Industry Encouraged To Push Sales Automation

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Katherine Dease understands why insurers have been so slow to adopt technology to smooth out the sales process.

Vice president of product management for Insurance Technologies, Dease explained that the easy technological upgrades came quickly in the early to mid 2000s. Then the integration stopped as technology innovation bumped up against the scattered sales processes used by so many different distributors and producers.

The industry gave up and continued relying on old-fashioned paper forms, Dease told a audience of mostly brokerage general agency (BGA) representatives at the NAILBA36 Annual Meeting.

She shared a quote from Rod Michael of Rockwell Automation: "If you automate a mess, you get an automated mess."

But the time has well passed the point of technology being something agents should be using, added Douglas Massey, senior vice president of sales for Insurance Technologies. It has reached critical stage in a society where 91 percent of adults own a cell phone.

He cited Amazon and Uber as examples of new simplified sales models. Millions of Americans sit on their couch and order products from Amazon every day in a remarkably consistent purchasing experience, he noted.

"What you really need is a comprehensive platform, like Amazon has," Massey said.

A sales process that is consistent and works fast and easy across all platforms, Dease added.

"It's not just about the experience for the consumer, although they are driving much of this," she said. "It's about the agent as well."

For example, it would be very efficient and helpful if agents could check on their phone to find out whether a prospect showed up for their medical examination, she said. The underwriting process could be improved practically from start to finish if technology were integrated more extensively.

Dease challenged BGAs in the room to push agents to use technology.

"Give me your pie-in-the-sky vision, if you didn't have to worry about compliance," she said. "Because that's what you should be working on."

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at john.hilton@innfeedback.com. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.

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