Why Insurtech Companies Are Losing the Messaging Battle with Callan Harrington

Callan [0:00:00]: Everyone's trying to take the crown of we are the Ai company for the insurance space.

Callan [0:00:07]: Well, if everyone's fighting to say that, you're gonna get lost in the sea of noise.

Callan [0:00:12]: Welcome to The Insurance Growth Lab, where we go deep on the growth campaigns and strategies driving real results in the insurance industry.

Callan [0:00:22]: Callan Harrington founder Flashgrowth And in each episode, I sit down with marketing and growth leaders from carriers and sure tech and top brokers to break down one specific initiative, whether it's how they marketed a product, scale a channel or solve a specific growth challenge.

Callan [0:00:39]: It's no fluff just tactical insights you can apply in your own company.

Callan [0:00:44]: Welcome back everyone to The Insurance Growth Lab.

Callan [0:00:51]: I'm Callan Harrington, and today, it's just gonna be me.

Callan [0:00:55]: I wanted to take some time, and I wanted to debrief on the themes from ITC.

Callan [0:00:59]: For those of you that are new to the industry, ITC stands for insure tech Connect, and it's by far the biggest event in the insure tech space buy a long shot.

Callan [0:01:10]: And if you're a veteran at a show, you know where this thing was ten years ago to where it is today?

Callan [0:01:15]: It's literally night and day.

Callan [0:01:17]: And when I was thinking about what I wanted to do for this show.

Callan [0:01:21]: What were the themes that I wanted to present?

Callan [0:01:24]: Because it's never just one theme because there's a lot of positive that's going on right now.

Callan [0:01:29]: You got a lot of capital flowing to the market, you're seeing huge advancements from technology from one side of the house to the other But one theme just emerged over and over and over again, and I wanted to focus my time there.

Callan [0:01:42]: And that theme is this, People are lost right now.

Callan [0:01:45]: I know that sounds like a very Draco, a very aggressive statement.

Callan [0:01:51]: So I'm gonna back that...

Callan [0:01:52]: I'm gonna back that up a little bit.

Callan [0:01:53]: For decision makers, it is nearly impossible to figure out what all of these new companies that are getting into the space are doing.

Callan [0:02:03]: And for so many insure texts, especially the Ai companies, they're messaging and positioning just are not hitting the mark for decision makers.

Callan [0:02:12]: So that's a big statement.

Callan [0:02:15]: And I don't want that to get lost in the positive, but I feel like this provides absolute biggest opportunity if you're an insure tech company right now.

Callan [0:02:24]: So let's pull back a little bit.

Callan [0:02:33]: And let's talk a little bit about how did we actually get here?

Callan [0:02:37]: When you think about this and you look back even just three to five years ago.

Callan [0:02:42]: If you go back further, it's even more so the case, but If you had a b b product in this space, and I'll say that's if you're either serving agents, you're serving carriers, Mg, or if you're an insured tech carrier that distributed through agents and brokers.

Callan [0:02:57]: The technology at the time really forced you to pick a specific part of the market and absolutely nail it.

Callan [0:03:07]: And to give you some examples of what I'm talking about, You know, I was at old penguin and we were laser focused on small commercial.

Callan [0:03:15]: And in particular, diving a little bit deeper, we really focused on rating and being the pipes to be able to deliver quotes and things like that in the small commercial space.

Callan [0:03:25]: If you look at a Duck creek or a guide wire or something like that, they were really focused on claims administration and policy administration systems.

Callan [0:03:34]: And let's take somebody one of the insured tech carriers, openly a very good example of this, right?

Callan [0:03:40]: Openly focused on home insurance for high value homes.

Callan [0:03:44]: And, of course, it break down any one of these companies and you're gonna find, especially if somebody that's very, very large, like the Duck reits and the guide wires, but bull penguin openly as well, there's definitely more products than those core products.

Callan [0:03:56]: But the reality is this, they became known for owning a piece of the market.

Callan [0:04:03]: People didn't have to think where is this company going?

Callan [0:04:09]: What all do they focused on?

Callan [0:04:11]: And if you contrast that with the Ai companies that are coming out, Ai is a totally new technology?

Callan [0:04:20]: And the reality is, it can do a lot of different things, and we don't even really know all the areas that Ai can really zoom in on.

Callan [0:04:30]: So a ton of new entrants are coming in here, and the challenge that's happening is that every single one of these companies has set on a path to own the full category.

