Independent agents sold on golf

It seems nearly every insurance convention or meeting is conjoined with a corresponding golf outing. Why do agents and industry partners play golf? What about those who do not? And what makes a good agent golfer?

Insurance Journal interviewed agents who have a passion for the sport, and are said to play a pretty good golf game as well. Here’s what they had to say.

Agents on the course
Brett Nilsson, senior vice president of commercial insurance for Salt Lake City-based The Buckner Co., an independent insurance brokerage firm, has been a golfer since “early in life.” But for Nilsson, who will take the reins as vice president of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America in September, the insurance business has brought more opportunities to play golf.

“I’ve really played more golf since I’ve been in the insurance business than I did when I worked on a golf course grounds crew in high school,” Nilsson said. After becoming an independent agent in 1979, and starting his career in a small agency with his father-in-law in Ogden, Utah, Nilsson’s golf game picked up.

“Back then, it was more of the Saturday morning golf game, when a few buddies wanted to get together,” he said. But, “then with my career, more opportunities arose, whether they were for company outings, customer outings or sponsored events.”

Today, Nilsson still plays about once a week. Playing has “given me an opportunity to be acquainted with a lot of people in my community and to know who they are and what they do,” he said.

Lee Loftis, governmental affairs director for the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas, said that while he has played golf since the age of 8 or 9 years old, he didn’t take the game seriously until he got into insurance. Prior to his move to the IIAT in April 2006, Loftis was an independent agent for more than 29 years.

“It was something I always enjoyed,” he said, but after becoming an agent, he began to notice that with golf came many business opportunities. Loftis noted that some of the senior partners in his agency played golf, and “it was just natural that I would be there.”

Loftis, who now boasts a 2 handicap on the golf course, said he’s no professional. “I have a real job to go to on Monday,” he said. “I strive to play well, and I enjoy practicing and trying to get better, but I don’t have my name on my golf bag.”

While the insurance business may have afforded new golfing opportunities, Loftis said, “those days of the Wednesday and Friday round are gone. Agents are too busy now.” Still, he plays at least every other weekend. “It’s enough for me,” he said. Despite the business allure, Loftis shies away from talking insurance on the golf course. “I never talked business on the course unless it was brought up,” he said.

Relationships
Golf helps build relationships. “Some of the best people I’ve met and come to know are people that I’ve golfed with,” Nilsson said. “I don’t play golf because I’m in insurance, but it seems to fit the nature of a business relationship.”

Loftis agrees that relationships — personal and professional — can be solidified through the game and he also agrees that shop talk is best kept to a minimum.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate and I don’t think it’s wise to talk business on the golf course, but you are developing relationships with people that become friends and clients, and you may eventually get to earn their insurance,” Loftis said. “It’s hard to put a value on that. I made a lot of close friends and close business relationship because of the golf course. Being a golfer does not sell insurance for you. It will allow you to sell insurance later.”

“The golf course has been a great place to network, especially in a small town like we are in,” said Randy Lanoix, owner of Bourg-Lanoix Agency in Lutcher, La. Lanoix, who has been playing golf since he was 9, said he loves the sport because it can be played forever. “One of the things I like about it now is that you take your clients out” for a game, he said. “I insured a few golf courses, and I’ve met a lot of people on the course and I wrote their insurance after,” he said.

Bob Bramlett, president of the Big “I” National Junior Classic, and owner of The Bramlett Insurance Agency in Ardmore, Okla., has seized golfing opportunities since early in his career.

“In the insurance business, there are a lot of occasions to play golf,” he said. “It was a great help to me in the younger years of my career.”

Bramlett said by playing he got to know people better, in part because golfers spend four to five hours with people playing the game. “Golf is a great place to begin and maintain relationships,” he said. And there’s “no question” that’s an important part of the insurance business, he said.

“There are a lot of insurance agents that do a lot of their prospecting on the golf course,” Bramlett said. After all, “everybody on a golf course buys insurance.”

Family affair
Ron Smith, president of Rochester, Ind.-based Smith Sawyer Smith Inc., has been playing golf since he could breathe, he said.

“My father liked it. I have an older brother who likes it. My younger brother likes it. We’ve played a lot of golf as a family,” Smith said. “At one point, we had six single digit handicaps in our family and that didn’t count the two pros.”

Smith, who joined his family’s insurance agency in 1969, said people in Rochester, a town of about 7,500, recognize the Smiths as a golfing family. “It’s been a sport we’ve always liked,” he said. “My father took us all golfing when we were young.”

Smith’s nephew, Chris Smith, plays on the PGA tour and won the Big “I” Junior Classic in 1986. Another nephew, and Smith’s brother, built a golf course that Smith insures.

“It’s an enriching experience for a couple too,” Nilsson added. “My dad used to always say that there are few things that you can learn to do as couples that you can do clear into your senior years,” he said, noting that his father is 77 years old and plays four times per week with his mother, who is 74.

The sport hasn’t brought the Smiths a wealth of new business — by choice. “We haven’t particularly used it as a marketing tool, but a lot of people follow Chris Smith because they know us,” he said.

“I wish I had some grand marketing story to tell you about all the business we’ve written strictly because we are golfers,” Smith added. “But I can tell you that it’s brought most of the people in our family a lot of enjoyment … It’s a great game, and I recommend it to anybody.”

Young people
Nilsson turns his passion for golf into a passion for volunteerism as well. He chaired the Utah state Big “I” Classic tournament for seven years and has been active in supporting junior golf programs.

“The game of golf is so good for a young person,” he said. “It teaches them some concepts like honesty and integrity. It’s easy to cheat at different games, but this is an individual type of game. If it’s something they want to excel at, it’s totally in their own hands.”

According to Nilsson, golf gives young people an opportunity to learn about relationships and ethics.

“They have an opportunity to play with varying people,” Nilsson said. “If they are playing in tournaments or traveling to other states, they are assigned to play with people they don’t know and it gives them the chance to know that there are different types of people out there.” Learning how to deal with different personalities is of great importance later in life, he said.

“You have rules that you enforce and impose upon yourself, and you are competing more with yourself and the golf course than you are with others,” Loftis said.

Loftis served as president of IIAT in 1993-94, and at the time, volunteered for state and national Big “I” Junior Classic tournaments. “It’s the first exposure to the independent agency system that these kids have ever had … [and] a number of the kids that played in these tournaments years ago are now our clients,” he said.

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