How To Measure A Sales Executive'S Effectiveness

Transcription

1 Cognizant Insights Dissecting Sales Analytics in Insurance Salesforce ineffectiveness is often blamed on the CRM system; however, the problem typically resides in the way data is captured and interpreted. Measuring the means of sales is as important as measuring the ends, which often requires a change in organizational culture. Executive Summary If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. Lord William Thomson Kelvin This axiom can be applied to all projects, IT and beyond. Take the case of CRM, where oftentimes system implementations are considered unsuccessful if senior leaders can t see the impact of their investment on revenue or in an improvement in sales force effectiveness. Although quality leads are being generated and well-thought-out campaigns are in force as CRM systems replace spreadsheets, the fact that the sales force now has more time and ammunition to create healthy client relationships does not appear to bring the desired dividends. However, a sales force s ineffectiveness or inefficiency cannot be blamed on the CRM system. Managers need more intelligence to assess the activities of their sales forces to set performance standards that must be met or exceeded to keep the business meeting the expectations of all stakeholders. For instance, sales analytics can process sales activity data and deliver insights for the sales organization. It provides a level playing field for the sales force, since all metrics right from simple KPIs such as number of client visits per week to complex patterns that highlight what really makes the visit successful provide accurate information to management. This white paper reveals how CRM data capture in the personal and casualty (P&C) insurance industry is a key lever for transforming the sales force, leveraging the successful experience of a leading global insurance provider. It also highlights KPIs that can be created to better understand the performance of account executives to help managers and executives fine-tune their sales strategies. Account Executive/Agency Interaction In the P&C insurance industry, the account executive s main objective is to recruit agencies and to provide guidance to enable them to quote policies to prospects and convert these quotes into new business. They perform various activities to train agency partners, guide them, motivate them, provide sales aids, etc. to help them achieve their objectives. They may go on joint sales calls, conduct sales planning for the year ahead, offer pricing schedules, provide marketing collateral, furnish customer analytics and business intelligence, offer discount details, provide new product training, progress reviews and motivation through rewards and recognition, as well as maintain a steady and effective relationship. Most sales calls are conducted with the idea of improving new business prospects and the number of policies in force. All data required to measure the effectiveness of an account executive s time depend cognizant insights march 2013

2 on the details associated with a typical sales call. The sales call serves as the single source of information for all that an account executive accomplishes during routine interactions with his/her agencies. Assessing Account Executive Time Spend To record the details of a sales call, sales activity should be logged into the CRM system, including attributes such as agencies, employees, products, etc. that form the informational underpinning to qualify sales call effectiveness. Logging the attributes of agencies, such as their type or status, can provide deeper insights into how the account executive spends his/her time. For example, if the focus of the executive is to spend time on a particular segment of agencies, agency attributes can be used. Without a report specifying how many agencies of a given The large global insurance provider we worked with created a call-in feature for sales executives who do not need access to a system. This enables them to have an individual located in a low-cost location enter in their activity information for them. segment are targeted, each account executive has to manually track his sales activities. This eats into time that the account executive could better spend working with his agencies. This is not the only area of focus. For the account executive, priorities often change. For example, one month or quarter the emphasis could be on promoting a particular product rather than targeting a particular segment of agencies. If the account executive needs to again track this manually, it will reduce his productivity and can even lead to a loss of revenue for the whole company. While the CRM system can record all this information, it cannot be held responsible if the account executive spends too much time on one agency visit or does not plan his visits properly. All the account executive s best intentions notwithstanding, there is only one way to find out whether he is spending his time effectively. Interpretation of sales activities is paramount in determining how the account executive is performing. Once the account executive knows that everyone is expected to visit eight agencies in a day, there is no way he is going to waste time at any one agency. If there are any delays, management will surely hear about it as time spent at any one agency will prevent the sales executive from achieving his overall objective. Recording the Interaction When an account executive meets with his agencies, there are numerous parameters or attributes associated with the sales call. The sales organization s goals will determine which attributes are most important, whereas others may be insignificant. Whenever a sales call is recorded, the account executive should enter the important values. For example, an executive who wants to coach the agency on cross-selling will capture data about how much time he spends talking about each product. Another executive who visits an agency to review sales progress may not need to capture that information. Common attributes include: duration of visit, agency/agencies visited or called, person responsible for the call, medium of call or visit, time and day of call or visit, the activity type, activity objective, activity category, etc. The amount of information that can be packed into this sales call record is vast, and almost all CRM systems available can capture these inputs. Manually entering these values at the end of the work day might be overwhelming for an account executive, especially if he/she makes many phone calls or visits in a day. The sales call entry can be automated in a number of ways, depending on the infrastructure available: Partially prefilled templates can be used to fill in missing details about a routine call or visit. Integration with a contact center solution automatically generates activity records when a call is placed. Mobile apps allow executives to key in sales call details through a smartphone or tablet, offering increased flexibility and reducing dependency on terrestrial Internet connectivity. For example, an account executive can key in an activity after finishing an agency visit. Scheduling a meeting with an agency can automatically create a sales activity record, which will require integration with an client (such as Outlook) beforehand. A call planning tool can automatically schedule activities as well as meetings with agencies. The large global insurance provider we worked with created a call-in feature for sales executives who do not need access to a system. This enables them to have an individual located in a low-cost location enter in their activity information for them. cognizant insights 2

