10EQS

Benchmarking Broker Strategy and Sales Ops in Group Benefits

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Situation

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Our client wanted to better understand competitive positioning and commercial excellence models within the U.S. group benefits market. They wanted to assess how direct peers manage broker relationships, structure sales operations and CRM workflows, and support reps through non-selling functions, where complex distribution channels and account-size segmentation often make carrier differentiation and sales enablement benchmarking difficult

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Objective

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The objective was to gather an outside-in perspective on commercial models, broker activation strategies, and sales operations to inform commercial strategy and organizational improvements. The research focused on evaluating broker relationship management (including informal vs. structured broker tiering), CRM/Salesforce workflows, incentive compensation design, sales team structure, and the role of AI in sales versus back-office functions.

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Our Work

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10EQS conducted targeted interviews with sales representatives, account executives, and commercial leaders across competitor and adjacent carriers in the group benefits space. Interviews explored broker network structure, CRM/Salesforce workflows across the deal lifecycle, sales team organization (including offshore support functions), and compensation and training design

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Industry experts (excerpt):

Global Benefits Consultant – WTW (US)
Vice President Employee Benefits – USI Insurance Services (US)
Vice President, Health and Benefits – Marsh McLennan Agency (US)
Director, Sales Development – Workday (US)
Vice President / General Manager – Paychex (US)

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Result

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10EQS delivered actionable peer intelligence showing that while traditional carriers still rely on informal, relationship-driven broker prioritization over structured tiering, common performance levers emerged: dedicated non-selling support staff to maximize rep selling time, standardized CRM opportunity stages, and strong local/regional service models as key differentiators. Consistent challenges included quote speed-to-market and pricing competitiveness on larger groups — both potential areas of edge for the client. AI adoption was concentrated in claims and account management rather than core sales workflows, pointing to a market-wide gap the client could look to close