Cliff's Insights Playbook #1: For the Carrier: Increasing Broker Penetration

Broadening broker reach through building new broker relationships or increasing current broker market share should always be top of mind for all group insurance carrier distribution organizations. Sales reps tend to focus on their top few brokerage firms that consistently deliver sales revenue year over year.

However, being able to identify new and existing opportunities in the market can be a great source of new revenue for new and tenured sales reps alike. And those brokers flying under the radar screen or those with little to no current relationship can sometimes develop into one of those top performing firms.

Finally, increasing broker penetration and market share is a sure-fire way to identify those markets where a new sales rep presence may be needed and justified or where there is an opportunity to increase sales goals and related sales revenue for the more experienced rep. 

"Ok, I’m sold! Show me how I can do this using AskGMS and Benefeature!"

Here are step-by-step instructions that will help you get on your way to finding those brokers just waiting for you to call:

Step 1: Get Access! You will need access to both AskGMS and Benefeature.

Step 2: Log on to AskGMS! Select the “Broker Search” link in the upper right of the screen. Note that AskGMS has reported new sales for ALL SIZE SEGMENTS, including under 100 lives!

Step 3: Select your products and sales period! Select the desired “Products” and the new sales “Effective Date” range from the drop-down menu on the left side of the screen (note that there are over 20 years of new sales history for some products!).

Step 4: Run your broker report! Click on in the bottom left.

Step 5: The broker report! The broker listing report will generate displaying Brokerage Name, Broker Location, # of Carrier Competitors, Annual Premium, and # Plans Sold (Lines of Coverage). The “Total” line will give YOUR overall market share for the products and time period selected for all brokers being reported – in this example, the “Plans Sold” Market Share for this carrier is 6.9%.

Step 6: Narrow your search criteria! Now we will narrow our search criteria to a specific territory, size segment, or industry. In this example, I will expand the “SHOW AVAILABLE FILTERS” tab to see my other criteria and demographic options and select the Broker Metro Area of Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA.

Again, I will select the button to re-run the report.

The first line on the newly generated report shows that for this carrier for brokers located in this metro area for the selected products and time period, the Plans Sold Market Share of 7.85% is more favorable than the carrier’s overall broker market share of 6.9%! *

*Note that when reviewing Annual Premium Market Share, Market premium may be redacted due to that broker interacting with too few carriers or has not sold sufficient lines of coverage for the criteria selected.

Step 7: Now comes the fun part – find those brokers! To identify potential new broker opportunities, we are looking for those firms that have sold little or no coverages for the products and time periods selected. At this point in our analysis, it might be prudent to download this report into an Excel spreadsheet to allow for filtering and sorting. To download to Excel, select the button located in the upper right of the screen.

Step 8: Sort your Excel file! Typically, I would initially sort the Plans Sold carrier column on the spreadsheet in ascending order. This allows the user to see those brokers that have not sold anything with you as a carrier but are selling in the market. If the Market Annual Premium has not been redacted, this also will give you a sense for the amount of premium the broker has sold over that time period for those products.

Step 9: Build your broker list! Select those brokers that seem to have the highest potential and get ready to start dialing/emailing!

Step 10: Log on to Benefeature! We are now going to cross-reference our broker opportunities to the Benefeature function that has integrated individual broker state filing contact information. After logging in, select the “Brokers” search option and then type in part or all of the brokerage/firm name you are searching for. Select the broker desired from the returned broker listing.

Step 11: Find your broker contact information! You will now be directed to the broker overview dashboard. Select the “Offices & Agents” link at the top of the screen; if there is a broker/firm cross-reference available, you will be provided a listing of producers with email addresses and phone numbers.

Please use it! If your sales teams have access to both AskGMS and Benefeature, have clear direction from leadership around the importance of expanding broker reach, and follow these proven step-by-step instructions, you are certain to unlock the power of this business intelligence and significantly grow new sales revenue!

Please share with us! Please share with us any of your successes or feedback; also, remember we are always here to help, guide, or answer any questions you may have. Email us or give us a call at 207-618-8792.

Please be on the lookout! Coming soon…

Playbook #2: For the Carrier & Broker: Growing Profitable New Sales Through Effective Prospecting

Cliff Murch has spent his career working closely with the sales, marketing, underwriting, and finance organizations of several large group insurance and retirement carriers designing and implementing business and broker intelligence capabilities, traveling across the country meeting with sales teams and broker partners; these proven capabilities have been employed to generate millions of dollars of sales revenue. He has recently founded and now offers consulting services related to these marketing and sales strategies to insurance carriers as well as brokerage firms of all sizes through his consulting firm Insight 360, LLC.