Questions to Ask for Cross-Selling Success
Whether you’re just getting started on your ancillary cross-selling journey or well on your way, how you approach branding your ancillary products is going to be key to your success.
The first question you need to ask is: “Should all of our products share the same brand?”
Considering Your Core Brand
At the 10,000-foot level, there isn’t just one answer here. What may seem logical for your core business, medical for example, may not be as logical for your ancillary products. So before you jump in with both feet and decide to have a single brand–your core brand–for all your products, you need to get clear on the following:
What are you legally and contractually allowed to use your core brand for? In other words, does your corporate licensing, enabling legislation, or other legal and contractual requirements allow you to use that established brand for other ancillary products and services?
If the answer to this question is yes, that’s fantastic, but now you need to ask what value you’ll get from attaching your core brand to these products. And more importantly, you need to determine if attaching your core brand to these products may actually dilute your brand value instead.
Weighing Brand Value
Will these new products strengthen your core brand? A simple way for you to think about this is to look in your wallet at your insurance cards. If you have multiple cards in your wallet–say for medical, dental, vision, and a flexible spending account–just think about the benefits of having all of them branded the same. Members will see your name and logo every time they take a card out to receive services, and likely come to know and value your brand.
Now think about those products you offer that typically don’t have cards–I’m talking about life insurance, short-term disability, and long-term disability. These products aren’t used as frequently, just by the nature of what they cover. That means the effort required to brand them effectively may not produce the value you’re looking for.
Determining Brand Risk
Finally, are there ancillary products that could actually dilute or be a negative to your brand? Hopefully, if you’ve done your homework ahead of time and picked reputable partners with valuable products, this won’t be an issue. But it’s something you’ll still want to consider.
Beyond your ability to legally brand your ancillary products, you’ll also have to weigh a number of other factors, including–but not limited to–advertising and marketing costs, as well as greater financial risks. By having your brand on these products, your organization may be required to assume underwriting risk it may not want or be prepared to assume–assuming financial risk on vision and dental is very different from assuming financial risk on life and disability insurance.
Alternative Branding Approaches
If the answer to this question is no, or maybe for some products but not others, you may have other options. Here are a few:
- Using the same approach as above, determine what products you have the ability to brand, and the value that you’ll add by branding them.
- For those products you’re unable to brand due to financial and/or operational constraints, but think they would add value to your brand, a “Powered By” or co-branding approach may work if allowed–check out the Government Employees Health Association for an example of how that looks.
- If you’re unable to do either of those in the second bullet, then consider creating a wholly owned branded entity–such as a General Agency like Indigo–that would be the distribution arm. Investing resources to have the marketplace understand that this branded General Agency is the distribution arm for your unbranded ancillary products may have the same impact as branding the products themselves.
- Look at your claims to see how dental, vision, disability, and supplemental health coverages may cross over with medical–there’s a strong connection between oral health and overall health, and vision exams can help detect hypertension and diabetes. Connecting an unbranded product like dental or vision to a branded medical product may naturally create value and enhance the member experience.
- It’s also possible to create linkages between unbranded ancillary products and your core products that give the appearance of branding. By using technology to integrate back-end operations, you can offer a more seamless experience for both accounts and members on the front end.
Save the Date: We’ll be diving into the key role that technology plays in cross-selling ancillary products in our upcoming webinar on April 29. Stay tuned for more details!
The decision to brand ancillary insurance products requires a thoughtful evaluation of your core brand, the potential value branding can add, and the risks involved. Regardless of the approach you land on, you’ll want to incorporate branding discussions sooner rather than later after onboarding a new product, to ensure cross-selling success.
To further explore how to best approach the branding discussion for your ancillary insurance products, contact me to get the conversation started.