3 CRM Data Capture Promote the Product Awards & Rewards Agencies Progress Review Agent Training Joint Sales Calls Sales Planning Sales Activities Reports & Dashboards Account executive enters all activity details in CRM system....along with relevant information that qualifies the activity. Activity Qualifiers Products Quotes Sales Employee Geography Date and Time Figure 1 In the ways described above, only certain variables need to be entered manually while others are prefilled. This will significantly cut down the time needed for entering the data. A typical sales call might have the following informational parameters (see Figure 1), some of which can be recorded in out-of-the-box fields provided in many CRM systems: Planned start date and time. Planned end date and time. Actual start date and time. Actual end date and time. Planned duration. Actual duration. Created by. Created date. Owner. Agency contacted. Objective. Sub-objective. Channel. Category. Filling in the above fields can answer many questions if organizations create a basic data warehousing model for analysis and reporting. Making Sense of CRM Data Key questions on the minds of senior leaders are: Which account executives are not meeting their daily activities goal, and what issues are plaguing them? An overall assessment can be made using the simple KPI number of activities per day. For this value, phone executives will likely show higher numbers than field executives will. This KPI will provide productivity insights for each account executive. If the activities per day is six weekly visits to the office of agencies for a field executive and if an executive averages only four a week, that discrepancy could automatically raise a flag. If nothing else, this data will be helpful in triggering an analysis into what is going on with the executive. There could be various reasons the average duration per visit to the agency might be more than the usual 60 minutes. If so, the executive might require training to plan his agency visits and to achieve the maximum result in the specific time period. Or, the executive might need to optimize the time spent travelling to different offices in his territory. This is a classic travelling salesperson problem. Many solutions or apps can provide the executive with the shortest route to cover all agencies. A third problem could be that planning is taking up an inordinate amount of the executive s time, such as generating printouts, making handwritten talking point notes, collecting cognizant insights 3

4 information from various IT systems or obtaining sales data from the finance system, past activity info from the CRM system, rewards info from the rewards master, campaign responses from the legacy campaign system, etc. If many executives are suffering from time management issues, then it is more likely a department- or companywide problem that could be The number of activities per day KPI played a significant role for the insurance provider we worked with to increase adoption of its CRM system by account executives. addressed by automating certain business processes through system enhancements or through another solution. The number of activities per day KPI played a significant role for the insurance provider we worked with to increase adoption of its CRM system by account executives. Since there was no measurement methodology, sales executives were lackadaisical when it came to entering data in the system. Once they realized management expected a certain number of activities from them, and they saw how they could help inform higher-ups on their productivity, they readily embraced the system, resulting in a win-win for all. The aforementioned example provides an insight into how data can help unearth root causes of problems either at the individual or organizational level. Additional examples of questions that can be answered by meaningful sales analytics include: How many performed activities were based on a campaign response? If the activity type or category is marked as campaign response through system-generated activities, the executive could be tasked with making a certain number of calls falling under this category. What drives the executive who has made more than 10 office visits in a day? While quantity is good, quality of the interaction should be consistently high and yield strong results, which makes it important to identify such anomalies. This could help determine the optimum number of visits. What requires an executive to visit the same agency twice on the same day? Here, the KPI being measured is the thoroughness of the interaction. Sales organizations can t afford to have an incomplete interaction that must be rectified by a follow-up visit. In certain organizations, there may not be much differentiation between field and phone or inside sales executives. This can give rise to many other performance indicators that compare the contact channel over a period of time, and determine whether an executive is able to balance his phone calls and office visits. There are also situations when an executive is tasked with conducting group trainings or Webinars involving multiple agencies that could be tracked and measured in a different way (see Figure 2). Next Steps: Multidimensional KPIs Now the next stage is to extend and link activity data with various other modules such as products or agencies. Doing so offers many measurements that can provide invaluable insight into how executives are spending their time relative to corporate strategy or their individual targets. The following questions should be asked, based on the type of agencies or the segment of agencies contacted. Which established agencies were contacted more than once in a span of 20 days taking into account the actual end date as the date for the activity? This provides insight into which established and self-reliant agencies are being contacted more than necessary, particularly when that time could have been better spent elsewhere. Which new agencies were contacted less than five times in their first three months with the company? This reinforces the fact that new agencies require more attention in their early days. Which day of the week yields the most activities? This offers insights into agencies preferences on when they would like to be contacted. What percentage of activities is being conducted on high-net-worth agencies? Depending on the product or state or the corporate strategy, focus is expected to be high on agencies in a prized segment. How much was the agency producing before the visit compared to after the visit? Sales call effectiveness can be measured based on how much business the agency brings, before and after. Furthermore, patterns can be delineated to understand why certain sales activities bring more revenue. Is it the person making the sales calls, the time of call, the location of the agency or a combination of multiple factors? cognizant insights 4

