Hesse says he's particularly proud of the progress because some two years ago CCCU was actually below the industry average in GAP insurance sales. He credits the combination of member education, the team's ability to close the sale, consistent sales training and an incentive program for the turnaround and subsequent success.

"A lot of salespeople bombard the member with features but never close," said Hesse. "Most members only care about one or two features, and at some point, you have to ask for their business. A lot of credit unions just don't do that."

Taking a tiered approach where the more the team sells the more they earn, Hesse provides real-time reports that reveal each individual's progress. Applying a standard deviation analysis of how each representative is doing compared to the team and the mean results, the performance curve is tied to incentive tiers so that high performance is rewarded accordingly. Hesse says the entire team ends up improving their individual and collective results. "Some managers just pull a goal out of the air or what they think needs to happen and that can lead to feelings of frustration within the team," said Hesse. "Using the stat model the goal is always attainable because it is based on each individual's actual performance. It helps keep everyone motivated because if your peers are able to meet those numbers there is no reason to feel it can't be accomplished."

He adds that the daily tracking and incentives helps foster a healthy competitive team spirit where each individual strives to be a top tier performer. The sales team is also provided customized sales training designed to play up each individual's strengths and personality. Hesse says a little extra time is devoted to those in the lower sales tier who are given the opportunity to further develop their technique through one-on-one time with Hesse.

"I'm a firm believer in not going after the top performers; it's the ones toward the bottom that I focus on helping become top performers themselves," said Hesse. "It is so important to stay positive so if someone doesn't meet their goals it is not a walk of shame to my office. Usually it just takes a bit of tweaking to find the best approach and what happens is that they realize they already have a sales personality in them."

Hesse adds that the straightforward approach has resulted in sales rates that have exceeded expectations not only in GAP insurance sales, but also credit life and disability products. He says insurance companies are asking CCCU to serve as an example for others in the industry

"At one point they basically asked us to be the case study for the program. There isn't a much higher compliment than that," said Hesse. "If you want to bring sales up you can't be afraid to offer incentives. If there is no perceived gain then the sales staff starts to make decisions on behalf of the member and it is usually 'they won't be interested.' You also have set realistic goals and hold people accountable, so no fudging–59% is not 60%. Finally invest the time in training them how to do it–our best performers today started out in the lower tier." –[email protected]