PFA CASE
8
The initiative of winning market shares was called “Eight we want to win” (8WWW)
eiGhT BaTTles ThaT are maKinG The headlines in The life insurance indusTry
WINNING IS EVERYTHING
I
n May 2011, the leading life insurance company in Denmark, PFA, identified a unique opportunity to conquer substantial market shares and push the boundaries of what’s considered achievable in the industry. This was a daunting task given the low degree of client mobility within the large-account segment. Nonetheless, eight new significant corporate clients were identified, and against all odds, PFA has now won six of the targeted eight prospects and sent tremors through the industry. Prior to PFA’s campaign, companies expected to incur significant costs if they changed their life insurance carriers or providers. As a result, companies were reluctant to replace one life insurance company with a seemingly similar one. The industry was characterised by a sales approach biased towards providing products rather than solutions, resulting in generic proposals with little relevance to clients. Furthermore, both
PFA and their main competitors seemed to have limited knowledge about the strategic issues and key pains of existing and potential clients. The initiative of winning market share was called “Eight we want to win” (8WWW), targeting eight major new accounts, and not surprisingly, the objective was to create a real desire for these companies to choose PFA over their current provider. In order to make this happen, PFA designed an outside-in sales strategy based on five simple elements: 1
2
3
4
5
Communicate the attractiveness of the client-owned business model in which clients – not external shareholders – will reap the greatest benefit from the created value (this unique business model ensures that PFA is able to provide the highest risk-adjusted investment returns and the lowest investment costs in the life insurance market) Develop client-specific proposals, presentations and negotiations that reflect the unique situation of each client and focus on addressing their key pains Include elements in each proposal that will make every client feel like a VIP account Design and communicate a very detailed implementation approach that addresses all of the client’s concerns about the costs of switching Present terms and prices in one single page in order to illustrate price implications on requested terms.
T
hrough this new outside-in, solution-based selling approach, PFA has managed to “revolutionise” the industry because they’ve won not just ordinary clients, but some of the largest companies in Denmark that represent a breath-taking financial value and market share for PFA. “The life insurance market is really quite small in terms of the number of competitors and the number of huge clients, so if you want to persuade eight of these clients to switch provider, you simply need to offer new and better solutions at competitive prices. That’s what we’ve done, and the success is already evident. We’ve won six major clients since we launched this initiative,” Lars EllehaveAndersen, Group Executive Vice President at PFA Pension, explains.
One of the initiative’s major wins, Danfoss, is an example of a large corporate client to whom PFA has provided a unique solution that used the client’s situation as the point of departure. At Danfoss, they pride themselves in being a leading company in terms of social responsibility for their employees, and they offer flexible job models for the disabled or injured. PFA was able to provide Danfoss with a solution that encompasses this mindset and ensures job security for employees with a “flexible job” or light duties due to disabilities or injuries.
Delgado
Sastre
Group Executive Vice
President at PFA Pension
I
t may seem self-evident that it’s important to customise your products and services to the needs of your clients, but until now, this has only been done to a limited extent in the life insurance industry. PFA, however, has succeeded in introducing tailormade, solution-based selling and consequently realising great results. “We no longer deliver off-the-shelf solutions and hand them over to our clients. Instead, we recommend a solution based on detailed analysis of the individual client and their specific needs. This is a new approach and it works. So from now on, it will be instrumental to our ambition of not only maintaining our existing client base, but ensuring further wins in the market,” Lars Ellehave-Andersen concludes.
The 8WWW were named after famous riders in the Tour de France to tell the story in PFA
Gustov
Klostergaard
McEwan
Boonen Navarro
Lars Ellehave-Andersen,
Voigt