Record Number of Agents Attend Joe Vincent Seminar

The Independent Insurance Agents of Texas experienced record attendance at its 41st Annual Joe Vincent Manage-ment Seminar, held in Austin Jan. 25-27, 2004.

“We have the largest gathering of agents at this seminar in its 41 year history,” said IIAT President Jim Berger in introductory remarks at the general session on Jan. 26. He added that IIAT was experiencing similar growth across the board, with membership up and record attendance at last year’s convention. Berger also noted that the state association contributed nearly $40,000 in 2003 to InsurPac, the political action arm of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America. He honored Marietta McCain, chairperson for the InsurPac fundraising campaign, for her success in raising more money for InsurPac than any other state, not only in 2003, but ever. For the record, McCain signed up for the job again this year.

Berger announced that the IIAT’s “strength of speaking with one voice enabled us to complete this year a joint study with TSLA [Texas Surplus Lines Association] that is the first of its kind. Best Practices for Working Relationships Between Wholesalers and Retailers was initiated, Berger said, to “improve communications and work flow between us and our partners on the wholesale side.” A Tuesday morning session, “Working Smart with MGAs,” moderated by Baron Garcia, a past president of the American Association of Managing General Agents, used the study as a jumping off point to explore the expectations that retail agents and general agents have of each other in working relationships.

One of the most well attended sessions at the event was entitled, “Are we Making Money Now?” In it a panel of industry experts examined the state of the agency business today and discussed methods for agencies to determine how they are really performing.

The panel included: John Wepler, executive VP, Marsh-Berry Co.; Steve Anderson, Steve Anderson.com, publisher of the Texas Automated Agency Report (TAAR); Kevin Stipe, Reagan Consulting, which conducts best practices studies for the IIABA; and Bill Chaufty, corporate VP-central region, with HRH-Oklahoma City.

IIAT Executive Director David VanDelinder got the discussion underway by asking, “How do we measure success now and into the future. … Are we more successful today or just richer? How do you really measure success today in a hard market when premiums are going up automatically through no fault of our own?

Stipe commented that the “challenge that a lot of best practices agencies face is that when you’ve got renewals going up so rapidly as they have in the past couple of years … it’s easy for everybody to enjoy [some] success. It may be a little misleading.” He noted that it’s not hard to show a profit when prices are going up, adding, “what the best agencies out there are doing is focusing on those metrics that really tell them the story. … What we focus on is new business development, new commissions per producer,” Stipe said. “That’s probably the best single measurement of whether or not your organization is playing offense. … Offense in the agency business is having a sales culture and having producers that are capable of going out year in year out producing new business that can match the best practices benchmarks.”

Wepler agreed, noting that over the past five years agency profit margins have increased from 21 percent to 25 percent. He asserted that producers should strive to increase their books of business by 20 to 25 percent each year.

“I like the way he thinks,” Chaufty said. “If everyone of your producers could grow 25 percent, what a wonderful world it would be.”

Chaufty continued, “Right now is the best time in my experience to be an agent … it’s just a wonderful time. … If you are an independent you have increased profitability to reinvest in yourself in the future. But complacency in this business is our enemy.” He cautioned that in times like these, producers have a tendency to rationalize why they need to be in the office, rather than out selling

“The most important thing I think right now for the independent agency is market share,” Chaufty added. “How many new accounts have you brought in and how many accounts have you lost? Keeping track of those lost accounts and why did you lose them. And I think the answer to that question really will translate into organic growth in the future when this market starts to turn.”

Later, VanDelinder turned the discussion toward technology, asking about the state of
productivity in relation to agency automation.

“Moving forward there are still substantial gains to be made in productivity,” Anderson said. “From a couple of perspectives.” One, he noted, concerns how agencies use such systems internally to process their business.

“Yes, we have the computer systems, yes, we have all of this money that we spent on technology,” Anderson said, “but in the agencies that I talk to, that I visit, they are not taking full advantage of their systems. I’m not just talking here about the features, the functionality, of your systems. But really rethinking how you process your business on a day-to-day basis through your agency. There’s still room [for improvements] there.”

Anderson commented that in 2003, there was significant progress made in streamlining communication between agents and carriers, though not necessarily through SEMCI (single entry multi-carrier interface). He said he expects that progress to continue in 2004. “And so taking advantage of those opportunities and re-thinking what you do in your agencies will help … you to gain more efficiencies internally,” he said.

“Part of the problem [with] all this technology,” Anderson continued, is summed up in a comment he often hears from agents—that their producers won’t use it. “And my thought at this point is, ‘You know what, who’s running your agency?’ There are tools that help producers sell… they help the sales process and we need to … make sure our production staff is pushed, encouraged to make use of those tools.”

For more information on the Joe Vincent Seminar or the IIAT-TSLA joint study, Best Practices for Working Relationships Between Wholesalers and Retailers, visit www.iiat.com.

Topics Texas Agencies