Broker Expo 2026 Countdown: Beyond the policy – where brokers add the greatest value

Rising client expectations have led to brokers adding multiple strings to their bows to differentiate themselves from the competition.

Understanding client needs and the sector they work in, along with their risk appetite and budget, is vital to providing valuable guidance.

However, guidance is no longer earmarked for insurance-related topics. Brokers also offer advice in areas including health and safety, business continuity, and physical security.

Many also provide add-on services such as employee benefits, pensions, healthcare, employee retention, and trade credit.

Full suite of services

“A good broker must be able to deliver the full suite of services, particularly in this competitive environment,” says Richard Morgan, risk management director at Verlingue.

He notes that clients are increasingly expecting their broker partners to be experts in their sector with the ability to have constructive discussions and give advice that is well-researched and based on facts.

Clients are looking for a one-stop shop, he says, adding: “Having a relationship manager that understands their business and how to get issues resolved for them is really important.”

Keeping on top of new rules and regulations is another way to offer value beyond the policy, both in order to give advice and to know whether additional coverage is needed.

“Particularly if you’re a niche broker, that’s a way to differentiate yourself from the rest,” says Oliver Burns, sales director at County Insurance Services.

Live and breathe their life

According to Burns, the best way to build a good relationship with a client is to go “live and breathe their life”.

“It really is like putting yourself in the client’s shoes, imagining what they would experience as a business, and thinking about how you would cope,” he says.

Burns adds that many brokers are too “fixated on where the next sale is coming from” and cross-selling other products, adding: “But in focusing on the micro we’ve forgotten about the macro. We can make a positive impact.”

Burns warns that the transactional approach leads to an unsustainable business model for brokers.

This point was echoed by Nicholas Pope, director at Denis O. Brown, who says he has met many brokers who are “sadly all about the renewal premium or getting the commission”, while anything else gets left in the hands of the claims team or the account department.

Pope says he takes a different approach. When one of his farming clients suffered a livestock fire recently, he went to visit in person several times.

Personal touch

He details: “This guy doesn’t read emails. He likes to read paper, and the loss adjusters involved were very electronically driven, so I went down personally to help him through his claim.”

Morgan highlights that claims support could also be of value to the broker.

“It’s about guiding clients through claims processes, but also learning from those claims experiences to help inform the future insurance procurement process,” he says.

Another area where brokers can add value is through helping clients connect with each other and their wider communities.

“A lot of it is around networking and who you know,” Burns explains, adding that clients will often ask him if he can recommend another client to help them with something, for example installing an alarm.

“That cements relationships because they trust me to put someone forward who’s good enough to do it and it benefits both clients, which in turn makes the renewal conversation easier.”

Member of a club

The idea is to make the client feel like a privileged member of a club.

Burns says he gets involved in the community through organising and attending events as a way of getting to know both existing and potential new clients.

“If you manage your own personal brand successfully, you will naturally bring in business,” he adds.

Pope, meanwhile, helps clients with a wide range of administrative tasks, including planning applications, water obstruction licenses, subsidy form completion, and the renewal of shotgun licenses.

“I use the phrase quite often that I want to be speed dial one on a client’s phone,” he says.

“If something’s happened at the business, ring Nick, and if it’s not about insurance I can tell them who they need to contact instead.”

He continues that having a strong client relationship is even more important in a soft market.

“When it’s easy to move business around and re-broke business and find alternative carriers, then it’s easier for customers to move as well,” Pope concludes.

Join the debate: Sign up to attend the Broker Expo on 8 October at the Birmingham NEC

The session ‘Beyond the policy: where brokers add the greatest value’ takes place at 12:45 PM – 1:15 PM on the Specialist Stage