Agent Card Performance Varies by Support
Even though 90% of all portfolio sale deals last year included an agent credit card program going forward, the performance of the agent relationship is dependent on how intelligent and aggressive the agents are. As a result, accurately predicting the application and booked account flow through their agents’ branches has become a challenge. Seasoned agent bank/credit union specialist, R.K. Hammer, says their experience with over 700 agent banks and credit unions over 25 years shows that if you directly reward the branch and the branch personnel for card sales, the results will be far greater than if the agent simply takes the reward flow into corporate income and not share it with the retail team. Hammer found that a “weak-performing” agent relationship with little intelligent marketing or branch training and support, will produce some 24-36 new booked accounts per branch per year. A “medium-performing” agent with some marketing to the branch customers and some mild support in the branches by the retail sales staff will generate 48-60 new accounts per branch per year. A “high-performing” agent with very smart consistent marketing by the issuer and very aggressive sales efforts by the agent’s branch staff will produce as many as 72-84 new accounts per branch per year.