Find the Best Market for Clients and Prospects

How many times have you heard a producer or CSA in your office ask, “What markets do we have that will write fitness gyms (insert any business)?” The more insurance companies you represent and the more MGAs you use, the harder it is to keep track of what market wants to write what.

There have been several attempts over the last few years to create a standard place (database) where companies can add their market appetite so agents would have the ability to search for the best place to write new business. The challenge has been to get carrier participation and to figure out how to pay for it.

The new IVANS Market Appetite is the latest attempt to solve this issue. It is a search engine for property and casualty insurance agents and brokers to quickly identify markets for commercial lines risks.

Similar to a Google search, IVANS Market Appetite immediately presents the agent with a list of carriers, MGAs, and wholesalers with an appetite for the particular risk. This will reduce the need for agency personnel to waste time manually searching for this information. Streamlining this process increases productivity for both the agency and insurance companies.

The platform is much more than a simple database search. Both internal and external data (purchased from third party data providers) is added to Market Appetite to enhance its search capabilities. It also learns from past activity of successful matches. You might compare this search engine to a Netflix type recommendation engine that learns from the kind of movies you have watched in the past so it can suggest movies you might like to watch today.

The underlying technology platform was developed by EvoSure, an Austin-based technology company, which was acquired by Applied Systems in September 2015.

When initially released last fall, the tool was only available to agencies using the Applied Epic 2016 platform. With this update, IVANS Market Appetite is now available to any agencies that register for IVANS Exchange. If your organization uses download from an insurance company (regardless of the management system), then you already have an IVANS account.

Checking the IVANS Market Appetite engine could be integrated into an agent’s daily workflow when searching for a market to submit new and renewal business. Market Appetite also enables insurance companies to communicate their appetite directly to agents when searching for a market.

IVANS Market Appetite will help agents:

• Drive new business growth through access to new markets: Agents can view market appetite beyond current carrier and MGA partners, enabling an agency to find the best markets for their new and renewal business.
• Retain more clients with increased appetite awareness: Agencies gain confidence in identifying the right markets for each renewal to ensure clients have the best coverage for their risk while retaining that business.
• Increase productivity with appetite search capabilities: Agents can identify the best market for their risk in seconds and eliminate time spent on traditional methods of identifying market appetite, enabling agents to concentrate time on areas of their business that generate the most revenue.

It is easy to access the Market Appetite:

1. Go to: https://markets.ivansinsurance.com
2. Log into your IVANS account if you have one. If not, select “Create your IVANS Account.”
3. Enter your information and request a verification email.
4. Open the email and complete the registration process.
5. Use IVANS Market Appetite to win and retain more business.

Remember, the platform will learn the more you use it, which should help it become more accurate and, ultimately, more useful.

What tools does your agency use to find the best market for your business? Let me know.