Cegos Group and Coface win Silver Award

Published on 01/10/2015

Cegos Group and Coface win Silver Award

Cegos, a worldwide leader in training and development, and Coface, a worldwide leader in credit insurance, win a coveted Brandon Hall Group Silver award for excellence in the “Best Program for Sales Training and Performance” category. Designed and deployed by Cegos, the “Sales Force 1” program aimed at developing a more dynamic approach to business development.“Sales Force 1”: Dynamic approach to business developmentAs part of its Strong Commitment business plan, Coface rethought its entire sales strategy. In less than six months, Coface aimed to establish a “hunter” spirit in its international sales force to generate more business opportunities and grow market share.Coface was seduced by the approach proposed by Cegos, with its ability to support them internationally. Cegos designed a specific training course for each population to form either managers or sales teams (Sales Managers, account managers, Direct and Indirect Sales):

A Cegos-led introductory webinar for the Sales Managers, who then hold a kick-off meeting with their teams (including a VIP video message from the Coface CEO), to get buy-in for the strategy and the program, and generate curiosity and interest;
Customised in-room training of 1 or 2 days to install hunter spirit and best practices;
A Cegos-led webinar 4 to 6 weeks later to share and anchor best practices.

Cécile Fourmann, HR Director adds:“Sales Force 1 is the lynchpin of Coface’s aggressive sales approach, and a key enabler in the transformation of our commercial processes. To ensure the training had maximum impact we first defined the role and contribution of our sales managers, account managers, direct and indirect sales teams. By bringing together an international task force composed of Coface HR and commercial teams to draw on the diversity of a Group operating in 99 countries worldwide, we have improved the skills of our commercial teams everywhere.”The deployment, orchestrated by Cegos, was carried out in "accelerated" mode in only 10 weeks in 35 countries and in 14 languages: 101 training sessions were organized all around the world (a 99% deployment rate!).José Montes, Cegos’ Chairman, comments:“Cegos’ teams are particularly proud to win this tremendous Brandon Hall Group award. Once again, our ability to accompany a leading company such as Coface by developing and deploying an innovative training program in multiple countries – and this in record time, is recognized by the market. This success owes as much to the quality of the program developed by Cegos as to the commitment and responsiveness of Coface’s business and sales teams.Now active in more than 50 countries, the Cegos Group is more than ever the business partner of reference for companies and organizations whose training needs are global.” Results: immediate measurable benefits for CofaceFrom the start of the project it was decided to identify a set of KPIs in terms of Sales Performance. Coface reports that performance on all 6 KPIs has improved by a minimum of 6%, and some of them by considerably more.Joëlle Attal-Molere, Coface Group Head of Direct Sales and Account Management Director, commenting on the positive business results reported at year-end 2014, explains:“In a context of increased market competition, we were happy to report that our commercial results for 2014 showed a solid customer retention rate at 89.2% and a 7% year on year increase in new contracts signed, We want to reinforce this training strategy over time and for it to be one of the key axes of support for our teams in this changing environment.”Part of a transformation process, both managers and employees gave very positive feedback about the program. The immediate application of methods and tools has paid off in terms of the quality of customer relations and business development. The application of best practice has also helped to detect and acquire new customers. Finally, the training program has had a concrete impact on the performance of the Coface teams:

Direct Sales teams optimizing their prospecting efforts;
Indirect Sales people spending more time with their broker contacts and building a new level of trust with them;
Account Managers proposing a Partnership Plan to key customers.

Brandon Hall Group Human Capital Management Excellence Awards “The high quality of work and commitment to driving business results among our award winners never fails to amaze me”, said Rachel Cooke, Chief Operating Officer of Brandon Hall Group and head of the awards program. “All of these winning programs deliver meaningful business results to their organizations. Winning an Excellence Award is a great honor, but the real winners are the organizations themselves and their customers and clients because of the innovation and customer focus they demonstrate.”Excellence Awards winners will be honoured at Brandon Hall Group’s HCM Excellence Conference January 27-29, 2016, at the PGA National resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Selected winners also will serve as presenters in the more than 20 breakout sessions during the 2 ½-day conference.The entries were evaluated by a panel of veteran, independent senior industry experts, Brandon Hall Group Sr. Analysts and Executive Leadership based upon the following criteria: fit the need, design of the program, functionality, innovation, and overall measurable benefits.