This is a great article about the changes taking place in sales within banking, insurance and wealth management. 

To quote this article

"Despite customers’ widespread financial concerns, interest in purchasing insurance isn’t going anywhere. In fact, 21 percent of all consumers are actively searching for new home or auto insurance, and 19 percent are looking to add more life insurance-related products. And of course, insurance claims aren’t going anywhere either."

Yet a recent survey of US insurance policyholders found widespread dissatisfaction with insurers’ insufficiently digital communications and interactions with only 34% able to easily connect with their insurers to ask questions or make modifications to their policy.

And while consumers are eager to communicate with insurers online, insurers aren’t meeting that need, with 50% behind on consumer demand for online ... and 25% behind on consumer demand for website servicing.

Failure to provide customer-centric, digital insurance journeys results in Not in Good Order (NIGO) documents, customer attrition, bloated overhead costs, and prolonged turnaround times—all of which ultimately damage insurers’ bottom line."

So what are insurance companies doing to be "digital"?

"Despite growing customer demand for digital services, insurance companies are lagging behind in their digital transformation. Choppy digital journeys, such as when customers attempt to purchase insurance or file a claim online but are then directed to a different channel, are unfortunately typical.Social Isn't Relevant for us we are Regulated"

I talk to many people in this sector and they say "Social isn't relevant to us because we are regulated".   April Rudin, number one influencer in Wealth Management in a recent Forbes article points out that

"Financial advice is experiencing explosive growth on Reddit, the world’s third-largest social network by active users (trailing only Facebook and Instagram). Its main ‘Personal Finance’ community alone has over fourteen million members, with thousands actively reading at every hour of the day. In addition, there are at least fifteen regional personal finance communities; the UK community (with over a hundred and seventy thousand members) has even spawned a complementary Wiki site."

The problem therefore for many companies is that the genie is out of the bottle.  You may well be regulated, but your prospects, your clients are on social and as we find out in a bit they are making decision off the back of that. 

Your Not Listening - Social Isn't Relevant for us we are Regulated

April's article then changes gear and talks about what people do when they get that financial information that have gained from social.

"In a recent survey of the state of wealth management, EY that found better-informed clients were less likely to switch providers. The same study also showed an increasing appetite for independent financial advisors, especially in the mass affluent and HNW segments. The study concludes that the way forward for traditional wealth managers is through building trust and demonstrating value through thought leadership and financial coaching.”

April goes on to say

"Back in the summer, I wrote about a Broadbridge survey, which found 77 percent of financial advisors interviewed in the US and Canada reported losing business as a result of not having the right technology to interact with their clients. Those that lost business said they lost a fifth of their book, on average."

Stakeholder Resistance 

To quote this article

"Insurance leaders who wish to bring more innovation into their company frequently encounter resistance from other leaders, middle management, salespeople, independent agents, and back-office employees––the list goes on.  Other leaders may have different priorities, middle managers are often more concerned with the day-to-day, independent agents may worry about learning different technologies at different companies, and back-office employees may be accustomed to legacy systems."

Shifting Buyer Preferences 

We have seen shifting buyer work as everybody is online, in this October (2020) report by Simon Kemp outlines the extent that social media has become part of our lives.  

Worldwide social media users: 4.14 billion - 53% of the world's population use social media in other words, more people use social media than don't use it.

Simon says that "two thirds of the working population in the world is now active on social media."  This obviously now has to impact on the way that sales people work as their territory is online.  But I guess, this is just one report, what does everybody else say?

Research From All These Companies Back This up

Mckinsey say so, Gartner say so, Hootsuite and We Are Social say so, Hubspot say so, Google say so, MIT say so, Trustradius say so Twilio say so .... 

This is also driving Gartner's third point in their CSO research for Q4 2020 which is "increased customer expectations of digital learning and buying channels."

Is this movement online impacting the way that buyers engage with companies and salespeople?

A CEO Just Said to Me

 "there is a race on.  First we need to shock people into understanding that the world has changed.  Second, we need to give them the skills to work in the changing world."  

He went onto say "By giving my team(s) “new world” skills will gives us a competitive advantage."

Interesting that he finished by saying

"The thing is there is a “burning bridge” and we need to make sure we are over that bridge."  

Who's doing this?

Case Study 1.

This is Eric, he's one of the team at DLA Ignite here is a post that he put up, it only took him 10 minutes to create.  We have all seen posts like this, we see them everyday, but people treat social tactically.  You post, because you think you have to or somebody tells you you should and walk away.  Let's talk about this post. 

 Eric's post of his 16 year old son, Austin, on his Birthday got 18,000 views and 165 likes?

But better still, he got 6 - C-Level meetings from this post?  How?

Let's stop and think about this for a second.  This post took 10 minutes to create and it got 6 C-Level meetings, how come?

Because, all of Eric's post are strategic.  He knows exactly why he is posting it and knows how to monetise it.

He doesn't always post "humanised" content, I'm using this as an example.  But an example of why you need to get your employees and sales team on social, just think of the $ impact to your business.  Especially if you scaled this across your business. 

How does Eric do this?  He builds relationships with prospects and customers and because they have a relationship with a human, not a brand, people are happy to engage.  Eric is also able to cut through the myrmid of noise that brands keep putting out.  If you are a buyer, where will you spend your time?  Reading an advert that says "buy my product because it's great" or look for the insight and educational content that people like Eric is putting out?

The Microsoft Azure sales team actively use this as part of their sales strategy on accounts.  They find "changemakers" who will take this insight and share within their businesses.  This is how businesses are actively engaging with and influencing business and sales. 

This is a sales approach, what about getting your your employees online? 

Case Study 2

In this case study, Danielle Guzman, talks about how Mercer, empower their employees to talk on social.  The ROI (return on investment)?  Danielle explains how Mercer as a brand will develop the business a certain amount of business, because they are well known in certain markets.  She also confirms in this video how empowering people on social and giving them personal brands gives Mercer 4 times more revenue than the brand. 

Don’t Let Fears or Misconceptions About Digitizing Hold Your Back

Back to this article

"McKinsey research shows that investing in .... digitizing processes can result in savings of up to 80 percent. This comes on top of the improved customer experience, faster time to settlement, and more policies signed. .... Insurers can allay their fears about investing in new technology by making compliance a priority, getting all stakeholders aligned around digital transformation, ensuring the technology scales, and working around the constraints of legacy back-end systems."

Sounds like plan? 

Where Do We Go From Here?

Just give me, or one of the DLA Ignite team and hour of your time and we can walk you through what we are doing for other companies.  No hard sell, just take you through what other companies are doing to transform.

Please contact me here or one of the DLA Ignite team here, so please pick one of our industry experts or one of our experts in your geographical locality.  Our website is here.