The rapid pace of technology changes happening this decade is a sign of how things are going to be. Unexpected events are going to occur more often, newer factors such as climate change, and advancements in AI, are going to disrupt normalcy and unpredictability is going to occupy more room. Hence insurers are increasingly adopting the role of– as this Deloitte article says–“society’s safety net.”
To take on this responsibility; to help predict rather than react; to stay transparent; to increase customer-centricity; and still remain profitable, is a tall order. As insurers focus on their transformation objectives in 2024, two important things stand out:
- Unifying journeys within the organization to ensure greatest collaboration and remove silos
- Leveraging the right technology to accelerate this unification and see tangible outcomes.
Insurers are successfully transforming various business functions collaborating with technology partners. But the prospecting journey is least talked about - at least not as much as lead management and customer focus. How can insurers streamline the prospecting journey in the next few years, thereby aligning with a more holistic adoption of technology across their sales lifecycles and resulting in better performance?
Existing Prospecting challenges
- Too many leads of poor quality: With intense competition and outreach via several communication channels, there are a lot of enquiries, interest, but not many of these are high-quality leads.
- Evolving customer behavior- As customer needs rapidly evolve, it becomes a sustained priority to keep tabs on their preferred modes of engagement, their product interests and so on.
- Prospect nurturing - Managing the high volume of prospects and enquiries, and then identifying those that may have potential and nurturing them becomes a challenge for distributors, especially if they are not using the right tools.
The ideal tech blueprint for prospecting for this year
Does your sales technology cover the seller journey, end-to-end? Evaluate tools that can not only help your sellers automate their activities and provide insights, but also tighten and effectivize the prospecting journey, setting the right context for lead allocation and management. The two components of prospecting that can be streamlined with tech are prospect sourcing and prospect nurturing.
Prospect Sourcing
- Use AI-based chatbots on the website, social media to engage visitors and help in better prospecting
- Implement systems that can import leads coming in from various channels: email, Whatsapp, Linkedin, or an event list on excel into one central repository
- Your prospecting tool should also be able to auto schedule outreach with tailored content, links and other material based on prospect’s interest
Prospect Nurturing
- Use tech to nurture the leads that are in the central repository through sales playbooks that can determine the next best action for every lead in the system
- It can be a great push if these leads can be auto-allocated to distributors/agents depending on various parameters that are defined in the system (geography, product interested in, and so on)
- Leveraging tech such as Machine Learning, if the tech is able to guide the agent with recommended next steps, or further nudge the distributor to pass on the lead to the right agent - it can help catalyze the lead journey at the prospecting stage
- Finally, with the right kind of analytics, insurers/distributors can measure outreach effectiveness in real time to increase the probability of conversion in the next steps.
Tech-enabled prospecting creates a more efficient and targeted approach to customer acquisition. Tools with AI and ML capabilities, and data analytics will play an important role in separating the wheat from the chaff and identify potential customers far more accurately. A tighter prospecting journey automatically results in a smoother lead journey for the seller and better customer engagement for the insurance carrier.
Sponsored by ITL Partner: Vymo