Callan [0:04:43]: What I mean by the full category is, it's not the Ai company for claims.

Callan [0:04:47]: It's not the Ai company for underwriting.

Callan [0:04:49]: It's we're the Ai company for insurance?

Callan [0:04:51]: Well, that's a big...

Callan [0:04:53]: And I'm not saying there's not any companies that aren't saying we're the Ai company for claims, But I would even argue that's too broad.

Callan [0:04:59]: Right?

Callan [0:04:59]: What is it that you specifically focus on within each one of those different functions within each one of those different silos because so many...

Callan [0:05:10]: In...

Callan [0:05:10]: I'll give you in one of the more interesting examples is, well, I was walking past the booth with somebody that was an executive director for a Avi vc.

Callan [0:05:16]: And I was asking it's like, how do you separate all of these different Ai companies.

Callan [0:05:22]: So you've got, you know, if you think about who's getting more these than anybody, it's the venture capitalist within the space.

Callan [0:05:29]: So How do you separate one Ai company from another.

Callan [0:05:34]: And, of course, you're gonna look at their thesis.

Callan [0:05:35]: You're gonna look at all those different things, and he goes, you know, I'm g towards the ones that specifically solve a very specific use case.

Callan [0:05:45]: And that could be anything that could be type of insurance, whether that's property insurance that could be a very specific piece whether that's billing or reconciliation of commissions or whatever that might be.

Callan [0:05:57]: But they've got a very specific thing that they focus on.

Callan [0:06:00]: And he looks to left and he says, to one of these booths, this was arguably the biggest booth that was on the floor, and he looked up at the set of features that they had on the side of the booth.

Callan [0:06:10]: And he said, I couldn't tell you what they do.

Callan [0:06:13]: And I looked up, and the reality was, beautiful booth.

Callan [0:06:16]: Like, to be clear.

Callan [0:06:17]: This thing stood out, it was very, very, very well done.

Callan [0:06:20]: But when you look at the features that they put on the side of it, you can't distinguish that from chat Gp, let alone tell you what they actually do and where they focus on.

Callan [0:06:31]: Because, again, everyone's trying to take the crown of we are the Ai company for the insurance space.

Callan [0:06:41]: Well, if everyone's fighting to say that, you're gonna get lost in the sea of noise.

Callan [0:06:45]: And all the features when it comes to automation and things like that and predictability and stuff like that, people are trying to to hone in on those different things.

Callan [0:06:54]: And it's really the reality is it's just sounding the same with everything else.

Callan [0:06:59]: Because again, getting back to that, insurance is an absolute gigantic space.

Callan [0:07:07]: And there's so many different types of technology.

Callan [0:07:11]: I forget exactly.

Callan [0:07:13]: There was a a quote the other day and I can't remember which Carrier was, but they're something gonna spent, like, almost like a billion dollars a year on technology.

Callan [0:07:19]: Let me tell.

Callan [0:07:20]: I think everybody would love to have that contract, but they're not gonna invest all of that within one contract.

Callan [0:07:25]: They're looking for specialists in those in those different particular areas.

Callan [0:07:28]: And the reality is the cook.

Callan [0:07:30]: I can empathize with this from the insure tech perspective.

Callan [0:07:34]: Because one of the hardest decisions that you can make especially, especially early on in your company's life cycle is to narrow focus and really niche down.

Callan [0:07:46]: For me, personally, this was one of the hardest decisions that I made just narrowing down to the insurance space, and eighty percent of my revenue is already coming from the insurance space, and that would been that way since day one.

Callan [0:07:58]: So I feel for you.

Callan [0:08:00]: I know that is so difficult to do.

Callan [0:08:02]: And you're also oftentimes balancing How are we positioning this with our investors and attracting investors for the next funding round versus how are we positioning ourselves with carriers.

Callan [0:08:14]: But look, one of the big realities now is that Having Ai is kinda of table stakes.

Callan [0:08:19]: Right?

Callan [0:08:20]: I think most people...

Callan [0:08:21]: And when I had talked to them, and I asked them to questions.

Callan [0:08:24]: I asked most of the these people the same questions of what were the biggest themes that you picked up on at the conference.

Callan [0:08:30]: And, of course, Ai was overwhelmingly number one.

Callan [0:08:33]: And then the quick follow is that it's like, it is Ai, but it's also...

