A large financial services company wanted to return its stagnating sales success to significant growth via cooperation partners. This was to be achieved both by pushing ahead with the numerous existing cooperation partners (major banks, large insurance companies, sales companies and brokers) and by acquiring additional new cooperation partners. The focus should be on exploiting opportunities for digitalization and significantly boosting the mortgage lending business. However, this expansion of sales success was to be achieved without increasing costs. As project manager, the interim manager was tasked with developing the necessary concepts and then successfully implementing them within the company and with the cooperation partners.
Analysis of the market situation and strategy form the basis for a stringent project plan
Together with the sales directors and the central marketing and sales units, the interim manager prepared a SWOT analysis for each cooperation partner. This served to create transparency about the current situation as well as to identify corresponding opportunities and risks. On this basis, the interim manager held discussions with the cooperation partners about the future direction and derived specific measures for sales growth in each case.
In parallel, the interim manager analyzed and classified banks, insurance companies and sales companies that were not yet cooperation partners of the company. The resulting target list showed the priority and direction in which potential partners should be acquired. The interim manager's strategy was to acquire some of the partners by acquiring a competitor and to poach others specifically from competitors.
Both objectives were then incorporated into a project plan, sub-projects and milestones defined, the cross-divisional project team appointed and the project steering team and reporting channel to the CEO established.
Digitalization along the entire sales process
In a sub-project, the interim manager worked with the teams to review the entire value chain of the sales process for opportunities through digitalization. Numerous starting points were identified: from social media activities to electronic sales impulse control.
However, the greatest leverage lay in the collaboration with construction financing platforms through which the financial services provider's products were to be sold. The interim manager not only introduced this application at the financial services provider itself, but was also able to convince several large cooperation partners to use this platform.
Interactive sales coaching enabled by a team of digital specialists
A unit of "digital specialists", which the interim manager set up and staffed with sales professionals, made a major contribution to the success. The digital specialists supported the bank employees and insurance agencies with preparations and customer meetings via video consultation. The platform also gave the specialists the opportunity to connect to the partner's computer and coach and train the agents via "training on the job".
The interim manager's task was to create the necessary framework conditions, set up the unit (recruitment of employees, etc.) and manage the introduction and communication.
New cooperation partners broaden the sales force
In the mandate, the interim manager was able to win over several sales companies and numerous brokers for cooperation through a targeted approach. The strongest expansion was achieved through the purchase of a competitor, through which 9 large German insurance companies were added as sales partners.
On the one hand, the interim manager negotiated the cooperation agreements. As project manager, he was also responsible for the IT and sales connection and acted as the first point of contact for the new cooperation partners.
Project team of more than 200 people trained more than 50,000 sales staff
The biggest challenge was to find a balance between offering each cooperation partner as much individuality as possible and - for cost reasons - as little individuality as necessary. The partners had to be connected relatively simultaneously with a lead time of just 4 months, which meant that a high degree of complexity had to be managed. More than 50,000 sales employees nationwide had to be trained within 16 weeks and the same number of starter packages had to be produced. In addition, the partners also had to be set up in terms of system technology and, for example, commission settlements had to be set up. The project team was therefore staffed with more than 200 people at this time.
Seamless handover of B2B sales to a newly created line department
A new line department was established in the company at the end of the interim assignment, which will bundle and coordinate tasks relating to collaboration with cooperation partners in the future. Once the project was completed, the interim manager was able to hand over the remaining work from the project and the baton for supporting the cooperation partners to this unit. The main task for the future is to achieve the operational sales targets with the cooperation partners.