5 Making Sense of CRM Data Products Agencies Analyze Simple Performance Indicators. Quotes Develop Insights from Complex Patterns. Sales Help Plan Future Sales Activities. Employee Geography Date and Time Transactional data is moved from CRM system to the reporting tool to Get Day-to-Day Operational Help. Provide Summary Information for Mgmt. Figure 2 Apart from type and segment, there are many agency parameters that can be reported on, such as the agency s geography, specialization, maturity, lifecycle stage, etc. Other examples of measurements involve the various attributes associated with a product. Yet other useful activity attributes, or associated dimensions, include geography, employee hierarchy, time and trending of the activity performance, activities performed on opportunities or leads and, very importantly, the financial data associated with agencies. The list of attributes discussed above both for the activity and the agency merely scratches the surface. If so many relevant KPIs can be generated and so many significant business questions can be answered with this limited set of attributes, a more exhaustive list could dramatically expand the number of scenarios possible and the information available for decision-making ultimately covering all aspects of a sales organization. Other Data Uses Apart from the analytical intelligence provided by these reports and dashboards, the aforementioned data capture and measurement techniques can also provide valuable information for operational excellence. For example, the insurance provider we worked with set up an account executive dashboard to disclose how many additional activities and of what type were needed for an agent to meet his targets, scheduled to be updated every day. The company later realized significant increases in agent productivity since the dashboard revealed activities that individual agents did not have to focus on, while providing insights on where they stood and what they needed to cover. Last but not least, the gathered data offers a historical record that can be used for data mining activities to calculate the ideal measures. For example, based on the last three years of data, the number of activities per day KPI embraced by our client revealed the ideal number of six activities for a field executive working in the state of California. This number can be refined due to regulatory changes or the cost of field visits or any other parameter, and hence a year from now this number could be reduced to four. So from time to time, such thresholds and ideal numbers could be altered based on the vast history of data available for mining. Looking Forward This white paper offers examples of activity performance measures used at one of the world s leading insurance providers. The company realized huge benefits from implementing an analytics cognizant insights 5

6 solution. Progress was slow, but as momentum grew the company built on its strengths. From measuring sales activities, While there are various ways to add activity details in a CRM system, what matters is what kind of details are captured with each activity and this will depend on what senior management deems important to measure. it graduated to measuring marketing activities that involved recruiting new agencies and converting opportunities. More about these measurement areas will be detailed in subsequent white papers. The bottom line of all this is how much power is inherent in measuring account executive work that was previously thought to be immeasurable. Given the various types of sales calls or sales activities, or typical activities that the account executives perform, it becomes very important to measure and improve the productivity and thereby provide the best customer as well as employee experience. While there are various ways to add activity details in a CRM system, what matters is what kind of details are captured with each activity and this will depend on what senior management deems important to measure. With only a limited set of agency attributes, it is clear how many pertinent questions can be answered. Not only can our approach answer crucial questions, but dashboards can be built to provide managers and directors with a full decision-support system. The resulting data can be used in many ways, from helping management-generated analytical intelligence, through providing assistance to individual executives day to day. Another option is to mine the data continuously to explore patterns that evolve and then refine the KPIs that are published in the reports and used to measure sales executive performance. This allows the reports to stay meaningful over the long term. About the Author Pradeep Baptist is a Senior Consultant within Cognizant Business Consulting. He is a seasoned advisor with over nine years of experience in business intelligence strategy, transformational initiatives and program management consulting in the CRM and business intelligence spaces. Pradeep has worked with leading Fortune 500 clients to help them address key reporting problems and align their strategies. He can be reached at Pradeep.Baptist@cognizant.com. About Cognizant Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services, dedicated to helping the world s leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant combines a passion for client satisfaction, technology innovation, deep industry and business process expertise, and a global, collaborative workforce that embodies the future of work. With over 50 delivery centers worldwide and approximately 156,700 employees as of December 31, 2012, Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 2000, and the Fortune 500 and is ranked among the top performing and fastest growing companies in the world. Visit us online at or follow us on Twitter: Cognizant. World Headquarters 500 Frank W. Burr Blvd. Teaneck, NJ USA Phone: Fax: Toll Free: inquiry@cognizant.com European Headquarters 1 Kingdom Street Paddington Central London W2 6BD Phone: +44 (0) Fax: +44 (0) infouk@cognizant.com India Operations Headquarters #5/535, Old Mahabalipuram Road Okkiyam Pettai, Thoraipakkam Chennai, India Phone: +91 (0) Fax: +91 (0) inquiryindia@cognizant.com Copyright 2013, Cognizant. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the express written permission from Cognizant. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.