Sheryl Moore is the creator, founder, president and CEO of Wink, Inc. After seeing a hole in the insurance industry, Sheryl began developing an idea that turned into the successful company, Wink. Not only did she create a thriving business, but she has also put an energetic, expert team together to offer the best in the industry. She took some time to talk to us about her company, competitive intelligence and how the two tie in with retirement.
Briefly describe how competitive intelligence works.
I think that it is very important to provide the technical definition of “competitive intelligence” first: Continuous process of monitoring a firm’s industry or market to identify (1) current and future competitors, (2) their current and announced activities, (3) how their actions will affect the firm, and (4) how to respond. It differs from industrial espionage in that it uses legal and ethical means to gather and sift the publicly available information.
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That being said, in laymen’s terms, I would say that “competitive intelligence” is essentially “market scanning.”
How does this tie in with retirement?
We provide competitive intelligence tools to the life insurance and annuity industries. These tools assist insurance manufacturers, distributors and salespeople to remain apprised of life insurance and annuity offerings. This allows manufacturers to develop competitive products, distributors to obtain contracts for competitive products, and salespeople to identify the most competitive and suitable products for their prospects.
Describe the culture of Wink. How is your company different than others in your field, or others in general?
Our culture is very different from others in the life insurance industry. Think the Google or Zappos of the life insurance industry, and that’s us. We make life insurance and annuities fun.
Love to see companies with a give back priority. Why do you feel it is so important?
My now-deceased oldest child was born with birth defects and health problems. The help we received from the Shriners Hospital for Children was invaluable, and I am indebted to them for their increasing the quality of my son’s life. I also used to be an impoverished single mother of three babies (all in diapers!). The help I received during that period of my life convinced me that I needed to pay it forward if I were ever in a position to, some day.
How do you keep up with all the industry intel? There must be so much out there, and it must be constantly changing.
We have very skilled and experience researchers working in our office. We proactively search for intelligence on a daily basis. However, the true secret to our success is the relationships that we have developed in this industry. These contacts keep us abreast of everything that is going on with life insurance and annuities. Without them, we would be just another vendor.
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