At the Benefits Selling Expo in May, I was invited to speak on the topic of “Brokers under pressure.” The theme was that pressure creates the need for change—and during the discussion we covered some tools for managing change effectively.
Of course, there is no single plan of action that can be used by every broker to solve the issues driven by these different pressures. Each pressure can be seen as an opportunity. Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War: “Opportunities multiply as they are seized.” Effective responses are going to result in some form of change for the broker’s organization.
Before going into some of the alternatives facing brokers, consider the tools that can help brokers plan and manage change effectively. A good starting point is for each individual to consider how they personally react to change.
As an example, we considered the various ways people have reacted to the tablet computer— some of us bought a tablet when they first came out, and have upgraded once or twice since then, while many others have purchased one along the way, and still others are on the sidelines. Some people, by nature, are early adopters and innovators while others are traditionalists and may never change.
The same is true of brokers reacting to such pressures as regulatory changes. Some embraced changes in their organization as a result of PPACA as soon as it was passed. Others have commenced change as time has gone on while some are waiting for the Supreme Court to rule, or for exchanges to become a reality. None of these reactions is right or wrong per se, because they reflect an organization’s approach to change.
Continuing our focus on PPACA, a broad range of strategies is being used to turn its pressures into innovations. They include:
Packaging voluntary products more aggressively. This can be to generate revenue for the broker, or to fill gaps in the employer’s medical benefit plans, or both.
Offering wellness programs to employer clients, ranging from relatively passive web tools to active programs that incent wellness through lower premium shares for employees.
Advising employers more aggressively on cost saving medical benefit plan designs.
Considering changes in the broker’s compensation structure to emphasize fee-based compensation versus commissions—or vice versa.
Once you’ve established a change strategy, it’s helpful to think through how your customers will react to the change, because in our business we have to change what we do, and we also have to change how our customers react to our offerings. A starting point is to define the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) for every level of customer.
That means defining the value of your new idea to benefit managers, to executives, and to employee associates and their families. A good WIIFM statement will be the essence of your elevator speech about the idea—the quick discussion points that either fascinate your audience or leave their interest flat. It should immediately inform the client why the change is good for them, how they should adopt it, and finally what you propose. It’s a common error to start telling customers what you propose before they understand why or how.
There’s nothing constant except change. Brokers are under more pressure today than ever before, and pressure creates the opportunity to change in a positive way.
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