17 minute read
Agency Growth Conference 2020
Great Lineup of Sessions and Speakers Will Help You Drive Success at Your Agency
Insurors 6th Annual Agency Growth Conference has been scheduled for March 25-26 at the Marriott Cool Springs in Franklin. We are excited to have one of our strongest lineups yet of speakers, sessions and topics focused on driving growth at your agency.
This year's conference will include tracks on sales, agency workflow and E&O best practices. Please check out the lineup for the event, which is only $95 for member agents and $79 for young agents to attend!
Wednesday, March 25
We'll begin our event with registration on Wednesday, March 25 at 1 pm CT. At 2 pm, we'll officially kick off with our opening general session, "The Art & Science of Prospecting Success," led by special guest Frank Cox of Marshberry.
Cox has previously worked as a sales leader at USI and HUB and has over ten years of experience in insurance sales, leadership development training/coaching/mentorship, public speaking, sales training, and senior executive management. He will discuss ways to develop a successful system for prospecting clients, and how to best implement that system.
On Wednesday afternoon, we will host a trade show and reception for attendees featuring over 30 carriers, wholesale brokers and other vendors. The tradeshow will be followed by our Young Agents reception at Tin Roof 2 presented by Penn National Insurance.
Thursday, March 26
Our event will continue on Thursday morning, March 26 with breakout sessions on our three different tracks, including:
8-11 am "Ex-dates, Lies and Videotapes," led by Ashley Gold, J.D. and Stephen Holmes, CPCU, CIC, CISR of Insurors as well as Richard Lund, J.D. of Westport/Swiss Re. Lund, Gold and Holmes are E&O experts that work with our agencies on policies, coverage concerns and best practices every day.
They will discuss best practices to lower your agency's E&O exposure as told through examples from famous movie and television storylines.
8-9 am "Marketing to Your Niche," led by Zach Emly of InBuzz Group. Emly heads up strategic marketing implementation for InBuzz Group – a marketing agency specifically formed to cater to the insurance industry. He previously worked developing marketing strategy for an independent agency.
He will discuss reaching your "ideal" client through marketing strategies and goal development. How do you build a marketing plan around your niche? What are the new techniques available to "laser target" the prospects you want to reach? Emly will help you form a plan.
8-9 am "Developing Your Agency's Tech Stack," led by ePayPolicy. Our partners at ePayPolicy will discuss the technology your agency needs to operate at its most efficient. What are the programs, apps and features that can help streamline your workflow? You'll find out about many of them in this session.
continued on page 30... 9:10-10:10 am "Building Out Your Agency's Sales Engine," led by Chris Turley of ProScout Business Development. Turley is business development veteran from the financial services and engineering industries. After a decade in those roles, he founded a company to handle
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Daniel Talks Agency Technology: Agency Management Systems pt. 1
Where Should You Even Start When Picking A New One? written by Daniel Smith, CAE
What are the key pieces of technology for the modern agency? How should you implement them and train your staff to use them? In this series I will look into agency technology and specific systems and how you can implement them at your agency.
One of the most common discussions I have with our agency members is along the lines of, "What agency management system should we be using?" They may already have one, they may be in the middle of a transition or they may not have one at all. In any case, they want guidance on where they are versus where they should be. With that in mind, let's begin to look at how to find the system that's right for your agency.
The Initial Concerns
What do you want and need your agency management system to do? Sounds like a simple question, but I'm amazed at the number of agents that work the problem out starting with the solutions instead of this question. Do you need a scaleable system that you can build pieces around for your $15 million revenue agency? Probably not, so why not start with where you are and where you want to be.
What does your system need to do? These are the items that the system must be able to accomplish for your agency to viably convert to it. Do you need marketing integration, rating, automation, accounting, cloud access, mobile access, reporting, etc.? Once you've answered the "needs" portion, rank their priorities to narrow down the features that will matter most to you. Now you have a checklist of your needs that you can compare across platforms.
What do you want your system to do? Wouldn't it be great if your system just renewed the business for you? That might not be realistic, but many other features that would have been unheard of a few years ago are now commonplace. Want your system to text your clients, allow them to respond to your phone and keep a log of that in the data? It's a possibility. Want to be able to pull up a client's info for the last three years on your phone while you're sitting in their office? It's a possibility. But these features generally cost more and require more training – so prioritize how much you need them.
How does "ease of use" factor in? How big of a factor is training, converting and utilizing the new system? How much staff time are you willing to dedicate? Do you have a "key user" who will be your expert on this system? Knowing these answers will help you convey to the potential system partners what your level of assistance will need to be.
