There’s a certain amount of content the home office should develop internally such as content pertaining to proprietary products and processes. However, when home offices attempt to develop content such as sales skills that really need more of a field perspective, that content typically falls flat.
This content typically lacks field perspective and is not perceived as credible by the field. Therefore, it’s prudent for home offices to strategically partner with content providers that have developed content considered by the field, for the field.
Many sales effectiveness programs you will find in the market were not designed specifically for the financial services industry. At best, they might have a financial services “wrapper” placed around it that’s considered “custom” and is typically very expensive to develop. In addition, most of these programs were developed out of the business-to-business sales model.
In other words, they were developed for sales professionals who are calling on businesses to sell them a product such as a copy machine, a car, etc. When you try to apply those B2B sales training programs to the personal selling world of financial services, they can feel very “clunky” and misaligned leading to labor-intensive tailoring by our companies’ in-house staff.
This is why it’s important to leverage learning and development programs built specifically for financial services with industry examples, language, tools, anecdotes, case studies, and best practices.
Sarah Sears
AVP, Product Innovation & Development, LIMRA’s Talent Solutions Group
Sarah is responsible for the strategic guidance of the development and management of products. In her role, she translates research insights into solutions that improve the effectiveness and productivity of sales professionals, leaders and employees in the financial services industry. Throughout her 14 years at LIMRA, she has developed engaging, innovative solutions that make industry research accessible and actionable. Sarah earned a BA in Anthropology and Sociology-based Human Relations from Connecticut College and an MBA from the UMass Isenberg School.