The consulting world is undergoing fundamental change. Customers are becoming more demanding, and young people in particular are turning away from traditional consulting firms. At the same time, new technology is bringing unprecedented opportunities for the consulting profession—if used properly. What does all this mean for the brokers and MGAs tomorrow? How can you increase customer value with AI and marketing as new growth drivers? Will the traditional intermediary remain relevant? Four marketing thinkers from the sector share their vision. 

Sitting at the table on a sunny day in Loosdrecht are: Marcel van Dijk, director of strategic advice at MarshBerry, specializing in merger and acquisition advice to intermediaries. Next to him: Christian Mulder, head of marketing, communications and customer experience at Fidus, Nationale-Nederlanden's intermediary company. Also present: Milco Poppe, director of marketing and communications at fast-growing financial advisory organization Yellow Hive. Finally: Erik de Voogd, former top executive at Voogd & Voogd (now part of Alpina Group) and back in business as sparring partner of Onesurance.ai, the platform that helps intermediaries and insurers with turnkey AI solutions. 

At the invitation of Onesurance Jack Vos, the four marketing thinkers came together. In their roles of 'strategist' (Van Dijk), 'director' (Mulder), 'challenger' (Poppe) and 'visionary' (De Voogd), they discussed how the advisory profession is changing under the influence of technology and new customer expectations. (See also box text 'The four perspectives'.) There is broad agreement around the table: both the operating model and the distribution channels as well as the customer are transforming. As a result, marketing - often underused until now - is taking on a much more central role. 

Data analytics and AI 

To begin with the operating model: all four are experimenting with data analysis and artificial intelligence in their companies. In an optimally functioning system, the data analyst will soon be able to see what a business customer needs and what stage of life a private customer is in. As a result, it account managers no longer account managers solely account managers the account managers when to contact a customer because it is time again, but the system will account managers support the account managers and notify them when attention is required.  

"I think the role of marketing has never been greater than it is now," says Erik de Voogd. "Add to that the possibilities of artificial intelligence, and I expect that soon about seventy percent of all advice can soon be given using AI agents. Which will allow us to provide advice to clients two to three times more often."  

He gives an example from his own family. "My daughter will soon be turning eighteen. That's a good time for account managers send me an email: is she already working on her driver's license? And what car will she be driving? Your BMW? If so, keep in mind that she will have a higher deductible. Or is she planning to buy a car herself? And so on."  

Co-creation 

Working with data requires a culture change in the company. All agree that you cannot impose this from above. Christian Mulder of Fidus: "We started small, with a few pioneers. That way we could show that it works. Gradually the role of our marketing changed completely: from lead generation to director of the whole game, where the product is no longer central, but the customer." 

The question is whether advisors will go along with this way of working. Milco Poppe: "It does indeed require a certain type of, proactive advisors. That's why at Yellow Hive we actively involve advisors in the development of new operating concepts. We put everything they have in terms of experience into it. Marketing links to this the insights that data provides. In this way, co-creation creates a natural movement: advisors automatically start thinking more and more from the customer's perspective and less from the product's perspective." 

"But sometimes an account managers : 'I visited that customer last week, everything was fine, he's really happy,' while the marketing department comes to a different conclusion based on the data. In that case, it's very important that we talk to each other: why do our insights differ?"

Who watches over customer satisfaction? 

At present, a lot of power lies with individual account managers," De Voogd observes. "The customer experience often depends on their mood and priorities. This can result in a variable customer experience. The question is who will be responsible for monitoring the quality of the customer experience in the future." 

Christian Mulder: "We have made everyone responsible for customer satisfaction, which we measure regularly. Poppe adds: "We regularly celebrate successes together." "But this transition will not be a battle between man and machine," Mulder clarifies. "The goal is for advisors to be able to use their time more efficiently. And some soft aspects are indeed more difficult to capture in data, such as risk appetite or the extent to which emotion plays a role in the customer's needs. For those kinds of issues, you still need advice from empathetic account managers." 

Customer value increases 

Mulder sees data analysis primarily as an enrichment of the consulting profession. "Consultants will no longer need to keep an agenda, but will only have to do what they do best: the consultation. It also means that customer value will increase. Currently, an account managers serve a few hundred customers, but soon that number could rise to a thousand satisfied customers. That also means higher earnings. And a satisfied customer automatically leads to lower customer attrition, which in any case increases the value of the portfolio." 

