The Modern Sales Rep’s Evolving Role in Benefits

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Author

Mary Trecek, Ed.D.
Associate Research Director, Workplace Benefits
LIMRA and LOMA

July 2026

At the 2026 LIMRA Workplace Benefits Conference, Tim O’Connor, vice president, Human Resources Technology Partnerships & Enrollment Services, Prudential Financial, shared this insight during the “View from the Top” session: “The end consumer of group insurance is really the third sale. The first is to the broker, then the employer, then the employee.”

While brokers ultimately own the relationship with employers in the sales process, carrier sales representatives serve as the primary communication point for both brokers and employers on all aspects of the policy. From underwriting and setup to service and claims, these sales representatives can be called on by brokers and employers to help ease the experience for the end consumer.

The Sales Rep Role

As a follow-up to the 2024 The Future is Now distribution trends report, LIMRA conducted a study in early 2026 focusing on one aspect of distribution in workplace benefits: the sales representative. Typically, this role is held by a carrier, who serves as a liaison and relationship manager, acting as a point of contact for employee benefits sales professionals — including brokers, general agents and career agents — as well as employers.

Aspects of this role might include assisting with the quoting process; sharing product overviews and updates; supporting onboarding and implementation; handling service issues, enrollment planning and strategy; and offering technology and regulatory expertise and interpretation. These responsibilities are in addition to identifying sales leads and maintaining positive experiences for sales professionals who own the employer relationship.

LIMRA received survey responses from more than 350 sales representatives from 16 member companies, representing carriers from across the market. Roles included in the study were sales representatives, sales managers with production goals, and field staff who handle sales administrative tasks. Account managers, home office employees, enrollers, and sales managers without personal production goals were excluded, but may be the focus of future research. The full report will be available later this year, but the preliminary findings offer some interesting insights and implications for the future of workplace benefits distribution.

What Drives Performance?

Participants identified compensation, carrier reputation, and growth opportunities as the most important factors when determining which carrier to work for. Compensation was the priority for roughly 36% of participants, increasing to nearly 40% when combined with benefits as part of a total compensation package. Several respondents noted that multiple factors influenced their employer choice, rather than a single aspect. Many also considered elements outside the business, including culture and leadership as significant influences in their decision.

The most common drivers of new business interactions between sales representatives and employee benefits sales professionals are quoting, product overviews and updates, technology expertise and support, and benefit package design. Nearly 90% of participants indicated an increased need to support sales professionals in vetting various technology options, with more than half strongly agreeing.

About 25% of in-person meetings between sales representatives and employee benefits sales professionals are with prospective brokers (i.e., those with no existing relationship). More than half of the sales representatives are incentivized to develop relationships with new brokers. Nearly 80% of participants noted needing between one to 10 interactions with a new broker to receive business, while 5% indicated they need more than 10 to close.

Evolving Collaboration

While participants rank in-person, face-to-face interaction as the most effective collaboration method, virtual meetings are considered the next most effective (ahead of phone, email and instant messaging). Virtual communication is viewed as most effective for handling service issues, onboarding and implementation, lead prospecting, and quoting. This flexibility in collaboration methods is valuable, given that participants overwhelmingly indicated their sales territories have either remained constant or grown during the past three years.

Success in developing new relationships is largely driven by human connection and trust-building, with about 65% of respondents pointing to in-person interactions and educational opportunities. Technical value (e.g., product, technology) and outreach tactics play a supporting role.

Strategic Value

Approximately 2 in 5 participants strongly agree that insights from data and data analytics are crucial to their work. These insights most often come from internal sources, including direct managers, teammates and competitive intelligence professionals. More than half of the participants receiving data and analytics from these sources strongly agree that this information is useful in their roles.

As stated in the 2025 Harnessing Growth report, carriers must engage with “brokers that add value by providing strategic insights, pointing out new distribution channels, and making connections to strategic growth partners.” With this in mind, the roughly one-third of respondents who receive data and insights from their broker partners appear to be moving in the right direction — leveraging combined data and analytics to best serve employers and end consumers.

By leveraging existing relationships and carrier data, sales representatives become gatekeepers to these insights and to new markets for both the carrier and brokers. This aligns with discussions from The Future is Now, where one broker noted, “For the last couple of years now, two of the three [carriers] that I keep mentioning, they’ve been using data. They are using unique ways of AI to increase the utilization of the product … We love that type of stuff.”

Conclusion

Ultimately, the findings reinforce the critical and evolving role of sales representatives as the connective tissue within workplace benefits distribution. While compensation, reputation and growth opportunities remain key to attracting and retaining talent in these roles, their day-to-day effectiveness is increasingly defined by their ability to build trust, deliver meaningful insights, and adapt to expanding expectations — particularly in technology and data fluency.

As territories grow and responsibilities broaden, successful sales representatives are those who can balance relationship-driven engagement with analytical and technical expertise, positioning themselves as strategic partners to brokers and employers alike. In doing so, they not only facilitate smoother transactions but also play a pivotal role in shaping how value is delivered to the end consumer, ensuring carriers remain competitive in an increasingly complex and data-driven marketplace.

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