FRACTIONAL CMO
SBLI of Massachusetts
SBLI provides term life, whole life, annuities and final expense insurance policies directly to customers, providing superior coverage at a reduced cost.
“Lewis has been an asset following our acquisition of LegacyShield.”
Overview
SBLI needed a business plan quickly to leverage LegacyShield’s capabilities while not negatively impacting SBLI’s overall financials.
With the acquisition, only a handful of LegacyShield employees joined SBLI of Massachusetts, leaving SBLI with a skeletal staff during the pivotal period of integrating into a new company.
A unique new product opportunity arose early in 2022, providing significant growth opportunities in 2023 and beyond. Due to limited staff, the company needed help to execute the deal and launch the new product, especially in marketing/business development, as SBLI didn’t have a Chief Marketing Officer at the time.
LegacyShield’s lockbox vault feature was a valuable and beneficial product offered in conjunction with a life insurance policy. SBLI needed help to best leverage its uniqueness to drive policy retention and growth, given the lack of a CMO.
Challenges
Following the acquisition, Jim Morgan, the CEO of SBLI, approached Lewis Goldman, a fractional Chief Revenue Officer at TechCXO, to develop a go-to-market strategy to best leverage the new asset for SBLI of Massachusetts. Three objectives were established for 2022:
Stabilize the business and integrate it into SBLI
Develop a plan to break even or better for the first year
Integrate LegacyShield features and functionalities with SBLI’s platform for existing policyholders to support retention, cross-sell, and differentiate SBLI’s Term Life policy offering from competitors selling directly to policyholders.
Solutions
- For the previous two years, Lewis Goldman of TechCXO assisted with a variety of new product and marketing projects at SBLI, including mentorship of various marketing personnel until a permanent VP of Marketing was hired in late 2022.
- TechCXO worked closely with the CEO and SBLI management to create a comprehensive business plan and go-to-market strategy to support LegacyShield’s business and marketing objectives for 2022, including presenting the plan for approval by the Board of Directors following the acquisition in Q3 of 2021.
- Create a business and financial plan for LegacyShield to support the remainder of Q4 in 2021 through the end of 2022.
- Negotiated and executed distribution opportunities leading to the growth of third-party revenue for LegacyShield.
- Spearheaded a task team consisting of the technology department at SBLI to establish and implement an integration strategy for LegacyShield and SBLI’s core servicing platform (MySBLI.com), as well as on the SBLI.com website.
- Assisted in hiring a new sales representative to work with the key 3rd party distribution partner to stabilize the distribution channel and revenue stream.
- Created a financial model following a new partnership with LegacyShield Provider Network (LSPN), where SBLI would offer an enhanced LegacyShield product along with other services provided through advisors to end customers.
Fractional CMO
Outcome
Acting as a fractional business leader, Lewis Goldman solved the revenue growth concerns following the acquisition of LegacyShield with go-to-market strategies, business, and financial models. As a result, the company exceeded its renewal goals, adding numerous new advisors to its distribution channel, and soft launched the new product in Q4 2022 with significant marketing support and expansion planned for early 2023. The company projects to increase revenue from LegacyShield by 50% in 2023 vs. 2022.
“Lewis has been an asset following our acquisition of LegacyShield. His expertise in innovative go-to-market strategies and establishing appropriate business structure has accelerated our revenue growth and allowed us to expand our market offerings in 2023.”
- Jim Morgan CEO