What transformation is about to take place?
The insurance industry’s workforce is expected to change dramatically in the next fifteen years, with half of the workforce set to leave. These changes mean that insurance brokerages must find a way to do more with less. It seems obvious, but it can be challenging to implement.
Let us discuss how to build brokerage capacity by creating high-revenue teams focused on sales and service. We also want to explore the importance of technology and automation and the impact of low-revenue clients on service capacity. If you are an executive, insurance manager, or insurance agent/broker, keep reading to learn more.
How does this impact the brokerages?
The reality for many insurance producers is that they spend less than a third of their time on sales and sales-related activities. Most of their workday is spent in the servicing bucket. To build capacity, we need to create high revenue-driven teams with the same goals and appreciate, respect, and trust each team member’s distinct roles. Together, the goal is to obtain and retain ideal clients. The key is to invest in the right technology and automation. According to Angela Adams Consulting, most agencies use less than 50% of their brokerage management systems, which hurts the team’s capacity.
At Patra, we see firsthand the impact of low-revenue clients on service capacity. It is common for us to hear from our clients that the bottom 50% of their clients typically generate less than 10% of their revenue but comprise a high percentage of transactions. If the brokerage wants to build capacity, these transactions should be outsourced or redirected to insurance outsourcing partners. When we discuss this with clients to consider a partner, they agree; the question they pose to us is where and how to start as outsourcing or redirecting transactions is crucial for building broker capacity.
Another way to build internal capacity is to change how we view producers. Instead of traditional producers, we need to think of them as revenue points of leadership, responsible for two aspects of the business: sales and service. These individuals must be committed to the sales teams’ success and focus on creating a sales pipeline for their team. This change in perspective is essential to keep the focus on revenue-generating tasks and ensure individuals reduce the pull towards spending time in the servicing bucket – therein lies the challenge. Even if you can do the service task, there are more valuable and profitable methods to spend your brokerage dollars.
Keeping a design that splits revenue-generating teams vs operational teams is not for everyone and is certainly not a one-size-fits-all solution. Each brokerage needs to find the balance that fits their unique situation. The first step is determining the appropriate team structure. Your servicing team can be augmented with an insurance outsourced partner who helps you standardize and handle routine customer needs by leveraging an outsourcing partner who can operate 24 hours a day even when your workday has concluded, and your team has gone home; this allows your sales teams focus on new business opportunities. Cross-functional teams blend the servicing and sales teams, creating a more efficient and effective team structure, spending time in the field understanding more about your clients and upcoming renewals, and opportunities to build community relations. Once the team structure is in place, we recommend focusing on training, technology, and compensation.
Building broker capacity requires creating groups of employees focused on sales and service but with specific charters. It is essential to identify low-revenue clients and redirect or outsource their transactions to build service capacity, and where SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and workflows can be automated or outsourced, find an experienced partner you can lean on to scale your business. By changing how we view producers and creating revenue-focused leaders, we can build broker capacity and ensure long-term success.
