A little awareness goes a long way.

By making retirement plan sponsors, advisors and participants more aware of its products, Springfield, Mass.-based MassMutual boosted the sales of its mutual funds in 2015. In particular, a new defined contribution investment only (DCIO) sales team helped the company increase sales of its mutual funds and other stable value products to DCIO clients by 40 percent, up to $1.9 billion.

The eight-member team of DCIO professionals was created last year to focus on consultants and financial advisors working in the retirement plan space. “Our funds are now firmly on the radar screens of more plan advisors, consultants and sponsors across the country,” said Aruna Hobbs, senior managing director and leader of MassMutual’s DCIO team.  “We plan to continue to build the branding and tremendous momentum.”

MassMutual Funds are now available on several dozen external recordkeeping platforms and consultant-approved lists.

As a result, the firm has increased flows into both passive and actively managed funds, including its MassMutual RetireSMART suite of target-date funds as plan sponsors and participants embraced qualified default investment alternatives.

When adding sales to MassMutual’s own retirement plan recordkeeping products to the DCIO total, mutual fund gross purchases exceeded $6 billion in 2015. Combined, MassMutual’s mutual funds, stable value and pension buyout products totaled nearly $80 billion in AUM as of Dec. 31, 2015.