Improving Inside Sales Performance

Time-to-Productivity Drops 50%

The Company

Vertafore is a comprehensive insurance management software solution that allows brokers and carriers to scale their businesses through deeper access to information and insights. The platform connects every point of the distribution channel, from agencies to carriers, to managing general agents, underwriters and state governments. Vertafore has the largest customer base in the industry.

What to Expect Someone from our team will call to schedule a call. Save time by sharing availability in the form.During our initial call, we’ll ask questions and do a lot of listening, assessing the challenges you’re experiencing and the effects they’re having on the rest of the business.Then, if relevant, we’ll walk you through how we approach your specific challenges and how we’ve helped companies like yours solve them for the long-term

The Challenge

Vertafore had a proven value proposition, but needed a defined selling methodology that drove the desired business outcomes, particularly for the inside sales organization. In addition, sales leadership wanted a repeatable sales process that would help shorten the sales cycle, lower the cost of sale and give them a way to onboard reps quickly.

“We had to hire a lot of people and rolling out a sales methodology at the same time was a challenge,” said Rich Park, Vice President of Agency, MGA, and Carrier Markets. At training, the team had 30 reps. Now, there are 75.  

The Solution

Vertafore implemented Command of the Message® for Inside Sales, which gave their sales team a framework for selling on value and differentiation. Force Management helped Vertafore create several tools that made the methodology practical and easy to use, including a Value Discovery Guide, a First Call Tool, Voice Mail and Demo Talk Tracks and Objection Handling Guides.

“The methodology gave us a way to inject reality into the sales process,” said Rich. “You can get lost in PowerPoint. You can get lost in saying I need to complete this step or that step, as opposed to sellers saying these elements are guide posts to getting us to achieving some value to a positive business outcome.”

What to Expect Someone from our team will call to schedule a call. Save time by sharing availability in the form.During our initial call, we’ll ask questions and do a lot of listening, assessing the challenges you’re experiencing and the effects they’re having on the rest of the business.Then, if relevant, we’ll walk you through how we approach your specific challenges and how we’ve helped companies like yours solve them for the long-term

The Results

The Vertafore inside sales team saw several measurable results including:

  • Time to rep productivity cut by 50%
  • 30% increase in selling activities
  • 40% of reps who went through methodology in the first half of the year had made at least 70% of their plan halfway through the year. In years past, that number was 20%

Rich attributes that success to the hard work done up front to ensure a successful rollout. 

“What really got us there was Force Management helping us embed the right coaching process to make sure the methodology was living and breathing within the organization after the training,” said Rich. Having the training managed by people with real life sales experience also added to its success.

“I’ve used other companies and they’re professional trainers, not salespeople. They don’t have the credibility that Force has,” said Rich. “It’s not about training. It’s about getting that foundation that enables them to get going quickly. Having the methodology and a model like Force Management has is an accelerator. It’s a catalyst to getting this done much faster because you, the sales leader, don’t have time to wait.”

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What to Expect Someone from our team will call to schedule a call. Save time by sharing availability in the form.During our initial call, we’ll ask questions and do a lot of listening, assessing the challenges you’re experiencing and the effects they’re having on the rest of the business.Then, if relevant, we’ll walk you through how we approach your specific challenges and how we’ve helped companies like yours solve them for the long-term

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