How to Choose the Right Insurance Agency Technology
Four questions can help you find the hardware and software your agency needs
A NextAgency Resource
Last Updated: May 8, 2026
Technology is a tool. And the right tool matters
Technology is a tool. Just like hammers, phones, and pencils. When buying technology for your life and health insurance agency, however, the stakes are quite a bit higher than when you’re perusing the “Writing Instruments” section of OfficeMax.
Too often, however, especially when it comes to technology, we define “right” as being the “latest.” Sometimes it is, but not always. The right tool is one that gets the job done, that you can afford, and that you’ll use. After all, technology is merely a means to an end, not the end itself.
This article identifies key questions you should ask whenever you or your agency is considering a technology purchase.
Buying technology to have the latest and greatest new toy can be fun, but it’s a poor business decision. Think about your business plan, your agency’s needs, and then ask yourself:
* Do you need this technology to achieve your goals?
* Do you need this tool to achieve your goals more quickly and efficiently?
* Do your clients need this tool?
To answer these questions, you need specific goals. “Increasing sales” is a nice sentiment but as goals go it’s somewhat nebulous. Forcing yourself to clearly state what you’re trying to accomplish makes it much easier to determine whether the latest gadget or app can help. Otherwise you’re likely to purchase a tool to address a need you don’t have. That’s called wasting time and money. Let’s avoid this.
2. Cost: Can you afford this technology?
Technology comes with a cost, even when it’s free. This is because there’s more to the cost of hardware than the price tag and there’s more to the cost of software than the subscription fee. Those are just the visible costs. The invisible costs include the time you spend setting it up, the time you and your staff spend learning to use it, the cost of maintaining it, and the cost of friction if the tool is designed to force you to adapt to it, rather than being easy to customize for the way you work.
Then there is the cost of dependence: who is buying who. Back in the early 2000s I was in charge of sales technology for a major carrier. Vendors would come in regularly to explain why we couldn’t afford *not* to be using their wares. The first question I’d ask was invariably, “How easily can we fire you?” This always surfaced useful information. How long would we be locked into their contract? How easily could we replace them if they failed to deliver?
A more recent example: one of NextAgency’s competitors, in addition to offering a life and health CRM, sells websites to agencies. That can be helpful. But if you find a better agency management system (let’s assume us) and leave that competitor, you have to leave your website behind. That’s the cost of dependency.
With other technology tools the stakes are far higher. Benefit administration, HR administration, and agency management systems quickly become central to your business — and sometimes to your business’ survival. Will the technology perform as promised? Is your data — and your clients’ data — protected? Is the vendor financially stable? And will you be handing a competitive advantage to a company that could, someday, compete with you directly?
That last question carries more weight now than ever. If you’re selling ICHRA arrangements, can you trust your administrator to keep you in the loop after renewal? Or will they use their technology — technology you encourage your clients to use — to cut you out of the picture down the line.
When considering technology purchases, ask about their business practices. NextAgency, for example, enters into an NDA that includes a non-compete clause. We promise never to market to your clients.
4. Comfort: Will you use the technology?
This is the question many overlook, but it’s vitally important. Geoffrey Moore wrote the classic *Crossing the Chasm* that does a masterful job in explaining how people respond to technology. He identified five broad categories:
- Innovators, Moore explains, “pursue new technology products aggressively.” They are fascinated by new advances and will buy the latest toy just to play with it — even if it’s not quite ready for general use.
- Early Adopters also embrace new technologies early in its life cycle, but unlike Innovators, they need to perceive an advantage to investing in it. They rely on their own insights and instincts to determine if a new tool is worth adopting, even if it means living through the technology’s early growing pains. These are the folks who bought fax machines (remember those?) when few others had them (which begs the question: who did the person who bought the first fax machine fax to?).
- The Early Majority are quick to see a new technology’s potential, but are practical. They know “that many of these newfangled inventions end up as passing fads, so they are content to wait and see how other people are making out before they buy in themselves.” They see how Early Adopters fare with it and then decide. They may not be the first to gain the advantages new technology can deliver, but they avoid the hassles, pain, and cost of early adoption, too.
- This contrasts with the Late Majority. These users wait until a technology is proven before they engage. They are more interested in safety than innovation. If that makes them late to a time-or-money saving innovation, that’s a cost they’ll pay.
- Laggards are the folks who “simply don’t want anything to do with new technology, for any of a variety of reasons, some personal and some economic.”
Ask how your team actually used the last tool you adopted. Not how you intended to use it, but how you *did* use it. The worst technology is technology you need but never use. The second worst is technology you don’t need, but pay for.
How to Choose Insurance Agency Technology
Steven Miller, PhD, of Miller Marketing Insights and I did a study of 200 health insurance agents. We wanted to see what those producers who grew by 20% or more year-over-year did that less successful agents did — or didn’t do.
What we found is that these high-growth producers were, for the most part, in the Early Majority cohort. They looked for evidence that a technology was demonstrating effectiveness, but they didn’t wait so long for this evidence as to be forever behind the curve.
How do you do this? Pay attention to what new technologies your customers and competitors are using. Ask them about their experience. Even competitors usually enjoy sharing what they’ve learned. Based on those conversations, you’ll have a better sense of how a tool fits your situation and needs.
When considering hardware or software, use the Choosing Technology Checklist we’ve created to help you run through the four considerations: Choice. Cost. Confidence. Comfort.
And remember, technology doesn’t grow an agency. Agents grow agencies. The right technology, like any tool, simply helps.
Learn More:
For additional ideas on how to grow your life and health insurance agency, and to download the Choosing Insurance Agency Technology Checklist, please visit the NextAgency Resource Center.
Author Information:
Alan Katz is a co-founder of NextAgency, an agency management system built for agencies selling and servicing health, senior, and life policies. He is the author of Trailblazed: Proven Paths to Sales Success, the book that summarizes the findings of the Trailblazed Sales Project. He used Claude Sonnet 4.6 to help him write this article because, when it comes to AI, Alan is in the Early Majority.