What helps brokers turn prospects into customers?

Ask clients detailed questions about what they need, and then follow up with more questions to create a substantive dialogue.

That’s the best way to convert prospective clients into customers, according to 80% of respondents to Canadian Underwriter’s 2025 National Broker Survey. The percentage is consistent with responses over the past five survey years, which range between 80% and 84%.

Men responding to the survey place more faith in extensive dialogue (85%) than women (75%), and respondents at firms with 20 to 99 employees are most comfortable with the technique (85%), followed by those at smaller firms (82%) and lastly at brokerages with 100 or more employees (73%).

Meanwhile, tailoring the sales approach to a customer’s age is favoured by more than half (55%) of respondents, statistically consistent with the prior survey years. Women prefer the approach (59%) compared to men (49%), and brokers at mid-sized firms with 20 to 99 employees are more likely to say it’s effective (58%) than those at smaller firms (53%) and at firms employing more than 100 people (51%).

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A noticeable 2025 change crops up for a question about whether brokers think researching clients prior to the first meeting pays dividends. This year’s survey finds 53% saying advance research helps move the relationship from prospect to customer, 10 percentage points below last year’s 63% and 2023’s 64%.

Men responding to the survey find the technique more helpful (57%) than women (49%) and respondents at mid-sized firms with between 20 and 99 employees have the strongest positive views on pre-meeting research at 69%.

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Further, the survey finds 21% of broker respondents say they’re not able to spend sufficient time working with clients in a producer capacity, which the survey defines as ‘advising on and selling policies.’ That’s an improvement from 29% of broker respondents saying they were prevented from spending sufficient time with clients last year.

Women brokers (18%) are less likely to feel they can’t devote enough time to clients than men (22%). Brokers at firms with 100 or more employees are most likely to feel separated from advising on policies (35%) than those at firms with fewer than 20 employees (5%).

Canadian Underwriter’s 2025 National Broker Survey was fielded between Jan. 22 and Feb. 20 with 165 responses. The survey is supported by Sovereign Insurance.

Phil Porado

Phil, an award-winning journalist with over 30 years of experience in financial topics, has been managing editor of Canadian Underwriter for more than three years.