CA Agent Needed

[scott]

I have a nonprofit client in Sacramento, CA I need to find an agent for. Must represent Philadelphia Insurance and have experience with D&O.

Please contact me off-line.

Scott@ScottSimmonds.com

[pita3333]

Scott:

Perhaps the angle could be to contact the local (think it is Roseville CA) Philly office and ask them for recommendation of local agent who understands the non-profit sector?

[scott]

Already contacted the local Phili office a week ago. They would not recommend anyone.

[scott]

I have had 22 replies. Thanks to everyone. I'm set now.

A few comments on the responses...

-Speed here was important. I got one reply almost immediately. WIthin 24 hours I had 12. I got the last reply about an hour ago. Faster was better.

-I specifically asked about non-profits experience and Phili. Some addressed those issues. Some just asked to participate, forcing me to ask the same questions again.

-I visited the website of the respondents. Some were quite well done. Some need work. Some looked like a 12 year old did them. Few of the sites had testimonials, client lists, specialty pages, or other distinguishing features. I did judge the quality of your operation by the quality of your website - call me shallow.

-Two websites had articles on insurance topics, one had a blog. Two mentioned Twitter. I'm constantly trashed for my position here against cold calling. I push building a body of knowledge that makes you a person of interest to your prospects. What I saw in most cases was not very interesting. If you do not have a blog and are not posting articles and white papers for your prospects to read, you are not a person of interest and few people will see you as an expert.

-Only two of the respondents identified their forum "handle." I still do not understand the desire to be anonymous here.

Thanks once more to all who replied. I'll use this forum again to help my clients.

[d's insurance store]

Scott, I found your analysis of the website views fascinating. Given all that you've preached here, I gather that you still find the vast majority of agency web presentations lacking in focus and/or contribution.

Perhaps it's the 'shotgun' nature of most agencies...offering broad based policy choices, but zeroing in on very few specialities. Your premise that a successful agency must be an expert with bonafides in narrow areas tends to go against the long time business model of a retail agency...promoting everything for everyone.

Granted, in this case, you're looking for a specialist in non profit/d&o, and many agencies may have one or two people well versed in that area, but the agency principal hasn't been coaxed into making that a web highlight, even for one page of the site. And you mentioned that you also received responses from those who acted as though they hadn't read your original post...leading me to conclude that those agents just jump at anything, expertise or not.

This business is still stocked with general practictioners, myself included, where the future is most likely in specialization and nitche marketing. Perhaps the next generation of agents and agency owners will be more specialized, or maybe the market will dictate that trend by seeing who survives and who does not.

[scott]

D, Im glad you posted your comments. It brings up a misconception about my approach.

I do push my mentor clients to be specialists in a market. That market, however, might be personal lines in the 048xx zip code.

Look at my insurance blog (www.InsuranceAssuranceBlog.com). I am all over the place - personal lines, commercial lines, life, health...

I am always posting, always writing, always speaking, always contacting.

In June I'm giving a speech in New Orleans before a group of 200 private accounting firms. I suggested that I be allowed to survey the membership on the insurance coverage they buy - limits, premium, insurer, agent - so that I can build a data base of "Best Practices." I have about 80 responses so far. The resulting data will tell accounting firms that other firms of, for example, 40 employees carry E&O coverage limits of $4,000,000 and that Podunck Insurance Company seems to be quite competitive.

I can easily update the info every year, building my value to a niche.

I am certainly not a specialist in CPA firms. However, I have found a way to provide value nobody else provides.

A generalist agent can do the same thing.

Question 1 - What value do you provide?
Q2 - Who needs that value?
Q3 - Where do they hang out

Action - Go to that place.

[d's insurance store]

Thanks for the reply, Scott...fair enough. But, using your 'personal lines specialist in the 021XX zip' as an example, the real challenge as I see it is to first come up with that differentiating value proposition that an agent or agency owner can offer to that market. And, therein lies my question...how is 'value' or USP found in that kind of commodity market, where products are pretty much the same, coverages are almost alike and price becomes the deliniator? Sure, every personal lines agency owner wants the 'value' clients...married, multi car, homeowning, with income and outlooks that demand service and coverage over price. But, really, in the current marketplace, how much of that exists? And what is the 'value' contribution? Yearly reviews? Birthday Cards? Pre renewal mailings? Email newsletters urging people to change their smoke detector batteries? Calendars? Preprinted pens and message pads?

