Living Up to Expectations: The Internet and Insurance Sales

March 10, 2006 - A speaker at the recent Annual Meeting of PIMA (the Professional Insurance Marketing Association) had IdeaStar Inc.’s Vice President of Insurance Technologies Mike Wise a little riled.

In a discussion about “the future of insurance distribution”, the speaker started out stating, “The Internet hasn’t lived up to its expectations in insurance sales.” Then he proceeded to show how the use of the Internet in insurance sales is not necessarily the future.

“What we’ve seen from our many successful client Web sites, is that online insurance sales and services DO work, and they work well. So not only are online sales the wave of the future, that future is here now,” Mike said.

He added the speaker mentioned only four percent of life insurance is currently sold over the Internet. To Mike, that means there are whole lot of people out there who would buy online if the Internet environment was right.

The speaker also said that 60 percent of Americans want to buy products fact-to-face. “My point,” Mike said, “is there are 40 percent who don’t.  I would also think the 60 percent is dropping, and the 40 percent is rising.”

And finally, the speaker said there is greater opportunity for “going direct” because the number of argents is in decline. In that case, the Internet can take up the slack. 

“Quite clearly, even based on the speaker’s points, the Internet offers a huge opportunity for insurance companies.  But they need to move quickly to figure out the best way to use the Internet to their advantage,” Mike said, adding IdeaStar and its clients have proven it can be done. Click here to view a few of our success stories.

This year’s Annual Meeting was held in Naples, FL.  Mike will help chair the 2006 PIMA MarkeTTech Symposium, Oct. 1 through 3 in Chicago. If anybody can suggest a good speaker relative to insurance marketing technologies, contact Mike at 216-674-1600 ext. 116.