Building a sales culture - the transition from order-taker to business partner

"The bottom line is that people buy from people, not companies," wrote Lee J. Colan, suggesting that every customer-facing employee has a role the selling process. Every point of contact that a customer has with a company is a chance to build a brand and grow the business. But to make it happen requires a shifting of mindsets. If selling is about relationships and trust, then who better to trust than the person you have daily contact with?

This tactic gained importance at QBE in their continual focus on growth strategies. Without a highly visible public profile and limited advertising, QBE's intermediaries are its key relationships, and therefore an opportunity for new business. A very deep pool at that creates excellent relationships with brokers, but only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to their overall business and cross-selling opportunities.

A key strategy for QBE was to develop a greater focus on sales alignment as many customer-facing staff perceived their roles as technical and task-driven. The very word 'sales' was met with some resistance but the recognition of the value in continuing development was real. Tackling these personal and emotional issues required a creative approach, and from this Sales@QBE was born, and integrated programme of internal communications and training.

QBE sought Straight Media's input for a creative and engaging way to deliver the message and change the organisation's behaviour. The programme was developed in-house then entrusted to Straight Media for a creative overhaul.

The sporting theme was developed into a year-long business planning process and the branding and style was continued into the Sales@QBE training programme. This integrated campaign included printed materials (office livery, workbooks, and business plans), video (training modules) and interactive (online e-invitations, monthly e-news, and messaging).

The strength of Straight Media's integrated approach - offering a single source for communication across any media - was demonstrated vividly on this project. Integrating the programme's elements under a single brand and style created instant recognition and consistency, attributes vital for long-term reinforcement of the Sales@QBE behaviours.

QBE's transition is highly successful, and word-of-mouth for the programme is overwhelmingly positive - a testament to the quality of the training and information, as well as the creative approach.