PLANO, Texas – A great way to get employees to sell members on products is to give them incentives to do so. That's just what a new cross-sell product from Fiserv's most recently acquired credit union data processing subsidiary – Credit Union Industry Group (formerly the EDS CU division) – is giving clients. While credit unions nationwide have gobbled up large chunks of territory through charter expansion, getting existing members to take on more products can be better than getting new members. Multiple-product members are typically higher income and tend to view the institution as their Primary Financial Institution. CUIG is offering its CUBE and CUBEOL clients an integrated cross-selling tool that pushes CU employees into pitching members on products they may need. For example, members who recently paid off a loan may be offered another loan, or members with a checking account could be offered a debit card. Credit union employees are prompted to offer a product when they pull up a member's information if that member meets criteria defined by the credit union. They are also given a script to help them sell the product. The cross-sell tool allows for multiple scripts and the credit union can set multiple criteria so the member can be offered more than one product. Mike Hussey, president/CEO of Tech CU, Crown Point, Ind., said he believes in the power of incentives. "You can tie in incentives for employees just for offering the product. Then have another incentive when a member chooses the product, and a third incentive to the employee who later opens the product for the member," said Hussey. At Tech CU, a teller or MSR who follows through on the pitch and offers a product receives $2.50 (It's really hard not to do this since the employee is prompted to deliver the pitch). They receive another $7.50 if the member decides to go with the product. The person who closes the deal, whether a loan officer, MSR or someone else, gets $10 once the product is on the books. This incentive selling helps foster a more retail environment. Tech CU, which is on an in-house CUBE system, started with the cross-sell functionality at the beginning of the year. Hussey credits the incetive sales push for helping increase home equity penetration. Anne Stauch, CUIG Director for the CUBE product, said hopefully CUIG CU clients will see more of these performance products coming their way. She said the power of the cross-sell product is the criteria can be changed at any time. If the marketing department wants to start pushing new autos, the system can go through the database and use the information to select prime members for a new auto loan. "One of the values of CUBE is CUBE itself is a sequel server database that has tons of data on the member," said Stauch. Credit unions can also plug in third-party relationships to CUBE. Stauch said one danger of these cross-selling tools is annoying members through repetitive pitches. The CUIG tool can block repetitive selling by pulling off a script once a member has been pitched, she said. Stauch said she's excited about the new ownership with Fiserv and expects increased investment to help the unit turn out more products like the cross-sell tool Hussey said in his mind the jury is still out on Fiserv, but he's hopeful. He said like most credit union leaders he wishes his system did more, but overall he's pleased. As for customer service, he said historically CUIG has been very quick if it is something they deem a critical problem. "They're fast to put a team on something," he said. But sometimes what the CU thinks is critical, CUIG does not. "I'm sure that happens with most processors." In other news out of CUIG, it has renewed five longtime CU clients. The five credit unions are Seattle Metropolitan CU, MIDFLORIDA FCU, Tech CU, Animas CU and Colorado Springs CU. They have been clients for an average of 18 years. [email protected]