Patra provides technology-enabled insurance outsourcing services and AI-powered software solutions to insurance brokers. The PatraOne platform helps clients optimize processes and support insurance brokers as they sell, deliver and manage policies and customers. Patra is California-based, with over 6500 employees and owned by FTV Capital.
After growing from start-up to $100M, Patra’s leaders knew continued growth depended on shifting their go-to-market approach. “We needed to elevate our sales motion, which was a price-transaction approach,” explains Bob Murphy, Chief Revenue Officer with Patra. “We were coming in, talking about products and hoping there was a fit. I wanted to migrate from price-transaction methodology to a consultative approach.”
Patra’s leaders set an aggressive five-year target: to double their revenue. Meeting this goal would require fulfilling a set of stated objectives: improve seller productivity, increase average deal sizes, build more pipeline with better forecasting accuracy and decrease ramp times for new hires.
“As the industry and customers matured, I knew we needed to up our game and would need outside help to do that. I rallied the sales managers and executive team and stressed that this was not just specifically for the sales silo; this was going to permeate across every customer-facing organization. We put together a list of fundamental requirements and interviewed three companies, and Force Management was heads and shoulders above the other two.”
Patra partnered with Force Management on a Command of the Message® engagement for all customer-facing teams, including leadership. Managers were trained in advance to ensure they could inspect, coach and develop their teams during the main Command of Message training.
Patra also adopted the MEDDPICC qualification framework with Opportunity Coaching sessions designed for managers and reps to craft sales strategies around live opportunities with a Force Management facilitator.
Continuous Learning sessions were added quarterly to develop individual proficiency, promote reinforcement and ensure lasting behavioral change.
One year into the working relationship with Force Management, Patra achieved these YoY results:
Murphy remarked on year-over-year indicators of success with closing larger deals and effective onboarding. “This year’s graph features a lot of spikes starting about ten months after we added salespeople, and the average ramp time for a salesperson is 9-12 months. Six of the largest spikes each represent million-dollar deals. Compared to last year’s graph, which is smooth and without spikes, it’s a much different profile,” Murphy explains. “The bottom line is, we’re far enough along in the process that we're seeing material results, and that’s more bookings and larger bookings.”
Additional results include:
“One of our objectives was to get more large enterprise-type deals, and indeed we have,” Murphy says. “In our lingo, a large deal is $1M to $3M deals compared to the $100K to $250K we were accustomed to. So we've closed a number of those deals and are finding our time-to-close is faster. So we're closing more deals faster.”
“Our internal language is now based on MEDDPICC. Who’s our Champion? Who’s our Economic Buyer? We also stick to the Command of the Message framework, focusing on the positive business outcomes our customers are looking for and tying our solutions to them. It’s all become a common fabric within the culture of the sales team.”
Murphy praised the Force Management Facilitator and Consultants for their ability to customize ongoing work in ways that continue driving team performance. "Pouli (aka Jim Pouliopoulos) has been with us as a trainer, teacher and friend – he is very good. He’s been with us for every session, including the initial executive workshop where we built out Command of the Message, plus Revenue Workshop and follow-ups.”
“We’re doing deal reviews as part of Continuous Learning with Pouli sitting in, and I’ve found that to be very productive and effective − to the point that we’ll continue using that model on large, needle-moving deals that leadership wants visibility on.”
Murphy remarked on how the work with Force had added more predictability to the forecast and business. “We've seen a lower push rate in our deals, which means I have more predictability on when deals will close, and that's primarily from using and applying the rigor of MEDDPICC.”
Reflecting on the journey, Murphy states “You know, Force Management was more expensive than the other providers we considered. But we were looking at value and knew we would get a lot of value out of partnering with Force. And we have. And we are. So, I'm really pleased with the decision and the direction, and the people we’ve met at Force Management across the board have been very impressive.”
Read more stories of transformation in Force Management's Case Study Library
