"Customer CV" simulation game for sales training
Company portrait
The Allianz Field Service Academy was founded in 2008 as the company’s own training center for the Allianz sales company in Germany, Allianz Beratungs- und Vertriebs-AG. In addition to training up to 2,500 new employees per year, the academy is also responsible for the further development of some 20,000 salaried employees and managers as well as self-employed companies. The initiation and support of innovative, strategic projects in the sales environment, e.g. the further development of consulting quality, forms a further spectrum of the area of responsibility.
The idea
As part of the 24-month Allianz sales training program, prospective salespeople are given the technical and sales qualifications they need to work successfully in sales. The training consists of twelve classroom training sessions (PT) and eleven sales phases at the agency, which are accompanied by state-of-the-art e-learning. The twelfth classroom training course, PT12, is the final test of the Allianz Field Service Academy. The test is carried out in the form of a business game. The participants have to sell both insurance and investment products to a fictitious customer who is “played” by the trainer. These are designed to provide customers with optimum protection against everyday risks and for the future. The 60 years of the customer’s life are shown in fast motion and the effects of strategic financial services in the private and commercial environment are demonstrated.
All participants in a PT12 always receive the same scenario, i.e. the same information about the fictitious customer. This is the only way to draw a comparison between the different small groups at the end of a PT12 and to analyze the different strategies. However, the main focus should not be on the direct competition between the participants to achieve the best result, but rather to illustrate the importance of early planning and constant analysis of the individual customer situation.
The collaboration
The Innoward
The InnoWard Education Prize was awarded for the first time at the 2005 Education Congress in Berlin. The Insurance Industry Education Network – with the support of Verlag Versicherungswirtschaft – recognizes innovative concepts and their effective implementation in the areas of initial vocational training and personnel development and qualification.
Every year, this prize is awarded to exemplary projects that are expected to provide innovative impetus for educational work in the insurance industry and that have already proven successful in practice. In September 2009, the Allianz Field Service Academy’s “Customer Resume” simulation game was awarded the 2nd prize of the InnoWard in the area of personnel development and qualification.
Jury's decision on the Innoward
“With the “Customer CV” simulation game, the jury honors a simulation that simulates the CV of a customer within 5 days as part of sales training. It is particularly commendable that thinking from the customer’s perspective is consistently reflected here. The judges see it as a politically valuable sign that this teaching-learning environment can be used to teach in a new way, also taking into account the vicissitudes of life, to sell the customer the right thing. Of course, a business game at product level is rather easy to simulate, but the possibilities for developing customer sensitivity are impressively demonstrated. Above all, it is worth recognizing that the brokers’ horizon of experience can be expanded comprehensively, quickly and in a customer-oriented manner. The transferability to other companies is high: all in all, a very promising approach to even more quality in mediator training that could set a precedent.”
The goals
The core objective of the new development is double-entry bookkeeping, which offers easy expandability, security through posting and offsetting entries as well as the basis for flexible, continuous evaluations. To ensure realism for the participants, almost the entire Allianz portfolio of insurance, pension and asset management products is supported. It is also possible to add new functionalities or extensions, such as dice scenarios or an extensive scenario editor.
The tasks of the PTA
After an extensive analysis and design phase carried out in close cooperation with the Allianz Field Service Academy, the software supporting the business game was implemented as a Java standalone application with an SQLite database.
The design basis for the user interface is the look of Allianz’s internal sales software. This should make it easier for participants to enter product data. The three modules, for participants and trainers as well as the database, were integrated into the existing IT infrastructure at the various training locations. Once the implementation was complete, PTA project staff supported the Germany-wide rollout of the new software and the tests, which were largely carried out by Allianz.
In future, PTA will support the Allianz Field Service Academy in the further development of the training project, not only in the form of implementation, but also in the planning and design of improvements and new features.
Contact
PTA GmbH Head Office
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D-68165 Mannheim
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