The Revolution Is Here: What Insurance Leaders Need to Know
Long before cellphones, Starbucks and Twitter, there was insurance. You can look back to the advent of society and find some form of the concept. In 4000 BCE Babylon, contracts protected merchants when cargo was lost at sea. In ancient Rome, burial societies paid the funeral costs of their peers using funds from monthly dues. In the 1930s, the Social Security Act ushered in unemployment compensation and unprecedented retirement benefits.
The Sales Revolution is all about leveraging new ideas and technology to sell and service your prospects and clients more effectively and efficiently, writes Don Bailey, a former broker and carrier executive. Bailey says today’s agents need to understand the disruptive forces affecting their businesses, the competition they’re up against and the ways they can differentiate their firms. This article is based on Chapter 1 of the e-book “The Sales Revolution,” which aims to demystify digital disruption and provide insurance leaders with strategic insights to help them better navigate the seismic market changes ahead. A full copy of the e-book, written by Bailey, CEO of Bristlecone Partners, and Jason Liu, CEO of Zywave, can be found atwww.insurancesalesrevolution.com
Yet, despite its long and vibrant history, the insurance industry has remained largely unchanged over the years—at least until now. Digital disruption is here, and it’s altering the face of insurance as we know it. Moving forward, agents must manage heightened consumer demands, shifting definitions of risk, and the prospect of big data and tech to successfully navigate industry changes.
And these changes aren’t just an evolution. They’re a revolution.
The Age of Self-service and the Digital Transformation
Insurance has evolved far beyond what it used to be. One such change relates to the way customers find and purchase coverage. Today’s insurance buyers demand a technology-inspired experience that can be done almost entirely virtually, and it’s reshaping the insurance industry.
For personal lines policyholders, nontraditional, technology-based insurance companies offer customers on-demand, pay-as-you-go coverage options that simplify the underwriting process.
Author Don Bailey has over 30 years of experience in the insurance industry, working in various roles spanning from underwriter to producer to CEO. Bailey was the former Chairman and CEO of Willis Towers Watson North America, President of Allstate’s business-to-business portfolio of companies and the President of Global Sales at Marsh. Currently, he sits on the advisory board at insurance technology provider Zywave and is a partner at Bristlecone Partners LLC, a growth and human capital consultancy firm. Bailey is the Guest Editor for a section of the July/August edition of Carrier Management and the author of the previously published article, “Psychic Leadership: Why We Need It in a Crisis.”
On the benefits side, clients and their employees want more transparency and self-service options when it comes to their health and ancillary benefits. Providing self-service portals for plan documents, claims submissions and online enrollment is no longer a way to differentiate yourself from competition. It’s a standard offering that clients expect. And these expectations are growing by the day.
Whether they work with an agent virtually or the process is entirely self-service, consumers demand an element of technology throughout their entire buyer’s journey. As digital channels in insurance continue to gain traction, agents must adapt in order to survive. This is especially true when you examine other seismic trends affecting today’s agencies, including a new definition of risk and the arrival of big data and innovative tech.
The Shifting Definition of Risk: Big Data, New Tech and the Sales Revolution
As innovation in the industry grows stronger, agencies are witnessing a fundamental shift in the very definition of risk.
