Starbucks is known for selling coffee. Last year saw the java behemoth top $5.7 billion in net revenue, and with over 25,000 stores in 75 countries, it's hard to drive a block in most American cities without passing a Starbucks location.

However, if you ask former CEO Howard Schultz about the company he took from rags to riches, he'll tell you that Starbucks doesn't sell coffee. No, in the words of Mr. Schultz, Starbucks sells “a third place between work and home.” Coffee just happens to be the vehicle that connects the consumer with the experience, and it's the Starbucks baristas who play out Schultz's vision by creating a unique experience for the millions worldwide in need of a caffeine fix.

In an industry where commoditization reigns, Starbucks changed the game.

Much like coffee, the health insurance industry has often been viewed as a commodity by American employers looking to provide protection to the workforce at an affordable rate.

This undesirable image has been exacerbated by the fact that brokers around the country continue to help employers replace one large insurance carrier with another, while health insurance costs continue to rise.

When health insurance is viewed as nothing more than a product, this is the result. So, my advice to benefits brokers: sell stories, not products.

As a benefits broker, you have one of the most important jobs in the country. The cost of health insurance is one the highest expenses on every profit and loss statement in America, and there is nothing rising faster than this exploding liability.

Switching one insurance carrier for another isn't solving your client's problem. You are merely selling your clients a new product, which is the health insurance equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Your client's health plan is still headed for an iceberg.

For all the benefits brokers out there, I just have one question: Do you sell your clients insurance products or are you helping them solve the biggest financial threat our country faces?

These are two very different philosophies with two very different results.

You don't agree with me? Think about this. Unexpected medical bills are the biggest reason for personal bankruptcies in America today. These same unexpected medical bills are eating away at savings accounts inside most American households, and for the past 20 years, 80 percent of the wage increases employers have doled out to the workforce have gone to pay for health insurance.

So, what's the story?

Well, I can tell you what the story is not. The story of our industry is not about the Affordable Care Act's squeeze on your compensation. The story of our industry is not about the consolidation of insurance carriers that has left you and your clients with fewer options.

It's not even about all the new technology solutions that have helped bring the health insurance industry into the 21st century. No, this story is about the one group of individuals that is often ignored when it comes to piecing together the health insurance puzzle that is driven by insurance products: the consumer.

The members inside the health insurance plans you advise are your true clients. Point the finger at them for their lack of consumerism all you want, but they need your help. They are stuck in a dysfunctional health care system and have no clue how to navigate the ocean of providers and hospitals that make up the PPO network you placed them in through an insurance product you sold the employer.

After all, it is their decisions within the health care system that drive the cost of the health insurance plans you and their employer choose. Instead of shifting the financial burden to the consumer by way of increased deductibles, out-of-pocket limits and premium contributions, why don't you teach them how to purchase the health care services they need?

When you can help the member slash the cost of what they pay inside the health care system, you can begin helping the employer reduce the cost of health insurance.

When you help the member bring more money home because of the wiser, more affordable health care decisions being made, you change lives; and when you change lives, you are making the health insurance industry better. Doesn't that feel good?

At the end of the day, you are using insurance products to solve the needs of your clients; but the story is much bigger than that.

I repeat, health care is the biggest financial threat our country faces today and the biggest financial threat to every member inside every health insurance plan you sell. As a benefits broker, you are either part of the problem or part of the solution.

When you sell a story and you help the consumer enhance his or her life, both physically and financially, you are guiding our industry in the right direction.

And when your real client (the consumer) wins, the employer wins, you win, and our industry wins. You become a true benefits barista! That is a high that no amount of caffeine from a cup of Starbucks coffee can match.

Instant Insights /

Sell stories, not products

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