Independent insurance agencies that leverage technology in sales and marketing sell 43% more policies per producer than agencies that do not, a new study from Insurance Technologies Corporation and Velocify revealed this week.
The Texas-based researcher and LA-based sales software company asked 1,000 insurance agencies nationwide to describe how technology assisted sales and customer relationship management. The 20-question survey – titled “The State of Techsurance 2015” – investigated how agencies are using six technologies: marketing automation, lead management, automated dialers, comparative raters, agency management systems and customer relationship management software.
Investigators found that heavy users of technology are two times more likely than non-users to have better sales processes, in addition to boasting 43% more policy sales per producer and 13% more policy sales per household.
More specifically, researchers discovered:
- Agencies that used automated dialers sold 43% more policies per producer, and 7% more per household.
- Agencies using CRM software saw a smaller uptick of 15% in policies sold per producer, but sold 11% more policies per household, second only to lead management software.
- Similar to CRM software, marketing automation had a greater impact on policies sold per household – driving a 10% increase.
“Technology has transformed the insurance industry for both buyers and sellers. Our goal with this study was to uncover the technologies that will help agencies effectively grow and compete in this evolving marketplace,” said Velocify CEO and President Nick Hedges.
“We are deeply invested in the success of our clients in the insurance industry, and we want to continue to offer new ways for them to rise above the competition.”
Hedges said one of the more interesting findings in the survey was the widening performance gap between those agencies utilizing technology and those that do not.
In fact, agencies with significant revenue growth were 34% more likely to report plans to increase technology investments than agencies with declining revenues, and agencies with 100 or more employees were more likely to use technology than those with 10 or fewer employees.
Captive agencies are also outperforming independents. According to the survey, direct-to-consumer agencies were 26% more likely to report plans to increase tech spending than were independent agencies.
Of course, access to capital required for tech investment may explain many of these discrepancies. Velocify and
ITC urge smaller insurance agencies to begin spending money if they wish to remain competitive in the future.
