5 ways carriers can optimize distribution channels
DESCRIPTION
Insurance carriers face a daunting challenge – how do they adapt captive distribution channels to deal with the competitive pressures from direct channels? Carriers must make fundamental shifts in the way they support captive channels in order to drive a strategy that supports continual premium growth, accelerates production and ensures that every sales person can sustain and grow a profitable book of business. The new model must eliminate manual processes that are primarily driven by individual skill and rely on the agent or representative to determine the best offers for each policyholder or situation. This means captive channels must be supported by nimble technology that empowers agents to sell better and maximize the value of each policyholder relationship.TRANSCRIPT
WAYS CARRIERS CAN OPTIMIZE DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS
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Insurance carriers face a daunting challenge – how do they adapt captive distribution channels to deal with the competitive pressures from direct channels? Carriers must make fundamental shifts in the way they support captive channels in order to drive a strategy that supports continual premium growth, accelerates production and ensures that every sales person can sustain and grow a profitable book of business.
The new model must eliminate manual processes that are primarily driven by individual skill and rely on the agent or representative to determine the best offers for each policyholder or situation. This means captive channels must be supported by nimble technology that empowers agents to sell better and maximize the value of each policyholder relationship.
Thomas HarringtonDirector – Industry Principal, InsurancePegasystems
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There are 5 key steps carriers can take to increase the value of their distribution channels
and improve the effectiveness of their captive sales force including:
` Execute the sales process better
` Leverage intelligent insight to drive more sales
` Build profitable, long-term relationships
` Fulfill the policyholders’ needs in real time
` Help the channel force learn from success
Ways Carriers Can Optimize Distribution Channels
Productive Insurance Agent
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The key to improving the effectiveness of the captive channel is to improve performance
one individual at time. It starts by making proven sales processes techniques – the best
practices that are the hallmarks of top performers – available to every sales representative.
Next, marry these best practices with insight on customer needs or propensity to gain a
powerful combination for driving sale success.
Intelligent systems, powered by business process management (BPM) technology, can
help carriers consolidate data from enterprise sources, present the right information at the
right time to the agent and use the information to drive the appropriate next process steps.
Embedded rules and process match the carrier’s capabilities to the policyholder’s needs
and leverage analytics to refine producer interactions based on customer propensity.
Execute the Sales Process Better
Manages Interaction to Completion
Assess Covered Drivers
Umbrella Cross Sell
Initiate Jewelry Rider
Executes Optimal Process Based on Insight
ReviewIn-force
Coverage
Package with
Umbrella
Assess Jewelry
Coverage
Long-Term Policyholder
Auto Policyholder
New Prospect
System Interprets Information
Agents Receive New Sales Leads
New Homeowner
Add New Driver
Just Married
Applies Relevant Customer Insight
New Hire
2 Year Agent
30 Year Agent
Using enterprise data combined with predictive and adaptive analytics, you can rapidly determine your customer’s intent to deliver a treatment appropriate to the individual and the situation.
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Carriers can help producers mitigate the direct challenge – and sell more – by helping them
work smarter instead of harder. Using dynamic analytics and real-time data, carriers can:
` Prompt timely action based on customer insight, and provide advice on the sales activities with processes and offers that have the highest likelihood of driving sales conversions.
` Design dynamic sales strategies that can be personalized and adapted to each sales opportunity.
` Continuously optimize interactions by adding context and relevance to recommendations.
The result is a dynamic sales platform that improves producer effectiveness by helping
execute value added sales activities, customize relevant cross-sell/up-sell/retention offers
and adapt strategies to the characteristics of each opportunity.
Intelligent Insight Drives More Sales 2
SOLUTION RESULTS
NEW SALES CHANNELS AND 300% INCREASE IN NET PROMOTERS
In Poland, per capita income has tripled in the last 20 years and the shift in demographics presented an opportunity for ING Poland and they set out to fill this new market need with new products.
ING set out to broaden their distribution network in order to reach the growing and geo-graphically dispersed population. A new technology platform was needed to enable their aggressive growth goals. ING needed a platform that was easy to configure, suited to handle standardization and specialization of rules, and was able to integrate with external and internal systems. ING Poland found their technology platform with Pega. Pega created a sales and distribution framework that integrated with both internal systems and external portals, enabling the roll out of new products through a new bank in less than four months.
When launched, the Pega Portal displayed all products available to that bank, provided a standard view of the customer, as related to that bank agent and the capability to execute policy servicing transactions. Bank agents selling new products are now able to bind these products at the point of sale because underwriting, pricing algorithms and compliance rules are embedded into the application process.
The ING team was able to attain 80 percent reuse with the platform, which enabled them to rapidly extend the platform, adding an additional banking channel and three new products in less than five months. ING had a small team of three to five developers and business resources who developed and architected this new sales and distribution framework, which will be used to add 20+ points of distribution in under one year.
