The Shift to a More Productive Wholesaling Model

In today’s rapidly evolving insurance landscape, life and annuity carriers are under increasing pressure to modernize their wholesaler service experience and operations. At Ensight, we work with over 30 leading insurance carriers, helping drive product distribution through broker-dealers, BGAs, FinTech platforms, RIAs, and more. Across these engagements, we consistently hear from carriers that there are three strategic areas where transformation can unlock outsized returns: advisor sales experience, internal desk productivity, and data driven sales follow-up for pipeline effectiveness.

While these categories aren’t new, the dynamics within them are shifting. This is driven by changing advisor expectations, digital innovation, and the push for more scalability within wholesaler operations. Let’s explore the emerging opportunities in each area.

Elevating the Product Sales Narrative

For years the traditional sales experience has centered around static, 30-55 page PDF illustrations. This is no longer sufficient. Advisors and clients now expect digital, interactive financial planning experiences that are intuitive, engaging, and educational.

• Static PDF illustrations are aging as the core sales asset
• Digital planning platforms have set a new standard for usability, experience and engagement
• New advisors need tools that teach them how to position annuity, LTC, and life products effectively
• Clients need clarity, especially in a world increasingly focused on longevity and retirement security

To meet these expectations, insurance carriers must close the “experience gap”. That means delivering a modern, interactive product and proposal experience that aligns with financial planning platforms, simplifies complex concepts, and empowers both advisors and clients to make informed decisions.

Hybrid Digital Servicing: Scaling the Sales Desk

The traditional internal sales desk model, where every quote and illustration request is manually processed, is becoming unsustainable. Advisors demand real-time service, and carriers need to scale productivity without increasing costs.

• Advisors want immediate access to product options during live planning discussions
• Wholesaling leadership teams are increasingly looking for how to unleash scalability and additional capacity within the current sales desk pre-sale model and resources
• Carriers must adopt a hybrid servicing model that enables advisors to iterate through annuity, life, and LTC scenarios on the fly without losing the personal touch of the sales desk

 A new hybrid approach, empowering advisors with a simplified quoting experience to create and iterate annuity and life illustration proposals while receiving real-time notifications on advisor activity, allows carriers to maintain advisor relationships while empowering them with self-service tools that enhance speed, flexibility, and engagement.

Sales Data Insight: Unlocking Pre-Sale Intelligence

Sales teams across industries are doubling down on data, and insurance is no exception. The next frontier for annuity and life carriers is pre-sale data insight—understanding how advisors engage with proposals before the sale.

• Today’s proposals are often static PDFs, offering little visibility into advisor behavior
• Tomorrow’s proposals will be digital experiences, with real-time tracking and engagement data
• Sales teams will be able to follow up strategically, prioritize high-value cases, and close more business

By shifting to trackable, interactive proposals, carriers can transform their sales follow-up process and turn guesswork into precision.

Conclusion: A New Model for Growth

The shift to a more productive wholesaling model isn’t just about technology. It’s about aligning with how advisors work today. By modernizing the product point of sale experience, embracing a hybrid pre-sale (quoting) service model, and leveraging pre-sale data, carriers can drive meaningful growth in advisor acquisition, sales desk productivity and capacity, and sales conversion.

In our next blog, we’ll dive deeper into each of these transformation areas, exploring best practices and real-world examples from leading carriers.