The customer experience has become an increasingly important competitive differentiator for insurance companies. As the contact center is the primary point of contact for many customers, it plays a key role in defining the customer's relationship with your brand that inevitably impacts the profitability of the organization. A study by the CFI Group showed that nearly 61% of insurance customers who have had a bad contact center experience will consider switching companies, and 26% said they will definitely switch companies because of a bad contact center experience.

Improving customer service can have a dramatically positive impact on a retailer's bottom-line. The happier consumers are; the more brand's benefit.  Exactly how significant is the customer experience? Let's take a look:

If you tell my teenaged kids that I uttered these words I will vehemently deny it, but; some rules are made to be broken. Pat Murn, Vice President of Sales at LexisNexis backs me up by saying that "Breaking rules is very effective. Now, if you're just blatantly irresponsible about it, obviously that's not good. But if you're creative, it actually shifts the culture of an organization. That's how people within an organization actually grow, by breaking rules." This is true in sales. In my experience, I often find that exceptional sales professionals do the opposite of what most salespeople do - and often break the rules of traditional selling to achieve success. Here are some examples of sales rules you should be breaking:

Until recently, inside sales was overshadowed and overlooked by the sales organization.  It was usually treated like a second-rate citizen and relegated to generating leads for outside sales or for merely closing smaller accounts. This is no longer the case.  In fact, inside sales is now the fastest growing sales channel.  Consider these eye-opening statistics:

For those of you who are not yet acquainted with TED Talks, let me just say that they are AWESOME. When watching a TED Talk, my eyes stay glued to the screen as I laugh out-loud, nod along, and often times find myself overcome with a feeling of determination and purpose (also known as "grit" for fellow TED Talk addicts out there).  In less than 15 minutes, TED Talks teach us how to be better people and, as it turns out, these same principles can also be used to make us better business leaders.  

We’ve selected our top 4 TED Talks that will help you to better understand the modern workplace and how you can more effectively lead and motivate your sales team:

Inside sales is "In" and "outside sales is "Out."  Inside sales teams are experiencing explosive growth. According to InsideSales.com, inside sales is growing at a whopping 300 percent faster than field sales.  The ability of inside sales teams to generate revenue more quickly and cost effectively is rapidly making inside sales the best candidate for the job.  Consider these statistics:

As sales leaders, you undoubtedly play a critical role toward the success of your organization.  You are responsible for setting the tone, culture and expectations of the work environment, all the while developing your team's sales productivity and job performance.  This is an increasingly challenging task in a world where every deal matters and where the pace seemingly speeds up by the hour.

Here are 4 tips that can help you enable and empower your sales team to boost sales performance:

If you are looking for new channels to increase revenues, you don't have to look very far.  Your easiest source of new revenue is right under your nose: existing customers.

Any great sales person will tell you that a short and simple sales process is the most effective in closing a deal.  Most buyers are very limited in time and the last thing they want is a long-winded pitch on the 1001 reasons they need to buy your product or service.  Instead, do your homework.  Find out who the buyer is, what they want to buy and why they want to buy it, so that you can fulfill that want by offering something that your prospect values.