As the 95th LIMRA Annual Conference opened today in New York, Robert A. Kerzner, president and CEO of LIMRA, LOMA and LL Global, challenged the more than 500 financial services executives attending to better leverage the power of social media, mobile devices and other technological advances to grow life insurance and investment sales in the future.
"The changes in available technology are happening at a staggering pace," said Kerzner. "Do you think there is any way iPhones, iPads, Droids and other mobile devices are not going to materially change our business model? Is it realistic to think that this type of device-to-device communication won't change how people buy our products?"
Kerzner suggested that the industry must leverage these advances to find ways to increase productivity from our existing distribution so they can close many more sales per year; to find new sources of distribution; and to reach the consumer directly and frequently in new and different ways.
From recruiting, hiring and training producers, marketing and communicating with consumers to data collection, Kerzner described how current technology is being used in other industries and how it can be adopted to improve and expand the business model of the financial services industry to better align with how people are living.
He showed the audience examples of online job fairs and how some companies are using social media to attract new candidates both in the field and at the home office. Kerzner encouraged the industry to train their producers differently, using mobile devices to provide on-the-spot lessons and mentoring.
