Growing an international health insurance brokerage in 2018 can be difficult. The rising cost of healthcare globally is impacting premiums so it is harder to provide clients with affordable cover at commission rates that work for you. The ever-increasing risk of cybercrime means data protection must be more important than ever. New legislation from the EU covering how personal information is shared and stored by those operating in member states is impacting the global insurance industry as a whole.

But, there are still steps you and your team can take to grow your business. They all involve investment of time or money but your business should see a return in the medium term.

Does your insurance brokerage have a business plan? Is it still up to date and relevant? If you find the goals in your plan are out of step with your business today, revisit them. What does your business need to achieve in the next six to twelve months? Take some time to:

• Identify where your company needs to be
• Break this down into monthly and quarterly goals by department
• Make them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely or SMART
• Report on progress monthly
• Iterate and optimise goals if needed

Employee development is critical to success in 2018. Training doesn’t have to be expensive. Research shows the 70-20-10 model remains good value for employers looking to maximise the effectiveness of their training programmes. The model indicates 70% of training takes place on the job, 20% through interactions with others and finally 10% from formal educational events. Two areas of focus for insurance professionals are customer service and sales training.

The prevalence of the internet has revolutionised the marketing industry. Where once consumers turned to experts for advice, 71% of consumers now first search for insurance online. Try to be the source for this information with:

• Online content that answers your most frequently asked questions
• Paid social media marketing on the platform your potential customer spends most of their time

Although not strictly marketing, ensure your website performs well in a mobile setting e.g. tablet or mobile phone. If you want to see strong growth in this area it is worth investing in professional help. It is too valuable to ignore.

Undertaking a software update is a significant investment, but the potential return for a small to medium brokerage may be well worth it. Modern software can automate or reduce time spent on a range of tasks from accounting, to workflow, to policy administration.

Your sales pipeline may benefit most from a software upgrade. There are programmes to help you identify marketing and sales qualified leads as well as stay in touch with existing customers to both maintain and grow your business. Using automation as much as possible will free up time for employees to focus on critical tasks for building success.

Fear of taking the risk to grow could paralyse you and your business. Commitment and persistence are essential to success in insurance brokerages. Like most industries, insurance is evolving rapidly, if you don’t change you are in danger of being left behind. Invest in the people, tools and marketing you need to keep up.