What's your budget and desired ROI? The most common complaint I hear about agency management systems is along the lines of, "We spend so much money on this and I'm not even sure we use half of it." How can you measure how much you use? Think about some metrics that you can actually determine value from. Is the new system going to provide you faster entry, quoting, etc.? Find out. Do some tests of your current process, and then follow up with measurements of the
Great news for Insurors of Tennessee members. Partner XE, the intuitive, easy–to–use agency management system built on the foundation of
secure technology and industry collaboration is now the Partner Platform. The Partner Platform combines the excellent policy and financial management capabilities of Partner XE with new capabilities that include completely integrated sales, marketing automation, and texting capabilities. In addition to helping agencies better organize their client retention and new client acquisition efforts, Tennessee agencies can also offer their clients 24/7 self-service options which include both an agency branded client portal (web) and agency branded mobile app. “We enjoy being a member of the Insurors of Tennessee and look forward to how this evolution in the Partner Platform enables independent agents to adapt to the changing consumer expectations while staying true to the character that makes independent agents unique. That includes using technology experiences integrated with the local customer care of the agency so that agencies now have the flexibility to attract and serve all generations of clients.” —Michael Doran, President, Strategic Insurance Software “When I talk to people who are looking at Partner, I tell them one of the things that has impressed me the most has been the management and ownership. They are committed to making the product better and are spending the money and time to do so. My voice is being heard and I’m actually seeing the improvements and enhancements I was promised.”—Brad Smith, Agency Owner, Smith-Berclair Insurance Is your agency looking for a Partner? Contact Nick Massaro, Regional Sales Manager, at 800-747-9273. "32 SERVING INDEPENDENT AGENTS & THEIR CLIENTS SINCE 1989 Bailey Special RiSkS, inc. We specialize so you don’t have to. 1.800.768.7475 • www.bsrins.com • questions@bsrins.com Professional Liability • Management Liability • Data Privacy & Security Liability
Challenging the Status Quo
As far as your budget, what are you comfortable spending versus how much improvement do you anticipate? What is the max budget number that you can allow? Chances are, what you end up paying will be somewhere between these two numbers, and much closer to the high end.
Gathering Feedback
By having these discussions and developing these responses, you now have a "roadmap" to your perfect system. You want to check off as many stops on this journey as you can, so where do you start? I'd suggest you start with the people that have a less-biased opinion and also one based in actual experience – your agent peers. Other agents are utilizing these systems in similar ways to you, and they have already seen some of the highs and lows of the system(s) in question.
Insurors can help connect you to agencies that have used almost any of the most commonly utilized agency management systems for feedback. What are the most commonly used systems by Tennessee agents? Here is what we have seen in the marketplace (in alphabetical order):
• AccuAgency (now by ITC) • Agency Matrix (acquired 2/4/20 by ITC) • AMS 360 powered by Vertafore • Applied Doris • Applied Epic • Applied TAM • EZLynx Agency Management • Hawksoft • InsurancePro by ITC • Jenesis • Partner Platform by Strategic Insurance Software (SIS) • QQCatalyst powered by Vertafore • Sagitta powered by Vertafore • Xanatek
There are literally dozens of others, but these are the ones we will focus on as we continue this series. We'll hear from agents and representatives of these companies as we talk through what else to look for and what your agency should keep in mind during this process. If you have specific questions you want answered, please send them to me and we'll try to get you some responses!
Let's make this process easier and more efficient for you!
About the Author
Daniel Smith serves as the Chief Marketing Officer for Insurors of Tennessee. He has a Bachelors degree in Marketing with a minor in Graphic Design from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and earned his Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation in 2017. He may be contacted at dsmith@insurors.org. u
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Future Leaders Spotlight presented by
Derek Wright • Graham & Cook Insurance - Knoxville
Derek Wright of Graham & Cook
Derek Wright was born in Knoxville in the Farragut community. He is very active in his church where he and his wife have served in youth and adult Bible Study, and other ministry work. In his “spare” time, he enjoys running, golf, hiking and coaching his children in basketball, soccer and football as well as supporting them in track/ cross-country.
He spends as much time as possible with his wife and three kids (ages 11, 9 and 7) – outdoors, camping, on a trip to a new city or leisurely at home. He says his wife is, "Amazing; she is supportive, a wise counselor, admired mother, and the best part of me!" While Derek says he has spent time away from Knoxville for travel, sports, mission trips and business, he has never strayed far from home. He is also involved with his local community through Chamber events, service projects, Rotary, and as other volunteer needs arise. Like many in our industry, “insurance” was not his dream job. He wanted to be a lawyer and coach a high school sport, and eventually become an athletic director. But as Derek says, "The Lord had other plans."
The Insuror: Can you tell us a little about your current job title and responsibilities?
Derek: We are a small agency that serves the West Knoxville/ Farragut/Lenoir City communities and our staff remains in close touch with our customers. “On paper” I am a principal agent of Graham & Cook, but my roles and responsibilities reach beyond that. Like each person on our staff, I will process an endorsement as simple as an auto change or produce new business. I share in the financial responsibilities of the agency, and I handle most of the marketing/technology aspect of the business.
I am blessed with a phenomenal team. Mike Henry and Robert Scheffer are solid partners in this business, who I trust immensely. We work well together, supporting each other in all aspects. Mike has provided stability with our customer base since the transition of agency ownership in 2017, and Robert has expanded our commercial insurance portfolio. Mary Allen and Lynn Hollingsworth have worked for G&C for 20 and 40 years respectively; without them, our agency would slide backwards… in a hurry! Mary and Lynn can handle any situation presented to them, and we are blessed to have them on our team. We recently added 3 producers, Caleb Johnson, Bradley Culbreth and Roger
18 Kane. All three have been terrific additions to our agency and they are each working hard to grow their own ‘businesses’ within the family of Graham & Cook.
