Every insurance company and its agents face the same hurdle each day: Convincing audiences that they should buy something they believe they don't need.

Selling insurance isn't like selling something people want. Consumers want iPhones and a nice-looking car. They will gladly pony up for them. They don't want to think about what insurance is protecting them from: Death, illness, fire, liability, etc.

But there is even a larger hurdle insurance providers face. People believe that insurance companies are frauds, only out to get their money and automatically fight any claims.

What are the hurdles?

My company has conducted research for various insurance companies and, without giving away findings that are owned by our clients, there were a few themes that stand out:

• People, including white-collar professionals, believe insurance companies are unfeeling entities, which means claims of caring do not resonate.

• Fear-based messaging ("What happens when you die?") is ignored because audiences believe it is the beginning of a scam.

• Policies are confusing, and that confusion feeds into the belief that insurance companies being deceitful.

The interesting part of this is that agents, those chosen to sell insurance products, often feel the same way. They also believe that messages about caring are not believable. They also are tired of selling the same story that attempts to get audiences to be afraid of what will happen if they are not covered. And they find working with insurance companies to be cumbersome.