CINCINNATI — With more than a million automobiles taken as the result of theft each year what would happen if one of your longstanding members finds nothing in their parking space but shattered glass? Or what if a member at your largest SEG gets hurt and can no longer work or afford his car loan? What have you done to help him in advance?
"It is the job of the credit union loan staff to help every member slow down and plan for the future; looking at all of their loan protection options," said Phil Markwell, partner at Frost Financial Services, a provider of vehicle loan protection services with more than 800 credit union customers. "As lenders, it's what we would want for our loans. Consider it the new golden rule–the Rule of 300: a credit union lender should present 100% of the credit union's loan protection options to 100% of your members, 100% of the time."
The rule may seem daunting when it's often easier and quicker to simply not sell any auto loan protection products. The process can be confusing to members and the loan officer can feel like a high-pressure salesperson. The solution is menu selling, Markwell explained.
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Menu selling has established itself as a "critical tool" for auto dealers across the country, but to date, it has made little progress in the credit union world, Markwell added. Menus remove the bottlenecks in the sales process and provide an easy to understand list of options with products grouped into pre-determined packages, including GAP, service contracts, credit life and disability and more.
By using menus, credit union loan staff can spell out all of a member's loan protection options, including total monthly payments, and leave the final informed decision up to the member to make.
"It's not about selling simply to increase the bottom line; it's about selling the product that will best cover the member in case their vehicle is totaled or stolen or they find themselves in a situation where they can not make the loan payments," Markwell said. "However, we find that in most cases, when we do what's right for the member, the credit union ultimately benefits as well."
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