Cardiac surgeon or general practitioner? A specialized broker will help with problems

Do you have doubts about your health? Your first steps, regardless of the current situation, will most likely lead to your general practitioner. Its role is irreplaceable and is an important part of the system. However, if a serious problem with the heart that requires a specific intervention, or even an operation, appears afterwards, you will not lie down on the operating table in his office, and you will not even go to an orthopedist. If you want to increase your chances of success, you visit a cardiologist, a heart specialist.

Trade receivables are to a company like blood circulation to the body. They pour the necessary cash into it, without which any circulation would stop. And the heart that drives blood into this circulation is the company’s credit management. Because, as many experienced analysts have said: “It’s not companies that don’t make a profit that fail, but those that lack cash.”

The role of general brokers in the risk management ecosystem is important. They help their clients cover all types of standard risks that may arise in the course of doing business. ARFIN also successfully cooperates with many such brokers in the care of specific clients. But are you looking for a debt insurance solution? Visit a cardiac surgeon, i.e. a highly specialized broker with all the necessary knowledge and tools.

What can only a specialist broker help your business with?

It is not so much about the amount of work and effort put in by individual types of brokers. It is about experience, product knowledge, contacts with specific debt insurers and knowledge of processes in individual companies. This makes it possible to anticipate the expected steps much faster and to solve specific problems more effectively. Currently, the time requirement is shifting from negotiating terms to securing limits. Even in this situation, a specialized broker is able to negotiate above-standard conditions.

The data and facts used on the following lines are not marketing content. It serves as a plastic description of the added value you get by working with a specialist. Three areas are essential in this case:

1. Terms and conditions

The market environment has changed, and with it the conditions offered by individual insurance companies as part of tenders. Currently, the absolute priority is no longer the price, but rather the obtained coverage in the form of insurance limits. Nevertheless, it is still possible to obtain interesting conditions with the right approach (especially in some sectors). In the standard environment before the crisis, on the Slovak market, since the beginning of our activity (i.e. since May 2019), we have managed to obtain in ongoing tenders for clients:

Insurance rate lower on average by 25.1%
Limit fees 24.7% lower on average
Limits – coverage increased by 17.3% on average

2. Working with limits

Today, this part is the alpha and omega of success in credit risk management. Together with our colleagues, since the beginning of the crisis (i.e. since March 2020), we have devoted more than 50% of our time and energy to fighting for the highest possible limits. And this both in detailed discussions with insurance companies about individual customers, and in system settings in the case of risk action plans by insurance companies, when a large number of hit limits need to be protected. This is how we in Slovakia managed to save almost 50% of the affected limits in the entire volume of the limit or at least part of it during the crisis. In the same way, as a specialized broker, we also manage to save part of the originally canceled or reduced limits in joint individual discussions with the insurance company and the client (underwriting meetings). In this case, it is important to know what needs to be discussed, how to conduct the discussion and which arguments to choose.

3. Product knowledge

When we add up the experience in the field of credit insurance of the members of the ARFIN team, we arrive at a figure of more than 50 years. We have colleagues who were directly responsible for the preparation and implementation of current insurance company products, so they really know them in detail. Not only what was finally accepted, but also what was not accepted could not, or could theoretically be applicable. This is extremely important, for example, when discussing the final wording of insurance conditions. We try to share some of this knowledge with you in the form of newsletters and News. An example is the article on DCL.

The trust of insurance companies is the basis of success

If you need to negotiate something with stakeholders in business, you need to have their trust. Like a heart surgeon, he needs to trust a colleague in collaborative or follow-up activities. The same is true in other industries, including in the case of credit insurance. It is only possible to agree on the expected conditions and modification of the standard offer with individual insurance companies if both parties trust each other. If they know you understand the product and don’t ask for impossible things. This kind of trust is built over years, through specific business cases that you solve together.

If you have never considered working with a specialist broker, or even working with a broker, answer the following questions. Does your company…

• enough people who can devote their full time capacity and know-how to the operational solution of this area? Sometimes even daily, especially depending on the number of subscribers?
• experience and knowledge that will help negotiate the best possible business terms with insurance companies?
• room for individual discussion about individual limits?
• enough knowledge about the processes of insurance companies to be able to react to the actions of insurance companies, especially in times of crisis?
• personal contacts to responsible persons in individual insurance companies, with whom it is most effective to resolve specific requirements (operational, limits, insurance events, exchange of necessary information, etc.)?
• time for daily monitoring of what is happening in the insurance company, what are the news, restrictions, changes and the like?
• information about what are the possible alternative solutions in case of rejection of the client’s request by the insurance company? These are often very specialized solutions…
• an overview and comparison of the approach of all credit insurance companies on the market resulting from daily communication and solving specific client requirements?
• experience from dozens of tenders for insurance conditions for clients across different fields and to a different extent?

If you answered “No” to a number of these questions, then the time has come. Time for a consultation with a specialist broker = cardiac surgeon with a proven history of successful operations. With one important added bonus: no extra cost.