Referral Selling and Increased Conversion Rates: Insurance

Using Referral Selling to Increase Revenue at an Insurance Company

Client Case Study

Situation

This California insurance brokerage faced increased competition and declining sales.  The conversion rate of prospects to clients was below 30 percent and Salespeople were not active in the community and were “dialing for dollars” with minimal success and low engagement.

 

Complications

  • No Collaboration: Account executives and brokers were not referring business between departments.
  • Weak Brand Positioning: Clients were unaware that the company was a full-service insurance agency.
  • Ambiguity: The vision and mission statements were not clear to every employee.

Approach

  1. Strategy Retreat: Held a strategy retreat to make sure the team understood the mission statement and set standards for referring business between personal, medical, and commercial lines. The company updated technology so that client information would be available to all.
  2. Process Changes:
    • A bonus program was instituted for the most referrals in a month
    • Referrals are tracked and reported weekly
    • There is an account handoff between the production and servicing teams
    • There is new criteria for hiring—insurance professionals join a referral organization
    • Everyone has joined community and professional groups and is actively networking to build relationships
  3. Referral-Selling System:  The brokerage:
    • Committed to a referral selling strategy from the top
    • Trained salespeople in referral selling methodology
    • Set up and tracked and rewarded referral selling metrics
    • Coached and reinforced behaviors

Results

  • 66% increase in conversion ratio of prospects to clients
  • More new personal lines customers have become clients than ever before
  • Clients understand what it means to work with a full-service insurance agency

Related Information

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Olivia Flach
Americas Retail Sales

Sandisk

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Phil Rosenberg
Senior Vice President of Sales

We turned to LSA Global to help us take our executive selling and solution selling skills to the next level.

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LSA delivers the full solution; not just sales training.  I recommend them to any organization looking to transform its sales force the “right way” to sell higher and wider.

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Director of Sales-Enterprise Accounts

Avid

LSA Global’s sales negotiation training and assessment process provided the sales negotiation tools and practices that have significantly enhanced our negotiations process. Their facilitators understood our business, its challenges, and framed the learning in a way that we understood.

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President

Service Source

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David Fiano
Director of Merchandising

We engaged with LSA Global to help our sales team identify opportunities to accelerate our commitment to sales excellence. The facilitator’s shared passion for our goals created a foundation for sales skill adoption, as did LSA’s keen understanding of our unique business environment.

This insight allowed LSA to deliver customized and impactful business sales training workshops which were adapted to reflect our specific business dynamics and provided our employees with the sales models and tools to leverage on every call with customers.

Grant Clarke
Director Client Delivery

Service Source

We selected LSA over a handful of other experts to assist with a key sales leadership imperative. LSA added value every step of the way throughout the entire engagement. Their customized approach to sales presentation training exceeded expectations, and we are excited about global implementation across our offices in more than 100 countries.

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Executive Director Global Learning

Grant Thornton

We wanted our Channel Managers to get sales strategies and tools that would increase partner revenue and strengthen partner relationships. LSA Global’s ability to quickly understand our business and to bring experienced and proven resources to the table created credibility with both the executive and sales team.

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Chip Whitman
Channel Excellence Manager

Thermo Fisher

We recently hired LSA to help us take our client delivery methodology to the next level as we continue to grow and help our clients succeed.

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I would recommend LSA to anyone looking to take their strategy and strategic execution to the next level.

Rob Sturgeon
EVP Client Delivery

Service Source

LSA Global demonstrated excellent expertise in sales and sales leadership, spent the time required to make sure the objectives were clear, and showed flexibility in shaping and sustaining everything that they did.

They “MEDRADized” the session to meet our unique needs, looked beyond the obvious, and got the key points across in a way that made sense.  Thank you!

Doug Stantial
North America Sales Training Manager

LSA’s introduction and continuous reinforcement of the MEDRAD objectives, vision, and mission were very impressive. The majority now understands and is openly able to verbalize these key items.

LSA did a wonderful job introducing the importance of sales coaching and reinforcement and was able to keep everyone focused.

Cindy Steffen
National Manager, Telesales

LSA has consistently delivered top notch value to Seagate’s Corporate University Program. The level of facilitator involvement and continuous program evolution has kept the sales negotiation training engaging, relevant, and impactful.

We look forward to working with LSA in the future.

Geoff Purnell
Sales Executive, Seagate Data Recovery Services

Seagate

Originally, we launched a RFP to partner with a sales training provider to improve the sales skills of our global distributor network.

LSA Global challenged our thinking by suggesting we focus on the systemic sales strategy, culture, and talent factors that create sales success before we invested in the more symptomatic needs of sales skills and knowledge.

LSA Global identified the critical strategic actions to improve overall sales performance and then designed and delivered world class business sales training across the globe to help increase revenue and margin.

I’m so happy we took a more strategic approach to sales performance with LSA.  Thank you for making this fit our culture.

Kim Benson
Director Human Resources

Trimble

Seagate has always found LSA to be a highly valuable consulting, training, and coaching resource.

The recent business sales training programs they’ve delivered for Seagate University have been the right solution, of highest of quality, and highly customized to our unique business and culture.

I would highly recommend LSA to any company interested in offering top notch learning solutions that make a difference.

Tammy Dujmovich
Sales, Marketing & Customer Service

Seagate

We evaluated 6 well known sales development partners in the market. We ended up selecting LSA global because of their unique ability to get results selling solutions.  They also had the strongest assessment, implementation, measurement, coaching, and global capabilities .

We’ve had such strong feedback from the executive selling program that there are requests to roll it out within the Marketing, Product Management, and our Leadership teams.  Thank you LSA!

Stephanie Lucey
HR Manager

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