Background

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Our client is a National Life & Pensions company. They operate one of the largest pension funds in the UK and globally selling their products via various channels to market – namely IFA’s, tied agents (Banks and BS) and JV’s. The business is profitable with an enviable track record and strong branding.

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However, increased competition and a squeeze on costs meant the business had to do more with less.

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Consulting Assignment

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The CEO decided the Sales/Marketing division needed to save 25% on costs and asked us to help them deliver the savings via their own change programme.

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Key Project Activities

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The programme comprised of the following activities:-

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Analysis

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The analysis covered stakeholder interviews, customer research, staff research, process mapping and financial analysis. The key insights were best summarised by a senior executive’s comment “…we seem to be all things to all people, we over deliver to the small customers and probably under deliver to our most valued tied agents (Banks), we don’t have a sense of how valuable a customer is nor how much profit they add to our bottom line…”

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Design

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The results of the analysis provided the focus for the change initiatives. We set up the following change teams – comprising a sponsor, project manager and five senior members of staff from across the business plus a consultant – and tasked them to answer the questions:

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• Customer segmentation – how should we segment the customer base?

• Customer service – what level of service should be delivered to each segment?

• Operational effectiveness – how can we improve operational effectiveness?

• Regional footprint (and homeworking) – how can we reduce the regional footprint?

• Structure – what structure and skills would support the new sales/marketing division?

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Implementation

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Implementation was conducted via a mix of line staff and project staff

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Client Benefits

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The key client benefits:

• New customer focused strategy

• Sales/marketing division designed around adding value to highest value customers

• Savings of 25% identified and delivered

• Customer satisfaction increased

• Staff satisfaction significantly increased

• Share price increase 8.75% on announcement of the changes

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