How Insurance Agents Can Gain An Edge Over PEO’s

We should first look at the advantages and disadvantages of a PEO for us to find out how an insurance agent can compete with a PEO. This means that an insurance agent should capitalize on the shortcomings of a PEO and should offer the same benefits that a PEO offers. A professional employer organization (PEO) is a firm that can outsource various tasks for an employer. These tasks are about employees and include payroll and compensation, hiring, risk management benefits, and employee growth and training. This form of management is known as co-employment. The PEO is the employer of record on matters such as tax and insurance. Companies love working with PEOs since they perform many different tasks, all at the cost of a service fee. A PEO can help to attract skillful employees because a PEO can set up relatively better benefit plans. Typically, everything that a PEO does saves the company time and shields from obligations and legal liabilities.

PEOs have grown exponentially over the years. They have become competitors to insurance agents. This is because they handle all the insurance needs of the company that they work with and they can negotiate for better rates. The PEO does this by obtaining a package that covers both the PEO and the client companies that works with it. They can get compensation coverage for the employees that they manage. It is clear to see that a PEO is very advantageous to a company that it works with from the above definition. The first thing I would do as an insurance agent is to offer lower rates and a better package to a client. This is because the insurance terms might not be the best that the company can get as much as a PEO can provide a complete package. The coverage offered by the PEO might be an umbrella package and might not suit every company that works with it.

Establishing a mode of trust is hard when insurance agents approach a company. PEOs have an advantage because they have an established system set up that is complete with an insurance cover. A company might perceive that an insurance agent might not have their interests in mind and that they are only looking to sign up a client and then move on. An agent must first understand the industry that the company operates in and come up with a list of coverage options that they might require. The agent must also show that they will follow up with the company and that they will offer satisfactory customer service. A relationship between the agent and the company is important. The agent will be available to answer any question that the firm has in the future.

A company might not consider taking up the agent even though it might lead to a better cover. The company might reconsider its position if the agent shows that they are committed and that they will be available. This will improve the reputation of the agent as being trustworthy and lead to recommendations in the future. This is because there might be other companies that are not satisfied with the covers that they currently have. The agent has shown that they can secure a more appropriate cover. A business that they have worked with in the past can recommend them.

The agent could find that they have an extensive list of customers very soon if the insurance agent has shown that they follow up with their clients. Approaching a company with the extensive options that they have is a good idea since it will show that the agent is interested in addressing the needs of the enterprise. An insurance agent can go through the package with the company and come up with a better deal that is the most appropriate. The insurance deal can then be integrated through the PEO once the new terms are agreed. Many insurance agents have taken an alternative route today by partnering with a PEO to serve the various needs that a client may have. This has formulated a win-win situation for both parties since both of them benefit from it. PEOs that entered into agreements with insurance agents when they were formed have experienced more success and growth than their counterparts. PEOs have noticed this, and that is why some of them provide sales contracts to insurance agents. An agent can still get clients through the PEO rather than viewing the PEO as a competitor.

The customer’s knowledge about the fact that the insurance agent can help to secure a good PEO is an added advantage. They might decide to work with them. Agents today have relationships with PEO brokers. They can help to get the most appropriate PEO for their client. The PEO broker accepts proposals from interested PEOs and then sorts through them to find the one that is most suitable for the agent and the client. The choice of PEOs is not influenced by external factors because the broker is representing the client. There are over 700 PEOs in the nation. The customer would need to go through all of them. They would have to communicate with the sales agents at the different companies to get more information. A PEO broker saves the client from scouring through lists of PEOs and trying to choose which one would be the best fit. The agent then works with the PEO to come up with a cover and to set up a system according to the client’s needs. The client is shielded from all this. The company will have an appropriate insurance cover and the right PEO for them in the end.

An agent must do due diligence to make sure that the broker is competent enough even though working with a PEO broker saves time. The agent should check if the broker has had any experience with firms in the past, whether the broker is qualified, and if the broker has a non-compete clause that might limit the assistance that they might offer to companies that are looking to change their PEO.