Mining Diamonds, finding gold

AXA Equitable reports strong feedback with SAS^®

A man leaves his farm in search of the richest diamond mine in the world only to die penniless when, all along, unknown to him, his own land was rich with the jewels he longed to find. That's the fable at the heart of AXA Equitables ongoing successful marketing program called Mining Diamonds.

Using SAS Customer Intelligence to implement its Mining Diamonds program, AXA Equitable has helped its financial professionals (FPs) and branch managers remain familiar with all the special financial planning needs of their customers, says Alan Satterlee, AXA Equitable's Vice President of CRM Analysis.

"The program is about keeping us current with the all the special needs and situations of our many clients," Satterlee says. "It's important because the financial services industry has been plagued with marketing clutter as product and service offerings have increased."

With SAS, AXA Equitable analyzes client data to customize its FPs' books of business to identify the special situations and circumstances within a client's lifecycle that the busy financial professional does not want to miss.

Satterlee's group is responsible for the customer segmentation, analytics and data mining behind the program. His group teamed with branch managers, FPs and marketing executives to ensure success when they rolled out Mining Diamonds to the field. Branch managers endorsed the program, which was critical for its smooth implementation at 67 branches. Study groups and best practices revealed early achievements that swayed even the most skeptical advisers. And marketing is effectively tracking and reporting results from the program to round out a foundation for success.

"One of the biggest challenges in the field is having thousands of clients and achieving a level of data segmentation that allows us to understand our customers better; that allows us to stand back and analyze the decisions consumers in various demographics are making and the trends that exist. SAS allows us to do that type of analysis," says Susan Cooper, Divisional Executive Vice President and Manager of AXA Financial's New York City branch.

Several years ago, AXA Equitable changed its business strategy from offering primarily life insurance and annuities to concentrating on financial advisory services and a broader array of products. Executives wanted to make sure that the focus remained on the customers, as product offerings and services expanded broadly. Now, with more than $551.3 billion in assets under management, AXA Equitable is one of the premier financial protection and wealth management companies in the United States.

Using SAS, AXA Equitable's marketing group has developed a customer satisfaction index that shows individual financial advisers where they're excelling and where they can improve. "We found that sales rates are significantly higher among customers who are satisfied," says Greg Winsper, Senior Vice President of Marketing. "From a business perspective, SAS allows us to see the clear link between having satisfied clients who we have helped address their financial goals."

Before implementing SAS, AXA Equitable prepared a guide for sales, but it was hardly customized. "Now, we've tracked changes in surrender and sales rates for clients, and the business case built on them was met within the first six months," Winsper says. "Using SAS in our Mining Diamonds program – if you compare the cost of creating a customized book of business and the business it has generated – we've seen a huge return on investment."

According to Winsper, not only did the average number of sales increase by 40 percent for those FPs who took part in the program, but the average increase in profitability for those sales has been significant, too.

In addition, AXA Equitable's managers mentor top performers with valid ideas culled directly from their books of business. Meanwhile, AXA Equitable has begun to share the concept of Mining Diamonds with AXA Group colleagues in France and Australia.

Most importantly, SAS has helped meet objectives to remain client-focused and disciplined when tracking activities to make sure they work. "We're making a huge attempt to make sure our sales efforts are in line with what our clients need and want," says Tracey Gray-Walker, AXA Equitable's Vice President of Client Management for Retail Distribution. "Getting this right – and with help from SAS – is a huge opportunity for us."

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