Online Event - Soft Market Skills

The Insurance Institute of Cardiff invite you to a webinar on; Soft Market Skills

Event Details:

Thursday 26^th February 2026 09:00 – 10:00am

The webinar will be run via Zoom, a global web-conferencing solution. Zoom is easy to use, a link and joining instructions will be sent to you at the time of booking.

About the session:

This session is the second in a series of two that focus on the soft market; both can be run standalone. This session builds on the learning from the first session to provide some key skills for mitigating and leveraging the soft market challenges. Trainer – Nick Thomas

Learning and Content:

• How to demonstrate and build a reputation for value
• Building solution and trusted advisor status
• Controlling the sale and the process - mere familiarity and building early influence. Assertive vs aggressive vs passive behaviour
• How and when to use different communication methods
• The decision-making dynamic and building consensus
• Diversifying income – the benefits, challenges, and solutions
• Brokers – asking for fee increases

Learning objectives:

Following this presentation the delegates will be able to:

• Understand some strategies for overcoming the challenges of a soft market in terms of account retention, premium and income suppression, and sales development
• Explore how and why these approaches are effective
• Explore skills to support delivery of these strategies

About the speaker:

The Course will be run by Nick Thomas.

Nick offers a unique combination of skills in the UK insurance training sector – an industry sales specialist and a widely qualified professional coach and trainer. Nick is an Economics graduate with over 25 years corporate insurance broking experience. He was a highly successful sales producer in the UK broking market before progressing into regional and then national sales leadership roles. As National Development Director at HSBC, Nick was one of only forty people from a global workforce of 265,000 selected as part of the STARS programme to recognise exceptional performance. He is a highly trained consultative sales specialist, and his experience includes a secondment with a major management consultant to design a best practice sales process.

In the mid-2000s, Nick developed a chronic health condition; his journey to recovery fostered a new range of interests, and a passion for health, and performance. He studied widely, qualifying as a Master Practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), obtaining a Diploma in Life Coaching, before going on to study Corporate/Business Coaching with The Coaching Academy. He is also a qualified Holistic Lifestyle Coach and Advanced Exercise Coach. Nick has worked in a self-employed capacity in training, coaching, and consulting since 2017, including as a specialist adviser in Insurance sector M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions) sector. He set up Nick Thomas & Associates in 2020 in response to demand from his industry network for training solutions designed and delivered by people with a background of working in the industry.

Further information:

A link will be sent via your email address supplied at the time of booking. PLEASE DO NOT share this with anyone else.

Please note that this webinar will be hosted on the Zoom platform which may be restricted by some employers. Members may need to utilise their own personal devices in these circumstances to access the platform.

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