065: The importance of adaptability in the insurance industry - with Mark Hicks and Richard Miller of Arden Insurance

Changing the Conversation: The People in Insurance

Are you looking to expand your client base? Are you struggling to retain a balance between offering niche, specialist policies for specific problems, and more generalized insurance solutions? Would you like to venture into educative marketing for your brokering firm?

In this episode, we’re excited to once again be speaking with Richard Miller and Mark Hicks, senior team members of Arden Insurance Brokers. In conversation with Boston Tullis’ Sarah Myerscough, they discuss the importance of adaptability in the insurance industry, both to acquire new clients and to retain your current customer base. This can be achieved by a bespoke assessment of individual clients’ businesses, in order to acutely identify their particular needs, and accordingly offer insurance solutions to counter any potential problems or risks.

Quote of the Episode

‘The days of an insurance broker just selling insurance policies are long gone’

Richard Miller and Mark Hicks suggest that in order to compete in the current insurance market, you need to deviate your focus from purely supplying policies. Indeed, the role of the insurance broker has expanded substantially throughout the past decade, to encompass a broader, problem-solving approach. By offering solutions catered to the particular problems facing each individual client, you can expand their own awareness of their business’ needs. In doing so, you can solidify both ongoing and new client relationships, built upon a strong foundation of trust.

Key Takeaways

Clients approach insurance brokers to simplify the process of insuring their business or property. Some clients may be inclined to look for the cheapest cover possible, but ultimately, this may be harmful if they ever need to make a claim. In order to avoid the detrimental consequences of insufficient policies or cover incongruous with a client’s needs, it is essential to fully understand the wider needs of the client. By evaluating their business as a whole, you can more accurately provide the cover they need in areas they may not necessarily have considered or accounted for. As such, an educative branch to your business which can assist customers in fully comprehending their insurance needs can render your engagement with them highly mutually beneficial.

As such, educative marketing can be extremely valuable in capturing the interest of your clients. If they understand more succinctly their needs, you can more easily provide the exact cover required. This, in conjunction with strong salesmanship and a genuine desire to help clients, will generate sales and build long-standing partnerships.

Your clients shouldn’t be kept awake at night by fears that their insurance policy is insufficient. The purpose of insurance is to enable them to rest easy. The best way to facilitate this is to fully understand the needs of your client, the nature of their business and the various risks which may threaten it, and which need to be protected against.

‘NIMBILITY’ strikes again! Coined in a previous episode, this term recurs once again on today’s podcast, as Sarah, Richard and Mark discuss the significance of quick professionalism in all dealings with clients, and the ability to respond to their problems efficiently, and provide solutions. The traditional role of the insurance broker has been usurped by a far broader task, as ‘insurance solutionist’.

Know your clients, understand their problems, and diagnose their issues.

Best Moments/Key Quotes

“We are industry and size agnostic, it’s all about providing the solution for the client.”

“There's a room for a boutique, highly experienced broker that has the experience of the larger organisations the same quality of people and capabilities but done in a much smaller family, a nimble, client-centric way.”

“Marketing is extraordinarily important. And I think there's so many different channels with which you can market now, whether that is LinkedIn, whether it's Instagram, whether it's Facebook… whether it's doing podcasts as well… I think it's the way in which you market yourself, which is vitally important.”

“At the end of the day, a buyer, you know, not necessarily buys for the name but buys for the person and what the product is that supports that.”

“We try to deliver the best individual solution to them. It’s not a one-size-fits-all. ‘What's the issue? How can we help you? Can we give you access to the wider market? How can we add that little bit of value that keeps your client?’”

About the Guest

Mark Hicks is the Managing Director of Arden Insurance Brokers, an independent, family-owned broker based in London.

Richard Miller is the Head of Trade Credit, Political Risk and Surety at Arden Insurance Brokers.

Having worked together for many years at Miller Insurance Services and PIB Insurance Brokers, through their longstanding partnership, Mark and Richard have acquired a wealth of experience in the insurance industry and witnessed its rapid development throughout the past decade.

Mark Hicks’ LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-hicks-3670617/?originalSubdomain=uk

Contact Mark at 02038575373 or by emailing him at [e-mail].

Richard Miller’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-miller-pib/

Contact Richard at 07900541027 or by emailing him at [e-mail].

About the Host

Sarah Myerscough is the Sales and Marketing Director of Boston Tullis Group. The founder of The Insurance Brokers Podcast, she brings a wealth of marketing experience and a fresh perspective on marketing in the insurance sector. Boston Tullis works with insurance brokers to offer solutions to business development ceilings, particularly in the rapidly developing fields of video marketing and thought leadership.

If you would like Sarah to help you develop an integrated marketing strategy, using state of the art concepts, then please book a free 20 min call via Calendly .

Website: https://bostontullis.co.uk/

Evaluation Link: https://s.bostontullis.co.uk/s/podcastevaluation