Hey Insurtech Disruptors… Challenge Accepted.
An open letter to independent insurance agents and insurtech startups predicting their demise.
According to CB Insights, in 2012, there was one strategic investment in a private tech company, (what we now call “Disruptors”) by insurance carriers.
There were 100 such investments in 2016.
Lemonade (D2C renter & home insurance), Embroker (commercial insurance), Metromile (pay-as-you-go auto insurance), and Slice Labs (on-demand insurance) are just a few of the names taking in large sums of money to build products aimed at peeling off market share from independent agents.
Deep pockets throughout our industry have their eyes set well into the future and what they see doesn’t involve “Traditional” insurance and local agents.
Right now, as you read this, there is a guy, sitting a room, with a huge bank account plotting your demise.
Doesn’t that piss you off?
No?
I guess, you could make the case it’s not personal. The “Guy” in the room isn’t personally trying to put you specifically out of business. He just doesn’t believe your customer experience and method of insurance distribution is relevant in the digital marketplace.
It must be my Irish blood or blue collar background or maybe it’s just a personality flaw… but the fact that independent agents have been so summarily dismissed from the “Future of Insurance” conversation pisses me off.
Sorry, it makes me upset (don’t want to offend).
Maybe agitated is a better word.
Perturbed?
No. That’s not it.
I know…
Motivated.
That’s the word.
The dismissal of independent agents from the future of insurance motivates me.
It motivates me to help more, to do more and be more… to be better at what I do, so that independent agents can be better at what they do.
I refuse to acquiesce to a narrative where the local independent agent, starved and defeated, limps off into the night, never to be heard from again.
No way. No how. Not happening.
Not if me and my TrustedChoice.com homies have anything to say about it. Not as long as human beings still build relationships based on trust and respect with other human beings.
The gauntlet has been thrown.
We’re picking it up.
Most would-be Disruptors prey on the most basic of insurance buyer desires: cheap, fast and easy. Easy replaces expertise. Convenience replaces trust. Price replaces coverage. Bots replace humans.
How can independent agents compete with venture capital-backed budgets and slick technology in a marketplace where consumers seemingly don’t care about the product?
We must digitize our competitive advantage, human connection. As independent agents, we don’t sell insurance; we sell our people. We sell a relationship.
As Mitch Joel wrote recently,
While retailers, brands, agencies and the media talk about building better omnichannel experiences for customers, and while those conversations also lay into retailers for being so behind, when it comes to technology, it turns out that consumers want what they have always wanted from brands: Be brilliant. Be brief. Be gone. Simplicity, selection, value and trust.
You can easily replace “retailers” with “insurance providers” and quote holds true.
My question is, will you stand alongside us?
Will you step forward, chest proud, headstrong and determined to fight for the future of the industry we all love so dearly?
It’s going to take work and it won’t be easy. We’re going to have to make tough decisions. We’re going to have to spend money. We’re going to have believe in each other. We’re going to have to embrace technology. We’re going to have stand up and speak out. We’re going to have to be leaders. We’re going to have to solve problems and focus on solutions.
We’re going to have to better in every way than we’ve ever been before.
If you’re reading this, than you’ve already begun to fight back. The opposite would be to hunker down, stick your head in the sand and continue on actively ignorant to the changing world.
I choose to engage, learn and evolve. I choose to fight.
Where do we start?
Right here. Right now. Take one small thing you’ve learned today and put into practice.
Get 1% better today.
That’s it.
Get just 1% better today at technology, sales, marketing, customer experience, whatever…
Get 1% better everyday and you’ll be a helluva lot better at combating those you seek facilitate our demise in no time.
“Disruptors” win when we stop learning, stop testing, and stop pushing.
“Disruptors” win when we stop trying to improve.
But I know you’ll never stop, and that my friend, is why I love you.
Now go out there and do some insurance awesome today.
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