CommInsure has jumped five places to be the market leader in standalone and master trust adviser driven sales among financial advisers this year.
NMG Financial Services Consulting released the data in its Risk Distribution Monitor report, which showed that CommInsure made $336 million in standalone and adviser driven new sales in the past year, an increase of 13 per cent. The data was drawn from financial advisers in dealer groups throughout the country.
Graham Putt, general manager, market development and distribution, attributed CommInsure’s move from its number six ranking among Australian fund managers to a mix of new technology, good adviser relationships and an intensive marketing campaign held over the last two years.
“We have invested in some key technology changes and marketing initiatives, which have led to enhanced service and greater transparency for our customers,” Putt said.
“We completely reviewed our product, our pricing, and our service, particularly our service offering to advisers.”
Last year, CommInsure launched the Client Portfolio Management program, which allows advisers to track client applications and view all CommInsure policies in a client portfolio. CommInsure also hired staff to provide technical advice for advisers.
Putt noted that CommInsure has focused on developing its relationship with advisers. Last year the company launched the Risk Sales Academy, which provides courses to support advisers and help them ‘finetune’ their selling skills and communicate better insurance solutions to their clients. More than 650 advisers have passed through the Risk Sales Academy so far.
CommInsure has also held marketing campaigns to help advisers develop their businesses.
“When we went out and talked to advisers, we found that they needed more sales tools and concepts to make them better equipped to grow their own businesses. For example, end-to-end programs for generating referrals from their existing client base, [and] we [also] helped them do ads that they could run in the papers for client seminars,” Putt said.
Putt also mentioned other developments such as referral tools to other professional organisations and ‘life-stage segmentation’ to work out clients’ actions during a particular life cycle.
“It’s about maintaining really good relationships and making sure that those relationships help advisers work through our organisation to make it [easier at] claims time, through applications time, or through underwriting time,” he added.
