Add value to your Portfolio: Identify Freelancers

Brokers their preferred clients are often the self-employed. However, less than a quarter of self-employed clients were identified by analyzing the portfolio of 11 brokers.

We carried out a study with 11 partner insurance brokers, representing more than 40,000 clients.

Less than a quarter of the self-employed are identified in BRIO

In total, that's less than 4% of clients identified as self-employed in the portfolio. In contrast, 17% of the Belgian working population has a main self-employed status (sources: Statbel, INASTI).

We see that obtaining complete customer data on the portfolio remains a real challenge. Whether it is because of a portfolio takeover or simply by managers who forget to update the files. However, this often represents a significant shortfall for brokers working on their portfolio.
On average, only 29% of the customer files have a social status or tax status on file. The most disciplined brokers have less than one out of two completed. 

19% of customers identified as self-employed after an update

By organizing a data update on their portfolio, 19% of responding customers indicated that they were self-employed (independent contractors, business manager, liberal profession,..).

It should be noted that these figures are higher than the Walloon and Brussels average (respectively 15% and 18% of the active population). This is explained by the fact that the self-employed use a broker more systematically than an employee does.

During the update, some clients also indicated that they had changed status (employee, civil servant, etc.) to self-employed status.

A 38% higher rate of coverage for the self-employed

In addition to representing contracts with higher premiums, self-employed customers also have a higher rate of coverage.

On average, our brokers have a coverage rate of 2.1 contracts per client across the entire portfolio, while it is 3.4 contracts per client for self-employed customers. Hence, this is a difference of 38%.

3 good reasons to identify freelancers in your portfolio

Our partner brokers were thrilled – and surprised – with the results following their client data update. Here's why they found it's interesting to be able to identify freelancers in their portfolio:

1. Ensure good advice for their clients: brokers ensured that clients are aware of professional liability insurance, guaranteed income, etc. This way brokers are able to remain the privileged advisor of their clients.
2. Start or stimulate the business on life: some brokers recently trained employees or hired a salesperson for Life. In addition to intensive prospecting, sales representatives were able to reconnect with existing customers.
3. Preparing for a portfolio resale: with medium-term resale projects (one or two years), some brokers have taken the opportunity to upgrade their portfolio.

Identify your self-employed clients with Penbox

Penbox works with insurance brokers to update customer data. The set-up is simple and takes no longer than 30 minutes for the broker.

The campaign is automated and the data can be directly imported into BRIO.

> I want to identify the self-employed in my portfolio