PIMCO

Changing the Perception of PIMCO

Accelerate Performance has helped us create and evolve our sales process over the years, and successfully engrain it into our team culture to serve as the underpinning for development and performance. Very deliberately, we’ve partnered with AP to enable this via individual and group coaching, training-the-trainers, certification, continuous leadership consultation, and lots of practice. AP is a key factor in this institutionalization process and reinforces consistency so we don’t introduce new frameworks as “flavor of the month.” This work helps our new leaders and sellers succeed faster.

Marshall McIntosh

Executive Vice President and Head of Sales PIMCO

Situation

PIMCO is a global powerhouse in financial services/asset management, widely recognized as one of the best bond managers on earth. They have been committed to growth in new product areas, as well as in new geographies; all while facing challenges like: volatile markets, rapid organizational growth, leadership changes, and increasing competition. PIMCO realized that to fuel its long-term growth, it needed a consistent way to approach clients across various geographies, different business units, and different client-facing roles.

Approach

Our partnership began in 2006 and early on we studied PIMCO top performers around the globe to identify opportunities and also learn “the PIMCO way” - the transferrable best practices that could be packaged and learned by others. We regularly spend time learning and relearning PIMCO people, culture, tools, language; all of which are built into extremely customized and relevant deliverables. We have built, taught, and reinforced PIMCO sales and service development programs across:

  • Retail and institutional teams
  • North American, Latin America, EMEA, and APAC
  • New and experienced client-facers and leaders
  • External and internal-facing teams
  • Times when PIMCO needed to play offense and defense (sometimes both)

Our deliverables over the years have in the form of:

  • Large team trainings at offsites
  • Small focused team trainings
  • Opportunity focused coaching (working with individuals or small teams to prepare for and practice in advance of a specific client meeting and opportunity)
  • Call coaching (working side by side with team members and leaders as they make client calls)

While the markets and contexts change, the fundamental ways to approach a client at PIMCO remains consistent, and it’s our job to reinforce this approach.

Outcomes

The firm has grown from $600 Billion in assets under management in 2006 to a peak of over $2 Trillion.

  • Fundamental tools that we built and introduced together in 2006 are still used daily by client-facing professionals
  • Example Results: UK Team - Opportunity Focused Coaching and Practice
    • New assets raised: Achieved 200% of target
    • Revenue: Exceeded target by 55%
  • Recognition in the marketplace in new areas like Alternative Investments
  • PIMCO operates as a lean organization, and continues to lead it’s peers in client service scores accordingly to the industry standard Greenwich Survey, as well as receive positive internal feedback on training and development resources.