It has been a busy few months for Dean Lamble, who since July this year has been at the helm of a £50m rebrand and seven product launches.
The launches, which included a re-brand of SunLife’s hugely successful Over 50 Plan savings scheme, are part of the company’s strategy to bring financial products back to the masses.
This was not too much of a gamble, as Mr Lamble admits, SunLife was, pre its July rebrand, the largest direct provider of insurance in the UK, with over 850,000 Over 50 Plan policyholders.
In addition to its updated Guaranteed Over 50 Plan, other products launched since the summer by SunLife Direct include a stocks and shares Isa with a guaranteed return of premium after 10 years, family life insurance, a wills service, and three new funeral plans: standard, select and premier.
SunLife Direct – a part of Axa Wealth – acts as the distributor and marketer of white-labelled products, although in the case of the over 50 plan it is the provider. The Isa and the family insurance is provided by Scottish Friendly. All the products are aimed at the kind of investors and savers whom Mr Lamble claimed had been neglected by the rest of the financial services industry.
“Products have become too intermediated; designed by providers for advisers but not always the end user, the investor. What we are doing is designing the whole process – sales and products – around the client. That has been key in the design of all the products we have launched and will launch. The whole company has been built around this premise – after all, we got rid of a third of our workforce,” he said.
SunLife’s reinvention also means keeping staff motivated and inspiring them. Mr Lamble explained: “We have done a bit of a Google, and have a much more relaxed and creative working environment for our staff, with break-out rooms and sweets in every room. We are not so much a product provider, more a marketing company, and we need to have the right staff for that.”
Mr Lamble is adamant that SunLife Direct will be, by default, promoting the entire financial services industry.
He said: “This is about matching the transaction that is appropriate. For investors with small amounts of money, a plan that pays them small amounts of money is appropriate, and when they have built up enough funds or they feel more confident, then maybe they will want to take advice and employ the services of an adviser.
“If we get a customer with a large amount of money available to invest we will automatically direct them towards an adviser, because then it will make sense for them to start paying for the advice process. But if you are simply wanting to invest £10 to £100 a month in an Isa, then a SunLife Direct Isa is for you.”
Allowing people to start with such small amounts is in effect a loss leader that will hopefully start people off on a lifelong journey with the company. As Mr Lamble said: “Once we have got clients engaged we will make sure we have a continual dialogue with them.”
He said he wanted to bust the myth that protection products required expensive premiums: “The feedback we have had was that most people priced term protection at around £30 to £50 a month, but the reality is that it is less than £10 a month on average for our clients.”
SunLife Direct are able to offer such low premiums on products such as life cover by requesting a more streamlined underwriting process from the insurer providing the cover.
Mr Lamble said: “You can get policies which require 40 questions, but the cover we provide needs just 10 questions. Simplifying things means we have reasonable rates. Also, the extensive process people have to go through ends up scaring people away – what we need to do is bring them back.”
Encouraging clients to invest in the stock market is another mission for Mr Lamble. By having a low-cost Isa, he claimed SunLife Direct encourages customers to become more confident and more adventurous: “The message we are getting is that people want to save direct – they just want the information to make their own decisions.”
Once, SunLife was an iconic brand among advisers, with a reputation for service and product quality among those who sold its products. Mr Lamble said times have changed, and the company had had to move with them. He said: “In the last few years advisers have adapted their business models to cope with the changes that regulation has brought in, but it has meant that all but those with large amounts of money to invest can access specific financial advice. You could say advisers are targeting the mass affluent, while SunLife is targeting the mass market.”
The challenge of such a strategy is not lost on Mr Lamble, who admits the £50m rebrand has involved extensive investment on administration, research and product development.
He said: “We see a couple of our competitors spending members’ money on promoting products and just hoping for the best. We don’t want that. Our vision is to be the leading financial services brand judged on customer engagement, and to do that we have to have the full offering, which means a streamlined sales process and products that people understand. Other companies trying to go direct don’t have the direct DNA we have.
“In financial services people are obsessed with the internal compliance system, but if we are serving the customer, and making sure the customer has the best outcome, compliance will surely follow.”
Samantha Downes is a freelance journalist
Dean Lamble’s career ladder
Oct 2014 - present
Managing director,
Axa Self Investor
2012 - present
Managing director,
Axa Sun Life
2010-2012
Distribution development director, Aviva Life
2008-2010
Head of strategy,
Aviva UK
2007-2008
Director, HP Services –
relocation to Palo Alto, US
2005-2007
European strategy director, Hewlett Packard
2003-2007
Business development manager, Hewlett Packard UK
1992-1998
Airlines marketing manager,
South African Air Link
