From market validation to implementation
Validating, planning and then executing an insurance market entry for a financial services company
CASE STUDY ~ STRATEGY & GROWTH
THE CLIENT
Who we worked with
A financial services company with an established product in an adjacent market, and a board question it couldn't answer from the inside: was there a viable business for that product in insurance — and if so, where, with whom, and how?
THE SITUATION
What was at stake
The company had capability, credibility and a proven product outside insurance. What it didn't have was a view of the insurance value chain: which participants — carriers, brokers, MGAs, mutuals — had the problem the product solved, how buying decisions were made in each, what the product would be compared against, and whether the economics worked at insurance-market price points. The risk was familiar: invest in a sector on the strength of enthusiasm rather than evidence, or walk away from a real opportunity because it looked unfamiliar.
WHAT WE DID
The work
Mapped the product against the insurance value chain and identified where the pain it addressed was acute enough to fund a purchase decision. Tested the proposition directly with senior buyers in each segment rather than relying on desk research.
Visibility assessment
Commercial Model
Built the pricing and delivery model for insurance clients, including what would need to change in the product and its positioning to fit how insurance businesses buy.
Prioritized target segments and geographies, defined the entry proposition for each, and built the pipeline, messaging and go-to-market sequence — sized to what the company could realistically deliver.
Business development plan
Execution
Led the market approach with the client's team: opening conversations at decision-maker level, running the sales process, and shaping the commercial terms of the first agreements.
Measured on outcomes
Two international client relationships secured, spanning broking, an MGA and a mutual insurer — three distinct segments of the market, which validated the assessment's central finding that the proposition had a home across the value chain rather than in a single niche. The company entered insurance with reference clients, a repeatable proposition and a pipeline, rather than a hypothesis.
THE OUTCOME
Most market-entry advice stops at the plan. The measure of a plan is whether it survives contact with real buyers — so we stayed to make the first sales.
Thinking about entering the insurance market - or expanding within it
RD Advisory Group
Independent insurance advisory for insurers, brokers and MGAs
SERVICES
CONTACT
Robert Dewen
robert.dewen@rdagrp.com
+1 802-829-5812