Keep your agency's eyes on three IA realities
How three emerging realities for the independent agent channel hold the prospect of boosting growth for 2019.
Working in the independent agency channel these past 34 years has meant facing, every day, the problem of merging the old with the young.
I’m talking about commingling processes in existence for years or decades with technology created to shorten the path from a prospect discussion to a bound policy.
To me, emerging from 2019 with better workflows is the ultimate goal for the IA channel. What most will drive a firm’s ability to grow in the future is its ability to scale efficient processes.
I dream of a better insurance world that’s paper-free and error-free.
John Lennon sang: “You may say I’m a dreamer.” Then he added: “But I’m not the only one.” Just about everyone I know wants their agency, wholesaler, broker, carrier or tech firm and business partners to be more efficient and effective. We all voice the dream, but the courageous will make it happen.
Hundreds of thousands of insurance professionals across the IA channel want to shorten the pathway to market. They give the insurance industry critical mass — a critical mass needed to go over speed bumps (without bottoming out) and to find new, shorter links in the value chain (without breaking it).
Three emerging realities for the IA channel hold the prospect of boosting growth for 2019 and beyond:
1. Greater operational success and growth paths are possible
They’re the next big step toward drastic improvement via streamlining risk assessment, efficiently aggregating prospect and client data and empowering account marketing from the point of sale.
2. Overhauling is better long-term strategy than under-reaching
Disruption is the unfortunate side effect of overhauling workflows. That’s why it’s important for leaders to provide the vision to allow insurance pros to carry on through the disruption — and for these same leaders to provide the resources to create the new, faster, better environment that will work longer than the next quarterly income statement.
Vision, patience and the proper resources are prerequisites within any insurance operation. They are vital when a firm exits its castle walls to visit peers, partners and customers.
3. Going it alone will fail
One of the most endearing (and frustrating) aspects of the IA channel is its interdependency.
Throughout the IA channel, no one firm or company has anywhere near enough resources to create enough scale for a solution to work widely. But when potential partners are willing to give you a listen, then you have a fighting chance.
Individual firms, companies and nonprofits have developed solutions that can benefit the entire IA channel. Organizations like ACORD and ID Federation have significant industry-wide solutions to bring industry interaction closer to what’s required for the future.
But partners who bring a commitment to industry-wide collaboration are a critical component.
When you bring your business partners into the collaboration, your firm can come closer to making 21st-century workflows a reality.
How close is your firm to this reality? Or do you see a different dream in your firm’s future?
Kitty Ambers is chief growth officer of AVYST, an independent-agent-channel firm with tools to clean up the non-digital clutter of the pre-submission and submission processes that agents and brokers must re-imagine to stay on the growth track while staying away from E&O claims. Ambers is also a member of the NUPC Editorial Advisory Board.
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