PALM SPRINGS, Calif. – Mark Adams doesn't pull any punches indiscussing how credit unions nationwide treat potential members onthe telephone. “Congratulations,” he told a gathering of marketingprofessionals at the 12th annual CUNA Marketing and BusinessDevelopment Conference. “Everybody stinks.” And with that, Adams, aformer college basketball coach turned motivational speaker,launched into his spiel urging credit unions to look at how theyare perceived and to challenge themselves to do better. Hisluncheon talk March 17 challenged the audience to decide whethercredit unions “give heck or help,” if they are “personal orcorporate” and if they try to be “politically correct or morallyright.” Adams, president of EnthusiAdams, Inc., also questionedwhether credit unions were too worried about competition and notenough about themselves. Adams offered a list of suggestions, fromgetting credit union staff to develop the right attitude to gettingthe marketers to “beg, borrow and steal” every promotional ideapossible. His speech, stressing it would take discipline,perseverance and faith to “get you where you want to go,” was oneof three motivational talks designed to fire up the marketingprofessionals at the March 16-19 conference at the Riviera Resorthere. More than 400 marketing and business developmentprofessionals attended the conference. At the conference's closingsession, Patrick Adams, executive vice president of St. LouisCommunity Credit Union, urged credit unions to develop “new andbetter ways of doing things” and said they had to become moremarketing driven. “What I'm talking about is taking those resourcesthat we've deployed in other areas of our operation and moving theminto marketing and business development, elevating that function tobecome a marketing-driven organization. All the great companies inthis country, bar none, are marketing driven, are businessdevelopment driven,” he said. “Marketing rules as we go forward,”Adams insisted. “Our credit union, credit unions around thecountry, I think it's time that we start moving in the direction ofbeing marketing driven organizations. That's what makes ussuccessful.” Author, consultant and motivational speaker BarbaraSanfilippo urged the marketers during the conference's openingsession to become “ambassadors for the [credit union] movement,” toadopt the title of “director of fun and passion” for their creditunions and to become “key players” in their institutions. Shewarned that the biggest challenge facing marketing professionalstoday was complacency. “If you're still using brochures with aphoto of the CEO when he still had all of his own hair and most ofhis own teeth then we know we need to make some changes,” she saidto audience laughter. “The status quo is not an option,” Sanfilipposaid. “I really want to challenge you to think about doingsomething else.” Patrick Adams also warned against maintaining thestatus quo. “Too many times in our credit union movementconservative myopia strikes us because of our homogenousleadership,” he said. “We're all the same . at the board levels,the volunteer level, the senior levels of our management team. Weall think everybody should look like us.” Sanfilippo warned thatcomplacency often leads to a “copycat mentality.” “Find out whatyour competition is doing and do something else totally different,”she suggested. “We've got to start reaching out and looking at newand better ways of doing things,” Patrick Adams added, urging hisaudience to adopt a “kid spirit.” All three speakers encouraged themarketers to find out more about what members wanted from theircredit unions. “We're in business to support members' lifestyle.Our job is to make their life easier,” Sanfilippo said. Sherecommended that the marketers conduct informal focus groups withmembers to brainstorm about things the credit union could be doingto help members outside of financial services. “You would beamazed,” she predicted of the results. Adams followed a similartrack, saying that the same question he asked his players duringhis 17-year coaching career – “How can I help you be moresuccessful?” – was applicable to credit unions as well. And heindicated that credit unions that he surveyed had a long way to goto improve. He said telephone calls to 800 credit unions nationwideasking about such things as the difference between a credit unionand a bank – then scoring the results on a scale of 1 to 4 with 4being the highest – resulted in an average score of 1.55.California credit unions scored best with 1.80. Community bankswere rated at 1.56. Sanfilippo also urged marketers to expand theirroles both within their credit unions, including getting involvedin strategic planning, and the broader credit union movement byworking with credit union leagues. “That would really make adifference,” she said. “We are the voice not only of our creditunion, but of our members. If we don't speak up, speak out, standup and share with our managers and our board what our membersreally need, who is really fighting for them?” She also questionedwhether marketers were “too insulated” by not being involved inmore organizations outside the credit union, such as the DirectMarketing Association whose members represent a variety of otherindustries. “If we only read credit union material, if we only goto credit union conferences, how can we possibly be innovative andbring things back,” she asked. Sanfilippo, author of the book DreamBig! What's The Best That Can Happen?, urged the audience to followthat advice in their personal and professional lives. “Whateveryou're dreaming it's not big enough,” she said, adding, “Never evergive up your dream.” Mark Adams ended his speech on a similar note.“Never underestimate what you do for a living,” he said. -

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