Posted by
Stephanie Castro
on
6/18/2010 at 10:50 AM
At the recent ACORD LOMA and AHIP conferences in Las Vegas, much was discussed about the value of exceptional customer experiences, from quickly bringing new products to market to winning share and loyalty through adaptive and efficient sales processes. These components can quickly differentiate successful carriers from the rest.
Forward-thinking insurers who value customer experience as a cornerstone of their sales strategy have already started to turn to cutting-edge technology. It will be highly beneficial for other organizations as well to be early adopters of technology for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Sales Performance Management (SPM).
An insurer’s distribution channel is an invaluable tool for interacting with and leaving a lasting impression on customers. More insurers are beginning to embrace these advanced technologies that empower the distribution channel at each step of the sales cycle. Tools that deliver sales performance management capabilities allow insurers to equip the channel to be customer-centric, and also improve internal processes, such as designing agent-motivating incentive plans and executing commission payout cycles.
Learn how to raise your agents’ performance to its optimal level to consistently meet market and consumer demands from a highly successful new agency during our exclusive, free webcast.
Join Jeff Walker, Vice President at Insphere Insurance Solutions, as he shares how his company has implemented a cutting-edge technology platform to maintain the right mix of products, implement better compensation programs, and distribute powerful sales tools to their agents.
“By integrating these tools into our proprietary technology platform, our agents will operate in a seamless multi-carrier environment that will feel like they are working with a single carrier for everything from quoting, electronic applications, application tracking, managing compensation and managing their client base”
- Philip Hildebrand, President and CEO of Insphere Insurance Solutions
Register now for the webcast “Optimal Agent Performance: The Secrets of Distribution Success Revealed” and gain better insight into the sales pipeline of your producers, increase agent engagement, and reduce administrative costs.
Attend to learn how to:
-
Quickly bring new products to market
-
Launch new incentive plans with ease
-
Provide agents with a captive experience with multiple carriers
-
Leverage technology to encourage cross-selling and up-selling
Be the first to rate this post
- Currently 0/5 Stars.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Posted by
Stephanie Castro
on
1/13/2010 at 9:31 PM
Celent recently published a report that examines how insurers can achieve sustained profitability and growth through improved information sharing within distribution channels. Typically, the insurance industry is hampered by outmoded or disjointed technology systems that negatively impact access to information and coordination among different departments. When it comes to producer management, lacking appropriate information at a critical moment leads to delayed responsiveness, which does not sit well with producers. Delays may decrease producer productivity, which can directly impact the bottom line of the organization.
Luckily, insurers have many options when it comes to technology solutions to address these issues. The most promising vendors provide distribution management solutions that accomplish all of the tasks involved in the full lifecycle of the company-producer relationship by combining the capabilities of enterprise incentive management, licensing and compliance. These are integrated solutions that can carry out “producer management functions of appointment, commission, compliance and registration management,” along with support functions such as “document management, workflow and rules management. As a result of this convergence, Celent further expects to see increased integration and capabilities for self-service portals, as well as increased workflow automation.”
Improved coordination between the various functions involved in the producer management lifecycle ensures better producer productivity and customer service. This synchronization of information will also give a superior insight into producers’ performance for the management teams to better align the company’s objectives with producers’ incentives. Thus, coordinated information transfer and system integration empower insurance business users to achieve administrative efficiency, increase producer productivity and advance compensation strategy.
Mike Fitzgerald, senior analyst with Celent's Insurance group and author of the report, says “Distribution solutions that increase coordination and consistency improve agent service, decrease expenses, and attract business.”
Currently rated 4.5 by 2 people
- Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Posted by
Stephen Bruno
on
10/23/2009 at 2:11 PM
Any discussion about automation and distribution management in the insurance industry seems incomplete without mentioning producer portals. With a commission system integrated with a producer portal, carriers can be proactive with sales by organizing prospect information, the producers’ interaction with them, and the details of where the consumer is in the buying cycle.
Producers must have a working knowledge of all available products in order to remain productive. A producer portal serves as a central system where this information can be stored and distributed among the distribution channel. This knowledge dispersion adds a huge value not only to existing agents but also to the newly-recruited. New agents can become productive quickly with unfettered access to information on products, premiums and compensation models. Portal access helps producers to sell products that are right for the customer and also in line with the carrier’s business objectives.
Producer Portals help deliver a rapid return on investment through:
- Increased producer satisfaction – Provide ongoing and accurate communications to the distributions channel
- Reduced turnover in captive agents - Encourage a stable and satisfied sales force with timely and accurate payments
- Improved productivity – More time spent on business critical activities and access to information enables producers to sell the right product to the customer
- Reduced operational costs – Automate common communication to simplify agent care
- Customer Satisfaction – Automation improves turnaround time for quoting and underwriting
Additionally, integrating Producer portals to CRM solutions can further add value to organizations by automating every step in the sales process, improving the selling process for producers and giving management greater insight into the sales pipeline for better forecasting and planning.
Be the first to rate this post
- Currently 0/5 Stars.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Posted by
Joseph Westlake
on
9/30/2009 at 5:37 PM
It’s no secret that in order for insurance carriers to sustain interest among varied consumers, they must focus on innovative product offerings, take the products to market in real time and connect with consumers at a personal level. The key to achieving these goals lays in effectively relating to producers as individual members of a greater distribution channel.
There are many options for producers to choose from when deciding which products to offer and recommend. Therefore, to increase a carrier’s chances of maintaining mind share (and wallet share) with producers, it behooves the carrier to ensure that producers are satisfied with their association and actively selling products that are high-priority for the carrier. To achieve this, carriers need to employ the right strategy in distribution management to attract, empower and retain good producers.
Today, carriers are realizing the benefits of automating internal processes even and especially in the face of budget constraints. Effective distribution management technology makes it easy for a producer to do business with the carrier by providing accurate, timely payments and tools to increase sales effectiveness and access self-service information.
Thus, insurance companies who invest in new processes and technology for automating the sales process can see cost savings in many forms – including increases in producer retention. For career or captive models this is especially important, as the cost to recruit and train an agent entails a large investment.
Investing wisely on distribution management capabilities brings a guaranteed ROI by securing producer loyalty and mind share, as well as increasing career-agent retention and decreasing the amount of investments wasted on agent attrition.
Currently rated 4.0 by 1 people
- Currently 4/5 Stars.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5