Over the past decade or so, I've had the opportunity to execute many major campaigns in demand generation, data building, and appointment setting with level one and two decision makers. During that time, we've worked with over 40 clients across a wide variety of industries. Whenever we are lucky enough to work with people in the insurance industry, I am inevitably astounded by the breadth and depth of knowledge the benefits professionals possess about the details of the insurance packages they are selling.  

And yet, despite this expertise, we are usually called in because, for one reason or another, the pipeline is not robust enough and sales opportunities are failing to materialize. This makes the issue one of two things: people or process. This attrition clearly isn't due to a lack of knowledge about the product. So, why, we asked ourselves, aren't these sales being closed?

Instead of guessing, we did what most smart people do these days and turned to the numbers. Applying an analytic framework to what was happening with the sales funnel enabled us to uncover some strategic insights about why good opportunities don't always results in a sale. We then took that analysis one step further and came up with a six-step methodology to accelerate the sales cycle and help benefits professionals achieve their business goals. This approach stems directly from analysis of real statistical data about what has worked best in the field, and has proven to increase sales by approximately 25 percent.