Building Stronger Relationships Builds Sales

A global insurance carrier sought to persuasively deliver a differentiated value message to the people and organizations that bought its policies. For many firms, this would be just a marketing communications matter; however, our client relied exclusively on independent agents to recommend and sell its high-end insurance products. Therefore, the agents themselves were an intermediate audience, so we designed and implemented a program to reinvigorate the way the insurer’s teams approach and support independent agents. By building stronger relationships with the agents across the many touchpoints of their interactions, the insurer was able to adapt underwriting processes, address concerns and objections, and ultimately better meet the needs of the agents and insurance buyers. Enhancing the customer experience of the agents allowed the insurer’s team members to improve their success ratios on prospect and cross-sell opportunities, solidify and expand their connections with the agents, and write more qualified policies.

Using a combination of account management strategies, customer engagement methods, and sales techniques, we enabled the team members to lead with value and compete confidently for new accounts and renewals. Our program helped customer- and internal-facing team members develop a common language and improve their ability to support one another, particularly across product lines. This enhanced employee cohesion and engagement resulted in increased responsiveness to and stronger relationships with the independent agents, which in turn allowed them to better meet the needs of insurance buyers. The final outcome was a three-way win for the insurance carrier, the agents, and the end customers.