Sales professionals are pivotal in helping insurers expand their reach, acquire new policyholders, and excel in a dynamic marketplace. As the insurance landscape evolves, it is increasingly important to have an expert sales team that keeps its pulse on changing consumer demands and adapts its tactics to remain effective.
Leveraging an outsourced team of insurance sales advisors means insurers can remain focused on their core functions but still have an expert sales strategy in place to support new business growth and policyholder acquisition. Throughout this article, we will look deeper at outsourced insurance sales, the significant advantages they can provide insurers, and how organizations can select the right partner to help them scale.
Learn about Covenir’s industry leading ONSHORE Insurance BPO Services.
The Growing Significance of Outsourced Insurance Sales Advisors
In the modern insurance industry, outsourced insurance sales advisors play an essential role in how firms view lead generation and new policyholder acquisition. The space is getting more competitive and dynamic, requiring insurers to focus on and optimize core functions to stand out and maintain a competitive edge. But, since insurance products have been traditionally sold through distribution networks, many insurers don’t have the in-house capabilities to expand their reach and ramp up sales efforts all on their own.
To accelerate sales and grow revenues, many insurers are turning to outsourced teams of insurance sales advisors for the solution. These expert sales specialists have specific expertise in the insurance market and know how to convert leads into new policyholders. They possess the proper credentials and are skilled at effectively explaining insurance products to potential policyholders clearly and efficiently.
Outsourced insurance sales advisors become the front-facing part of your business, so it’s vital to do the proper due diligence to find the right partner who will carry your brand with professionalism and bring in more revenue for the organization. Outsourced insurance sales advisors can provide a number of important benefits, all of which we’ll cover in more detail below.
Cost-Efficiency in Insurance Sales: Why Outsourcing Makes Financial Sense
One of the main reasons why insurers turn to an outsourced sales team is because of the cost-effectiveness of this arrangement. Managing an outsourced team of sales advisors often costs less than maintaining an in-house sales team, and this is based on several factors.
For starters, several costs—aside from direct wages—are associated with managing an internal sales team. Other expenses include employee benefits like insurance and retirement planning and the amount the insurer will spend to recruit, hire, and train personnel.
When outsourcing sales to a trusted provider, insurers tap into an experienced team of experts who require little or no training at the insurer’s expense. Further, the insurer will not need to provide benefits to this team since they are not full-time internal employees, which provides further cost savings. Insurers can also avoid overhead costs associated with purchasing and maintaining sales-specific software or technology if they outsource their sales department.
While the exact amount insurers save will depend on their unique circumstances, some estimates show that organizations can expect an average of a 15% reduction in costs from outsourcing. This allows the insurer to be more efficient in deploying their resources, and they can use the cost savings to invest in more strategic initiatives that support further revenue growth and expansion for the business.
Focusing on Core Competencies: How Outsourced Sales Benefits Insurance Companies
Outsourcing sales also allows insurers to concentrate on core business functions, such as underwriting or risk management. While sales is an important business function that drives revenue, outsourcing this area to a skilled team of advisors can allow the insurer’s internal team to focus on the core competencies that they excel at and provide a competitive advantage.
As an example, if an insurer is known for its underwriting capabilities and efficient claims processing, it may devote a good amount of time and resources to these activities, but sales and new policyholder acquisition might plateau as a result.
Rather than redirect resources towards new sales strategies that detract from core operations, the insurer can partner with an outsourced sales team to strengthen this aspect of business operations. In other words, insurers can continue to focus on their core functions while leveraging the expertise of external sales teams to ramp up their sales performance.
Quality and Expertise: Leveraging Specialized Outsourced Teams for Sales Success
A key advantage that comes from working with an outsourced sales team is tapping into specialized expertise the external provider offers. Outsourced sales teams are often comprised of sales specialists who are well-versed in the sales process and bring years of experience and success in selling insurance products. Some teams may even have a very narrow specialization for a specific insurance product or niche, which can enhance their sales strategy.
Their teams likely undergo ongoing training and development to stay up to date on the latest trends in the market. Since their sole role is to sell insurance products, they understand what policyholders are looking for and can close deals effectively on the insurer’s behalf.
Scalability Through Outsourcing: Adapting to Market Changes with Ease
Partnering with an outsourced sales team helps insurers become more flexible and able to adapt to changing market conditions efficiently. So, if the market fluctuates and demand surges, insurers aren’t limited by the number of internal salespeople they have on their team to meet the growing demand. On the flip side, they also won’t face high fixed overhead costs from maintaining an internal sales team at times when demand slows down.
Additionally, if the insurer wants to enter a new geographic market or add a new product line, they can quickly scale up their sales efforts with the help of their outsourced partner. This can reduce their time to market, as they won’t have to spend the resources needed to recruit and train new hires to support their expansion efforts.
Factors to Consider When Outsourcing Insurance Sales Services
There are a number of key factors insurers should consider when choosing an outsourcing partner for insurance sales:
Cultural Fit
It’s important for insurers to outsource their sales processes to an external team that is aligned culturally. Doing so will make way for a successful collaboration that helps the insurer meet its sales KPIs without much added work.
Insurers can make some critical assessments during the partner selection process to help find the right cultural fit for their organization. This might include inquiring about the values and mission of the outsourced organization and seeing how willing they are to adapt to their own culture. Insurers may want to ask how the outsourced team handles communication and conflict resolution to ensure they are aligned on these critical issues.
Technology Compatibility
Another key consideration is determining whether an outsourced partner is compatible with the insurer’s existing tech stack. The more compatible the two organizations are on the technology side, the faster and more seamless the ramp-up to sales growth will be.
Insurers may want to assess the technology, software, and tools the outsourcing partner uses to help determine their abilities. Plus, insurers can see how well-versed the outsourced team is with the organization’s existing CRM system, communication platforms, and reporting tools for better efficiency and communication on sales activities.
Reputation and Expertise
Insurers should choose a partner with a proven track record of success with insurance sales. To do so, they can research the provider’s client testimonials, case studies, and industry reputation to gauge their reliability and performance abilities.
It’s essential to work with a provider with deep industry knowledge and positive reviews from past clients. After all, they will become the face of the organization with potential new policyholders, so it’s crucial to understand who you’re working with and how capable they are before engaging in a partnership.
Partner with Covenir’s Product Sales Advisors
When you need sales support from an experienced onshore and licensed team, partner with Covenir BPO and work with our expert product sales advisors. We offer a turnkey solution to help you capture revenue growth opportunities and accelerate sales. Our team will represent your brand with professionalism, taking a thoughtful and consultative approach that is never pushy or overbearing.
The Covenir way of selling starts your new policyholder relationships off on the right foot with dynamic and flexible methods that allow us to adapt to each insurer’s needs and KPIs. We can rapidly scale to support your growth initiatives and respond quickly to convert new leads. No matter where you need assistance in the sales process, Covenir can help.
Learn about Covenir’s industry leading ONSHORE Insurance BPO Services.