5 Ways to Improve Your Placement Ratio

5 Ways to Improve Your Placement Ratio

By - 5 August 2022

Improve Your Placement Ratio

 

In today’s business environment, data is the new currency.

 

The industry leaders of today are the data-driven companies. Their leaders recognize the impact that data has on maximizing operational efficiencies, better managing risk, providing better customer service, identifying market trends and conditions, and driving innovation—all while driving more premiums and setting your company up for unlimited growth.

 

A data-driven mindset enables you to make faster and more informed decisions—and gives you an edge over your competition. Here are 5 ways where data can help you improve your placement ratio:

 

  1. Replicate Outstanding Performance Across Your Agents
  2. Identify the Most Successful Behaviors Using Productivity Rates
  3. Decrease Your “Approved Other Than Applied” Rates Through Monitored Underwriting
  4. Compare Your Cycle Time Performance with Carriers vs. Other Agencies
  5. Monitor Your High-Premium Cases to Ensure You Aren’t Leaving Premiums on the Table

 

Explore 5 ways where data can help you improve your placement ratio:

 

1.  Replicate Outstanding Performance Across Your Agents

Agent profitability is crucial to the success of your agency—and monitoring the cost per dollar premium earned plays a critical role. With data readily at your fingertips, you can seamlessly identify your strongest performers—as well as those who may need some coaching. Data also enables you to focus on growing your business by duplicating outstanding best practices to train your agents.

 

Did You Know…

  • The average approved other than applied rate for an agent is 27.18%.
  • The average placement of approved other than applied cases is only 55%.

 

2.  Identify the Most Successful Behaviors Using Productivity Rates

In today’s hybrid/remote work environment, it can be especially challenging to identify where your productivity leaks are—and how to manage them. Analytics can help you pinpoint specific activity in your agency which will help you increase productivity, drive premiums and profitability, and identify which agents to bonus.

 

Did You Know…

  • The average case manager in the industry performs 277 activities on 1 case.
  • Cases with more than 350 activities are 23% more likely to place than cases with less that 250 activities.

 

3. Decrease Your “Approved Other Than Applied” Rates Through Monitored Underwriting

With life insurance, underwriting plays a key role in a favorable decision. It is also the longest tail in the process and often involves negotiation with the carriers’ underwriters to get the cases approved as applied. A number of cases, however, are approved other than applied due to poor field underwriting or applying to the wrong carrier for the customer. Most of the successful agencies have specifically hired underwriters who can identify potential issues—early in the process. These underwriters make sure the customer is offered the right product from the right carrier and from one that matches their health and financial profile, in addition to managing the expectations of both the agent and customer to decrease the approved other than applied (AOTA) rates, which improve placement ratios.

 

Did You Know…

  • 20% of the time that applicants apply for preferred non-tobacco, they only get approved for standard non-tobacco.
  • These cases only place 51% of the time.

 

4.  Compare Your Cycle Time Performance with Carriers vs. Other Agencies

Real-time data allows you to compare your performance with your carrier vs. your peers with the same carriers. This helps you identify and drive actions—such as higher service levels from underwriting—which result in better commissions that benefit your agency and allow you to confidently report your data-driven performance.

 

Did You Know…

  • Some carriers process certain products30% more quickly than others.
  • Most carriers average 50 days slower for one BGA than they average for all others. Are you that BGA?

 

5.  Monitor Your High-Premium Cases to Ensure You Aren’t Leaving Premiums on the Table

One of the most challenging aspects of a business is achieving an 80% level of confidence in accurately predicting your premium vs. using your gut instincts. Data driven confidence—backed by two algorithms that predict the likelihood that a case will place, and when it will place to forecast an agency’s premium—can help you make real-time decisions on whether to spend more money now to make more or cut back now to save based on future cash flows.

 

Did You Know…

  • Once a case stays open for more than 60 days, it’s roughly 3.5% less likely to place for every additional 5 days it stays open.

 

What Our Customers Are Saying…

With InsureSight, we get visibility into who is wasting our time and resources. We can see where we need to improve on training our producers, such as in field underwriting.Ray Hunt, Partner | Dixon Wells

InsureSight helps us have much more productive and actionable conversations with carriers, with real-time numbers around placement ratio and cycle times.Jason Kidd, Senior Vice President | Innovative Solutions

Get a holistic view of your agency’s operations and the real-time performance metrics you’ve been looking for with InsureSight® from iPipeline.

Designed and developed by iPipeline’s data analytics and data sciences team, InsureSight provides real-time performance metrics across your agency—and shows how you stack up against the competition. With this comprehensive snapshot, you can analyze cycle times, placement ratios, and premiums—in real-time—to drive operational performance, identify market opportunities, and increase your wallet share.

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Start your journey toward becoming an industry leader today!

Find Out More About InsureSight

 

Source of Statistics: iPipeline information, life insurance business, 2021-2022.

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Category: insurance, InsurTech, Life Insurance
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