In a previous blog post, we stated that “Most agents have not been trained on how to sell it, and most commercial insureds don’t believe they need it or have any risk. Bridging the gap between the two requires an understanding of what the Cyber Liability Insurance policy in question really does cover, and how it relates to the Insured in question.”
This is the overwhelming part for agents, and the lack of real-time training on how these policies work, what coverages they provide, and why these coverages matter just doesn’t happen. Carriers promote their policies and what they cover, rather than teaching on what this coverage is needed for and by whom.
Compounding this problem is the variance in language between the carriers who offer Cyber Insurance. So for an agent, they are bombarded with so many options. Do I quote it as a part of a BOP or package policy? Do I quote it monoline? Do I quote it all? If I do quote it, how do I explain why they need it? How do I know one quote is better than the other?
A long time ago we wrote the 10 Commandments of Cyber. The 1st commandment was to be an expert or use one. Choosing the right wholesale broker partner to place Cyber Liability Insurance is the most essential part of the Cyber Insurance process. Let’s look at the questions you need to ask and the reasons why each matters:
Training.
The first tool a broker can give his agent is training on what the coverage is and how to sell it. Have you asked your current broker to do sales training for your staff? If so, was it specifically by industry class? Do they have a working understanding of each coverage part being quoted, and what impact it has on the exposures of its customer?
A properly trained agent will understand the liability parts of the Cyber policy vs. the property parts of a Cyber policy and how they work as a digital assets package policy to protect an Insured against non-physical fires.
Resource.
Does your current broker blog about current Cyber trends? Do they write papers on how a coverage part works? Can they give insight on how to answer questions on the application? Can they direct you to resources helpful in making sales presentations? Can they help you assess what limits to purchase?
Having resources that break down in very elementary terms sophisticated coverage parts and questions simplifies the understanding process for agent and customer alike. For example, the Teenagers and the Cloud blog posting is a funny way to understand the very real threat to fire created by putting your business into the cloud. Having a guide to assess financial risk to a privacy breach, PCI DSS event, or Cyber Crime scenario helps explain these real time financial impacts your customer faces. Being able to get a comparison of quotes by coverage part when needed. A website devoted to these resources and a blog dedicated to making agents smarter salespeople. These are valuable resources most brokers cannot and do not provide.
Education.
What is the GDPR? What is voluntary parting? What is the difference between phishing and whaling? Is ransomware the same as extortion?
The ongoing education of our customers is a big priority of US Pro. We want to train them to be great sales persons of the coverage. But we want more to educate them on the trends in Cyber risk. We want them to understand what the out of dollar pocket cost is for a PCI DSS breach in 2018 on a per card basis. We want them to be able to explain to an Insured why employees are the top threat they have to a Cyber event. When a properly trained agent who speaks with an educated and authoritative manner, a customer is more likely to purchase the coverage.
Knowledge
Perhaps the biggest question you need to ask is what does my broker really know? Ask yourself and investigate. Check their website out. How many white papers do they write? Are they blogging? Do they do sales training?
The simple truth is most wholesale brokers know something about Cyber. But few are going to be specialists in it, and even less will be experts. What we know is that any expert broker of Cyber Insurance is making the Training, Resource, and Education of its agents its primary focus. US Pro long ago made as its mission “Your Sale is our Success.”
We are recognized as one of America’s Cyber experts because of the work that we do the understand ALL of the carrier policy forms, and use our underwriting experience to explain them to our agents. A properly educated and trained retail agent with resources in their arsenal will become a premier and value-added service to its customer.
Our sales training modules are valuable tools our agents have used that were created by our intimate knowledge of Cyber Insurance and how it impacts any one commercial insured. We live in a digital world, and risk moves as quick as technology.
Be sure that when you do use a broker, remember that first commandment. USE AN EXPERT.
USPro
