How To Win More COLI Cases In 2004

A brief introduction to your organization and your COLI experience and credentials.

A description of how the company can use COLI in this case, meaning the choices for a funding approach and the bases for deciding on the right approach.

Depending on the scope of the product inquiry, a discussion of the features, benefits and risks of various types of COLI products, the parameters for policy and carrier selection, the guidelines for policy management, and the guidelines for tracking and assessing performance of the COLI product against the targeted outcome.

Your recommendations! What you propose and why, including the carrier(s), product type and description, competitive positioning of the product(s) in their peer group, and illustrative results under given assumptions. Remember, the company will almost certainly ask the other brokers what they think of your recommended carrier and product, so you had better be able to support your recommendations.

Well, you have an agenda. Now, find out who from the company will be at the meeting and what their responsibilities are. Keep in mind that these folks are in the risk management business…their own risk management.

When you get to the meeting, assume that the people from the company want to be educated. But also assume that they want crisp, straightforward presentations on the topics covered in the RFP. They are absolutely willing to hear some salesmanship in the course of the presentation, but if the salesmanship/education equation gets out of balance, they will stop listening.

Create a presentation handout from the agenda, perhaps taking each of the agenda items and inserting bullet points under each of them.

Be careful about how many of your associates you bring to the meeting. Dont bring anyone you dont have to and definitely dont bring anyone who wont add value. And if someone is there because you know he adds value, then be sure he has a meaningful part in the presentation so the company knows he adds value.

Too often, brokers show up with 4 or 5 people, all of whom are essentially sales/marketing people. This is a mistake. First, it causes the company to wonder just how competitively the product could possibly have been priced. Second, it creates risk that the broker will not be prepared to handle the substantive areas of the agenda or respond to tough questions from the company. Third, it undermines the ability of the broker to demonstrate the depth of its resources and to put a face on those resources for the benefit of the company. Fourth, by the time all 4 or 5 are introduced, a lot of those 90 minutes are long gone.

The wise broker brings a smaller but more strategically chosen contingent to these meetings. There is the lead player, the individual who has managed the RFP process and who will be the primary contact with the company. He will orchestrate the presentation. There should also be a "product person," whose role in the presentation is to fulfill that critical part of the prescription. Finally, there should be an administrative person, preferably the individual who would be the primary contact with the company from an administrative standpoint.

Assess carefully whether to use high-tech projection machinery and other impedimenta. Brokers most often use such gadgetry to demonstrate their systems. While systems are important, they are not what the assembled group really wants to hear about at this meeting. It may be better to have hard copy, generic examples of reporting material, discussed crisply by the administrative person.

Its show time! Check out the box on page 24 for suggestions on how to use your 90 minutes wisely.

I will close with a couple of observations, first for brokers, then for carriers. It has been my experience that virtually all brokers can make the case for COLI as a funding vehicle for nonqualified deferred compensation plans. Where I, and the buying companies, see real differences among brokers is in their ability to articulate (1) their metrics, meaning a cogent, structured approach to carrier and product selection/design, and (2) an illuminating description of how their skills in those areas will add value to the company.

As far as the carriers are concerned, its clear that many of them do a lot of work to design their COLI products to be as competitive as possible in the target markets. They also do a great job with supporting materials. But its also clear that there can be a lot lost in translation from carrier to broker to buying company. What is lost most often are the nuances of product design that can make the product more efficient than its competitors. If a carrier hasnt already done so, it might consider holding "COLI Clinics" for brokers, where the company can properly bring the product to life and describe its strong competitive positioning in todays marketplace.

As my grandmother used to say about other seemingly simple remedies, "It couldnt hurt."

Charles L. Ratner, JD, CLU, ChFC, is national director of personal insurance counseling at Ernst & Young LLP, in Cleveland. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

Reproduced from National Underwriter Life & Health/Financial Services Edition, March 12, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved. Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.