Ah, paper. An irritating reality in the life and annuity industry. Paper processes are notoriously tiresome and prone to errors. Yet many in our industry consider paper a necessary evil.
Which is at least half right.
Digital workflows are becoming more and more common in our industry. Even if we’re a little late to the party. The property and casualty insurance industry has been using digital workflows for the past ten years or more.
Better late than never. Distributors in life and annuities are beginning to see the value in moving to digital solutions. Everything from e-application to illustration are now handled without so much as the flourish of a pen.
A driving factor in this trend is the long list of benefits to distributors. Powerful sales automation tools can transform the way they do their jobs, sometimes in surprising ways.
Going paperless lets you:
- Say no to NIGOs. Sales automation platforms prevent you from moving forward with incorrect data. They also can make it impossible for you to skip required forms. Platforms with custom wizards and rules engines turn every agent into a NIGO-fighting superhero.
- Enjoy faster processing. Sales automation can bring together all stages of the sales cycle into one connected workflow. Rules on the backend help with compliance. Pre-suitability screening gets rid of application errors that make processing take longer. Some firms have cut their processing time by 50% thanks to the intelligence built into their sales automation tool.
- Turn on a dime. We’ve all been there. The client gives you new information that changes their preferred status. Or, they ask for a comparison against the product they were sure about two minutes ago. The right digital solution can turn a frustrating or even embarrassing situation into a sales opportunity. Features like quoting and product comparisons allow you to better manage client needs—sometimes in real time. This gives you the flexibility to take care of the curveballs common in the life and annuity sales process.
- Reduce errors. Intelligent sales automation spares you the frustrating task of redundant data entry. With today’s e-application solutions, if a question has been answered once, it’s been answered every time. Repeated questions or known client information are pre-filled. This speeds up the application process. It means fewer typos and ensures the same question is never answered differently by mistake.
- Improve placement ratios. Also filed under “all of the above.” Imagine that in-good-order is the norm. Application workflows are streamlined. Data entry errors are reduced. And—most importantly—your client is delighted by their experience. It’s a recipe that helps you take more applications to the finish line.
The decision to move to a digital solution is simple after thinking about the time- and money-saving benefits that sales automation can provide. You will enjoy a faster sales cycle, fewer do-overs and more satisfied clients.
Plus, you’ll save a tree or two.
