I found this article and I thought I’d share! What do you think about Life Insurance??? Do you think the way it is sold is boring? Share with us your thoughts below.

The way it sells its products is stuck in another era!

Let’s face it: Nobody gets excited about life insurance. It has been around for hundreds of years, and it’s surely one of the most socially useful consumer financial products, yet people don’t much care who they buy it from–if they buy it at all.

In the U.S. life insurance is sold, not bought. That is, a salesperson almost always initiates the transaction. People under 40 don’t buy enough of it. And even though people don’t care who they buy it from, they nonetheless show a remarkably low satisfaction with providers–not just in the U.S., but around the world.

As an actuary might say, we have good data on this. Accenture ( ACN – news – people ) recently surveyed more than 5,600 consumers in 14 countries, covering 10 industry sectors, to explore how the current economic downturn has influenced consumer behavior. Of those 5,600 consumers, we asked approximately 2,500 to evaluate their life insurance providers.

Not surprisingly, the results confirmed their lack of passion on the subject. Only 16% said they had any real interest in their life insurance providers; the gas and electricity sector was the only industry with a lower score.

However, there was some good news for life insurers. Life insurance customers were among the most loyal to their providers–albeit for the wrong reasons. The research showed that they thought there were high barriers to switching to the competition. Only about 25% of customers had changed their mix of providers in the previous six to 12 months, mostly by adding new providers on top of existing ones. Consumers in emerging markets switched more often than Americans. That might sound like a lot of movement, but it isn’t at all considering how many life events such as marriages, births and retirements people go through that require decisions about insurance.

Although consumers don’t switch carriers often, they don’t like where they are, either. Only 34% of life insurance customers said they were satisfied with the services they received, near the least among industries, and only 25% said they would recommend their current providers to others, the second-least among all industries, with only gas and electric utilities doing worse.

The concept of one-stop shopping, which is often derided in the financial services industry, may offer a profitable way for insurers to add clients and increase customer loyalty. The survey showed that 41% of consumers who used the same provider for life insurance and retail banking were satisfied with that provider, vs. 33% of consumers who didn’t. Consumers who used the same provider for life insurance and retail banking also scored significantly higher in terms of loyalty to the provider, willingness to recommend it to others and willingness to buy more products and services from it.

What is the industry doing so wrong? And what are the opportunities to improve the situation? Based on the survey results and our own experience in working with dozens of providers of life insurance and other financial services, we see two main issues–and two huge areas of opportunity–for the life insurance industry.

The first issue is pricing. Customers want better deals, and new Web-driven tools empower them to act. With nearly half of potential life insurance buyers describing themselves as “much more likely to shop around for the best deal” with the power the Web gives them, life insurance providers need to act quickly to establish rational, effective and transparent pricing strategies.

With price so important to consumers, the way seems clear for a new sales model, one that follows the example of non-insurance financial companies such as Vanguard that provide real value in a crowded marketplace by selling directly to consumers and emphasizing low management fees. In the U.S., life insurance companies have traditionally paid little attention to market segmentation, but there is clearly an opportunity for a low-cost, low-hassle provider to grab considerable share of wallet among consumers, especially ones under 40.

The second issue is convenience. Selling life insurance remains so unchanged that the usual way it’s done is known in the industry as TIM–Traditional Insurance Model. That’s where a large sales force of trained agents sits down with prospective clients at their kitchen tables. That can be an effective way to sell, but a more varied sales strategy can reach a much broader base of potential clients.

Life insurers lag behind other service providers in making the most of the Web, of social networking and of direct marketing. They do little to make the industry more interesting or more exciting. So who can be surprised that a generation accustomed to a wide range of choices and instant access to information just isn’t buying life insurance as it is now sold?

Injecting a little fun–or at least interest–into the concept of buying life insurance couldn’t hurt. ING ( ING – news – people ) Direct has based a successful consumer banking franchise on the simple notion of making saving fun. A few insurers are taking steps in this direction. We recently announced the launch of the first iPhone application for the life insurance industry, developed with our client Generali France. But the industry has a long way to go to catch up with sophisticated consumers.

In life insurance, we have a product that most people need but that is sold in a way that makes them not want it and not care about who they buy it from. The door is wide open to anyone willing to try new approaches with a very old product.

Michael Costonis is executive director of Accenture’s insurance practice for North America. David P. Shatto is managing director of Accenture’s life insurance practice for North America.

Orginal Article posted on Forbes.com