“We have 537 Select Employer Groups.” Pick a number, but how often have we heard this boast? It can be the boast by a multi-common bond or a community field of membership credit union. Is this model of adding hundreds of small businesses into our membership prospects creating anything other than incremental growth of members and balances? Is there a better way to grow scale in a community or multi-SEG field of membership?

Here comes the Rainmaker.

The Rainmaker is a reference to the great dust bowl times. Rural towns across the Midwest and West were dying because they could not grow their crops. They got desperate, and when a population becomes desperate, there are fast-talking con-men ready to take their money for a promise they could not deliver on; in this case, the hope was to make rain and bring in bountiful crops. In today’s lexicon, a Rainmaker is a person that can bring the metaphorical showers that will yield a bumper crop. The goal is to hire a salesperson that can close big deals with significant opportunities.

We know that employer groups of 5, 10, or 20 employees will never create significant growth of balances and assets or change any key ratios. The credit union needs large companies, 500 or more employees, and these kinds of select employment groups will drive growth. The credit union needs to hire a Rainmaker who can close big deals and talk with top executives at prospective companies to land the whales.

But, landing the big SEG is only half of the strategy, and the other half is getting engagement, putting in place all of the tactics that will engage the employees in our products. These tactics need to include email, direct mail, outbound calling, “bank” at workdays, lunch and learn, wellness fair and benefits fair participation, and the continuous work to make the SEG’s HR department’s life and the employees’ lives easier.

Manage 100s of small business SEGs or 50-100 large business SEGs, which is a more efficient and effective way of growing the credit union’s assets, balances, and members?