Zywave: Think Before You Sign!

insuranceguy42

New Member
1
I'm not saying Zywave is a scam, but our experience with them has been less than fulfilling.

Let me start off by saying that Zywave has some really amazing and high quality sales representatives. While that is for the most part a good thing, it can come with some negatives. For one, the sales representatives can be very convincing of the value of their product and make the payout for a such a high ticket investment seem inevitable, however we found that in practice this isn't always the case.

As we approach the twelve month mark, enrolling in Zywave certainly has not been a highly profitable investment for us. In fact, it has been much of the opposite. Our profits may have seen zero growth at this point, but our expenses have increased by a pretty significant margin from this service.

Zywave does provide a large database of materials, an HR platform, and an email marketing campaign service which are all relatively high quality. The problem is that these products do not, at least for us, justify the price. The database of materials is helpful, but is nothing groundbreaking and similar, customized marketing materials could be made for a fraction of the cost of Zywave's subscriptions. The HR platform, while it offers a lot of employee tracking capabilities, it takes a lot of man hours to set up and run. Much cheaper and less time consuming HR platforms are available. The email marketing campaign is a nice service, but again has the same issue that there are similar services out there for a fraction of the price.

All in all, we have found that Zywave is not even close to worth the money we are spending on it. And although we did sign a long term contract, we were hoping that Zywave would work with us at opting out of the contract since we are wholly unsatisfied with the subscription. However, Zywave has been extremely inflexible with reaching a solution with us. They say we can break the contract and pay 80% of the remaining cost on the contract (hardly a deal) or keep the contract going until its end. We feel that it is our duty to forewarn prospective Zywave subscribers so that they do not make the same mistake we did by signing their contract.

So, buyer beware! Only sign the contract with Zywave if you are POSITIVE that it is the right move for you.
 
Just curious about the metrics you used to calculate your ROI? I suspect you anticipated higher sales by using this service.
 
I would really like to know this since I'm in a battle with them right now. Basically a bait and switch situation.
 
Just curious about the metrics you used to calculate your ROI? I suspect you anticipated higher sales by using this service.

They really do have amazingly talented sales people. I talked with them a few times and they are very persistent. They do a good job of making the smaller office feel like they are in grave danger of being displaced by a larger company that uses their service or something similar. It's pitched as a protect your current business by adding value and then go out and get BOR's from other companies by displaying your cutting edge system.

My experience is that by asking my current clients if they would actually use these types of services if I added them, very few actually would. Many businesses are already knee deep in their systems and ways of doing things, so unless you have something that TOTALLY makes things simple for them, it just becomes another "THING" for them to learn and try to remember to use.

Take 10% of the money you would spend on Zywave and take a few existing clients out to lunch and ask them what additional services they would find valuable if you provided them. I bet most will be happy as is and you'll save a fortune.
 
How are you using Zywave? Our agency purchased their broker briefcase, mywave connect, and plandoc builder almost 2 years ago and it's some of the best money we ever spent.

It's also a pretty big handcuff for the client if you use it right. They have to give up a lot if they want to consider leaving and going to another agent.

The only piece of advice I can give is that you have to build it into your sales cycle and use it religiously. It took a solid six months before we started really seeing returns on the investment. Our sales people became more efficient almost immediately because they spent less time googling and more time using broker briefcase.

I would not recommend HR connection. Employee navigator is a significantly better ben admin system.
 
How are you using Zywave? Our agency purchased their broker briefcase, mywave connect, and plandoc builder almost 2 years ago and it's some of the best money we ever spent.

It's also a pretty big handcuff for the client if you use it right. They have to give up a lot if they want to consider leaving and going to another agent.

The only piece of advice I can give is that you have to build it into your sales cycle and use it religiously. It took a solid six months before we started really seeing returns on the investment. Our sales people became more efficient almost immediately because they spent less time googling and more time using broker briefcase.

I would not recommend HR connection. Employee navigator is a significantly better ben admin system.

I'm glad that you're finding it useful but that is not the case for me. When I was contacted by one of their salespeople I was told that I was going to get a website, their team of representatives that my clients could contact if they had questions regarding any issues for HR, etc., the documents in broker briefcase, and many other things. That is the reason I signed up. After I signed up and inquired about all of those services I was told that they are available but I would have to pay more. Basically it was a bait and switch. The service I am getting which is broker briefcase is not really relevant to my state. While there are articles for my particular state, most are from 2014 and there hasn't been any updates since.

Again, I'm glad for you but I do not appreciate how I was treated.
 
anyone currently using zywave care to share a screen shot of the ebsa/erisa filing data for ANY company? you can omit the actual data, i just would like to see how this thing is formatted and presents the data on their web app. thanks in advance!
 
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