MADISON, Wis. -- Those who have come into the credit unioncommunity in the last decade or so know of CUNA's lobbying prowessin Washington, but CUNA also offers products and services to handlecredit unions' ever changing business needs as well.

And CUNA Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing TerryCostin is out to make sure everyone in the credit union communityknows it. "Over the course of the last 10-plus years, there hasbeen a real focus on Credit Union National Association as the tradeassociation and effectively instilling the confidence in creditunions throughout the country that our responsibility, first andforemost, is to be advocates of the credit union system," heremarked. That is still the objective, but CUNA is also working toprovide "organizational development tools" to fit various creditunion business needs.

"It has always been a very important, but secondary part of theoperations. [I'm] not suggesting at all that advocacy doesn'tremain a top priority but I think the organization recognized ourability to develop high quality organizational development toolswas a very important part of assisting credit unions in deliveringon the business needs they have to address the needs of theirmembers," Costin, a former executive with Chicago-based CCCInformation Services, a technology firm in providing softwaresolutions to the property and casualty insurance industry,said.

He recalled, "Actually, three years ago, we really did not havethe traditional sales function here. We had a very effectivemarketing operation here that worked very closely with andintegrated closely with all of our product areas and one of thegaps that we felt we needed to close was to introduce and instill asolid sales initiative that worked very closely behind the campaignof our marketing efforts."

So Costin helped establish a sales team to complement themarketing efforts that has gotten demonstrated results. Over thelast three years, CUNA has seen 9-10% growth across its productsand services, which Costin credited to a competent, three-personteam "truly embedded into the product areas." He also said heenjoys the sense of teamwork they display.

The sales exec explained that he has spent the bulk of hiscareer on the for-profit side, but credit unions really are notthat different than the property and casualty insurance industry hewas in before. "They had many of the same challenges that a creditunion has as a financial service provider," Costin said. "Todeliver financial services to a credit union member is a challengein that the basic product lines that credit unions offer versusthat of other financial service providers are very, verysimilar."

After supplementing CUNA's marketing efforts with a sales teamwho spends more than half of their time traveling to credit unions,the organization was able to put real faces in front of potentialclients. When they first started, Costin recalled, the creditunions he met with were confusing CUNA with CUNA Mutual, which theyshare a campus with, so he began telling them he was from "theCredit Union National Association."

On top of that, many were not even aware CUNA offered suchservices. "People today are over-informated. There's just a lot offlow of information and it's a question of how do you continue tostay visible and keep the focus as it relates to the product orservice that you might have that you believe is going to deliversome value added business need for our client," Costinexplained.

CUNA uses segmentation in its efforts to rise to the top ofcredit union choices for products and services. Segmentation, hesaid, goes beyond targeting, taking those demographics andanalyzing charter types to discover behaviors and attitudes of thevarious credit unions. CUNA will "mine that data to create...thesegment of the market that can best receive value from variousproducts and services we have." This also helps them identify mostlikely clients and use persistence without being a "pest."

The state leagues, too, have a role to play in CUNA's businesssuccesses. "We have really parlayed value in doing this byestablishing what I think is a much closer business collaborationwith the state leagues. They're a very important key to this,"Costin said, because they have a better understanding of theindividual credit unions and know their needs.

CUNA's business side is comprised of three units. One is thevarious distance learning experiences, Webinars and schools CUNAprovides. "Within the education/training area, without a doubt, theapplication that has grown the most is what we refer to as our CPDonline program," according to Costin. CUNA actually has certifiedinstruction design engineers working on online programs suited toadult education. They are also cognizant of the diversity of themany staffers at a credit union and are familiar with theirindividual roles and needs.

As distance learning has evolved CUNA has changed with it, hesaid, from posting test documents online to using streaming videoand interactive capabilities. "These are all things that we believedeliver the experience to that staff model, regardless of whattheir position is professionally," Costin stated, adding that theyhave seen "almost exponential growth" of credit unions moving theirtraining online.

CUNA's work is not only about educating credit union staff, butalso their members so the organization also offers Web-based membereducation tools that credit unions can customize and present totheir members as their own. Using these tools, credit union membercan research anything from what a baby boomer should be consideringfor retirement to how to purchase a first car.

Getting Younger

As credit union membership ages--the average age is 47 now,according to Costin--credit unions are keenly focused on attractingyoung adults. CUNA has an advisory group made up of 18-30 year oldsthat help them tailor products in which young adults would beinterested. On July 31, CUNA plans to launch its new Money Mix Weblink that credit unions can use on their own Web site to reach theyounger segment. "Money Mix is a tool that a young adult can go outand literally touch and play," Costin explain, though it providesserious financial management education. "At the same time we'veintegrated a blogging activity that will be introduced as part ofthis." He said that one credit union, which he declined to name,has already committed to using the product.

CUNA's research and information unit has also been expanded tomeet user needs. CU 360 was launched in February 2006, whichbrought together surveys, national reports, best practices andwhite papers, not necessarily all from CUNA, into one place. "It'sreally delivered another dimension to how credit union senior stafflook at and gather information as part of the decision process whenthey're researching a project, a program, an initiative," accordingto Costin.

The final piece of the puzzle to CUNA's business unit is CUNAStrategic Services, which includes arrangements with 30 differentcompanies. CUNA performs the due diligence and takes advantage ofthe 8,000-plus potential users to negotiate various price pointsfor a wide range of members and needs. CSS partners include FreddieMac for the secondary mortgage market, Datatrac for tracking rates,OfficeMax for office solutions, TraceSecurity for multi-factorauthentication and security compliance assessments, and manyothers.

"We evolve what we think are need-based tools from the CreditUnion National Association side that are really focused on theprofessional development of the credit union staff so that they cancontinue to more effectively interpret and understand what are theneeds of their members and how do they best position the value ofthose versus what another financial services entity might provide,"Costin said.

Looking ahead, he said, CUNA will be focusing on a number offronts from young adults to the challenges of a community charterconversion to new American outreach. As the credit unionmarketplace and challenges continue to metamorphosize, Costin said,"I think it's going to be continued on our part to make sure thatwe have the visibility and the recognition that not only does thetrade association provide the highest level advocacy, but we'realso positioned to provide them with some of the most effectivetools to address business needs."

[email protected]