Increasing Conversion Rates by 274% through

Creative Communication Strategies

 

Company and Role

The Hemmings Group is an independent insurance broker with 160+ clients and $9M premium under management. Insurance brokers are an intermediary that advocate for an organization’s cost and coverage needs — and ensure insurance providers offer plans that are cost and coverage optimal. As a member of the Business Development Team, I was responsible for interviewing organizations to identify areas of alignment between their pain points and our services provided. I also acted as internal consultant in areas pertaining to the department's development, and spearheaded two department improvement projects centered around developing the team’s analytical capabilities and client outreach strategy. 

 

The Situation

The company’s client outreach strategy was executed during “renewal period” — the time organizations review their insurance plans, and decide whether to change their insurance provider or stay. During this renewal period, we reached out to organizations to offer potential clients assessments of their insurance plan cost and coverage. The purpose of the assessment was to identify indications of poorly managed insurance plans — which provided the opportunity for The Hemmings Group to acquire them as clients. 

 

The Challenge

Roughly 1/50 client conversations led to a scheduled assessment, but the problem was that the current client communication approach didn’t apply persuasion psychology techniques and best-practices. 

 

The Opportunity

I entered the organization with a deep knowledge of the persuasion psychology literature — and immediately identified opportunities to improve client conversations and conversion rates. Research from Adam Grant, a world-renowned organizational psychologist, had concluded the way to persuade someone was to allow them to persuade themselves. This is accomplished by asking reflection questions that direct someone’s thinking towards your point of view. 

 

The Creative Solution

Instead of pitching clients on company services, I would reframe company services as reflection questions, such as “what were your thoughts on your insurance plan fees and expenses?” This question motivated reflection on their insurance context — and encouraged clients to share their pain points, which provided an opportunity to schedule an assessment. 

 

Implementation and Impact

Stakeholder buy-in for my creative solution was accomplished through proof of concept. The first client I applied this communication approach with resulted in a scheduled assessment, which persuaded management to approve pilot testing and implementation. Across the following three months, the communication strategy yielded a 10% conversion rate, a 274% improvement from the previous communication strategy.