“I understand small business growth. I was one.”
– George W. Bush, February 2000
Everybody has an opinion on CRM. The concept has been heralded and reviled. The systems have been championed and trashed by users. But through all of the debate, everybody agrees on one thing. You need good data to make CRM work. And most everybody agrees that the data they have to work with, especially customer information, could be a lot better.
OK. What if I told you that you could have a Marketing CRM system that gave you absolutely perfect information on a small, select group of customers. It would not only tell you how much money they had, but where it was… the name and address of the place where they bank… where they borrow… where they invest. It would show you their exact net worth, not just an estimate. It would not only tell you their age, sex and education level, but also exactly where they work – address and e-mail.
And it would be delivered to you online, for free.
Now here’s the kicker. You already have it. It’s called a loan origination system.
Just go look at the information you have on your potential borrowers. It has better information than any data mining system I have ever seen in a demo. Just go look.
And how many banks have a discipline that gives this information to other employees at the bank so they can use it in a cross-sell effort? How many branches with deposit goals see the deposit information on applications? How many commercial loan officers with growth goals see the business deposit and loan information shown on retail mortgage applications? How many of these customers ever get a targeted investment or insurance sales effort (privacy issues noted and respected)?
I have a suggestion for a CRM initiative at your bank for 2001. Make it a priority to use this great information and achieve an aggressive cross-sell result by the end of 2001.
Many of you already offer a free checking account to borrowers who set up automatic loan payments. Those don’t count, unless it really becomes their core checking account (and a demerit if you lower the loan rate as part of this). I’m thinking more of the money market accounts, small business relationships, investments, and insurance opportunities that the affluent borrowers present.
Set a target for cross-selling each of these products. Set a specific incentive payment. And make specific people accountable. I suggest giving the goal to the Chief Lending Officer, the head of Retail, and the Marketing Manager with the caveat that it will be a specific item to be discussed in their annual performance reviews.
This is a good “cut your teeth” CRM marketing effort that will require the right information, process and performance focus. The good part is that the information you need is complete and timely. If you can make it work, the upside is pretty compelling. If you can’t, you need to question why the bank would invest in any larger, more complex CRM marketing system. -tr