As part of Health & Protection’s Guide to PMI for new entrants, Charlie Cousins, founding director, Hooray Health & Protection explores why working with smaller employers is a significant and rewarding opportunity.
When first starting out advisers will usually be working with SMEs and micro-businesses. These are ideal clients to learn from as there is less pressure if you make a mistake.
It is important to remember these are often inexperienced buyers looking for someone to guide them through their benefits. Most of these clients have not dealt with health insurance before and rely heavily on their adviser for support.
They are often either start-ups looking to attract and retain talent or long established, director-owned companies wanting to reward their staff. Their biggest challenge is usually cost.
These businesses often do not have large turnovers but still want to provide meaningful support for their employees. So, premium increases at renewal can have a much greater impact on them and need to be managed carefully.
To overcome this, it is essential to carry out thorough market reviews and consider alternative options to ensure they continue to receive the best value and appropriate cover.
Remember, an adviser might be working with directors or office managers to begin with. This changes with bigger firms who are more likely to employ HR teams with experience of managing benefits. Even so, it is good to avoid jargon when possible and use straightforward language.
Download the Guide to PMI for new entrants here
Educate clients and be transparent
A common misunderstanding is around what is covered and just as importantly what is excluded. It is essential to set this out clearly from the very beginning. These clients are placing their trust in the adviser to find the right package, so it is the adviser’s responsibility to make sure they fully understand the details.
We have won clients from competitors who failed to explain basic exclusions, and terms and conditions upfront. It leads to frustration and a breakdown in trust which is hard to recover.
Being completely open with clients from the outset is always the best approach. Even if it leads to an awkward conversation or risks losing a new business sale, it will be a benefit in the long run. Too many people avoid difficult conversations, but that nearly always creates bigger problems later.
Many clients do not know what an adviser does. They may have just filled out a quote form late at night and barely remember doing it – it happens. So, when contacting them, the adviser needs to explain who they are, what they do and how they do it as succinctly as possible. Otherwise, they may just put the phone down.
