case study
Genos Increases Sales Revenue at Sanofi
Sanofi is one of the world’s most prominent pharmaceutical organizations and employs in excess of 105,000 employees across the globe, with locations in over 100 countries.
Prior to our work with Sanofi-Aventis, Genos had undertaken research in the pharmaceutical sales domain and had correlated information that showed a direct relationship between the revenue-generated performance of a sales rep and their emotional intelligence. Sanofi-Aventis agreed strongly with our findings, however, still had some questions of their own. Could the emotional intelligence of a sales rep be improved? If so, would this improved level of emotional intelligence result in increased sales revenue?
The Genos Solution
In order to ensure we provided Sanofi with a more exact comparison, we needed to eliminate any market influences that could affect our results. Genos requested that Sanofi select a group of sales reps who all showed similar sales performance levels and who shared the same level of tenure. Sanofi selected 70 candidates to take part in the study, and randomly split them into two groups:
The Development Group: These individuals would take part in an emotional intelligence development program.
The Control Group: These individuals were assessed only on their emotional intelligence and sales performance.
We then developed and delivered an emotional intelligence program for the sales reps and the sales managers.
What did the program consist of?
A 360° emotional intelligence assessment for each sales manager. This report allowed us to measure levels of performance associated with their sales representatives sales revenue from the source.
Workshops – Genos ran 1 full day workshop and 2 half-day workshops on how to utilize emotional intelligence skills in sales.
Genos ran eight small-group coaching sessions with the sales managers.
Genos also ran a further five emotional intelligence mentoring sessions with the sales managers and their sales reps. The purpose of these sessions was for the sales managers to fine-tune their sales reps' application of emotional intelligence in their sales appointments.
A follow up (Time 2) 360 emotional intelligence assessment for each sales manager, where we revisited the sales reps' (add apostrophe) performance and found significant return on investment for the program.
“I have seen improvements in behaviour that have increased the bottom line with sales reps. From a management perspective, increased skills that have lead to more buy-in, acceptance, spirit improved, and better communication.” -Participant
The Impact
Over the course of the program, multiple improvements were noted; the overall emotional intelligence of the sales managers improved on average by 18%, an incredible achievement in itself. By viewing the graph below this section you will also see that this improvement had a marked effect on the development groups’ sales performance with an average improvement in sales performance of 13% in the Development Group in comparison to the Control Group. There were no changes in revenue seen within the control group during this time.
The improvements in revenue generated by the Development group returned approximately $6 for every $1 Sanofi invested in the pilot program.
Feedback
In their post-program feedback, participants clearly stated that the benefits of the program not only enhanced their performance but also contributed towards improved relationships between team members and managers. Previous to the program, reps and sales managers had been experiencing difficulty; this was mainly due to the large-scale merger changes that were taking part in the company. Post-program analysis shows that merger obstacles were overcome and the two cultures integrated.
