A new sales coaching strategy improves the performance and sales results of internal associates.
The following story was shared by Ben Alcid, vice president of field development and advanced markets at MetLife, and Melanie Dumas, MetLife's director of field development.
Client
MetLife Annuity Product Wholesaling
Opportunity
MetLife sought to enhance selling behaviors and increase business revenue, top-line growth, and shareholder value.
Diagnosis
Annuity Product Wholesaling, a group within insurance and financial services provider MetLife, needed an adaptable sales coaching program that could react quickly to changing business priorities, markets, and products. Another must-have was the capability to measure coaching against competencies and behaviors rather than sales results and other activity-based goals. Enter the Sales Coaching Excellence Program.
Methods
To design the new learning initiative, sales managers and leaders helped the training team to define consistent key performance indicators (KPIs), including such metrics as total outbound calls, number of contacts, number of WebEx meetings, and talk time. Lagging indicators included such metrics as closed business ratios and monthly sales figures.
Once KPIs were established, two things occurred:
- each member of the internal sales management team was assigned at least one topic for which to create a skill-practice activity
- a third-party supplier used the metrics to build a sales coaching solution.
Next, MetLife's internal training team reviewed all the proposed skill-practice activities in conjunction with the portion of the solution that was developed by The Next Level.
The team provided feedback and edits, which were integrated into the final solution. The end result was a program that addressed coaching needs with a hands-on approach.
Sales desk directors, managers, and team leads were directly targeted for training, and internal sales desk associates were targeted as coaching recipients. Coaching activities highlighted in the new program included
- monthly goal-setting meetings that address consistency issues
- standard meeting agendas
- sit-alongs that enable managers to observe sales calls and provide immediate feedback
- partner practice meetings and coaching sessions geared toward improving top producer relationships.
Results
By defining KPIs, the group has been able to link coaching activities to the internal sales associates' behaviors and performance. Since rolling out the program in 2009, closed business increased for each team.
In fact, during a 20-month span following the start of the new coaching program, one team improved closing rations for quality prospects by about 8 percent.
The coaching program continues to evolve and grow, adapting to support the needs of a dynamic and changing business environment.
Lessons Learned
The Sales Coaching Excellence Program created a more consistent and adaptable process to clearly communicate, track, coach, and measure expectations on sales activities to internal sales associates.