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Marketing & Sales
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2 min read
Borrow Best Sales Practices from Other Financial Institutions
As you seek to increase your institution's share of business in the crowded financial institutions space, it can be valuable to check out what your colleagues and competitors are doing. To assist you with sales ideas, here are some best practices we've recently learned from our financial institution partners.
1. Take Advantage of Networking Opportunities
Getting to know your community and its members is one of the best ways to create business relationships and opportunities. Consider these ways to show your community that your financial institution is there to serve:
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Offer a conference room or spare office in your institution as a coworking space for small business owners in the area. Not only will you build your institution's network, but your institution will naturally partake in and be visible at events the coworkers attend. Also, you'll promote your financial institution as a smart choice for business accounts.
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Promote your coworking space offering and associated events to the media and on social media for additional exposure.
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Ask your employees to document when they participate in charity events and volunteer activities, such as community fundraisers and walks. Promote their involvement through the media and on social media to show how your institution cares about its community.
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Sponsor a community sports league, such as a little league team. Just putting your institution's name on signs and T-shirts will get that name in front of hundreds of families.
2. Promote Your Institution's Value
Spreading the word about your institution's value usually costs little but ;yields significant returns:
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Print posters that announce, "Last year, we returned [$ specific amount] to our members." Calculate the amount based on comparisons to fees other institutions would charge and differences in saving and borrowing interest rates for members.
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Add an email signature about member savings to all outgoing messages.
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Introduce your executives to media contacts, offering your executives' expertise when the local news or print media need interviews and financial information.
3. Offer Financial Education to Your Community
Show members and prospective members in your community that you're committed to helping them make the best financial decisions by offering educational workshops and seminars on topics such as:
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Debt management
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Household budgeting
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Investing for the future
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Car buying and financing
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College savings
Related reading: The Way to Your Customers' Hearts is Through Financial Literacy
When generating sales and membership ideas, you don't always have to start from scratch. Borrowing successful ideas from others can help your financial institution make some quick wins. Have you ever borrowed sales ideas from other financial institutions or even other industries? Share those ideas in the comments below!
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Marketing & SalesJohn DeLuccia
As Account Vice President for SWBC’s Financial Institution Group, John DeLuccia services Florida and Virginia financial institutions within lending services, insurance, and loss mitigation programs. Before joining SWBC in 2007, John worked with the Federal Reserve Bank as a Member Relationship Manager for Southeast Corporate Federal Credit Union, serving clients across South Florida, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.
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