Insurance industry should invest more in new sales model: Top Broker Summit speaker

Millennials have changed the traditional sales model that most businesses, including those in the insurance industry, rely on, and the insurance industry needs to invest more in the new model, says Susan Kates, professor at Centennial College, experiental learning coordinator and CMO, Kates Consulting.

Speaking at the annual Canadian Insurance Top Broker Summit, held on 14 November at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in downtown Toronto, Kates said in her presentation, entitled Getting to Yes in an SMS word, that the insurance industry can’t lag behind other sectors on attracting and serving millennials.

New sales model

The old sales model of “cold sales, sales demos and qualify leads” has changed into a new sales model, made up of “social networks, content and engagement”, Kates explained. Insurers should be using social media to promote their business by positioning themselves as an industry expert, attracting new clients and retaining existing ones, promoting events, special offers and other company news, offer a glimpse inside the company or opening up the conversation to engage their community, and to reinforce brand messaging and support offline marketing activities.

Attracting millennials

Having taught plenty of millennials, Kates said in her interactions with them she realized they want to do work that matters, want to build community, control their work-life balance, and will only do business with someone they trust. Millennials also start businesses faster than baby-boomers, she said.

Therefore, Kates pointed out, using the same advertising methods that worked on baby-boomers, are simply not enough to attract the attention of millennial shoppers, who have very different buying behaviours. Millennials increasingly look to blogs, videos and social media for insight on where to find companies that they would buy from.

Companies need to change their messages and personalize their brands, and need to invest in an online presence, including creating content for social media like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, in order to engage millennials.

Download Kates’ full presentation here.

View pictures from our Top Broker Summit here.

This story was originally published by Canadian Insurance Top Broker.