Biba gives us the chance to demonstrate what we do well and find out what we can do better

It’s going to be my first time at Biba. As SME director for RSA, I know it’s an important event to meet and network within the industry. It’s crucial that we listen to what the market is saying and I’m hoping BIba will be a great opportunity to hear people’s feedback on our new SME propositions and products.

Over the last two years, we have invested in our proposition and last year we launched a range of small business products on RSA Online, as well as on industry broker platforms.

Our priority remains to make it easy to do business with us, so for brokers that haven’t yet had the opportunity to experience this, I’ll be hoping to show them what this means in practice.

The SME market is going through lots of changes and is extremely competitive at the moment; brokers must demonstrate their value the same way insurers must do to brokers. As an insurer, we want to not only demonstrate our value, but in turn help brokers demonstrate their value to SMEs.

Brokers should look carefully at their business and decide where they should compete and what should they compete on. Price in isolation is not sustainable – it’s about knowing your market, knowing your space and adding value.

Understand your cost base and consider whether or not the traditional ways of trading are still appropriate for your business, and whether this is how your customers want to trade with you.

With everyone together at Biba, it will be an opportunity to tap into thoughts and trends for the market in the coming year and find some solutions to these issues.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Tara Kneafsey is SME and volume director for RSA.