With May being Disability Insurance Awareness Month, now is the perfect time to evaluate your current roster of go-to disability carriers.

While your chief goal should always be helping clients put together the best employee benefits package for their unique needs, it also can be important to look at how a carrier can support you from the initial sale to when a client's employee files a disability claim.

While it may seem strange to consider your needs when looking at disability carriers, the fact is that dealing with unresponsive carriers and the intricacies of group disability policies can keep you from doing what you do best: servicing other clients and making sales.

To increase time spent out in the field, consider partnering with a disability carrier that does more for you than just offering disability benefits.

Related: 6 keys to selling disability insurance to attorneys

Knowing that "time is money," take advantage of the following benefits provided by some group disability carriers to see how you could get back time in your day.

Guidance through the disability process

When a client doesn't know how to help an employee who is working through a health condition at work, the client is likely to call you for assistance. This same scenario also may play out when an employee files a disability claim.

Some disability carriers have consultants who are specialized in vocational assistance, chronic conditions or behavioral health — depending on the employee's situation — to provide helpful assistance to a client while freeing up your time. These consultants can often work in tandem with your client's human resources department to address each employee's issue individually.

As part of this assistance, a consultant can connect with the employee and his or her medical team to create either a stay-at-work or return-to-work plan tailored to the employee's health condition, medical restrictions, job and workspace. This help can take the responsibility out of the hands of your client and put it with experts who can make sure that your client is staying on the right side of compliance regulations.

Navigating benefits from other vendors

Additional wellness offerings play a crucial part in recruitment efforts for many employers. To stay competitive, employers look to provide extra resources to employees — such as employee assistance, wellness and/or disease management programs — that go beyond their health and disability insurance benefits.

But your clients may not have the best understanding for how to use their services to help an employee struggling through a medical condition. A disability carrier's consultants can help make sure employees know when and how to use services from these programs, even if they are offered by another carrier.

Local support when you need it      

While some carriers have centralized their operations, other carriers still have offices throughout the country to provide regional support for you. This includes help regarding clients benefit questions or claims assistance, or just be there to help you with RFPs and on-site presentations. Given that help is local to brokers and clients, the carrier's staff can help provide unique insights into your clients' industries and regions.

Considering the full scope of a disability carrier's resources can save you time, and provide your clients with helpful and responsive assistance when they need it most.