Even though the insurance industry has been around a long time, that doesn’t mean it has kept up with the times. Moving forward, agents must manage intensified consumer demands, shifting definitions of risk, and the prospect of big data and tech to successfully navigate industry changes. Agents and brokers will have to step up to keep up.
The good news: Shifts are fine. Change is good. All can lead to new opportunities – if you are open to it. There’s a fresh way of thinking that brings together a process of efficiency, reliability, collaboration, and innovation that can lead to success. It’s called RevOps.
RevOps drives lifecycle accountability through the alignment of Marketing, Sales, Service, and Analytics across your organization’s process, platform, and people. When properly implemented, RevOps helps an organization rewrite internal processes, improve client acquisition, delight clients, and establish a company culture focused on driving revenue.
At Zywave, we like to add a little spin to the RevOps concept for the insurance industry. We’ve got the blueprint for a Modern RevOps Machine (MROM) – a powerful, end-to-end marketing, sales, management and analytics insurtech solution. Kind of a how-to for building your own insurtech stack. It’s a shift from a process that lacks visibility, works in silos, can’t scale, and carries a high cost to a MROM that empowers the ability to enable an easy and tailored client experience, allows for data-driven sales plays and cross-sell plays to drive organic growth, and standardizes processes and implements connected solutions, creating a defined formula for scalable, repeatable success.
Start your build of your very own Modern RevOps Machine by following this basic outline:
- Conduct an Audit – Identify current process problems, areas of disconnect, critical gaps, siloes, data inconsistencies, and bottlenecks.
- Develop your Strategy – Build a plan and workflow that aligns with growth objectives to organize and activate the revenue organization.
- Build the Tech Stack – Get your tech stack plan in motion. Align users and processes.
- Activate Technology – Create an implementation, execution, adoption and optimization plan and get started!
- Prepare for Optimization – Always be ready to enhance services and keep up with the latest technology upgrades and updates.
Good prep is definitely critical. Too often, organizations reactively purchase point solutions whenever problems arise versus evaluating their insurtech stack as a whole to ensure it’s working together. You need to consider the whole for maximum value and performance.
Picture a world where you could connect your CPQ to your AMS to your online enrollment platform. In this world, all the information from quoting would automatically feed into your AMS and enrollment system, so everything could be automatically pre-populated when employees log into the platform. Just imagine how much time it would save your agency and what a streamlined experience it would deliver to your customers.
These a few of the common solutions that we’ve identified as critical to success in today’s marketplace, as they are vital in shaping both your organization’s strategy and long-term success. The ones you need to build your Modern RevOps Machine.
Account Management System (AMS) – An AMS is your customer tracking mechanism and system of record. This is where your account managers and office staff traditionally spend most of their time and where you keep track of all your activities, including invoicing and billing.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – A CRM, on the other hand, is traditionally where your sellers and producers spend most of their time. A CRM allows you to manage all your top-of-the-funnel activities and accounts you’re trying to win and renew at any given time.
Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) – The quoting and proposal process is still incredibly manual and inefficient at many organizations. By automating CPQ, you can eliminate tedious, error-prone spreadsheets, and streamline sales and renewal workflows. CPQ automation allows you to quickly deliver accurate quotes, put together custom presentations and proposals, and provide data-driven consulting in just a fraction of the time.
Marketing Automation – You need to look beyond individual, one-off emails. There’s too much room for error, and it takes too much time for producers and account managers to manually send these communications. Instead, look for a marketing automation system that allows you to quickly push out personalized content to clients and prospects so you can foster engagement without spending hours composing individual emails.
Client Software – Client software is a broad category and refers to all the different digital client software solutions your MROM can deliver. Some popular solutions include client portals, online enrollment systems, interactive HR applications (e.g., employee handbook creators, salary benchmarking tools and compliance calendars), and online learning management systems with workplace health and safety courses. While all these solutions serve very different purposes, what they all have in common is they make your clients’ lives easier and satisfy the need for the self-service.
Content and Content Management – Content is the backbone of your agency. It impacts everything you do—from managing your book of business to new revenue prospecting to your website and social media. Good content allows you to move past generalist selling so you can deliver the unique commercial insights that today’s customers demand. Feed your MROM great content.
To help you get started on your own RevOps build, we’ve created a resource that provides a “how to” for assembling your own insurtech stack. If you’d like to learn more, check out our guide, “How to Build Your Own Modern RevOps Machine.”