Worksite: An Opportunity to Boost Revenue, Broaden Portfolio

In the face of rising healthcare costs, agents and brokers who sell employer-paid benefits might consider adding worksite to the mix.

Worksite — a way of selling individual insurance policies to groups of employees at their workplace — is growing in popularity. In fact, 77 percent of agents who sell employee benefits said they planned to sell more worksite in the future.1

Why? When healthcare inflation causes cutbacks in ancillary benefit spending, employee-paid worksite products often become more appealing to companies that want to offer less costly benefits.

Agents typically spend hundreds to thousands of dollars each year looking for prospects, yet their existing commercial relationships are often overlooked. In worksite, existing business and commercial relationships are prime prospects with enormous untapped potential. Once a business owner opens the door, a captive audience of leads awaits.

What’s in it for employers and employees?
Worksite programs can include a wide variety of products like life insurance, disability income insurance and critical illness. Safeco Worksite Life issued by Safeco Life Insurance Co. offers both individual term and universal insurance to employer groups.

The ability to buy individual insurance products at work is appealing to employees because it’s convenient, portable and there’s typically a simplified underwriting process. Plus, with many carriers, including Safeco, the premium is easily paid through payroll deduction.

Worksite is attractive to business owners because they can offer supplementary benefits with no out-of-pocket expenses. It promotes employee satisfaction and goodwill, and is one more tool for attracting and retaining well-trained, satisfied employees.

What’s in it for agents and brokers?
Agents are typically looking for ways to increase revenue, attract new clients, retain existing relationships, and make it easier to do business. They want to do all of this without changing the direction of the agency and with very little additional time commitment.

Worksite can add a line of business to commercial accounts. This keeps the agent in the door and closes off opportunities for competition to gain a relationship with the client. With a brand new commercial customer, a worksite sale creates a new relationship that can be leveraged later on. Moreover, employees are a source of additional sales opportunities, because many will allow the agent to quote products that are not part of the package — like auto and homeowners — in an effort to reduce their rates or improve service.

An especially important point for agents and brokers is that worksite is a “business hours” activity, and the meetings and enrollments take relatively little time. In the case of Safeco, worksite is an insurance sale on a grand scale with controlled time commitments, and higher potential revenues. (Each Safeco life policy issued within a worksite case pays full commission.)

A personal lines agent’s worksite success story
I persuaded a small agency in southern Illinois to promote worksite marketing to their local municipality. The agency is primarily a personal lines office, but sells some group health.

The agent, let’s call her Jane, had previously been the representative on group health for the municipality, but lost the account due to rate increases. I encouraged her to offer worksite as a way to keep the relationship open for the group health re-sale the following year. She liked the idea and the promise of gaining prospects for personal lines. The municipality warmed to the idea of offering employees a chance to take care of their individual insurance needs with no expense to them, and Jane got her foot in the door.

She held small department meetings to educate the 40-plus employees and set the date for enrollment. At the end of two hours, with the help of three enrollers, Jane had secured 10 new applications and appointments with three additional families to discuss more comprehensive programs.

Jane sold more policies in two hours than she had in the previous eight months. She also secured several home and automobile clients and maintained a strong presence, which helped her regain the municipality’s health benefits the following year. Jane has since sold another case using this simple formula for success.

Getting started in worksite sales
To get started with worksite, agents should examine their commercial and business relationships. Many employers welcome the idea of allowing their employees the opportunity to take care of their personal insurance needs at no cost to the business.

Once the agent has the lead or appointment, he or she should ask the company representative for assistance in the sales process.

Like Safeco, many companies work alongside the agent to make the presentation and help with enrollments. One of the top three ways agents and brokers pick a worksite carrier is based on the relationship they have with the company’s rep. This is perhaps due to the service intensity and relative newness of the worksite product.1

With worksite, the employer is able to offer something to the employees at no out-of-pocket cost to the business. The employee is able to purchase insurance from a professional. The agent enjoys daytime (vs. evening) sales activity on multiple platforms. Additionally, the agent cements the relationship with the commercial client, thereby closing an opportunity for competitors to take the business away.

Once an agent is up and running with worksite, I suggest that he or she plan to have a case in the works before the previous one closes. This will guarantee a steady flow of commissions and prospects for years to come.

For information about Safeco’s worksite program, visit http://www.safecoplaza.com/ products/employeebenefits/ildi.asp or call 1(800) 706-0700.

John Montgomery is a sales manager for Safeco Life Insurance Co. He has worked in the industry for more than 20 years as an agent and sales manager. To contact him, e-mail johmon@safeco.com.

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