Property and casualty (P&C) insurance represents USD 1.6 trillion in premiums – about one-third of the total insurance industry. However, insurers in this sector seeking to maintain their profitability need to be cognizant of evolving customer behaviors and keep up with ongoing digital innovations. Then there are regulatory pressures and new competitors to take into account, not to mention a shifting risk landscape that includes extreme weather and the growing need for cyber-insurance.
All these factors must be considered as insurers contemplate their strategies and operating models. Maintaining a steady pipeline of insurance sales is critical to success. And that’s where the role of effective, well-trained product sales advisors becomes amplified.
Why Are Insurance Product Sales Advisors So Important?
These advisors are the front door to every insurance firm’s business. They help customers and prospects with effective financial planning, joining the dots between insurance and their personal financial goals.
Great product service advisors have knowledge of a wide array of products, possess the necessary credentials, and understand the dynamics of the industry. They consider and analyze many factors before proposing a product to prospects and customers. These might include family and retirement needs and unanticipated medical and contingency expenses.
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Clearly, insurers with an eye on profitable growth need to ensure they have a team of qualified, experienced, and motivated product sales agents on their team.
In this article, we’ll consider the qualities the best advisors should possess and why outsourcing this function is becoming an increasingly popular strategy.
The Business Case for Outsourcing
Outsourcing certain parts of the insurance ecosystem is growing in popularity for many reasons. The roles most frequently handed over to Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) partners include “frontline services,” – which include functions such as FNOL, Call Centers, and Product Service Advisors.
One of the key motivating factors for outsourcing is the rising cost of insurance operations. Many firms spend a lot on human resources. Over and above salaries, they need to pay for employee benefits, training, and office rental space.
Intensifying market competition is another issue. Over the past few years, new players that offer their services online have proliferated. These new dynamics have intensified the price-based competition, driven expansion into new geographies, and motivated traditional insurers to develop new, differentiating products.
For many P&C insurers, it simply makes business sense to inject capital into expansion, innovation, and R&D efforts to sharpen their competitive edge rather than dedicate budget to headcount and other overhead costs.
However, as we touched on earlier, outsourcing aspects of a company’s frontline services – especially product sales advisors – isn’t a decision that should be taken lightly.
Let’s look at a few qualities to consider when outsourcing your product sales function to a BPO partner.
A Consultative Selling Approach
Too often, sales advisors don’t take time to learn about their prospect’s needs and wants before diving into their products or services. It’s not surprising that most customers see them as just another agent that wants to make a sale.
The best advisors are genuinely interested in helping their prospects find the best solutions to their problems. They adopt a consultative sales process that primarily focuses on the experience that the prospect or customer feels and sees during all their interactions with your company. Essentially, it’s about the advisor finding ways to provide the prospect with real value and making it all about them rather than your products or business.
Outsourcing this process to a BPO partner with people who understand and practice consultative sales will help you cultivate long-term customer relationships resilient to tight markets and the threat of low-cost competition.
Investment in Training and Support
Ongoing training in proven sales techniques and strategies is crucial to any insurance agent’s success. The best outsourcing providers provide their people with ongoing training and ensure their accreditations are up to date.
They’ll also encourage their advisors to take advantage of opportunities to learn from others in their community.
Ready to Grow Your Team with Product Sales Advisors and Consultants?
If you need an experienced, licensed, and consultative team to help you capture opportunities, Covenir is your turnkey sales solution.
Our team believes in thoughtful engagement, a consultative approach, asking good questions, carefully listening, and leaving your customers with a feeling of trust and goodwill.
Why Covenir?
Covenir’s business model is founded on the belief that we need to make it easy for insurers to quickly and cost-effectively explore direct-to-consumer sales.
Here are some of the reasons we’re a recognized leader in outsourced product sales:
- P&C insurance licensed sales professionals – all onshore
- Dynamic, flexible – able to adapt to clients’ needs
- Ability to rapidly scale to support a carrier’s growth initiatives
- Respond quickly and capably when leads come in – ensuring speed to lead
- Quality workflow processes that focus on speed to close
- Consultative, collaborative approach working within customer-established KPIs
- Assistance with any part or all of your sales process