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3 minute read
Do your distribution partners view you as easy or difficult to do business with? In the individual health insurance industry, you can’t survive or grow without downlines and agents. 76% of agents said they would sell more for carriers who are easy to do business with. That’s a stunning number with important implications. Your ability to increase distribution and growth is directly related to the perception of how easy you are to work with. That includes meeting agents’ needs for commissions being paid on time and accurately.
Why being Easy to Do Business With Matters
Carrier growth depends on effective distribution management. You need to attract new agents, retain high-performing agents, and motivate current agents to focus on your products. Independent agents have endless choices of health insurance products to market. Why would they prioritize selling for you if you’re perceived to be difficult to work with compared to other carriers?
For instance, if agents don’t trust that their commissions are accurate, it erodes the overall trust with the carrier. Most of the issues that agents say make a carrier difficult to do business with revolve around commissions – and it’s more than just the amount they’re being paid. Agents complain that they have difficulty understanding their commission statements, requiring them to spend hours reconciling payments back to their book of business. They’re never sure when they will be paid, and often feel that commissions are late and inaccurate.
Agents want the same level of trust that employees have with their paychecks – getting paid regularly, on time with payments directly deposited into their bank accounts, and with an easy understanding of what they’re being paid for. This is just one example of how being difficult to do business with can diminish trust and harm the carrier and agent relationship.
This lack of trust can translate to agents not prioritizing your products, which means you’re losing out on sales from your distribution channels, remaining stagnant, or even worse, facing revenue decline. If you’re concerned about growth or not hitting your sales goals, it may be time to evaluate how easy you are to do business with.
What Does Being Easy to Do Business With Mean?
It starts with being flexible and responsive to agents’ expectations. This can be challenging with legacy systems that aren’t integrated and use multiple data sources. As one Market President of a national carrier said, “It’s difficult to overstate how beneficial and critical it is to get your operations into as automated a state as possible. It’s amazing how much better you perform when you’re as automated as possible.”
Carriers that want to become easier to do business with should start by focusing on eliminating friction with downlines, customers, and between departments. For FMOs and other downlines this means:
- Flexible, digital commission solutions
- Easier and quicker processes to onboard agents and agencies for downline optimization
- Easier application processes where data can be entered one time into one system
- Combined enrollment into multiple products with one application
- Flexible pricing and transparent member billing
Commissions are Critical
Commissions are both a top priority and a major source of frustration for agents. Everyone wants to get paid for their work and agents rely heavily on commissions for their compensation. Legacy commission systems, however, make it difficult for them to get paid on time with accuracy and transparency, especially as insurance products and downlines become more complex.
To attract, motivate, and retain the best-performing agents, you need to focus on their commission priorities, which include:
- Paying commissions on time
- Providing accurate, detailed commission statements
- Enabling flexible payment options depending on agent preference (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly payments)
- Minimizing or eliminating time spent reconciling commission statements and tracking down unpaid commissions
- Leveraging technology for seamless, efficient digital interactions
By focusing on insurance agent engagement and providing agents with fast, flexible digital payments, they will prioritize your products. Investing in a digital commissions solution will:
- Improve agent retention
- Optimize downlines and grow distribution
- Increase sales overall and sales per agent
- Accelerate speed to market
- Reduce operational costs from manual processes and errors
Get and Stay Ahead of the Competition
Commission management isn’t just a nice to have – it’s a powerful competitive advantage that enables growth. Become the carrier that agents want to work with when you use e123 Commission for Carriers. Contact us to learn more.
