SEATTLE — Little more than a year in operation, the business banking unit of the $1.63 billion Bellco Credit Union of Denver has already reached two new milestones, its 1,000th commercial customer and $11 million in deposits, the CU's director of marketing told the annual Marketing Association of Credit Unions conference here Wednesday.
"I'm here to give you a little motherly advice," declared Laura Higgins, in a break-out presentation in which she outlined the highs and lows of putting together a marketing/sales/loan development package on short notice and with apparent success.
One suggestion she offered to CUs, "bring in the marketing department early and also make sure those employees in the branches are completely aware of your plans and that they buy in from the start," she urged. A failure to do that could doom any successful entry into business loans and deposit services, she warned.
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Higgins, head of a former San Francisco marketing firm who "had to learn about credit unions from the ground up," was brought in to the CU in November 2005 and told "to come up with a plan for offering business services by April." Drawing on her own experience and tapping the talent pool at Bellco, she said she was able to debut Bellco Business Services a year ago first relying on "our most loyal members, those who were beating on our doors for the service."
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