“We looked at other trainers and felt Coffman was the best in Kansas City. It’s a solid system, and it works. Our sales team is the strongest we have ever had.”
Name: Sean Miller
Title/Firm: Chairman and COO, Robert E. Miller Insurance
Employees: Approximately 50 employees, 11 in sales
Industry: Property and casualty insurance
Territory: National, with focus on the heartland
Objective: To increase the percent of sales staff hitting their goals, thereby facilitating company growth
As Chairman and COO of Robert E. Miller Insurance in Kansas City, Sean Miller wears several hats. One of those is managing the sales function for the Kansas City property and casualty insurance company.
As such, he’s quite familiar with what it takes to make a sale. After 26 years with the company, he also know it can be challenging to hire the right sales people and to give them to tools they need to achieve their goals.
That’s why he and company President (and brother) Matt Miller hired the Coffman Group two years ago.
“We were initially looking for a sales coach,” Sean said. “We were even considering outsourcing our sales management function.”
Instead of simply taking over the management of their sales function, however, the Coffman Group guided Miller Insurance in developing a self-directed, top-to-bottom program that Sean says has netted them “the strongest sales team we have ever had.”
“We have a process now, and we work the system,” Sean explained. “Coffman helped us organize our sales department, get the right people on board and acquire a common system and language to use in working on sales deals.”
Of course, Coffman also trained staff and helped them facilitate productive sales meetings. And, Sean says, they helped his company identify weaknesses in its structure, and helped him grow in his supervisory role.
Their Coffman representative, Matt Stewart, still arrives every Monday morning for sales meetings where he and Miller’s 11 sales staff members conduct role playing, review sales opportunities and discuss topics of current interest. The Coffman Group also organizes individual training and monthly coaching sessions with each salesperson.
One of the most beneficial tactics they have learned, according to Sean, was the technique they call “identifying the pain.”
“A client’s ‘pain’ is where they have problems or issues we can help them with,” Sean said. “Coffman has given us tools to help us identify those areas of pain, tools such as questionnaires and questioning techniques. We no longer sell to price, but based upon need. It’s all about building trust and getting the customer to talk.”