Younger customer goes for convenience 

Marcel van Dijk of MarshBerry touches on another development: the changing customer. "The way and the speed with which customers orient themselves to an insurance product is evolving enormously. This is mainly due to AI. People no longer search Google or click through pages. They ask one question to AI and they're done. This "one-click generation" wants to be able to complete every purchase and every decision with one action. So high positions in Google no longer matter. That's going to have a lot of impact on how customers arrive at an insurance product." 

Figures show that young people are less likely to seek out insurance advisors. "The average age of insurance advisors and their clients is already over fifty, and that average is rising slightly every year. Young people are no longer interested in the paperwork, long conversations, and slow processes of an advisory firm. They prefer platforms and affiliates, take out policies via their banking app, or opt for the convenience of embedded insurance. To reach young people again, account managers need to adopt account managers marketing methods. Some are already working on this, while others are still in denial." 

However, taking out car, travel, or phone insurance with the supplier does not create a lasting bond with the customer. De Voogd: "Your car dealer will never give you comprehensive advice. And you don't build a relationship with the Mediamarkt employee. As brokers and MGAs , we can do that brokers and MGAs . The trick is, once you have a customer through, for example, their car or moped insurance, to build a relationship with them. You have to 'smother them with affection.'" 

Customer Satisfaction 

Poppe agrees: “Marketing is not a sprint, it is a marathon. When a firm is acquired and subsequently renamed, the relationship of trust between clients and account managers is account managers slightly damaged. That is why, after an acquisition, we deliberately take the time to help clients get used to the new situation. We organize targeted contact moments to give those clients extra attention. What's more, our labels still position themselves as regional offices, fueled by all the extras they get from the larger group. They keep repeating: it's the same branch, with the same advisors, we're close to you." 

Not every company works this way. Christian Mulder: "I see that we are in a playing field in which a number of large parties want to make a lot of acquisitions quickly. Some - especially foreign - parties do not pay as much attention to the client. That means there are great opportunities for the intermediaries who do address the customer." 

Intermediaries as winners in AI era 

Back to the operating models. "AI is going to radically change insurance distribution," warns Marcel van Dijk. "Developments are happening so fast that we can hardly foresee the impact. Nevertheless, insurance intermediaries are better positioned than insurers to benefit from this. They can put together hyper-personalized products and make smart combinations from different providers. If brokers and MGAs play brokers and MGAs right, insurer will be increasingly reduced to pure capacity providers insurer coming years. AI may well create a new 'middle man' economy, but it will not be the same as before. It will be digital, data-driven 'intermediaries' that will dominate the market." 

'It doesn't come to blows' 

How far along are parties actually with the transition to data analytics and AI? Attendees estimate that no company is yet fully ready with the transformation. "It doesn't come easy. You have to put a dedicated team on it," warns De Voogd. "Even though you have so much data, you have to be able to leverage it. In other words, you can have all the ingredients, but that doesn't mean you can make a beautiful dish out of it." 

Knowing exactly in time which customers are in danger of leaving, what to offer each customer and which customers are actually unprofitable: it sounds like future music, but at Onesurance these analyses are already running daily for large intermediaries, says De Voogd. "Thanks to the rapid advances in AI, this is becoming increasingly sophisticated; data-driven advice will then become the new standard for customer-focused work." 

The four perspectives 

Strategist - Marcel van Dijk (MarshBerry)
Sees the intermediary profession through the lens of consolidation and growth: how mergers, acquisitions and economies of scale are changing the consulting industry and how new technology is accelerating. 

Director - Christian Mulder (Fidus)
Believes in marketing as the hub of the customer experience and data as a steering tool: from lead generator to director of the entire customer process. 

Challenger - Milco Poppe (Yellow Hive)
Challenges the traditional model with co-creation, proactive consultants and customer-driven concepts that are continuously tested and improved. 

Visionary - Erik de Voogd (former Voogd & Voogd, now Onesurance sparring partner)
Sees AI and automation as a lever to scale the advisory profession, increase customer value and give advisors more time for human contact.