One Division’s desire to improve behaviour and enhance performance
the client
AXA PPP Healthcare is a major player in the healthcare market – providing healthcare schemes to corporates as well as individuals. For members of the corporate schemes, when they leave employment, they are eligible to purchase an individual health plan on preferential terms acquired from being a member of the corporate scheme.
Over time the number of leads from these corporate leavers had been declining owing to the corporate account managers suppressing their accounts from being available for marketing making it much harder to win sales.
Given the challenging sales targets, the heads of both sales and marketing for the individual Healthcare business recognised that something needed to be done to accelerate the flow of leads and reduce the number of accounts which had been suppressed from marketing by account managers. Previous initiatives to improve the situation had not achieved the desired results due to internal cultural challenges including resistance to change, concerns over marketing errors and some silo working.
the desired outcome
Given the challenging sales targets, the heads of both sales and marketing for the individual Healthcare business recognised that something needed to be done to accelerate the flow of leads and reduce the number of accounts which had been suppressed from marketing by account managers. There was also a need to break down soled working and improve employee engagement and morale in general.
the objective
Internally the working relationship between sales and marketing was strained and this was negatively affecting leads and ultimately sales and the success of the business. AXA PPP asked Culture Consultancy to:
-Develop a culture that would improve internal relations to drive sales
– To engage staff in overcoming their mental barriers and resistance to change
– To up-skill and coach staff on soft skills
-To devise a more effective reward and recognition programme
the approach
insight
We used our CC Culture Assessment to investigate the ‘blockers’ which were delaying the flow of leads getting to the individual marketing team. This included looking at employee and manager behaviour, internal communication as well as processes, reward and recognition.
design & deliver
We then designed and implemented a programme which included team structure and process changes to improve interdepartmental working and break down silos. We then rolled out skills training and coaching for employees and managers on topics such as communication, influencing, consultative selling and internal networking. Finally, we developed a new internal communication plan.
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A series of guidelines were put in place and communicated to employees to engage and embed the new culture and cross-departmental working. This included developing new internal communications, reports and reward and recognition schemes.
Leadership training for team leaders focused on developing soft skills and relationship building techniques designed to drive the business forward.
the results
A successful result for the business and for the relationship between the teams. The overall volume of leads available for marketing increased by 22% and the volume of leads with more than 20 days available for marketing increased by 88%
testimonial
“Culture Consultancy provided excellent support in enabling us to identify and act on additional new business opportunities. Working through cultural challenges, he has helped us break down silo working, develop and implement process changes and create new Management Information reporting enabling our various teams to track and act on leads more effectively. Their combination of skills and style of working makes them a pleasure to work with – they delivered a great job and could not have done more for us. As well as delivering against the project objectives, several team members have also benefited from personal development support as well, this is an unexpected added bonus which has made a huge difference to the individuals.”
Fidelma Harris, Head of Individual Sales, AXA PPP Healthcare
Find out how our award-winning 3 stage culture change methodology works, here.
