Nigel Payne is managing director at Assurant Intermediary
Most brokers have a client or two who owns their own business or is self employed. As brokers seek out new income opportunities, perhaps SME commercial insurance will be a new rich vein of income for the future.
Just a few years ago, few brokers really exploited the income opportunity for personal lines insurances but now it is hard to find any that don’t. Are we about to see a similar shift towards commercial lines insurance?
It seems to me that clients who own their own business, such as a retail outlet in the high street or a small office, must have a need for commercial insurances such as buildings and contents or public liability. This should offer a golden opportunity for cross-selling, but it appears that very few brokers are talking to clients about these products.
Part of the problem may lie with third party providers. If your insurance provider offered quality commercial insurance and suitable training and support, would you sell it?
Commercial insurance could be perceived as complex, but for small and medium sized businesses with small commercial premises, the product is as simple as a regular residential policy. Perhaps no one is providing the software, training and product suite to brokers in a way that makes it both easy to understand, easy to sell and easy to complete the transaction.
There are a few small providers of commercial insurance but they are often run by insurance experts who often don’t understand brokers’ needs, and they sometimes tend to speak ‘insurance language’ rather than ‘broker language’.
So if brokers had the mechanism, understanding and products to sell these small commercial insurances, how many of their clients could they approach, and if they were to achieve the same level of cross sales that they achieve on their residential clients, how much income could they generate year after year?
I call on brokers to do the sums and let us know if they think commercial lines could have a future with their business. Providers should be taking every opportunity to provide brokers with the tools they need to succeed in this market, and I for one am up for the challenge!
