Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. may introduce a series of products and services tailored for women after spending four years working to improve how the company markets and sells to them.
Susan W. Sweetser, a second vice president of MassMutual's women's markets department, said it is considering the development of a hybrid or bundled product that creates the "right solutions for women."
"It can be daunting for women to put together a full-blown financial plan," she said. "If we can bundle certain solutions together with one statement, we want to make it easier for them to do business with us."
Ms. Sweetser said the Springfield, Mass., company started a Women's Initiative, which it has since renamed the women's markets department, four years ago. The unit focuses on marketing its products to women and on recruiting and retaining more women to be salespeople.
"We saw a huge need in the market," she said, "and most companies' models were based on the notion of men selling to men, and that just didn't work for women."
"Generally, most guys don't have the natural communication skills to speak and relate to women," she said. "That is why we created this model. We want to get more women selling to women and more men understanding how to sell to women."
Analysts said many insurers have recognized in recent years the need to improve their selling to women. Burton Greenwald of BJ Greenwald Associates in Philadelphia, said that, even if MassMutual were among the first to create such an initiative, it is something that is now being done by most top competitors.
Ms. Sweetser agreed that many competitors are trying to improve their approach to women. "This is a bandwagon that everyone is jumping on," she said. "Firms have to figure out how to do this right."
It is not simply about offering tailored products and services, Ms. Sweetser said, because for the most part women need the same life and disability coverage that men do.
But "women buy differently than men," she said. "It may take seven to eight appointments for a woman to buy a product. That is a lot of time for a producer, but it is worth it because women are more loyal and refer tremendously more than men. If you provide women with good services, they will provide you with more clients."
MassMutual began a seminar series Monday called "Selling to Women" to help its agents improve their services for women.
The four-part course, designed by the insurer's National Center for Professional Development and its women's markets department, is designed to give agents a better understanding of women's expectations and needs and to help them develop effective service strategies.
The course complements MassMutual's efforts to educate women about financial issues. And last year it introduced "Pearls of Wisdom," a video-based financial seminar to help financial services professionals discuss difficult financial decision-making topics with their clients.
"Pearls of Wisdom" was the third installment in its "Never kissed a frog; never had to" seminar series for women.
Ms. Sweetser said MassMutual is targeting women who are retired, own a business, are professionals or executives, or are just beginning their careers. "We want to help our agents open up a relationship and start a dialogue," she said. "If you can do this, you can initiate a long-term relationship with women."
The company is also looking to hire and retain more women as agents. About 15% of its agents are women, up from 11% when the Women's Initiative was begun four years ago. Ms. Sweetser said improvement remains needed if MassMutual wants to develop more women customers.
"We have to work to recruit more women into the financial services careers because typically it has not been a career that women have chosen," she said. "By and large, this is a career mostly for guys."
