《The Subscription Economy》Book Review: Why Can’t You Keep Customers? Learn 3 Key Transformations

When it comes to subscriptions, Netflix, Spotify, AppleTV/Music, etc., immediately come to mind. But as a salesperson, you desperately need to break the traditional sales framework and rediscover your new sales motivation because your customers no longer need a cold insurance policy but a brand new service.

Be Careful, Your Sphere of Influence Customers Might Be Your Stumbling Block

Selling insurance policies is inherently a cold matter. No matter how much enthusiastic service is provided beforehand, the policyholder ultimately receives and faces only a cold insurance contract and recurring bills.

No matter how enthusiastic the interaction is beforehand, you can never avoid the inevitable neglect afterward.

Frequent interactions beforehand are to understand more about the customer’s current situation, clarify their needs, and quickly build trust and close the deal through this short-term interaction.

After the deal is closed, customers only need “no claims” and “no contract changes,” so there is no need to discuss any policy content, and the inevitable neglect afterward cannot be avoided.

Trust is the Foundation, Service Needs to be Upgraded

With the advancement of the times, information technology and online platforms have greatly lowered the barrier for today’s customers to understand insurance. The past information gap no longer exists. What we call “insurance expertise” has now become “insurance concepts.” That is, everyone is more likely to understand their insurance needs, and everyone has more opportunities to learn insurance knowledge. And these customers no longer just want “trustworthy.”

In the sphere of influence customers, we have “time” giving us the greatest gift:

Basic sense of trust

But in this era where the amount of information is so large that it is not easy for customers to digest, more and more customers need not a so-called “sphere of influence, trustworthy” salesperson, but someone who can provide the fastest information, can make people feel at ease, return the right to choose to the policyholder, but can continue to provide and update services.

So, searching online for unfamiliar salespeople, the right to refuse and choose is in the hands of the policyholder. As long as the policyholder can do enough homework, and there is no more differentiation between salespeople, then what will be the focus of choosing which salesperson for the next generation of policyholders?

In addition to selling insurance policies, you need to make customers feel like they are subscribing to a service

When it comes to subscriptions, everyone instinctively thinks of paying continuously “every month.” So, what is the core spirit of paying this “monthly fee” or “subscription fee”?

Mobile phone signal is the “concept” of subscription, but only has the “concept”

Everyday behavior that gives you a concept of subscription: mobile phone monthly fee

The mobile phone monthly fee is the fee that is continuously paid every month, and what we get is “signal.” But the telecommunications fee does not meet the appearance of a subscription system because it can only be a “monthly fee.” The “wireless signal” I get is a concept of renting, rather than enjoying the key to a subscription system—service.

Treat Customer Premiums as Long-Term Subscriptions

Have you seen YouTubers? Have you heard of live streamers? Have you ever paid for “content”?

That’s right. In the era of the content economy, don’t let customers feel ignored by salespeople after buying insurance policies because this neglect is the gap brought about by frequent interactions before the deal.

But besides updating the “year/month calendar” every year, what service content have we updated?

When customers have no claims or contract changes, what else can we do?

《The Subscription Economy》Can Be Used in Insurance Sales Strategies

• Achieve initial results is like a newcomer to the insurance industry. You need to build your first group of loyal customers.
• Reduce churn rate Whether these customers buy or not, you must seize the opportunity to continuously update services.
• Increase value through upselling and cross-selling. Upselling and cross-selling in the book are a bit like how to provide more diverse service content besides insurance, such as retirement planning, social insurance (勞保) … and other service values!
• Increase customer growth opportunities. Making customers grow is very interesting! If most of your customers are office workers, are there any opportunities to provide them with ways to increase their income? Increasing customer opportunities is increasing your sales opportunities. For more extended customers, if they are store owners or business owners, do we have corresponding contacts to expand customer revenue together?

Further Reading

Lazy Conclusion (懶得有結論)

懶大

金融科技新創 CEO | 獨立財務顧問

The book “The Subscription Economy” has been around for a while, but rereading it always allows you to taste something more. When I go to insurance units to give lectures, I often speak frankly about the real business situation. But even if we don’t change, we can still create performance. Creating performance means I still have the ability.

Change is painful, so people need happiness! But happiness always stays in the past.

📩

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