Showcasing your whole story means you get the right insurance

Written by Tim-Weymouth - Associate Director, ACII, AloL

I’m often asked what an insurance broker actually does, and my reply is that we’re storytellers. It might not be a story worthy of a Booker Prize, and what we say of course has to be truthful, but the right story told in an engaging way can have a positive impact on your business and the insurer choices this yields. 

Some stories are reasonably straightforward, like when insurers already have a clear understanding of what to expect from your risk. If we view this in the context of the next Mission Impossible or Minion film or a Martina Cole novel, we’ll know what kind of story we’re going to be presented with. So, by using this storytelling template, we can make an assumption about which of these is most suited to our needs at that time.

Other stories are far more complex, and the same is true for some areas of business when it comes to insurance. In relation to risk appetite, every insurer tends to employ a traffic light system. Within the green zone, you’ll have simple stories, but as we move towards amber and red, these tales become far more complex with many different characters that all have an impact on the narrative of a business. The key issue is that as the business looking for insurance, you’re reliant on your broker telling your story to the insurance market. 

For businesses involved in sectors viewed as less desirable by insurers, this can lead to a very limited market. When talking to prospects involved within the woodworking, HVAC, and contractors space, for example, they have been known to comment: “Our current broker tells us the market is very limited and they only have one insurer that we can obtain terms from.”

At this point, my question would be, how good of a story is your broker able to tell your insurance company about your business? You need to know whether they promote all the positive features of your business clearly, and that the ‘story’ remains current, while any negative elements – the ‘bad guys’ of the tale – are reduced or even removed through effective risk management. 

There are a number of ways to achieve this. For larger businesses, brokers can arrange insurer visits to your premises so they can see your risk management processes in action, where relevant. This can include your current and any potential insurers, which may helpfully generate an element of competition within the insurance market for your business. 

For smaller businesses, while a simple narrative may do, even the simplest of stories can be expressed and received in different ways… depending on the storyteller. For example, a client may tell their insurer: “Our alarm has broken down and we need it to be replaced first thing tomorrow”, but in the storytelling hands of a broker, the same sentiment or directive may sound much more convincing to the insurer! Therefore, having transparent conversations with your broker helps them assess changes to your narrative, reduces their effect on your insurance, and ensures a business grows, with a ‘happy ever after’ ending – even if there are some problems to overcome en route.

Whatever the size of your enterprise, I urge you to share your complete story with your insurance broker, so they can become the best storyteller when presenting your risk to potential insurers. The stronger the story, the higher the chance of engagements and favourable possible terms. Within the current softening insurance market, this is especially relevant. 

If you’d like to ensure a happier insurance ending for your business, speak to our team via the buttons below and see how we tell (and sell) your business story better.