Insurance – Activate customers and sales
English
German
English
German
Even in turbulent times, insurance sales are full of growth opportunities. The key to success: a clear focus on a targeted increase in productivity and continuous development of new sales potential. With our tailor-made strategy - from the optimization of existing channels to the development of new sales channels and the targeted empowerment of your sales team - we realize additional growth for you. Together we will ensure your success.
Gregor Morin, Senior Manager
Challenges
Digitalization and changing customer needs are influencing the relationship between insurers and policyholders in a fundamental way. As a result, there will be new opportunities in customer contact, for example by promoting digital and hybrid advisory services. This applies to insurers, but also to competitors from other sectors. Traditional providers need to open up to these new ways. In addition, the broker market is also changing, with a tendency towards increasing consolidation. Overall, insurers need to acknowledge that market power is shifting further towards their customers and partners (e.g. pools and large brokers). They should therefore expand their sales interface and generate new customer contacts, sales channels and new partnerships.
Traditional insurers have large customer bases but often limited policy penetration because many of their customers have only one or few policies. Selling additional policies to existing customers is often difficult for traditional insurers. The declining number of insurance intermediaries due to regulatory requirements and the shortage of skilled workers, among other factors, does not make things any easier. To counteract this, the efficiency and productivity of the sales organization must be increased and existing cooperations expanded.
Solutions & fields of action
Agency of the future
Digitalization and intensifying competition, combined with recruitment problems among insurance agents, are leading agencies to become more professional and act as larger units or teams. New digital tools and hybrid customer behavior present both challenges and opportunities for insurance agents.
Our approaches enable the agency of the future to successfully meet the challenges and, in doing so, increase the active selling time of insurance agents as well as the conversion rate. The result is a significant increase in sales success.
New customer access via digital sales
The customer journey to insurance products is increasingly taking place in the digital world. For example, 8 out of 10 customers now research online, and one in two insurance decision-makers already takes out policies digitally. Younger people in particular are a key driver of this development.
The trend towards direct, digital insurance sales has experienced a boost as a result of the coronavirus crisis and continues to grow even after the crisis. According to the GDV, digital contracts will account for almost 20% of new business in 2023. This corresponds to significant growth of 25% since 2021.
In the insurance industry, organic growth will no longer be possible in the future without well-positioned digital sales.
We know the market and have worked with our customers to implement a large number of digital sales solutions with impressive success.
Sources:
8 out of 10: https://www.bitkom.org/Presse/Presseinformation/Versicherungen-Juengere-informieren-sich-online#_
One in two: Sirius Campus Customer Monitor e-Assurance 2023
GDV: https://www.gdv.de/gdv/medien/medieninformationen/versicherung-vertrieb-abschluesse-digital-181036
Bancassurance as a growth driver
The profitability of banks is coming under increasing pressure. Against this backdrop, banks need to counteract the pressure on earnings by tapping into new sources of revenue. One way out is to expand the insurance business. According to our analyses, the German bancassurance market has a growth potential of 5.1% p.a. in terms of gross premiums written by 2030.
We know the best practice examples and success factors for insurers and banks from the European market in order to achieve sustainable growth in bancassurance. In various project settings, we have realigned bancassurance models for insurers along our “Bancassurance” framework and transformed and digitalized banks' insurance sales models.
Activating existing customers
Increasing the number of policies per customer is a huge lever for growth, a fact not lost on most insurance companies. However, they have trouble utilizing this knowledge: they need to rethink the way they advise and approach customers by offering innovative solutions and improving customer-centric communications in order to attract customers to new policies, retain them over the long term and ultimately increase their upselling and cross-selling rates.
We know the success factors and have assisted our clients in implementing solutions that ensure long-term success, e.g. direct sales centers and next best offers in brick-and-mortar and digital sales.
Rethinking sales support
Insurers are facing the challenge of changing requirements of insurance agents for which current support models have not been designed. Insurers therefore need to react and take the changed requirements of these agents seriously, develop and consistently use digital tools, and set up insurance agency support both functionally and efficiently.
Based on insurance agent journeys, we have implemented modern sales organizations at our clients that are characterized by a clear division of various functions. For instance, focused hunting units are responsible for the development and expansion of business partners. Central farming units quickly and pragmatically resolve the agents’ issues.
Acquiring young customers
Demographic change in Germany is having a significant impact on the portfolios of many insurance companies. German insurers are expected to lose more than 10% of their customers by 2030, which will lead to a significant decline in premium income. At the same time, insurers will not be able to attract enough new customers in the younger age groups to offset this demographic effect. As a result, insurers are experiencing a downward trend that requires short-term action.
We have already advised a number of insurer competitors on this and developed various solutions. These include the development of sales strategies, the design of target group strategies and the further development of digital and hybrid exclusive sales channels.
Implementing regulations in a sales and opportunity-oriented manner
Increasing regulation is presenting insurers with ever greater challenges, both through new laws and stricter requirements. Laws on consumer protection, sustainability issues and the regulation of sales, such as the EU retail investor strategy, have already come into force or are currently being prepared by legislators. For insurers, this results in a clear need for action.
We offer insurance companies regulatory security and support them in fulfilling the legal requirements, while at the same time identifying and exploiting sales opportunities arising from new regulations. In doing so, we efficiently involve the sales force and ensure broad acceptance of the measures within the sales organization.
