We all want to do better with cross selling, right? Yet all toooften, the campaigns fall short of our expectations.

A fair argument may be that our goals are too aggressive. On theother hand, when you look at data that tells you that the averageconsumer has seven banking products yet only two are likely to bewith the same financial institution, you'd think that cross sellingwould be a greenfield of opportunities.

Sure, there are lots of reasons why a customer doesn't take youup on a cross-selling offer. However, after looking more carefullyat cross selling from a business and IT perspective, there arethree main reasons why many campaigns deliver lower-than- expectedROI.

1. A one size fits all approach. A commonscenario that happens during the campaign brainstorming process isto think about a creative offer and present it to all of yourcustomers. Hence, the flood of expensive banner ads and glossydirect mail pieces.

While a lot of customers may be exposed to the campaignthrough these marketing vehicles, many of those eyeballs will glazeover because the messages don't speak to their current needs. Inturn, this causes the average cost per lead to skyrocket.

At the root of the problem is a dearth of targeted offers. Thisis ironic when you consider that we're sitting on mounds of datathat can tell us a lot about our members' history. Based on thisinformation, we should be able to spot trends and figure out whichproduct is most suitable for their short- and long-term financialneeds.

For example, regular payments on a credit card withoutadditional purchases may signal a member that could be in themarket for a credit card with a lower APR. A series of auto repairbills and car rental charges could indicate an auto loan may be inthe near future.

When you start to think about the reasons behind thetransactions, you can begin to segment your customers and createpersonalized offers that will improve your cross-sellingresults.

1. Relying solely on marketing to drivecampaigns. While cross-selling campaigns are primarilycreated and driven by your marketing pros, consider how much moreeffective the results would be if you assembled a cross-functionalteam that included marketing, customer service, sales andinformation technology.

This may sound a bit unorthodox at first yet consider the valuein pooling all of this collective knowledge. A cross-functionalteam will allow you to combine customer feedback and data withcreative marketing to better understand the needs of your membersfrom very different and highly insightful perspectives.

1. Knowing how and when to ask the rightquestions. Sure, we invest in training our customerservice reps on cross-selling techniques and this has proveneffective to a certain degree. Still, knowing how and when to askthe right questions is both an art and a science.

From the credit union's perspective, it makes sense to pursue across-selling path when you're speaking directly with the customereither at a branch or on the phone. Yet from a member'sperspective, there can be many reasons why they may not bereceptive to the pitch. For this reason, cross selling requires adelicate balance of asking the right question at the right time inthe right place.

Since it's not always easy to manifest this ideal live scenario,consider alternative paths to reaching out to your members on theirterms. One of the best places to do this is through theonline banking channel. While you want to avoid those annoyingpop-ups and banner ads, you can use the banking portal as way toask optional yet targeted questions that reflect their futurepurchases.

For example, based on the scenarios above, what if you asked amember if they'd like to lower their monthly credit card bills orif they're planning to buy a car in the near future. You'll have ahigher response rate if the questions are optional, private andspeak directly to the needs of your members.

Along these lines, USAlliance recently ran a series ofcross-selling campaigns online using technology from Micronotes andwas able to see our best results to date in comparison with othermarketing tactics.

Cross selling will continue to be both a challenge and apriority for credit unions. Yet if you take a closer look at yourcurrent marketing efforts and rethink how you approach the process,you'll be able to boost your campaign results.

Kris Van Beekis president/CEO of the $829 million USAlliance Federal CreditUnion in Rye, N.Y.