Thursday, July 31, 2008
Case Study
We explore the inner workings of a broker whose business model seemed good, but were suffering from a negative slide in business and profitability, the harder they all worked, the worse the results became.
The problem at this particular business was a lack of understanding of basic human biology; the staff had stopped remembering that they had twice as many ears as mouths.
The Directors of the business had spent many hours building a strong network of Partners, Providers, and Products – and justifiably spent more hours winding the staff up to sell each and every part of that portfolio to each and every customer.
But the staff, under pressure to get results, began to tell, not sell, and they stopped listening to the customers needs. Sales of products actually slowed to less than before the launch of the new ranges, and as you would expect everyone ‘upstairs’ started to get miffed with everyone ‘downstairs’.
Sometimes when Profit Training is asked to visit clients and diagnose business problems it can take a day or two, other times like this example, the problem became clear in the first hour just listening to the staff interacting (I mean talking at…) the customers.
Three two hour sessions were delivered that first day, totally unscripted workshops covering quality qualification, listening skills, trial close and full close skills alongside objection handling techniques. The second day helped the Broker build a fully FSA compliant process, from TCF and ICOBS, to a commercially sensible complaints procedure.
The broker now has some of the best penetration figures in the industry, happy customers, happy staff and an FSA Audit to be proud of, with a commendation from the audit team on how well the customers were treated, the right product, at the right price every time. The complaints process has still to record its first screamer.
DATED: 31.07.08
FEED: PTL
The problem at this particular business was a lack of understanding of basic human biology; the staff had stopped remembering that they had twice as many ears as mouths.
The Directors of the business had spent many hours building a strong network of Partners, Providers, and Products – and justifiably spent more hours winding the staff up to sell each and every part of that portfolio to each and every customer.
But the staff, under pressure to get results, began to tell, not sell, and they stopped listening to the customers needs. Sales of products actually slowed to less than before the launch of the new ranges, and as you would expect everyone ‘upstairs’ started to get miffed with everyone ‘downstairs’.
Sometimes when Profit Training is asked to visit clients and diagnose business problems it can take a day or two, other times like this example, the problem became clear in the first hour just listening to the staff interacting (I mean talking at…) the customers.
Three two hour sessions were delivered that first day, totally unscripted workshops covering quality qualification, listening skills, trial close and full close skills alongside objection handling techniques. The second day helped the Broker build a fully FSA compliant process, from TCF and ICOBS, to a commercially sensible complaints procedure.
The broker now has some of the best penetration figures in the industry, happy customers, happy staff and an FSA Audit to be proud of, with a commendation from the audit team on how well the customers were treated, the right product, at the right price every time. The complaints process has still to record its first screamer.
DATED: 31.07.08
FEED: PTL
