Mobile Sales Force Automation Growing In Demand

Having already realized the benefits of mobile technology within their claims operations, many insurers are looking to bring mobility to their sales forces, as younger agents and consumers demand more functionality via their handheld devices.

Teaching Old Salespeople New Tricks

As they look to recruit and retain younger salespeople, however, carriers could be challenged to balance their efforts with the concerns of their current top-producing agents, who often may be older and more resistant to changes. "The biggest obstacle to carriers deploying [mobile technology] is this dichotomy between the two workforces they have," asserts Microsoft's Hartnett.

Steven Leigh, a Denver-based principal analyst, industry advisory services, insurance, for Gartner, advises insurers to keep the needs of both demographic groups in mind when adopting mobile technology. "The older agents have their way of selling. They use their tools and they're familiar with those tools. They're not terribly keen to adapt to new selling styles or technologies to support their business," Leigh says. "Whereas these younger agents are maybe not 'technology natives,' they're certainly more comfortable with those [mobile] technologies."

But Penn Mutual's Driscoll hesitates to draw a rigid line between the younger and older members of the sales force. "I don't want to say it's an older-versus-younger thing because we are seeing even older agents embracing these capabilities as ways of advancing their practices," he relates. "Some of those that push the hardest on us tend to be the most tenured. These are very good business folks, and they find ways of advancing their business cause, and if technology is an avenue to do that, they're going to embrace it. And we are seeing that."

Driscoll points out that Penn Mutual's mobile pilot was optional to agents, who were required to purchase a Palm Treo at their own expense to leverage the mobile capabilities delivered by the carrier. For those agents who were on board, some clear benefits were realized around access to information, he says. Overall, however, Driscoll describes the pilot as "inconsistent out of the gate."

"This is going back to about [winter] of 2004," Driscoll recalls. "We found that the devices were relatively immature and there were technical difficulties. There was some level of user frustration based on the stability of the devices."

According to Chad Hersh, an Austin, Texas-based senior analyst in Celent's insurance practice, even today U.S. mobile capabilities don't measure up to those in Europe or Asia. "We have relatively slow Internet on our phones, and the people who do have high-speed Internet on their phones generally use it for things like phone-based television, not for buying insurance," he contends.

That said, Hersh suggests that technology developments within the U.S. market around 3G networks and other advances have mobile technologies moving in the right direction. "The technologies in general around mobile are evolving and becoming more business-friendly," he says, noting that as the devices improve, the opportunities for insurers to leverage the technology will increase.

"It's moving fast," adds Penn Mutual's Driscoll of mobile technology. "[The devices] are getting better, much better."