This Month at The Helm: Repositioning Your Sales Strategy

Welcome to the March 2026 edition of The Helm, Sunstone’s executive briefing for Healthcare and Insurance leaders navigating growth, transformation, and scale. Each month, our Operating Partners share real-world insights from complex engagements to help leadership teams see beyond the horizon and build the capabilities required to turn opportunity into sustained results.

Like the ancient Vikings who used the Sunstone to find their path, we are ready to help you plot your direction, and chart a course for a successful journey.

Mike Murphy

Founder and Managing Partner

Joe Rolewicz

Founder and Managing Director

Headwinds & Currents

When expanding into new markets, there are challenges in building an effective sales team and marketing strategy. Having a competitive product does not guarantee traction. Just because you “build it”, does not mean “they will come”. Success derives from:

Analyzing the market – focus on robust opportunities

Clearly differentiating products and marketing messaging

Understanding the dynamics and timing aligned with relevant KPIs and financials

Building a sales process, a CRM, activity targets, and incentives that track to the market strategy

SMA Client Voyage

The Client's Storm

A Third-Party Administrator (TPA) focused on large self-insured clients with unique needs or in markets where its networks were competitive. The organization sought to expand by investing in a national sales team across twenty new markets. Two years in, results significantly lagged expectations. Key challenges included:

Declining book of business and limited sales

Sales revenue insufficient to cover sales team costs.

Sparse new market recognition

Salesperson retention - lack of sales driving lower commissions

Viewing Through the Sunstone

Our Perspecive – performed a root cause diagnostic to understand key sales and account management activities and results:

Are timelines realistic?
Do all target markets represent the same opportunity? What is the level of entrenched competition?
Is marketing collateral reflecting a differentiated message? Is outreach inspiring local decision-makers?
Are sales processes following the market development strategy? Are incentives aligned, sales tools optimal, account executives performing vs. expectations?

Signals

5X Increase

In New Business

250% Increase

In Sales Activity

CRM implementation

Pipeline visibility and sales discipline

Align sales execution and messaging with a cogent local market strategy.

Compass Points

Validated markets with clear opportunity; exited others

Developed product improvement strategies for marginal markets and continuously enhanced differentiators

Restructured Sales Team responsibilities and processes - Aligned market development with pay and performance criteria

Implemented a CRM

Streamlined Sales Team - Focused on talent and strong local ties in high opportunity markets

Developed new messaging and corresponding marketing materials

Modified target segments to match marketing strengths

Set Your Heading

Be conservative in establishing timelines to enter new markets. Disrupting current buying patterns takes time

Allow for sunk sales costs from compensation bridges for your sales team as it moves from developing deal flow to realized revenue

Build incentive compensation to reward market building success, avoid guarantees

Use incremental mileposts to assess progress in market development

Book a Complimentary Voyage Briefing

If our perspectives on growth, transformation, and value creation resonate with you, let’s schedule a brief introductory call. We’ll listen, learn, and explore how our paths might align—no obligations, just dialogue.

Are You Ready to Be Extraordinary... To Go Beyond...?