As middle-market companies use expertise and services of their insurance brokers beyond the procurement of insurance coverage, clear communication of their business objectives and goals is essential.

To secure the best and appropriate insurance coverage, middle-market brokers need to understand their clients' needs and risks, experts say.

“A dialogue needs to occur around what are the client's business objectives, and we try to align our risk and insurance objectives around helping them become a better business,” said Glenn Spencer, chief operating officer for the United States at Lockton Cos. L.L.C. in Kansas City, Mo.

Middle-market companies are much more complex today than they were 15 years ago, Mr. Spencer said, noting that many operate internationally using complex supply chains with sophisticated technology infrastructures.

“That dictates that they've got to help their broker understand their business so that the broker can protect those risks properly, give them advice on how to mitigate risk and know how to structure the coverage properly,” Mr. Spencer said.

While many middle-market clients take advantage of their brokerage's services, many clients believe the insurance process is simply transactional, said Sandy Harvath, vice president of commercial lines for broker IMA Inc. in Denver.

“They should be looking for far more than that,” Ms. Harvath said. “For a middle-market account, they really want to be looking for a point person to really figure out what the exposures are and, on the broker side, what we can do to best help them to really contribute to reducing their total cost of risk because that's really what it's all about.”

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“Oftentimes with a client, there may be, for example, 10 programs they need to develop and ... they don't know what to attack first,” she said.

That point person at the brokerage facilitates a holistic understanding of a company's total cost of risk and can help focus insurance and risk management efforts based on losses and other costs, Ms. Harvath said.

Julie Zimmer, vice president of sales and middle-market segment leader for Hub International Ltd. in Chicago, said brokers tend to put the onus of accessing services and expertise on the insurance buyer.

“This is a segment that doesn't have full-time risk managers; everybody's wearing different hats,” she said. “It's our responsibility to bring the services to the customers, and bring them in a way that's scalable and relevant to them.”

Many of the services provided by brokers originally were built and targeted to larger insurance buyers, and it often is not cost-effective for the broker to offer such services to middle-market buyers, Ms. Zimmer said.

“It's our job to figure out how to take those services and deliver them in a cost-effective and scalable way to that middle-market customer and educate them around what services are relevant to their business,” she said.

Before placing a program with insurers, brokers need to prepare a middle-market company's risks to be presented in the most favorable light in the marketplace, said Robert Meyers, senior vice president and property/casualty leader for USI Insurance Services L.L.C., based in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.

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Middle-market companies should discern what type of analytics are necessary to understand their risks, what type of solutions are available to address the risks, determine the expertise needed to articulate those risks to the marketplace and identify who is doing the work, he said.

“It's not a complex answer,” Mr. Meyers said. “I think by walking through those four areas, you start to get a sense of what's needed and (whether) the broker (has) the capability to do it correctly.”

Clear communication and providing an understanding of a middle-market company's risk and operations to the broker can reduce complexities in the process of buying insurance, said Dan McGinnis, Berkeley Heights, N.J.-based division executive of open brokerage and small medium enterprises for Chartis Inc.

“From the underwriter's standpoint, insureds can greatly enhance the value they get from their brokers if they teach their broker the story of their business,” he said.

“When a broker is in the position to convey the subtle variances of their customer's business to an underwriter, it'll help them to eliminate that complexity from the process of buying insurance,” Mr. McGinnis said. “It'll give the customer peace of mind in their purchase, and it'll position both the underwriter and the broker to anticipate the customer's ongoing needs.”

Middle-market companies should think of their broker as a valued financial adviser, communicating their operating environment, business and personal goals just as they would to a banker or financial partner, Mr. McGinnis said.

“If we can facilitate better communication and discussions between insureds and their brokers, and parlay that into a better discussion and presentation from the brokers to the underwriters, I think we can eliminate these complexities,” he said.