Skills +
In organizations of every size, sustainable growth requires knowledgeable and well-trained personnel. The more deeply committed the credit union is to the development and growth of its staff from teller to CEO, the better equipped the institution is to work together and achieve new heights. It is the credit union philosophy of ‘People Helping People’ which our training and development are based on to provide the knowledge and skills necessary to address the needs of your membership in an everchanging economy.
Is Skills + for you?
This is a program for the credit union that desires specifically focused training for their team members to ingrain proven best practices within a narrowly defined topic. Some examples include:
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Reading and Interpreting Credit Bureau Reports
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Interview Techniques When Taking a Loan Application
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Planning and Executing an Effective Collection Phone Call
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Maximizing Your Penetration Rate on Credit Life & Disability Coverage
These topics are usually organized in 1-hour modules and at the present time, there are over 30 modules in our library. Clients can mix and match their topics to receive a truly customized training experience.
Event options include:
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1 topic is Brown Bag Lunch/Breakfast
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3 topics Half Day
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6 topics Full Day
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12 topics 2 Full Days
Skills+ Modules
Hand-tailored courses are designed to Plus-Up the skill level of your organization.
Lending+
Lending Philosophy
We have to balance our desire to help our individual members live their financial dreams while fulfilling our responsibilities to the entire membership to safeguard their funds by exercising prudence in making our underwriting decisions.
This module will aid you in identifying the parameters that you create your lending philosophy.
The “3C’s”
2 Modules
Character, Capacity, and Collateral are more than just words. They are the basic principles that represent the foundation of all consumer underwriting decisions. Understanding each individually, and how they relate to each other, determines the quality of our underwriting decisions. This module will teach you how to leverage the 3 C’s effectively.
Application Interviewing
Whether you complete an application for the member or you review a completed application with the member, the way you are perceived by the member is crucial. Enhancing the member’s comfort in giving us their personal information, is crucial to the underwriting decision. It can’t sound like an interrogation. This module will teach you how to excel at “conversational interviewing”.
Reading CBR's
The modern credit bureau report has evolved into an extremely detailed tool full of data. As a tool, it is one of the primary sources of information relating to the underwriting decision. Every word and every number means something. This module will teach you how to read and most effectively use this tool.
Qualitative Evaluation of CBR's
Once you have learned how to read CBRs, you must learn what the data means. This module will help you understand how it relates to the Application, the 3C’s, the Purpose of the loan, and to whether or not the loan request should be approved.
FICO & DTI - Why?
Most of us know what the letters stand for, but do most truly know the real purpose of these calculations? In today’s underwriting environment, which is dominated by formulaic lending, these tools have gone from being “indicators” to “decision makers”. This module teaches the right way to utilize these tools.
Application Decisioning
Gone are the days of “careful contemplation” in the decisioning process. With the ever-increasing use of the Internet to apply for loans from several sources, the evaluation and decision of applications must be completed in minutes. However, we cannot sacrifice quality for the sake of expedience. This module will train you how to do both.
Selling Credit Life & Credit Disability
When presented correctly, these products are valuable, cost-effective additions for the member. This Module will enable you to confidently communicate this, have a thorough understanding of the product, and identify the best methods to present it to the member.
Loan Structure
Here is where the qualitative decisions regarding terms, APR, back-end products, etc. are made. Does this loan benefit the members and the credit union? What can be done to strengthen the deal? This module will teach you how to reap the benefits of a strong loan structure.
Upselling, Cross-Selling & Down-Selling
These 3 functions are usually lumped together under the label of “cross-selling”. Yet each plays a specific role in the lending process and, when properly executed, adds a great deal of value for the member and significant additional income for the credit union. This module will teach you how to properly utilize these three functions.
Closing the Loan
This is all about communication. At the closing, you do more than just disclose the cost of the loan to the member. You must clearly inform the members of their responsibilities for performance regarding the loan. Many times, delinquency, particularly first payment default, can be attributable to a weak closing. This module will teach you how to properly close the loan.
Final Solicitation
You only get one chance to make a first impression. This is also true for last impressions. Whether your interaction with the member is in person, on the phone, or by email, your final communication should always be an expression of gratitude, an informal performance appraisal, and an offer of 1 or 2 specific additional products. This module will train you in specific methodologies and techniques to effectively accomplish this.
Collections+
Late Notices & Letters
When should you send them? What should they say? What should they not say? How many of them should there be?
This module will train you on how to construct and schedule effective written delinquency communications.
Payment Arrangement Guidelines
Payment arrangements must always be realistic and as immediate as possible. Having said that, while operational guidelines are necessary you cannot approach this with a “cookie-cutter” approach. This module teaches where and when you need to be flexible and when you need to “stand your ground”.
Planning the Collection Call
This step is necessary for effective delinquency control. However, most collectors make the mistake of “over-planning” the call. In this module, you will learn what to do with every call and what to never do with any call.
The Call Recipe
Call scripting never works, primarily because every call is different. However, having a consistent approach or guideline that systematically gathers information specifically necessary for account resolution is a necessity.
This is exactly what our I.I.M.C.R.R. recipe accomplishes. This module will teach you how to leverage the call recipe effectively.
2 Modules
The Art of Negotiation
Every contact with a member, whether it’s in-person, on the telephone, or electronically, is a negotiation. For the negotiation to be successful we must know what we want and be able to maintain control of the interaction. This module will give you the “ins & outs” of the art of negotiation.
The Collection Toolbox
Delinquency resolution is more involved than late notices & phone calls. Every member is different and has, at least in their eyes, unique payment challenges. To be successful in addressing these challenges we must have a full repertoire of solutions that we can call upon to address the needs of each member creatively & effectively. This module trains you to do that.
Regulations
Laws and regulations are the “rules of the road” when it comes to collections. If you violate any of them, even inadvertently, your credit union becomes vulnerable to significant penalties. We offer training modules covering all pertinent regs including Reg Z, FDCPA, FCRA, ECOA SCRA & Reg F.
Repossession
For too long repossession has been viewed as the “option of last resort”. Repossession, properly timed and executed, is an effective delinquency control tool that is rehabilitative in nature and preserves your long-term relationship with the member. This module clearly demonstrates this new perspective.
Bankruptcy
Most collection managers think of “bankruptcy” as the prelude to charge-off. In some instances, this is true but for many, it isn’t. We will train you to deal with bankruptcy strategically to minimize your losses and increase your recoveries.
Litigation
Whether or not to pursue litigation should always be a purely “dollars & cents” decision. All too often it is either emotional in nature or based on an arbitrary qualifier such as the size of a balance to be charged off. Most lawsuits should not be filed at all. We will train you to know the difference.
Charge Off Recovery
The legal landscape regarding the use of third parties has changed drastically due to Regulation F. Credit unions have specific “due diligence” requirements with which they must comply. Failure to do so exposes the credit union to potentially catastrophic liability. This module will teach you how to comply, as well as illustrate the multiple reasons to move this function in-house.