Callan [0:08:36]: Again, I don't really know what these insure techs do.

Callan [0:08:40]: So that's why as hard as decision that is, I would highly recommend diving in and going more narrow.

Callan [0:08:47]: And I'll talk a lot...

Callan [0:08:47]: I'll circle back to that here in a minute.

Callan [0:08:49]: But so the answer is, why is this an actual problem?

Callan [0:08:52]: Right?

Callan [0:08:53]: And what is starting to happen as a result of this?

Callan [0:08:57]: So the problem statement is decision makers have no clue what all these insure techs actually do.

Callan [0:09:02]: What follows that problem?

Callan [0:09:05]: Well, one, they're getting fatigued by all of the options.

Callan [0:09:08]: So if somebody getting fatigued by all the options probably not going to look at all the options.

Callan [0:09:15]: That can become a really big problem.

Callan [0:09:17]: So if you can't stand out, they're not even gonna look.

Callan [0:09:19]: So you're literally dead on arrival.

Callan [0:09:21]: The second thing that is happening is because they're so fatigued, they are turning to curator that know about all these products.

Callan [0:09:30]: I had talked about this in a previous episode, but as more companies jump into the space, there is a critical role that is being played in c all of these products, c and educating the market on them.

Callan [0:09:46]: As Ai leads to more content and Ai brings more products into the space.

Callan [0:09:51]: I think that this curation role is going to be one of the most critical roles in helping people at these different companies make these decisions.

Callan [0:10:00]: And right now, this role is really being filled by the consultants.

Callan [0:10:05]: I heard from multiple people that as a follow up to saying, you know, there's so many different companies were overwhelmed by all the different companies.

Callan [0:10:14]: And then they'd fall out was saying, we're leaning on our consultants as a result.

Callan [0:10:19]: And that doesn't surprise me.

Callan [0:10:22]: We talked about in a previous episode.

Callan [0:10:23]: The rise in partnership marketing.

Callan [0:10:25]: This is an absolutely perfect example of that.

Callan [0:10:29]: And I'll give you one of the examples...

Callan [0:10:31]: So how is this actually being played out.

Callan [0:10:32]: I overheard one of these decision makers say, we have a consultant in that consultant is taking members from their team and they're bringing us to each of the booths and educating us on what that company does?

Callan [0:10:48]: And how does that fit in my specific situation?

Callan [0:10:52]: Personally, arguably one of the best ideas that I've heard a while.

Callan [0:10:56]: I think this is an excellent idea.

Callan [0:10:59]: It provides a great experience to their customer, and it adds a ton of value.

Callan [0:11:04]: Now as you can imagine, if you're an insured tech company, what's the obvious problem there.

Callan [0:11:09]: The obvious problem is if that consultant doesn't have a relationship with you and doesn't know what you do because they have relationship with you, doesn't mean that they're still not gonna educate their client on that.

Callan [0:11:20]: I I think that would be too far.

Callan [0:11:22]: But if they don't know who you are and what you do, and you don't make it easy for them to figure that out as well, you're gonna miss out on a big opportunity.

Callan [0:11:30]: And one of the beauties about working with consultant from the vendor perspective from the insure tech perspective is if they bring you on, those deals are usually much, much, much much larger, then you would get on your own.

Callan [0:11:45]: Because they would used to working, especially if you look at the biggest consultants, Your accenture of the world deloitte of the world, they're going in there and they're making multi million dollar technology decisions partnering with these companies all the time.

Callan [0:11:59]: So for them to come in and you've built good...

Callan [0:12:02]: You've built credibility, You've built validity in what you're doing with these consultants, those channel partnerships are gold mines.

Callan [0:12:10]: But the flip flipside is also there.

Callan [0:12:12]: If your technology can't keep pace with the big tech that's out there.

Callan [0:12:17]: When I say the big time, I mean the chat Gp, the c pilots, those different things where these carriers are building this internally, the consultants I don't think they really care who they go with?

Callan [0:12:27]: Meaning, like, if they can build all that out for them in chat Gp, they'll probably do it.

Callan [0:12:31]: If they can get somebody that solves something better than what can be built out with chat And help them implement that within into their systems and everything else, they'll probably follow that.

Callan [0:12:42]: It's probably for a while here you're gonna be the path of lease resistance.

Callan [0:12:45]: So that's where they're going.

Callan [0:12:47]: Is it...

