Source: Today’s young professionals are distrustful of advertising and quick to switch off when confronted with a “hard sell”. (Image: Pixabay)
Kok was speaking at the Financial Intermediaries Association of Southern Africa (FIA) and Cover Short Term Insurance Broking Summit in Sandton. Hollard was one of the conference’s sponsors.
Brokers are dealing – like everyone – with a tough market because of global economic conditions, a commodity slump and, in South Africa, drought, growing population, unemployment and corruption. “South Africa is not unique in battling to get [economic] growth beyond 2%,” said economist Roelof Botha.
Today’s young professionals are distrustful of advertising and quick to switch off when confronted with a “hard sell”, said Kok. “They might not want an insurance broker, but they do want a tour guide,” she said. “They don’t want to know about your products; they want to know how you can solve their problems.”
Technology has created a world in which brokers have to work harder to prove their worth, said Michael Duncan, MD of Marsh Africa. Brokers need to emphasise their expertise and its worth to clients and potential clients. “Seek to avoid negotiations that focus only on cost – it commoditises what we are doing.”
Kok split the insurance market in South Africa into Millennials (people born between the late 1980s and 2000), Generation X (people born between 1965 and 1984) and Baby Boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964).
The Millennial generation, which agency Y&R SA put at 19.5 million of the country’s approximately 55 million citizens, is young, busy and – at last – settling down to marry and buy homes and vehicles. This means they could also be in the market for insurance.
To connect with Millennials brokers have to “play in the space where they play”, said Kok. That space is the digital space. To capture Millennials’ attention, brokers need to be online, to ensure that the user experience on their website is easy and seamless, and to offer honest assessments, Kok said. “Take them on a journey, engage with them where they are, be on social media and be active there, be brutally honest (but don’t scare them) and empower. Don’t bore.”
Peter Koen, the founder of InfoSlips, an award-winning South African electronic communications company, said crafting the technical experience online is critical. “You can build the best technology in the world, but people have to use it [and that experience of using it must be easy].”
Technology that gets people to do things, such as buy a product or service, needs to be easily used or people will simply give up and move on elsewhere.
“People think the biggest disruptor [in the modern economy] is technology. It’s the user,” said Koen. People drop one service or product for another because of the latter’s ease of use, the most obvious example of which is the app-based taxi-hailing service Uber.
“South Africa’s Millennials are starting to really earn,” said Koen. He quoted an international Deloitte survey that estimated that by 2020 Millennials globally – a generation larger than either of the two generations bracketing it – will have a net worth of between $ 19 trillion and $ 24 trillion.
Millennials want authenticity and caring from businesses, and do not believe that a business’s sole aim is profit, said Kok. “They want to see brands giving back, to society and the planet.”
Uber felt their wrath earlier this year because of this changed view of the purpose of business, said Koen. More than 200&nbssp;000 people deleted the Uber application from their cellphones after revelations of entrenched sexism and sexual harassment at Uber’s US headquarters, allegations that the company tried to benefit from disruption created by US President Donald Trump’s immigration bans and the emergence of a video of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick shouting at an Uber driver.
“Don’t assume that all Millennials worry about is cost and convenience,” said Koen. “They see brands as representing them. If they support you, don’t betray them. They will leave and they will leave forever.”
Just because the largest sector of the adult population can now be termed Millennial does not mean that the descriptive boxes – Generation X, Millennial and Baby Boomer – adequately describe anyone, said Kok. “We move people into units, but we forget the individual. Try to connect with certain individuals who have similar needs. People need your advice and your risk facilitation. Think of them not just as insurance buyers; they are people.”
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