A client of ten years with one policy
A dental practice has had its surgery insurance with you for a decade. It renews every year without fuss. Nobody has asked whether they have cyber cover, what they do about management liability, or who insures the practice owner's own building. They probably bought those elsewhere, or not at all. The broker who first placed it moved on years ago.
Across the book there are hundreds of accounts like this. Retail clients with a shop policy and no motor. Contractors with liability and no tools or plant cover. Nobody has a list, and at renewal the handler is focused on getting the renewal done.
The information is there, but never compared
The broking system knows each client's trade, size and policies. It does not tell you what similar clients in your own book typically hold, so gaps are invisible unless a broker happens to think of them. Account reviews happen for the largest clients, if at all, and the smaller ones, which make up most of the book, are left alone.
- Policies are organised by policy, not by account.
- Trade codes are inconsistent, so like cannot be compared with like.
- Renewal is the only time an account is looked at.
- Cross-selling depends on individual brokers remembering to ask.
What single-policy accounts cost
Clients may be uninsured for risks they would want to discuss, and they will not know unless someone asks. Whether a cover is right for them is a conversation between the broker and the client. The commercial point is simpler: single-policy clients are easier for a competitor to take, and the brokerage misses income it could earn by being the client's broker rather than their provider of one policy.
An account review built from your own book
- We read clients and policies from your broking system and group them into accounts, cleaning up trade descriptions into consistent groups.
- For each trade and size band, the system works out which covers clients in your own book commonly hold together.
- Each account is compared with its group, and covers that similar clients commonly hold but this client does not are listed as topics for a conversation.
- Before each renewal, the broker gets an account summary with those topics, so the conversation happens alongside the renewal rather than instead of it.
- Brokers record the outcome: already insured elsewhere, not interested, quoted, placed. Covers bought elsewhere are noted, with renewal dates where the client shares them.
- A dashboard shows gaps by trade, broker and outcome over time.
The review suggests topics, never products. Whether any cover is suitable is for the broker to establish with the client through your normal advice process.
Timing matters as much as the list. A topic raised in the middle of a stressful claim lands badly, and one raised in the renewal meeting, when the client is already thinking about their cover, lands naturally. So the account summary appears in the handler's renewal pack and on the client record, and topics a client has already declined are held back for a period you choose rather than raised every year.
An illustrative account summary
| Client | Holds | Similar clients often also hold | Suggested timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dental practice | Surgery package | Cyber, management liability | At renewal conversation |
| Retail shop | Shop policy | Commercial motor | At renewal conversation |
| Groundworks contractor | Liability | Plant, tools | Mid-term call |
The rows above show the format only. The suggestions come from what your own book shows.
Is this your book?
- Many of your commercial clients hold a single policy with you.
- Account reviews only happen for your largest clients.
- You do not record which covers clients buy elsewhere.
- Brokers rarely have time to look across an account at renewal.