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Cliff's Insights Playbook # 4: Using Facts, Data, and Logic to Manage Your Territories

Picture of Cliff Murch Cliff Murch : Aug 14, 2024 9:16:41 AM

Sales Distribution Strategy

Cliff's Insights Playbook # 4: Using Facts, Data, and Logic to Manage Your Territories

Managing a sales territory effectively can be a challenge; even more so if you are basing your assessments solely on qualitative or subjective analysis. With Benefeature and AskGMS, you can confidently review your territory to uncover underperforming segments as well as potential opportunities using facts, data, and logic!

I’ve included a couple of market-proven approaches below:

Quickly Identify Territory Competitor Carriers and Brokers:

Summarize your competitor block of business by leveraging Benefeature. Build your customized territories based on your sales regions and download your data quickly to Excel to sort and pivot.

Compare Broker and Carrier Growth and Retention:

Benefeature provides a unique look at historical reported 5500 broker and carrier trends based on growth and retention key performance indicators. Your firm’s performance can be measured against other competitors in your territory. “BeneRanking” is a system of Benefeature’s own ranking algorithms developed to sort results intelligently and effectively.

Quantify Competing Broker or Carrier Case Blocks:

Use a combination of AskGMS and Benefeature to assess a competitor’s block of business and market activity both from an inforce as well as new sales perspective. AskGMS leverages years of new broker sales collected from all larger carriers to identify a broker’s activity by user-defined segments as well as carrier market share.

Assess New Sales Opportunities by Territory:

Quantify historical new sales activity (premium, lines of coverage, covered lives) using AskGMS. Use the robust segmentation to focus on the underserved markets that may offer the most new sales opportunity and to make informed sales territory decisions.

Build Concrete Ancillary/Retirement Cross-Sell Strategy by Territory:

Benefeature has integrated group insurance and retirement 5500 data at the employer level. This allows the user to determine which brokers or carriers within their territory have inforce business in both segments. This allows for insight into cross-sell opportunities based on current employer relationships.

Let’s walk through just two of the territory management strategies mentioned above; you will need to have a license to Benefeature and AskGMS to follow along. To begin, log in to Benefeature (you can also toggle to AskGMS from this login page).

Territory Management Strategy #1:

Quickly Identify Territory Competitor Carriers and Brokers

1. Partner with Benefeature to customize capabilities by your firm's territories.

2. Log in to Benefeature. The filter section will appear at the left of the Search screen.

3. Expand the "Insurance Plans" filter and select the Carrier and / or Broker criteria to further sharpen your focus.

4. Expand the "Demographics" filter to further narrow your search by territory, size segment, and industry.

5. Finally, expand the "Insurance" filter to select employers that are either missing or offer certain products.

6. This prospect list can then be downloaded to an Excel spreadsheet by using the

button located in the upper right of the screen.

Territory Management Strategy #2:

Compare Broker and Carrier Growth and Retention

1. Log in to Benefeature. At the top of the Search screen, you have the option to select either Employers, Brokers, or Carriers.

2. Select either Brokers or Carriers. For this example, let's assume you would like to compare brokers (you will follow the same process if comparing carriers).

3. Use the "Search for brokers" box to select the firm of interest. You may also expand the "Office Demographics" or "Client Demographics" sections to further refine your selection. If you would like to compare brokers or carriers in a particular territory, select that office territory here.

4. Once you have selected a broker, you will be taken to an "Overview" dashboard. A "Competitor Market" grid will be displayed and the broker you selected will appear on the grid. The upper right quadrant reflects the highest growth and retention key performance indicators and is the most favorable spot to land.

5. Select the "Go to full competitive analysis" link at the bottom of the grid to move to the "Competitor Market Detail tab. The user may select / deselect brokers that can be used for comparison purposes. This will allow us to easily see other competitors that may be experiencing market difficulties based on year-over-year premium comparisons (by default). You also have the ability to benchmark competitors by compensation and the number of plans.

6. This analysis should help identify those firms that are not growing and / or are losing business and could be attractive targets.

7. AskGMS may also be used to search for any particular broker in question and view new sales activity by product and effective year. Log in to AskGMS; select "Broker Search" as the Report; select products, territory, and effective years desired; run the report.

8. Locate the broker on the resulting broker listing and click on the broker's name. This will load a "Broker Profile" for you.

What next?

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

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. We are also available to walk through any of these prospecting strategies with you in a personal 1-1 session. Email us or give us a call at 207-618-8792.

Please be on the lookout! Coming soon…

Playbook #5: Know Your Brokers

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.