Read more about the case study
“We did something that would have been impossible with antiquated, stack-based solutions: with a small team of developers using Pega technology, we were able to deliver a sales portal to our first banking partner in just three months.”
Pawel BrzeskiCIO, ING Poland
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Successful agents or financial service representatives have the unique ability to cultivate
and grow long-term relationships, which are the foundation for a profitable book of
business. Producers always need to think about how they can maintain their customers
and determine how to continuously maximize the relationship.
Carriers can leverage Next-Best-Action technology that continuously adapts strategies for
the agent to use with the particular customer, equipping sales personnel to proactively or
reactively add value during every interaction. Because Next-Best-Action dynamically adjusts
actions and offers based on the context of the situation, the customer and the objectives of
the business, producers become more effective at understanding their customer’s needs
and intentions and are better positioned to continue to add value throughout the life cycle
of their relationship.
Build Profitable, Long-Term Relationships
Using enterprise data combined with predictive and adaptive analytics, you can rapidly determine your customer’s intent to deliver a treatment appropriate to the individual and the situation.
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As the old maxim goes – time kills all deals. This saying is particular pertinent to the
fulfillment challenges sales personnel face trying to convert a new prospect or execute a
successful cross-sell or up-sell opportunity. The ability to execute the right sales activity,
in real time, increases the likelihood of a successful sales conversion.
Most often, the issue that prevents real-time execution is the gap between the front office
and the back office. Carriers can bridge this gap by integrating the necessary support
tools directly into the producer desktop. By unifying the desktop, the front and back office
become linked in real time, enabling sales personnel to leverage needed tools, like case
management, to expedite work requests across operational silos and systems and drive
work towards speedy resolution.
OpportunityAgent
Unify the Desktop Fulfillment Forward to Point of Interaction
Underwriting* Policy Admin * Billing * ClaimsMarketing * Sales Force Mgmt * Compliance
Automate Cases & ProcessesAccelerate Resolution Across Operations
Dynamically Integrate With Back Office Built-in Connectivity
Support Sales Interactionin Real-Time
Accelerate Resolution and Fulfillment of Request
A unified desktop provides all the tools needed to perform sales activities at the point of interaction - increasing the likelihood of success.
Fulfill Customer’s Needs at the Point of Interaction4
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To support next generation of insurance agents and financial representatives, carriers need
to make the collective wisdom of the channel available to all insurance producers. When
this wisdom is combined with real time data and adaptive analytics, sales personnel can far
more easily optimize their book of business potential.
Intelligent tools that enable business users to simulate and test the potential impact of
sales strategies before putting them into production can leverage knowledge about previous
interactions to determine the Next-Best-Action for the policyholder. Combined with the
ability to monitor performance in real-time, carriers can successfully leverage collective
wisdom to optimize production.
Pega’s Visual Business Director allows you to simulate impacts on your business and graphically view its impact on SLAs, revenues, volume, profitability targets or any other desired benchmark.
It also enables a global view across propositions, providing visual insight into the revenues generated by a new offer as well as its positive or negative effects on other propositions.
Help the Entire Captive Force Learn From Success5
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Designed to suit the specific needs of captive channels, Pega Distribution Management for
Insurance bridges enterprise silos to provide producers with real-time data on policyholder
value, needs and propensity. The Pega solution helps every agent or financial representative
execute like a top performer –regardless of skill or tenure. The captive force can leverage
predictive and adaptive analytics to personalize each sales interaction and dynamically
match the carrier’s capabilities to each policyholder’s unique needs. Pega optimizes each
sales interaction and seamlessly integrates the front and back office to help every agent
fulfill sales activities in real time. With Pega, carriers can attain an agile, intelligent sales
platform that can accelerate sales production and maximize book of business potential for
generations to come.
How Pega Enables Next Generation Captive Channel
Measure
Learn
Simulate
Optimize Sales Strategies with Next-Best-Action
Mitigate Price Pressure By Helping Every Agent/ Representative be a Trusted Advisor
1 2 3 Monitor, Control and Adapt Strategies Based on Performance
© Copyright 2013 Pegasystems Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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About Pegasystems
Pegasystems, the leader in business process management and software for customer centricity, helps organizations enhance customer loyalty, generate new business, and improve productivity. Our patented Build for Change® technology speeds the delivery of critical business solutions by directly capturing business objectives and eliminating manual programming. Pegasystems enables clients to quickly adapt to changing business conditions in order to outperform the competition.
For more information, please visit us at www.pega.com/insurance.
About the Author
Tom Harrington is Director - Industry Principal Insurance at Pegasystems Inc. Tom supports Pega’s global strategy for the insurance market and has more than 15 years of insurance industry experience. Prior to joining Pega, Tom led product development, distribution strategy and technology initiatives at Liberty Mutual, and was a commercial lines insurance broker at Aon.
Contact him at [email protected]