SYSTEMS SCENE
Opening a new channel
I
n the personal lines market
the decision to move online is
a lot more pressing than for
those in the complex commercial and we are now working with He also believes it is
market and when it comes to the over a dozen comparison sites essential to be able to service
likes of motor and household including, the leads that come through and
insurance, most brokers now Comparethemarket.com and be able to understand how and
accept the need to court the Moneysupermarket.com and sell why enquiries are being
internet. motor, motorcycle, commercial generated so as to tweak the
Last month I looked at the vehicles and home insurance offering into the future.
role of comparison sites in the policies.” Although working in this way is
personal lines market and their
Steve Bow
Sean says working with this all about volume, Byrne also
growth has been quite Managing Director, Broking Division number of comparison sites takes the trouble to point out
staggering. According to
SSP
means the firm has access to that market share is not
information specialist Here we take a look at some tens of thousands of potential everything: “It is the quality of
Datamonitor, almost 25% of all individual firms and find out why sales each week. These are then the business rather than market
private motor insurance sold in they decided to work with the filtered down to single digit share that we are interested in.
2007 was aggregator-instigated. comparison sites, some of the thousands because of the filters We will cherry pick the business
In addition to this, the firm issues they had to overcome and the firm has in place and of and if it is not the right fit we
also suggests that these sites how they see things evolving in these somewhere in the region will say no.”
generated approximately 30 the years that lie ahead. of 150 policy sales are generated
million private motor quotes in each day. NCI Vehicle Rescue
the same year. The message is The Policy Shop Sean says: “We pre-select plc, trading as
clear, if brokers want a slice of Based: Coventry our risks so that we only get Insurance4my.com
the cake, then they have to Staff: 67 what we want. We only deliver a Based: Harrogate
consider working in the online Established: 1993 quote where we want to quote Staff: 28
environment and funnelling Business: 100% personal lines and we can be very clinical and Established: 1999
some of these quotes into their The Policy Shop is growing also geographically specific. Business: 100% personal lines
own systems. quickly and unlike many There is no randomness NCI had been trading online
However, online trading and businesses is actually in the involved.” for about 18 months before it
working effectively with the process of recruiting. In the next Sean says working with had its first aggregator
growing number of comparison 18 months, managing director online aggregators is a volume collaboration in September 2008.
sites is not just a matter of Sean Byrne says the firm aims to business and for firms looking to At this time the firm started
setting up a website and getting grow to 90 staff and has no do it successfully, they have to selling motor and motorcycle
on with it. Like any business worries about generating enough be set up to handle this volume insurance via Confused.com
model there is a right way and a new business to keep everyone effectively. He also says brokers having enjoyed some success
wrong way of doing things and if busy. need to understand exactly what selling breakdown cover through
brokers want to succeed in their The business started looking type of business they are after the site.
efforts, then they need to at working with comparison sites and be very product specific if Since that time, the
consider everything from the IT back in early 2007. Sean they are to give themselves a business has reduced the amount
required to the pricing, servicing comments: “Gocompare.com was chance of being competitive for it is spending on print
and products that sit behind it. the first site we went live with the risks they want. advertising by over 60% and is
Systems Scene
is sponsored by:
20 Insurance Brokers’ Monthly
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