Five ways for IAs to stand out as M&A targets

As an agency owner, what can you do now to shore up your business and become a future M&A target? Here are five recommendations to consider:

Ramp up your digital transformation initiatives. Insurance customer expectations are higher than ever for a seamless, personalized digital experience. IAs must confidently provide a consistent customer experience across all digital and mobile channels, with 82% of customers now expecting multi-channel interactions with insurance providers as the standard. That includes secure, intuitive, self-service digital portals through which customers can manage their accounts, buy products and handle claims.
Tap into your agency's operational and performance data. There's a reason why McKinsey calls data and analytics capabilities "table stakes" in the insurance industry. Without data, every step of the policy distribution is impacted. IAs can't make sound business decisions at the most basic level without access to it. Unfortunately, too many agencies struggle with fragmented legacy systems that leave data in silos. Tech companies outside of the insurance industry will consider your agency's customer data a gold mine for growth and scalability. But first, you need to make sure you have complete visibility.
Ensure that your infrastructure is truly cloud-based. Modern insurance agencies are moving away from legacy systems and toward cloud-based insurance platforms. Any company evaluating IAs for acquisition will want to see evidence of full cloud capabilities. Cloud-based platforms allow secure 24/7 access to data from any location to facilitate remote work, self-service platforms, and real-time access to customer data. End-to-end cloud-based platforms help fuel successful mergers and acquisitions, making it simpler to integrate disparate businesses, provide reporting and transparency and reach a positive ROI much faster.
Empower your people with work-from-anywhere support. The events of the last two years have tested and proven the effectiveness of remote working. Potential buyers from the tech sector are already well-versed in supporting work-from-anywhere for their employees. However, many IAs are still working on maintaining and supporting WFH permanently. Increasingly, IA owners are looking for SLA tracking and performance analytics to ensure optimum results from their staff. This information is valuable when an agency is positioning itself for acquisition because it can show where its most profitable lines of business are and which employees bring in the most value.
Invest in automation. The ability to implement automation should be at the top of your list of technology investments in 2022. At this stage in the game, any agency that opts to solve operational problems by throwing more people at them instead of using technology will be at a disadvantage. Automation adds value to the entire insurance distribution lifecycle by eliminating manual data extraction and data entry and providing the streamlined, fast, and error-free experience customers expect.

Above all, it's essential to keep your existing customers happy with the right mix of risk products and personalized service. Remember, your agency's customer data and performance analysis will be paramount when trying to capture a buyer's attention.

Special Reports /

Tech firms selling insurance: 'Do you want fries with that?'

Related Stories

Recommended For You