While the power of recognition to motivate and inspire people has long been recognised, it was the educationist Margaret Cousins who pinpointed the capacity for recognition to “make a day, even change a life.”
That capacity was on full display at the culmination of the Generali Global Advisor Excellence Contest (GAEC) hosting Generali’s top 300 advisors at the San Siro Stadium in Milan where Jana Šestáková from the Czech Republic took away the top prize – handpicked from over 100,000 advisors from over 28 entities worldwide. Speaking with Insurance Business in Milan, Generali Group’s chief marketing & customer officer Isabelle Conner (pictured) offered insight into the evolution of the initiative which launched in 2017 to celebrate the men and women who serve as trusted lifetime partners to Generali’s clients.
Over the years, she said, celebrating Generali’s advisors has helped to influence and drive strategic KPIs such as digitisation, customer satisfaction, and retention and production. Some of these elements are part of Generali’s lifetime partner values that underpin the organisation’s commitment to ensuring that its customers perceive high value at every interaction.
“Living our values and behaviours builds trust with our customers, which in turn drives loyalty and eventually multi-holding because delighted clients buy more,” she said. “We want to be the primary partner to our customers. Today around 50% of our clients have two or more of their needs met with us but we would like that to become the majority – that’s our vision.”
Conner noted that one of the subtle but significant changes to the initiative has been the change from ‘agent’ to ‘advisor’ in its nomenclature.
“We believe the term advisor better encapsulates the work that Generali’s partners do,” she said, “and the thought leadership and expertise that goes behind that. When you become an advisor, you gain in stature, in thought leadership, and content and influence.
“That’s what we’re trying to promote globally. The older advisors have experience, content and thought leadership while the younger advisors, through the power of digital, can scale the content we give them and their reach is broader.”
Looking at the GAEC nominees – particularly the top 10 – she highlighted that there is a certain DNA inherent among the winners. Conner believes advisors are go-getters with an entrepreneurial mindset who understand the “red attitude” at the heart of Generali which is all about going above and beyond for customers
“Being an advisor is a challenging job,” she said. “You have to be resilient, determined and entrepreneurial. We saw these characteristics in the [nomimee’s] videos. Men and women who get up in the morning hungry to meet people. You have to love people in this business. You have to be curious about people, their lives and needs, and you have to be a great listener. ”
“[…] To be an advisor, to be relevant in your community, to leverage digital to reach, listen, and help as many people as possible live a healthier, safer future is a really compelling value proposition, and we are helping advisors convey this to their customers. We’re trying to rebrand insurance roles to be equally as appealing as going to work for a tech company or a consulting company. Because insurance is really such a valuable asset in our ecosystem and in our society.”
It’s this same attitude that will allow advisors to leverage digital opportunities – and Conner highlighted how the best advisors recognise that scalability is the key to growth.
“The world moves so fast,” she said. “Our role is to help advisors scale from one-one to one-to-many. They have a physical branch, but they also have the digital scale to be able to reach hundreds of people with one click.”
Conner noted that there’s a wealth of opportunities for those businesses which have the attitude and the capabilities required to unlock the full potential of scalability. And looking around at the advisors celebrated during the GAEC, she said, it’s clear that the sector is pivoting with advisors that understand there is a scalability potential within their business.
Getting the combination of the right customer relationship model, the right digital assets and the right advisory narrative is as much about cultural transformation as it is about digital transformation. There’s an inflexion point facing the market which reminds Conner of when the internet took off in the late 90s.
“It's another revolution,” she said. “I believe the majority of our advisors will be using our digital tools, in three years. We must drive a cultural transformation and that’s what my team and I try to do with the field managers and the heads of sales – and they bring this to their advisors.”
With the future in mind, Conner pondered what the next iteration of the GAEC might look like. To date they have each been incredible, she said, with events hosted in Rome, Sorrento and Venice – so the question for her team now is how to outdo themselves yet again.
She added: “Discussions are already underway but whether it’s held in Italy again or somewhere else in Europe, the fundamental premise of celebrating, encouraging and supporting the people who make Generali roar will remain unchanged.”
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