{"id":745,"date":"2018-03-12T15:27:09","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T15:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonusbenefits.com\/?p=745"},"modified":"2018-03-12T15:30:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T15:30:54","slug":"innovative-benefits-brokers-worth-weight-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonusbenefits.com\/innovative-benefits-brokers-worth-weight-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Innovative Benefits Brokers are Worth Their Weight in Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Employers need improved results more than ever before. And the demands on Human Resources Departments have never been more complex.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s face it. Today\u2019s employers are navigating some very complicated circumstances\u2014 with increasingly more at stake.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>You want to take control<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every business needs to control, at least to some degree, several things related to employees and employee benefits:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The cost of their benefit programs<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Time demands associated with administering and servicing the programs<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Organizational goals related to the employee benefits strategy<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ROI on insurance programs<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ability to attract and retain talent<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Levels of morale and employee engagement<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Historically, insurance brokers have only focused on the first two items related to the cost and service of the benefits. But as the needs of employers change, so too should the services provided by insurance consultants. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>A simple policy won\u2019t cut it<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A great employee benefits consultant will be intimately familiar with:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The finances of your benefits program<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who your employees and their families are and the needs they have as a group<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The choices you made in selecting the plan design as it relates to the needs of your employees, the values of your organization, and your financial considerations<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Benchmarking ideas of how you compare to others in your market<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re working with someone innovative, your insurance agent should be one of the first people offering ideas and advice on how to help you take control over many aspects of your employee management programs. But brokers like this can be hard to find.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So how do you tell a basic broker from an innovative one?<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Just the basics<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Typical, basic brokers are more like middlemen. They tend to focus simply on insurance products and the reactive service they provide to businesses who need group benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Want to know if you\u2019re dealing with one? See if you recognize some of these common sales pitches:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe have great relationships with carriers. Let us give you a free insurance quote and see if we can beat your price.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNobody provides better service than we do. We\u2019ll be like an extension of your HR department.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cLook at all of the \u2018free stuff\u2019 we\u2019ll give you if you become a client!\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A broker who focuses on product and price will deliver just that. They\u2019re much more interested in selling you something than in solving your HR and business problems. Organizational improvement stuff takes time, effort, and lots of listening. Delivering once-a-year policy quotes and waiting for commission checks is WAY easier.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>The full meal deal<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Innovative brokers are business consultants who use their expertise to help employers create strategies for better alignment between HR and company goals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, these brokers are committed to providing the right insurance solutions at the right price, but they also understand that insurance is just one part of the answer their clients really need.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead of showing up with a standard sales pitch and a spreadsheet, innovative brokers will show up with a bunch of questions to get at the heart of what you really need. These folks are genuinely interested in your business, and intensely focused on uncovering what things may be holding you back.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Best of all? Instead of hitting you with an insurance product and price scenario, they\u2019ll come back with custom solutions to address your most pressing HR and organizational issues. In some cases, they\u2019ll identify and fix problems you didn\u2019t even know you had.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Choose carefully<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When deciding who you want to work with, think about the conversations you\u2019ve had with your current and\/or potential broker.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the time spent talking with them is all about carriers, products, prices and spreadsheets, you\u2019re dealing with a basic broker.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the time spent talking with them centers around you, your HR and company goals, your employees, and your strategy, you just may have found yourself an innovative broker. Test it out by asking yourself these questions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Has this person explained how he or she will help me improve these things?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have they made a clear distinction between the insurance carrier and their own advising services?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are they bringing up fresh ideas and solutions I never knew were available?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes? Awesome!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But before you sign on the dotted line, make sure it\u2019s not just innovative talk. Follow all the way through the process.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have your key needs and issues been identified, prioritized and addressed?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are you confident this person knows how to help you make these things happen?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have logical, helpful solutions been presented?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is there a plan\/timeline for implementation?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If not, you may be dealing with an insurance salesperson disguised as an innovative broker. This is a big difference.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you find that employee benefits broker who develops a strategy to help you drive better overall business results, and then builds a plan of action to make sure those results are predictable and manageable, you can stop looking.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019ve found gold.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At Sonus Benefits, we build cost effective, long-lasting benefits strategies to keep your business and your employees in optimum health. Located in Kirkwood, MO, we help clients throughout the greater St. Louis area identify and manage complex employee benefits challenges. If you would like help managing your employee programs, we may be the insurance consultant and business partner you need.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Employers need improved results more than ever before. And the demands on Human Resources Departments have never been more complex. Let\u2019s face it. Today\u2019s employers are navigating some very complicated circumstances\u2014 with increasingly more at stake. You want to take control Every business needs to control, at least to some degree, several things related to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.12 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Innovative Benefits Brokers are Worth Their Weight in Gold - Sonus Benefits<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sonusbenefits.com\/innovative-benefits-brokers-worth-weight-gold\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Innovative Benefits Brokers are Worth Their Weight in Gold - Sonus Benefits\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Employers need improved results more than ever before. 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