Rep Scoring: How Do You Rank?

Rep score resembled by people on a podium in first, second, and third place

What goes into a rep score? How do you use it? How are firms measuring its impact? You may have been asking yourself one or all of these questions if, like me, you were sitting in the audience during the “Rep Scoring: Running from 0 to 100” session at MFEA’s Digital Council meeting last week.

During this session, Eaton Vance shared some insights into how they are handling sales targeting and rep scoring. The beginning of their story resonated with other asset managers in the room, as they recognized the information overload that distribution and marketing teams have to manage. The reality is that, with all the data sources (digital, production, third-party, and more) that are available, firms are struggling to digest and use these sources effectively.

Defining and Using Rep Score

Eaton Vance’s approach involves business leaders who worked together to define key attributes, points, calculations, and algorithms that boiled all the data down into a rep score that makes sense for their business. In order to make that score strategically actionable, they present it in a way that’s easily consumed by both distribution and marketing. How? For distribution, they clearly and concisely explain what goes into the score, why this rep merits a call or visit, and what the conversation should be about when a wholesaler makes the call or visits that rep. For marketing, they present the scores through targeted lists, segmented based on proprietary key algorithms, and ensure that the lists are continually updated.

Measuring Impact

Eaton Vance has seen a positive shift in activity. Wholesalers have started to embrace and trust the score, using it to quickly determine “who, what, and why” and to take action. Marketing is able to more strategically segment and target their audience to deliver the right message, to the right person at the right time.

The Future of Scoring—How SalesPage Can Help

Eaton Vance noted that they are constantly evaluating and tweaking aspects of their scoring methodology. They are also looking into how scoring impacts sales lift. The other firms in the room seemed to agree that each firm is unique and, as a result, will have different attributes, points, and algorithms that will make sense for their businesses.

I felt fortunate to be seated in the audience where I could not only hear what Eaton Vance, a leader in the industry, is doing with rep scoring, but also hear what other firms are considering, have tried, or are hoping to accomplish with scoring. Similarly, SalesPage has the good fortune of being seated at the center of an active SalesPage client community, which allows us to partner with asset managers like Eaton Vance to help them accomplish business priorities like rep scoring.

To have an effective rep scoring and sales targeting strategy, you need to get all your data into one easily accessible system that can be leveraged across the organization. For Eaton Vance, that system is SalesPage. SalesPage’s distribution management solutions start with the data. Whether it’s production, entity, market share, or digital, SalesPage processes and reconciles this data to the appropriate firms, offices, reps, and accounts. This allows our clients to maintain data quality and structure, feed that data into internal and third-party systems, and fuel scoring algorithms.

The number and type of data elements or attributes that are important to determining a rep’s score are only going to change and increase. As a result, scoring methods should be under constant review and should be adjusted based on qualitative feedback from wholesalers and on various performance criteria. Additionally, you need a system that’s going to have the ability to process, reconcile and leverage this data across your firm. The value SalesPage brings is simple—our solutions help you manage data, focus effort, and grow assets.

How You Rank

Whether you’re just starting to think about scoring or you’re already developing and using a scoring methodology, we’d be happy to speak with you and see how we can help. Feel free to contact me to learn more about how we can help you.