CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY
How a new sales methodology accelerated indirect sales
With sales flat for five consecutive years, the national accounts team at a global insurer was being outpaced by the competition. The company asked us for help recapturing market share, resulting in a 52% rise in win rate.
The challenge
Leading sustainable change in sales methodology to drive growth
When the insurer started losing market share, it was reluctant to respond to shifting forces for three reasons.
Partnering with Korn Ferry
84%
Closed more deals:
849%
Earned an
52.1%
Increased win rates by
Start small and build influence to overcome resistance to change
The solution
"Employee turnover was low; few people ever left the company... there was little impetus for employees
to change."
A 52.1% rise in win rates and an appetite for sales transformation
The results
After implementing Strategic Selling® with Perspective (SSwP),
the insurer saw a 52.1% jump in win rates in just one year. And for opportunities where the seller had identified a single sales objective — the business they planned to obtain by calling on a person — the win
rate was 20%, 6 percentage points higher than the increase across the entire salesforce.
The company also asked account executives on deals with successful single sales objectives to assess the impact of SSwP. The vast majority (84%) reported that the methodology increased their chances of closing the deal; nearly 20% (17%) said it had a considerable impact.
Based on these results, sales leaders calculated that they’d earned an 849% return on their investment in sales transformation services in just six months.
These successes convinced sales leaders to introduce another sales tool, a funnel scorecard. Historically, sellers had looked at opportunities from a desirability perspective based on actuarial data. But the company wanted to refine its selection process using another dimension: winnability. With the scorecard, sellers could target opportunities based on their financial profile plus whether they had relationships with the prospect.
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A global
insurance leader
Earned an 849% return on investment
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02
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Increased win rates for deals with a single sales objective to 20%
Increased win rates from 9.4% to 14.3%
A jump of 52.1%
The return on investment
Background
Increased win rates for deals with a single sales
When a new sales leader joined the company, he brought in a new viewpoint. At his last employer, he’d addressed market losses by implementing our Strategic Selling® with Perspective (SSwP) approach and suggested that the company should try out this formal sales methodology. But, recognizing the company’s resistance to change, he recommended a slow rollout, starting with a small focus groups.
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With nearly 45,000 employees, independent agents,
and brokers, this company is a global leader in personal, business, and specialty insurance.
Its underwriters sell through a channel, so customers buy insurance through independent brokers and agents who aren’t employees.
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First, we partnered with the sales leadership team to run a session at their sales summit that made a powerful case for changing sales methodology. To socialize the concept of change, we explained some preliminary SSwP concepts, such as the economic buyer (the person who can commit funds to a purchase) and valid business reason (a reason for a buyer to schedule a meeting), to get these leaders thinking differently about selling.
Socializing change from the top down
Building a cultural adoption plan
Bridging selling gaps
No incentive to change
Employee turnover was low; few people ever left the company. With no threat to their employment, there was little impetus for employees to change. Experienced employees viewed any suggested change as the “flavor of the month” that would soon pass, giving them little reason to learn anything new.
Account executives believed that their sales success was tied solely to cost. So, they tended to blame lost sales on a failure to price their insurance competitively in the market. Conversely, they were certain that they’d win any opportunity if they had the lowest price. That made them reluctant to consider how other controllable factors might play into a sale.
A narrow view of sales success
With an indirect selling model, few account executives got to know their clients directly; they always worked through agents and brokers. But in 10% of client pursuits, clients asked for a service presentation that brought in the account executive. When account executives had an opportunity to build a personal relationship with the client through a presentation, their win rate skyrocketed to nearly 50%.
Limited buyer contact
Earned an 849% return on investment
of sellers reported that adopting sales methodology helped them close deals
return on investment
When the insurer started losing market share, it was reluctant to respond to shifting forces for three reasons.
When the insurer started losing market share, it was reluctant to respond to shifting forces for three reasons.
Employee turnover was low; few people ever left the company. With no threat to their employment, there was little impetus for employees to change. Experienced employees viewed any suggested change as the “flavor of the month” that would soon pass, giving them little reason to learn anything new.
NO incentive to change
Employee turnover was low; few people ever left the company. With no threat to their employment, there was little impetus for employees to change. Experienced employees viewed any suggested change as the “flavor of the month” that would soon pass, giving them little reason to learn anything new.
NO incentive to change
Next, we scoped a pilot for a small group of new regional sales directors. The directors would serve as coaches for their sellers, so we wanted to ensure that they were comfortable with the new approach. While the directors were on board with the SSwP methodology, they were worried it might not stick. So, we put together a comprehensive cultural adoption plan that outlined how to embed the sales methodology into their workflow, how to measure success, and how to communicate with their sales team.
For the SSwP methodology to increase win rates, the team realized that company’s underwriters needed to be included in the training. It was important for them to understand the concepts, language, and tools. We also added a step into the company’s sales workflow that required a strategic planning session with underwriters for every opportunity that met a certain threshold. Without this meeting, the account executive wouldn’t be able to proceed. Mandating this meeting further embedded SSwP into their culture.
