Sales and marketing

Commentary: More often than not, misreading customers causes them to look elsewhere. It doesn’t need to happen, says sales expert John Graham.

There are three types of brokers: the transactional broker, the Zenefits-style broker and the new school premier broker — but soon only one of them will be successful.

Commentary: As a broker offering these benefits to your employer groups, it is important to become proficient in voluntary benefits or choose to outsource this expertise.

Michael Turpin, the former CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s Northeast region, shares his thoughts on the new landscape and the potential impact the deal could have on benefit brokers and the insurance industry.

With just three major insurance companies, brokers must distinguish themselves from carriers, create additional approaches to serve clients and develop alternative risk approaches to health benefits, industry experts say.

Anthem Inc. struck a deal to buy rival Cigna Corp. for $48.4 billion, wrapping up almost a year of contentious negotiations and potentially creating the largest health insurer in the U.S.

Worksite voluntary benefits are gaining in popularity on standard ancillary benefit offerings, but the adviser’s sales approach to each needs to be varied.

Commentary: Technology helps, but it does not replace the expertise and experience of a broker. Rather, it helps to elevate what the broker can supply to a level that is equal to consumer demand, says Zywave’s Dave O’Brien.

Commentary: There is no better time to be a broker, says Zywave’s Dave O’Brien.

How San Francisco-based Equity Risk Partners’ focus on private equity firms had made the small firm a big player in the niche market.

Commentary: Hiring a part-timer in commission insurance sales is never a bad thing, says adviser Eric Silverman, who shares two tips to make the best out of the process.

Commentary: It is not necessary to have an intricate knowledge of every IDI product provision to help clients get the income protection they need.

Advisers who excel in the vision field do the best job of making the connection between vision and medical plans, some experts say. Shannon Enders, a founding partner at Lakeshore Employee Benefits in Norton Shores, Mich., says when he brings the idea of connecting vision and health data to clients’ attention, “they quickly become very interested.”

Commentary: What should brokers and benefit advisers take away from all the merger and acquisition activity among the medical carriers? The message is crystal clear. Now would be the time to move away from a dependency on medical commissions and take a fee.

Selecting the right partners, learning from colleagues and understanding the needs of each client will help agents who are new to this space.

Consolidation in the health insurance industry holds both positives and negatives for employer-sponsored health plans, but employers shouldn’t expect to see any major savings resulting from the Aetna-Humana merger until at least 2017, say industry experts.

Aetna’s purchase of Humana confirms analyst predictions of continued consolidation as carriers vie for market share, a trend industry experts fear will limit choice and force brokers to reinvent their business approach.

As small employers shift from group to individual coverage, private exchanges can be a useful tool to keep brokers competitive and maximize profits during the transition.

The merger of Willis and Towers Watson is likely just one of many to come in the next few years, as the Affordable Care Act and other factors continue to change the landscape of the business of health care, industry experts agree.

Standing out from the competition, maintaining healthy prospects and offering essential solutions can help attract prospective buyers.