CASE STUDY
Redeployed 63 sellers to capture $316M in premium corporate revenue
An airline sales and distribution team redeployed 63 representatives to premium accounts, bringing $316M of corporate revenue under coverage at lower SG&A.
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2 min read
Account-level analytics found $316M in premium corporate travel with no coverage. 63 sellers were redeployed to win it.
A major airline needed its salesforce to win premium business travel while spending less to do it. Success depended on data no one had joined and on a sales team that had to believe in the new model.
The challenge
The airline had to pivot its salesforce toward premium corporate travel while cutting SG&A. Booking, revenue and incentive data sat across proprietary systems, DOT filings and third-party sources, and without one view no one could say where coverage was missing.
The approach
The team built an analytics engine that ranked accounts, markets and regions by value. Its output drove a salesforce redesign and an expansion of corporate coverage.
The new model was designed with the sales team, not handed to it. Competency models tied to premium revenue targets gave every seller a clear standard to work toward.
The results
The analysis exposed $316M in premium corporate travel with no sales coverage. The airline redeployed 63 sales representatives to capture it, lowered SG&A and raised the return on its sales and distribution spend. Performance management was anchored to a clear standard of sales excellence.
What it means now
The hardest part was never the model; it was joining the data and earning the sales team's trust. AI makes account scoring faster and keeps it current, but coverage decisions still land only when the people carrying the bag help design them.
