2001 Best Practices Study

59 / 148

Analysis of Agencies with Revenues
Between $1,250,000 and $2,500,000
REVENUE GROWTH
“We sold off a lot of commodity business
five years ago and we went through a
very painful process to develop some
programs and target some niches to focus
on. We used to compete with everyone in
the insurance business. Now we find we
can much better control our growth and
fortunes. It’s so much easier to sell
insurance when you’re an expert in a
niche.”
“We like the program business because it
allows us to work around the fact that we
can’t find many good pure producers. To
the extent that you can develop products
that meet a very specific need, you can
minimize your dependence on individual
producers…a good account executive will
do.”
When it comes to revenue growth, the current hardening market has
done much to benefit an industry that has struggled to grow for so
long. Unfortunately, a hardened P&C market can cover the fact that
an agency is not growing and diminish interest in addressing
fundamental growth challenges.
However, Best Practices agencies continue to execute strategies
that have allowed them to succeed even in a historically challenged
growth environment: aggressive cross-selling of accounts, prudent
acquisitions of agencies and books of business, developing niche
and program business, the careful development and management
of producers, accountability against a sales budget, and the
development an organization-wide sales culture.
TECHNOLOGY UTILIZATION
“We have a producer (in a different city)
working on a laptop out of his home … we
could effectively do this all over the
state…it really is possible to run a virtual
agency if the technology and procedures
are set up right … of course, you really
have to have the right type of producer for
this to work.”
“We really feel like product specific web
sites hold tremendous promise for us. So
instead of going to www.XYZ-
a buyer would be directed
to something like www.golf-course-
where he’ll find exactly the
information he’s looking for… no need for
him to wade through pages of
information he could care less about.”
Perhaps no other area of agency management creates as much
angst and uncertainty as technology management. It is difficult to
move forward in an environment in which the “right” direction is so
uncertain. Agencies are trying to address the whole technology
picture – the agency management system, the telephone systems,
voice mail, contact management, scanning, imaging, broadband,
faxing, email as well as the integration of all these pieces.
Best Practices agencies don’t necessarily have all the answers, but
increasingly agencies of this size are able to deal more effectively
with the issues at hand. Many Best Practices agencies we
interviewed have at least one full-time technology employee on
board, which is rare for smaller agencies.
In addition, many Best Practices agencies have interactive
websites, agency-wide high speed Internet access, and dial-in
capabilities, allowing for remote access by off-site employees.
59