I completely understand the focused market value proposition...insuring auto shops, restaurants, non profits, metalworks or woodwork shops, gas stations, accounting firms, ambulance companies, etc. and the ability to become an 'expert and trusted advisor' there by putting out white papers, sending targeted informational emails, showing up at trade shows and embedding oneself into the culture of the penetrated market. But my questions concerns how you can carve out those elements into a much more broad based product market, especially when there's not not a lot of need for the traditional 'trusted family insurance advisor, willing to explain the differences between auto limits of 25/50 and 50/100' in a world where people gravitate to the extremes based on need.

I'm not asking for a condensed, free version of your teachings...but just some idea of how you can translate your elements into a market like personal lines, which by its very nature, is much farther reaching.

Thanks.

[scott]

PL can be a commodity if you let it.

Why does someone buy from GEICO?

What can you provide that GEICO can't?

Think about hardware stores (stay with me). Imagine you own a family hardware store and you get word that Home Depot is coming to town. What do you do? What services would you offer that HD wont or cant?

[d's insurance store]

OK, Scott, I'm still with you...but the reality is that in some/many communities, that hardware store you refer to did not survive the onslaught of big box competitors. That neighborhood hardware vendor could offer all of the expertise, friendly service, local delivery, locality and convenience that could be provided, and still, if the market place in large enough numbers did not feel a value equation connection, then expenses overrun revenue and the local hardware store sinks into oblivion. Sure, we've all seen the 4 minute news segments on various cable TV channels about the David/Goliath battle that shows some folksy, determined, coveralled hardware store owner talking about how their business can provide the missing elements that a big box will not and now they're squeeking by, or even holding their own...but the fact remains, the marketplace votes with its wallet, and the votes don't always fall on the side of fair or right.

You put forth the GEICO equation as well. Great example in the current retail PL environment. I've heard all the standard arguments about talking with the reptile, impersonal telephone help at the other end, claims assistance, a warm, friendly, engaged voice when insurance issues arise, a local face of accountability...and so on. We've all heard it. But for a product that has migrated from a mysterious bunch of numbers scattered on a dec page to a 'read me your figures and I'll spit out a price' and often that price comes with savings beyond the retention threshold (of what? $50 to maybe $150 per year), and the reality that an PL Auto agency can really only do so much to enhance the buy and retain experience for something like a run of the mill auto policy or home policy, then for that kind of product, again, how does the PL retail agency provide what GEICO cannot? Or rather, WHAT does the local agency provide, that GEICO cannot, other than my aforementioned branded trinketts and email greetings and reconstituted blogs about smoke detector batteries and wearing seatbelts and locking the exterior doors when leaving town?


Not adversarial...just wondering how the question is answered...

[scott]

I did not say this was easy.

The hardware stores that went out of business did not differentiate themselves. They could not find the customers that valued the value - or find enough who did.

Competitors do not put businesses out of business. A failure to successfully respond to the changing marketplace is the cause of demise.

The same can happen to an insurance agent - obviously.

Every customer you have has the option of going someplace else. You must find what differentiates you and communicate it.

With GEICO, the points are straightforward: "You can sit down with me when you want to talk about insurance. You can't do that with GEICO. I'm here to help you when you have a claim. There is nobody to hold your hand at GEICO."

What makes you different from the agent down the street? What makes you remarkable - worthy of remark? What makes you indispensable to your clients?

Seth Godin's book, Purple Cow will get you mind working on what will make you stand out in your market.

[d's insurance store]

I'll take your reading recommendation and see if the creative juices begin to flow.
Thanks for the time you've taken to constructively go back and forth.
D.

[inscopywriter]

Are you aware that GEICO is starting to appoint local agents? Yep, that's right.

Do you think you'll need to change your talking points because of that? You should at least be aware of it in case a prospect brings it up.

http://www.geico.com/local/

[scott]

I have great respect for GEICO. I was interested to hear of their agency program. Thanks. I had missed that.

Here is some more info - http://careers.geico.com/own_an_agency.

It's interesting to see their approach and the individual agent pages.

One of the pages I looked at was the agent in Marietta GA (I went to high school there). I Googled "Insurance Agent Marietta GA" and up popped the GEICO agent. Such is one measure of new-marketing effectiveness.