image but they will create more customer loyalty and generate more sales.

Request White Paper: Using Customer Education to Boost Bank Image and Sales

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In a recent GonzoBanker newsletter, Steve Williams makes the case that sales culture in banks is dead and a new chapter of sales culture is about to begin with the hope that banks have the chance to get it right this time.

In this well written piece, he states, “Across the country, many banks have 10+ years of effort on sales culture without significant improvement in results, but fail to question if they are even building the right mouse trap.” He challenges banks to develop a new type of sales culture built by creating value for customers. In other words, provide a service that customers find valuable that, at the same time, initiates dialogues and creates sales.

What kind of service will do this for banks? To find the answer, you only need to look at what customers are facing today. Customers are scared. For many, the bottom has fallen out of their retirement savings. They are fearful of losing their job. They feel they have no place to turn for answers. The world as they knew it has changed.

And the world too has changed for bankers. In many cases - trust - the backbone of the customer relationship – has eroded. For banks to acquire and retain customers today they need to focus more and more on the value customers see in their bank relationship. The new customer experience needs to go beyond an array of product offerings.

To build strong relationships, banks should give their customers a service they are desperately looking for – simple and easy to understand information about the financial issues they face, whatever their stage in life. Help seeing and understanding the issues they may face before they are blindsided.

The world didn’t stop, it just changed. People will still get married, raise a family, buy houses, save for retirement, send kids to college, retire, live in old age, and, probably leave an estate to their heirs. That means lots of decisions to make. Customers cry out, “Tell me what I need to know.”

Banks that provide such a service will reap the rewards. They will earn back the trust. Banks will become a resource where customers go first, putting them ahead of the competition. A request for information means a customer has raised their hand and is looking for help. Requests for information start dialogues, dialogues lead to referrals, and referrals lead to sales opportunities.

Not only has the customer experience changed, so has the employee experience. In helping customers find information that could be helpful, they feel they are doing them a favor. Instead of the often times painful task of trying to extract information, customers provide it willingly in exchange for something they see as value.

More and more banks across the country are adopting this education based marketing approach. With all of the attention given to acquiring new customers, the value of retention, and customer profitability from cross selling, these banks are the winners.

Read more postings online at blog.truebridge.com

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Truebridge, Inc. announced today that they have launched a company blog, which can be found at http://blog.truebridge.com/. “The site will provide information, opinions, and encourage feedback on marketing topics that we feel are important to the financial services industry”, says Stewart Rose, President of Truebridge. “We will have a particular focus on education based marketing and cross selling but it won’t be limited to that," says Rose. "We want to explore what is being done well and what is not," he added. "What are the factors behind the successes and failures? What can we learn from other industries?"

According to Rose, “There is just so much information out there, it’s a matter of sifting through, finding what may be relevant, and sharing opinions on what it means to the industry.”

The blog will have weekly postings including a series of articles written by Rose. Other postings will include reviews of bank marketing techniques, overviews of surveys and polls developed by Truebridge and other companies that focus on the financial industry and reactions to news articles related to the financial industry.

Upcoming topics include:

• Quantifying the cross sell revenue opportunity in the branches (Read More)
• Understanding the barriers to cross selling
• How top marketers in other fields use education to their advantage

About Truebridge, Inc.
Truebridge, Inc., a Boston, Massachusetts based marketing company that created the Cross Sell Advantage system, specializes in helping banks improve their cross-selling capabilities by using education-based marketing. More information is available at www.truebridge.com.

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Richard Shupick manages the investment and insurance program at the $15b Flagstar Bank. The program has twenty reps employed by Essex National Securities. Using an education based marketing system from Truebridge, Rich has developed a process that makes it easy for frontline employees to generate more referrals everyday.

From the Flagstar website, customers and employees can directly access an online Financial Answer Center that provides educational information on hundreds of topics. Customers get the information they need when they need it-based on their stage in life. The online content is packaged into a series of downloadable Quick Guides under the Flagstar name and with the picture and contact information of the exact person that can help them with that topic.

“These are not typical glossy sales brochures but educational white papers on various topics with a picture of the rep. They become personalized just-in-time marketing materials that we use to drive referrals,” says Rich.

“When it comes to generating referrals, our frontline staff were not comfortable starting the dialogues that need to occur”, says Rich. “They were afraid of being asked questions they could not answer. That’s all changed,” he says. “Knowing they have a series of Quick Guides to offer, they are comfortable asking customers; What’s Your Goal?.”Handing out a Quick Guide is the perfect time to set up an appointment with the person at Flagstar that can help them achieve that goal.

“It’s all about confidence”, Rich says, “knowing they are adding value to the relationship.” “Bankers come and go,” he says, “so you need a tool and system that is easily taught and repeatable.”

About Flagstar Bank
Flagstar Bank, headquartered in Troy, Michigan, is a growth- oriented community bank with approximately 170 banking centers in Michigan, Indiana and Georgia. Chartered in 1987 as a federal savings bank, today Flagstar has assets approaching $15 billion. It is the second largest banking institution headquartered in Michigan. For more information on Flagstar Bank, visit www.flagstar.com or call (800) 945-7700.

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