Monday, July 2, 2007

Leads Stinkin' Up The Place?

For the past couple of years, credit unions have been implementing lead and opportunity management processes and systems. Here is my take on the evolution of our credit union's system thus far. Please feel free to challenge me if I've missed anything.




1. Just get a lead



That's right! Just get a lead. Any ole' lead will do. Incentives will be paid for leads. Employees are expected to scan for opportunities. Not just opportunities for new checking accounts, savings, etc but for mortgage, investments, and insurance products and services.

Once the lead is generated, the employee's job is done. It's up to someone else to get the business.

2. Need Quality



Departments processing the leads were complaining about quality. They were wading through the stank to find sweet smelling quality leads. To reduce the smell, incentives were based on quality leads.

3. Cross Selling



Systems were created to help employees cross sell products and services. This was the perfume. If an employee can smell, they can cross sell. Incentives are not adjusted.

4. Management Dilemma



Should employees really be paid to help generate business? Isn't that a part of everyone's job?

5. CEO Question






What's the ROI on the incentives being paid? How much business is the credit union getting from leads?

#4 and #5 are often overlooked or dare I say....IGNORED. In order to truly calculate an ROI, monitoring systems would have to be built. I.T. folks are saying that this is virtually impossible. Especially, given the number of disparate systems an average credit union operates.

Are your leads stinkin' up the place? Our leads were and we decided to start over. We've built a system that is all about efficiency and is based on Web 2.0 standards. Additionally, we're building a monitoring system that will track how the leads are performing. We like happy CEO's.

2 comments:

Daniel Shelby said...

It might be everyone's job to drum up business but...How do you get them to care about growing the business? A pat on the back or an appreciative email will never replace the soothing feeling of a padded wallet.

I have been hearing a lot lately about the media complaining that the most recent generation to contribute to the work force is different than previous generations.

They say that the older generations had a sense of obligation (duty?) to their employer and that they were defined by their job. Having a job and being dedicated to it is their duty.

They say that the more recent generations are more inclined to let what they do outside of work define them and that in the workplace they look for the incentives and commendations to keep them going instead of that sense of duty. Having a job keeps them away from the things they really care about.

But which generation is happier?

Cam Minges said...

Excellent points and questions!

I could go on and on about X, Y, and Baby Boomer generational differences. This is well documented. Baby boomers are more dedicated by X generation will be more productive. Go Figure!