A voluntary partnership

I often talk about how bringing in an outside, white-labeled enhanced/voluntary benefits team can help a small boutique firm appear larger and allow it to meet the needs of a growing client base. But the same holds true for larger, more established benefits advisory firms as well.

I met Jim Blachek, partner at The Benefits Group out of the Scranton, Pennsylvania area, at the ASCEND conference in 2018. Yes, Scranton, PA, home of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, as made famous in NBC’s hit show, The Office. Oh, and I’m well aware that “Jim” was one of the most popular characters on the show, as well. Anyway, “benefits Jim” and his partner, Jeff, have hundreds of group clients, and many employees who help service and take care of their client base.

Jim and I had a blunt conversation from the get-go and we immediately hit it off. “How can you help our firm?” he asked. So, I started asking questions of my own. Turned out, he was pretty much ignoring voluntary. He dabbled here and there, but wasn’t making much money with it and it wasn’t a big deal, as he was focused with growing group benefits, the bread and butter of his business.

Over the course of the next couple of months, we talked more and built a great relationship.

Related: Voluntary benefits: Control the conversation

Enhanced/voluntary carriers will often train their reps to take a backdoor approach to help their broker partners gain an employer’s group health business, along with the enhanced sales. The carrier rep will routinely say to the business owner, “Hey, I know we’re doing your voluntary. I want to introduce you to Joe Smith up the street who is a full-service health broker. He’s great, he’s my partner and he could really give you some great ideas for health.”

Brokerages of all sizes that aren’t locking that backdoor leave themselves open to other health brokers getting access to their clients by way of referral from the “voluntary guy.” If you don’t capture the entire book of business, then you leave yourself vulnerable. It’s important to do everything, not just one thing.

The engagement team 

Jim has become one of my most innovative broker partners; however, he doesn’t sell our services as voluntary insurance. He sells it as engagement, engagement, engagement. “I don’t even tell them it’s to talk about enhanced benefits,” Jim says. “Initially, I’m just selling them on the concept that I need them to meet with my employee engagement team on a one-on-one basis, so their employees understand what we’re doing. Because if the employees don’t understand, comprehend and participate, then everything we put in place is for naught.”

In fact, Jim is so committed to this approach he’s made it a de facto obligation for his clients. Most groups have no problem with giving a benefits engagement team access to their employees. They understand the benefit of a dedicated team who are there to explain the value of their employees’ benefits while also offering some innovative programs and services that complement what they’re already doing on health insurance.

“I don’t really give them a choice,” Jim explains. “I don’t mean that in a negative way. They want to work with me, and they want me to be able to help reign in the costs of their healthcare and manage it. I need to be able to communicate with the employees and I find that when they’re in a one-on-one meeting, they’re more receptive to learning.”

Ultimately, what it boils down to is talking about how engagement and interaction with employees benefits them and the plan. Jim has walked away from cases where employers won’t go with his ideas because his focus on lowering health care costs is wrapped around engagement, usage and plan design. He is very selective about the employer groups he works with; they have to buy into what he’s proposing hook, line and sinker. And he knows working with an enhanced benefits specialist who will help him establish a comprehensive plan that works in concert with his clients’ group benefits is the way to do it.

Final thought 

As Jim’s story shows, working with an outside enhanced benefits specialist can serve a variety of purposes for brokerages of any size. You’ll lock that backdoor access to your clients from carrier reps who want to introduce “their guy” to your customers. And, you can seamlessly customize how the enhanced benefits team interacts with clients’ employees, so that the experience compliments their existing group benefits structure.

Give an independent carrier agnostic enhanced benefits firm a try. I guarantee you’ll quickly have an answer to the question Jim asked when we first met: “How can you help our firm?”

Until next time, don’t just have a great day – make it a great day!

Eric Silverman, founder and owner of Voluntary Disruption, a division of Silverman Benefits Group (SBG), is an Amazon bestselling author featured in the new book “Breaking Through The Status Quo.”