Slattery Sales Group Helps Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Ensure Healthy Sales Results

Challenge
Enhance sales force success with strategies that incorporate value proposition that overcomes price-only purchase decisions.

Solution
Slattery Sales Group (SSG) works with non-sales executives and sales leadership hone value differentiation, translates it into key selling messages, and transforms the sales culture through sales force and sales management training.

Results

Improved coaching by sales management yields positive revenue results. Assessment process and tools increase hiring success. Value differentiation and key messages help salespeople meet projections.

 s director of sales management for the Employer Group at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (BCBSM), Sandy Shapiro believed that his sales force would benefit significantly from sales fundamentals training. “When one of our salespeople recommended Slattery Sales Group because of his firsthand experience with the firm, I included them in the group we were considering.”

Shapiro soon discovered that SSG had worked with some of BCBSM’s key brokers around town and had created quite a reputation for developing their sales staffs. “He knew sales training. He knew the health care business. And he understood what we needed to do in order to be successful,” Shapiro explains. “Plus, he was willing to do on-site sessions with our staff."

“I consider them a business partner,” he says, adding that he appreciates the fact that SSG’s approach is not “cookie cutter,” where one size fits all. “They learn the business. Right away, they helped us get beyond selling price. They helped us develop useful key messages and articulate our value proposition. Then they trained our people on how to sell. I’ve seen it in action and I’ve seen it work.”

From Strategy to Training to Selection
BCBSM’s relationship with SSG may have begun with sales training, but Shapiro soon leveraged the firm’s expertise in account strategy development and sales rep and sales management selection. “During the three years we’ve been working with SSG, close to 100 of our internal reps, sales managers, and account managers have gone through Sales Mastery, which SSG customized for our value differentiation,” Shapiro recalls.

In fact, SSG customized BCBSM’s sales strategy and key messages for specific segments within their employer market. “Instead of focusing on price, we now think in terms of how we provide value,” Shapiro says. “SSG helped us learn how to ask the right questions at critical points in our sales process. Having our non-sales executives attend Terry’s Boot Camp (Sales Mastery) has helped us undergo a cultural change.”

Believing that great sales managers can produce great sales people, Shapiro says that he’s seen SSG help managers become better coaches. “When these sales managers became more strategic and thoughtful about how to help sales people plan client meetings and set objectives, results improved. Our managers really put SSG’s material to use.”

You could say that sales success begins with successful selection, which according to Shapiro, SSG was dead on. “Their selection tool is incredible,” he says. “At first I was skeptical, but they walked us through the profile results and helped interpret them. I was amazed at how well they captured their personality and skills from the profiles they did on people I already knew.” Now Shapiro makes hiring decisions based on a candidate’s profile, along with how well the person interviews, their background and reputation.

BCBSM regularly reinforces SSG’s messages in a column that Terry authors for their monthly newsletter (True Blue) that is sent to independent agents who represent their products. Each article discusses how to be a successful BCBSM salesperson. In addition, he speaks at six annual agent conferences across the state, and is consistently the highest ranked speaker.