Callan [0:12:47]: Now the question becomes, is it better to go direct to a carrier and work with them?

Callan [0:12:53]: Or broker whomever that might be, or is it better to work through a consultant?

Callan [0:12:58]: That's a good question.

Callan [0:12:59]: You obviously have a lot more risk going in my opinion going through a consultant than you do going direct.

Callan [0:13:05]: But Again, you may not even get in the door right now.

Callan [0:13:08]: If your messaging isn't on point, and you don't have a good relationship with a consultant, then the odds of you even get in a door and my opinion are gonna be super super super slim.

Callan [0:13:19]: So settle a lot right there, and you're probably thinking if I'm sitting in this position, what are some things that I can actually do.

Callan [0:13:28]: So I'm gonna provide a couple of different areas here, and I might go deeper on these within another episode, but All is not lost, we're in the early, early days of this.

Callan [0:13:38]: So there's a lot of things that you can do.

Callan [0:13:40]: First thing I'm gonna I'm gonna call out is be careful about just pushing features because as much as we don't want to admit it, things right now are fairly comm because Ai is the backbone of almost everything that so many of these different companies are doing.

Callan [0:13:58]: So if you're just pushing features Even though, internally, and you might even be different.

Callan [0:14:05]: Let's just call what is you might even be different than your competition, but you're just not going to sound that different from the viewpoint of these people that are actually buying these products.

Callan [0:14:16]: So you could have the best product in the world, and you could say we've got the best thing and and we handle all these different pieces, but there's call what it is.

Callan [0:14:25]: If you're messaging misses the mark, you're not gonna even get through.

Callan [0:14:28]: And that's what that sucks because you want the best products oftentimes to win when they have the best people along with them.

Callan [0:14:34]: Not to say that all of the best people wear for the best products, but you get the gist of what I'm saying here.

Callan [0:14:40]: So That's the first one.

Callan [0:14:43]: The first one is you work in more use cases, get more specific on and what I'm saying, which I'll segue that into is, you know all, this isn't something that I would always actually typically recommend.

Callan [0:14:55]: But the more specific that you can get.

Callan [0:14:59]: The more you could talk about the actual work that you're doing.

Callan [0:15:03]: And this kinda of gets back to, like, own a piece of it.

Callan [0:15:07]: Own a piece of the claims process.

Callan [0:15:10]: Only a piece of the underwriting process, only piece of the distribution process.

Callan [0:15:15]: And where those areas that you're getting traction in, double down on those.

Callan [0:15:19]: And when you double down on those areas?

Callan [0:15:21]: Tell the world about that.

Callan [0:15:23]: They want to know.

Callan [0:15:24]: That's one thing I could say without a doubt.

Callan [0:15:27]: Yes.

Callan [0:15:27]: They are one hundred percent becoming overwhelmed with everything's out there that does not mean.

Callan [0:15:33]: They're not interested in it.

Callan [0:15:34]: I would argue it's probably the exact opposite.

Callan [0:15:36]: They're very interested in it.

Callan [0:15:38]: It's just really hard to make sense of what's real what's not, what somebody does, what they don't do.

Callan [0:15:45]: So dive in on those pieces.

Callan [0:15:48]: Right?

Callan [0:15:48]: They...

Callan [0:15:48]: People definitely wanna see what other people are doing.

Callan [0:15:52]: But look, if your booth looks just like chat Gp, why would they not just go with chat Gp and lean on those consultants some more.

Callan [0:16:00]: So I think that's a a really important piece to hone in on.

Callan [0:16:04]: And so look, I don't think it's a bad idea to put your clients out there?

Callan [0:16:08]: To get case studies, just amplify that voice.

Callan [0:16:13]: Because here's in my opinion, the biggest silver lining to all of this.

Callan [0:16:18]: There is a huge opportunity for those ensure tech companies that absolutely nail their positioning and messaging.

Callan [0:16:28]: And the biggest thing I could say on this and actually funny enough, if you sat in on the Jesse Cole presentation from the savannah bananas, who who was there, which I thought was absolutely excellent.

Callan [0:16:38]: Remove all the friction.

Callan [0:16:40]: Remove all of the friction.

Callan [0:16:43]: In their use case, they did this with fully inclusive tickets, where if you buy a ticket to go see a savannah Bananas game, then it's unlimited food and drink besides alcohol.

Callan [0:16:55]: That removes a lot of friction.

Callan [0:16:56]: People need to think about the other things.

