Consumers expect interactive experiences that deliver engagement , supporting interactive play and learning .
Don ’ t plan on supporting today ’ s financial advisor with only the traditional 45-page PDF illustrations . Engage with financial advisors in the medium of their choice — a digital , interactive , and easy-to-understand sales platform experience .
Second , consider that tomorrow ’ s Millennial producers and consumers are the first truly “ digital native ” generation . Norton defined a “ digital native ” generation as —
“ Digital natives know no world other than a digital-first one … To digital natives , adapting to the evolution of technology is inherent .” 1
Today ’ s Millennial producer looks for digital sales enablement platforms , not PDFs , PowerPoints and brochures . While both GenX ( up to 57 years old ) and Millennial consumers expect the same digital financial product experience they receive with their 401K plans and financial planning investment portals and apps . These consumers expect interactive experiences that deliver engagement , supporting interactive play ” and “ learning .
If millennial producers and consumers “ know no world other than a digital-first one ,” a BGA simply will not grow sales without meeting the “ experience expectations .”
Shifting to visual storytelling
Today , the life insurance sector is rapidly making the shift to close the digital experience gap in this regard . There is a new drive to more clearly articulate the permanent life insurance value proposition through visual story-telling — with the objective to help transform the advisor-consumer discussion .
Leading life insurance carriers are now using “ design thinking ” to recraft the traditional look and feel of the permanent life illustration itself , as well as incorporating digital tactics , such as hot links to product content .
Now more than ever it is critical to simplify the story of permanent life insurance , its living benefits , risks and costs , so any consumer can understand the broad fundamentals of the policy . Why ? Because we now operate in an economy where consumers increasingly expect to “ self-educate ” as part of any financial decision-making process .
Indeed , more and more consumers self-educate to perform their own medical diagnosis or conduct background research before a doctor ’ s visit using websites such as WebMD™ .
Many leading BGAs and distributors have already shifted to incorporating interactive visualization of life insurance policy performance , charges / fees and additional story-telling components .
There is also growing recognition of a principle that we have known for a very long time — “ interactive learning outperforms passive learning .” It is why children use highly interactive software and tools such as ChromeBooks in the classroom . It is why the Socratic method has been used in law schools for over a hundred years .
It is promising news for the sector that the leading life insurance carriers and distributors are now actively choosing to deploy this new language of financial services . So , what digital sales enablement capabilities should a BGA provide ?
Capabilities to look for
The sector is making tremendous progress in the eApp and accelerated underwriting areas of the overall policy experience . But unless more FPs are willing to sell life , annuities and LTC , and more consumers are willing to buy these products because of better product understanding , we simply will not return to a long-term growth trajectory .
Here are just a few core sales enablement capabilities that BGAs should consider in their field technology plans and producer services : Interactive play — enabling producers to engage with policies visually and dynamically Digital prospecting experiences — supporting producer outreach and client discussions A revamped digital “ sales concept ” capability — completely digital and configurable Data insight into producer digital activities at the point of sale
A significant long-term market opportunity is in play to reignite growth . And new technology is here to close the gap to financial professional and consumer expectations , broader adoption and brighter future . As the old adage says , “ experience is everything .”
1 . “ Digital Generations ” ( https :// us . norton . com / internetsecurity-how-to-digital-generations . html )
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