The Insuror: What can you tell us about your educational background?
Derek: After growing up in Knoxville and attending the Farragut school system, I attended The University of Tennessee at Knoxville and graduated in 2003 with a Political Science degree.
The Insuror: How and why did you get your career in the insurance industry started?
Derek: While working for Americomm (Knoxville based telecommunications firm, owned by Richard Zachary and son, Tennessee State Rep. Jason Zachary) immediately following college, I was introduced to the idea of an insurance career by Tommy Cook, owner of Graham & Cook Insurance. Already my mentor from adolescent days, Tommy introduced me to Michael Hurst and Shane Dial, with Infinity Insurance. I interviewed for a job and was offered the position of marketing representative in East Tennessee.
As a side note, it was during the first year of working for Infinity that one of my counterparts in Atlanta (Joel Harbin, now an IA owner in Braselton, Georgia) introduced me to my wife, Melissa. After a blind date, we were engaged and married 12 months later.
Three years after Infinity, Tommy introduced me to Scott Wick with Indiana Insurance (now Liberty Mutual). I accepted a marketing position with Indiana, and one year later after an acquisition, I transitioned into the role of Territory Manager with Safeco where I ended the “company side” of my career in 2017. Not only did the insurance industry lead me to owning an independent agency in the wonderful town where I was raised, it led me to my wife and is providing a terrific life for our family of five.
The Insuror: Do you have any influences/role models in the industry?
Derek: Tommy Cook introduced me to the insurance industry and is primarily responsible for the journey I am on now. He left an indelible impression on me as an insurance advisor and counselor. For many years Tommy has treated me like a “son” personally, spiritually, and professionally – I am forever grateful for him.As the third generation owner of Graham &
I worked as a Territory Manager for 13 years. In that time, I worked closely with agents in the IA channel. Tommy, Bob McIntire, Tim Goss, Johnny Griffin, Lou Moran and David Allen were instrumental in helping me navigate the waters of the “company-field rep-agent relationship,” and manage the tension between the two.
I started my career with Infinity where Michael Hurst served as an excellent role model of a “marketing rep” in this industry. That model was further developed for me while I was a Territory Manager with Safeco under the tutelage of Lee Allison and Cecil Booher. In my early days with Indiana Insurance, I met Bill Emerick. He became a trusted colleague and friend. Fifteen years later, I still lean on Bill for industry insight and business partnership. I appreciate what Bill and other leaders have done for the agencies and IA channel.
The Insuror: Is there any advice you could offer Young Agents or others in the industry to achieve success in their careers?
Derek: #1 - Your agency staff is most important. Surround yourself with people that are dependable, committed to serving your community, high character who conduct themselves with integrity. support they provide to agents and the IA channel as a whole.
Our company partners supply products and opportunity for us to grow our business and serve our community with insurance, while the Tennessee Big "I" assists our efforts and steadies our flight. u
Young Agents '20
Upcoming Events and Information
Our Young Agents Committee strives to offer young insurance professionals with opportunities to network and develop in the industry. Over 500 Insurors members participate in the Young Agents program in some fashion. We are still planning for 2020 calendar, and will be releasing a full schedule of events soon. In the meantime, we hope you'll join us at one of the already scheduled Young Agents events below of contact us for information:
Insurors Legislative "Day on the Hill" • March 10 Tennessee Legislative Plaza • Nashville • 9 am- 1 pm CT
Insurors Agency Growth Conference Young Agents Reception presented by Penn National Insurance • March 25 Tin Roof 2 • Franklin • 6-8 pm CT
#2 - Remain fully engaged. Learn the coverage and policy language. Ask questions of your Underwriters and Claims colleagues. Get involved in your community and network with other industries, such as mortgage companies, banks, realtors, and other lead generating sources. Conduct yourself with integrity, never cut corners, and treat people with the Matthew 7:12 principle: “do to others what you would have them do to you.”
The Insuror: As an independent agent, you have many partners in this industry, including carriers, MGAs and many more. How do you determine which ones are the right relationships?
Derek: The short answer – Technology ease of use, competitive commissions, broad product offering, and excellent claims service/reputation. Beyond that, people matter. Partner with companies that have a track record of trustworthiness, and people that will support your effort to build a thriving agency. Product offering. The need for insurance is broad and expansive. Our company partners must have products available that we can offer solutions – from the most basic exposure to the most unique and obscure.
The Insuror: Thank you for giving us your time, Derek, we appreciate it and wish you continued success.
Young Agents Committee
Cy Young - Chair President Young-Hughes Insurance Alamo cy@younghughesinsurance.com
Forbes Harris - Region I Producer Harris, Madden & Powell Insurance Memphis fharris@hmpins.com
Matt Felgendreher - Region II Executive Vice President W.C. Dillon Company & Insight Risk Management Nashville mfelgendreher@irmllc.com
Derek Wright - Region III Agent/Principal Graham & Cook Insurance Knoxville derek@grahamandcook.com
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