Callan [0:16:58]: Do the same thing make it really easy for buyers to know exactly what you do in exactly the challenges that they're experiencing and the results that they get.

Callan [0:17:08]: That's just using a case study.

Callan [0:17:10]: Right?

Callan [0:17:11]: That's kinda just getting back to the basics.

Callan [0:17:12]: And look, as I mentioned again, I know that's hard to do.

Callan [0:17:16]: I know that's a really, really, really tough decision to make because you...

Callan [0:17:20]: Anytime you niche down, you feel like you give up all of the other side of the market.

Callan [0:17:25]: If I do this, I'm saying no to that.

Callan [0:17:29]: And you're...

Callan [0:17:29]: You know what The reality is in the early days, that's correct.

Callan [0:17:32]: You will be really focusing in on that.

Callan [0:17:35]: But you start to get people coming to you.

Callan [0:17:38]: You do cross sell upsell with your current clients.

Callan [0:17:42]: And then you find yourself growing beyond justice this initial niche.

Callan [0:17:47]: But to get really quick traction into to make some real strides, owning a segment of that market, I think is so important.

Callan [0:17:56]: And the last thing I'll say is and I talked about this already, but lean into partnership led growth.

Callan [0:18:02]: Mentioned this on the past episode, talked about it earlier in this episode, I just think that those those curator.

Callan [0:18:08]: And it this isn't always gonna be in the form of consultants.

Callan [0:18:10]: This could be consultants.

Callan [0:18:12]: Honestly, I think influencers that are very credible and do a very good job of sift through all this information and not just having Ai do everything.

Callan [0:18:19]: It doesn't mean they won't use Ai to support it.

Callan [0:18:21]: But those different types that are out there, those partners that you're working with that know this ecosystem are just gonna be more important to that end buyer.

Callan [0:18:31]: So building a relationships with those people those companies, things like that, I just think you're gonna be so so important.

Callan [0:18:38]: And so I'm gonna wrap this up with even though there's a ton of confusion.

Callan [0:18:45]: This was...

Callan [0:18:46]: Arguably one of the most exciting It c's I've personally been to.

Callan [0:18:51]: Capital back.

Callan [0:18:52]: Right?

Callan [0:18:53]: Fundraising rounds are happening, and they're not small fundraising rounds.

Callan [0:18:58]: Right?

Callan [0:18:59]: I don't...

Callan [0:18:59]: We're not...

Callan [0:18:59]: I don't know that we're back to twenty twenty, in twenty twenty one, but this is the most that I've seen it since that point.

Callan [0:19:06]: And there's just a buzz that's back that honestly, just it kinda of felt like it went away for a little bit, But, man, does that feel like that's that's back in a in a strong way.

Callan [0:19:16]: And Here's the reality.

Callan [0:19:18]: Whenever a new technology hits the market.

Callan [0:19:21]: Everybody tries to figure it out.

Callan [0:19:24]: And so this will get ironed out.

Callan [0:19:28]: We're trying to figure out what even all Can technology do.

Callan [0:19:31]: That's both what can...

Callan [0:19:33]: What all is an insure tech can we build to solve problems?

Callan [0:19:35]: If I'm in a carrier or a broker, what can I use it for to solve my problems?

Callan [0:19:41]: We're all figuring this out.

Callan [0:19:43]: So the fact that there's confusion, is a very, very very natural thing.

Callan [0:19:48]: So I'm going to double down on a previous statement.

Callan [0:19:51]: There is a big opportunity for those that nail their positioning and mess imaging.

Callan [0:19:59]: With that, I'm going to wrap it up here.

Callan [0:20:08]: And like I said, there is way more positive than negative that's in the space.

Callan [0:20:14]: And the truth is, I don't even really see this as a negative because there's so much opportunity within the market right now and I truly believe that.

Callan [0:20:23]: So that's all I've got for you today.

Callan [0:20:27]: And as always, If you like this episode, find me on Linkedin, let me know.

Callan [0:20:31]: If you hate this episode, give it to your worst enemy, we'll take the views however, they come.

Callan [0:20:36]: And if you really wanna support the show, subscribe to us on you youtube give us review an Apple podcast or some spotify.

Callan [0:20:43]: Every single time that you do it.

Callan [0:20:45]: It is always very much appreciated.

Callan [0:20:47]: So thank you again for listening and I'll see everybody next week.