A Half Time Game Plan
By: David Daniel
Let’s just get the most important thing out of the way first. My New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl! It must have been a very cold day somewhere in the center of the earth when that seemingly impossible event happened. If the Saints can be the world champions, then who knows what else is possible? This edition of Independent Agent magazine marks the halfway point of this fiscal year for the Big “I”, and it marks the halfway point of my year as chairman of the Board. So let’s take a look at the halftime report.
We’ve been concentrating on what we can do at the national level to help our members. The first and most exciting developing storyline of the year is the Consumer Agent Portal(CAP). We have a task force of some of our brightest and best minds working on this project to see how we might put our agents in the game with an online presence to compete for personal lines customers against direct writers and other distribution channels. The exponentially growing trend is for consumers to seek information and make purchases online. CAP would be a means to aggregate our independent agency workforce to give our members a high profile presence on search engines, and drive customers to them. While consumers want to obtain information online, they want the expertise of qualified insurance professionals to guide them through the actual purchase. It is a huge undertaking, and there are many more details to work out, but we are making progress.
Our association needs a nationally recognizable consumer brand in order to drive customers to a tool like the Consumer Agent Portal, and our agents need a brand to drive customers directly to them. That’s where Trusted Choice® can come in. We have been working to make Trusted Choice® the recognizable brand that our members need, and we have had many successes. Again, though, there is much work to be done to win the game in the competitive field of branding. We may not have the advertising dollars that some of our competitors pour into their brand development, but we have power in numbers. The more agents that become Trusted Choice® agents, the more clout and recognition the independent agency system brand receives. That translates directly into more sales potential for our agents. We have a great story to tell about what we do for our customers. We are their trusted advisors. We offer choice and value, and our brand describes us well. The board of directors is now discussing ways to take the Trusted Choice® brand to the next level for the good of the membership.
In the government affairs arena, it has been quite a competition in the battle over healthcare reform. The Big “I” government affairs team has been in the game the entire time, fighting to keep our agents in the sales and distribution process. Consumers need professional expertise to guide them in their healthcare insurance decisions and we have fought very effectively to have our voices heard. The healthcare issue has been so contentious and unpredictable. Who could have predicted the election of dark horse Republican Scott Brown to the Senate from Massachusetts? It’s just as difficult to predict what will happen in the second half of this year in Congress for the Big “I”, but we are there for every play, for the benefit of our members.
To back up our government affairs team, our “12th man” is always ready with grassroots support. Our membership continues to do a wonderful job when called upon to lobby their congressional delegations about our issues. Whether sending e-mails, making phone calls, or descending upon Capitol Hill at our Big “I” Legislative Conference, our membership always comes through.
The biggest score of the year by our members has been to achieve our goal of becoming a $1 million PAC. InsurPac contributions were the highest ever in history in 2009, thanks to the generous contributions of our members who understand the need for a strong PAC to help send our message to Congress.
Regulation of insurance continues to be a battle, as we advocate to continue state regulation of insurance with modernized and streamlined federal regulation improvements for our agents. With the advent of the world economic crisis and the call by some for enhanced federal regulation of the financial services industry, we continue to be watchful so that our well-regulated insurance industry is not adversely affected.
This halftime report finds the Big “I” continuing to move the chains in so many ways on behalf of our members. We continue to work so hard because we know how effective we can be, and we must be, because our members depend upon us. We’re encouraged to know that if the Saints can win a Super Bowl, anything is possible if we set our minds to it.
—David Daniel, Chairman
We’ve been concentrating on what we can do at the national level to help our members. The first and most exciting developing storyline of the year is the Consumer Agent Portal(CAP). We have a task force of some of our brightest and best minds working on this project to see how we might put our agents in the game with an online presence to compete for personal lines customers against direct writers and other distribution channels. The exponentially growing trend is for consumers to seek information and make purchases online. CAP would be a means to aggregate our independent agency workforce to give our members a high profile presence on search engines, and drive customers to them. While consumers want to obtain information online, they want the expertise of qualified insurance professionals to guide them through the actual purchase. It is a huge undertaking, and there are many more details to work out, but we are making progress.
Our association needs a nationally recognizable consumer brand in order to drive customers to a tool like the Consumer Agent Portal, and our agents need a brand to drive customers directly to them. That’s where Trusted Choice® can come in. We have been working to make Trusted Choice® the recognizable brand that our members need, and we have had many successes. Again, though, there is much work to be done to win the game in the competitive field of branding. We may not have the advertising dollars that some of our competitors pour into their brand development, but we have power in numbers. The more agents that become Trusted Choice® agents, the more clout and recognition the independent agency system brand receives. That translates directly into more sales potential for our agents. We have a great story to tell about what we do for our customers. We are their trusted advisors. We offer choice and value, and our brand describes us well. The board of directors is now discussing ways to take the Trusted Choice® brand to the next level for the good of the membership.
In the government affairs arena, it has been quite a competition in the battle over healthcare reform. The Big “I” government affairs team has been in the game the entire time, fighting to keep our agents in the sales and distribution process. Consumers need professional expertise to guide them in their healthcare insurance decisions and we have fought very effectively to have our voices heard. The healthcare issue has been so contentious and unpredictable. Who could have predicted the election of dark horse Republican Scott Brown to the Senate from Massachusetts? It’s just as difficult to predict what will happen in the second half of this year in Congress for the Big “I”, but we are there for every play, for the benefit of our members.
To back up our government affairs team, our “12th man” is always ready with grassroots support. Our membership continues to do a wonderful job when called upon to lobby their congressional delegations about our issues. Whether sending e-mails, making phone calls, or descending upon Capitol Hill at our Big “I” Legislative Conference, our membership always comes through.
The biggest score of the year by our members has been to achieve our goal of becoming a $1 million PAC. InsurPac contributions were the highest ever in history in 2009, thanks to the generous contributions of our members who understand the need for a strong PAC to help send our message to Congress.
Regulation of insurance continues to be a battle, as we advocate to continue state regulation of insurance with modernized and streamlined federal regulation improvements for our agents. With the advent of the world economic crisis and the call by some for enhanced federal regulation of the financial services industry, we continue to be watchful so that our well-regulated insurance industry is not adversely affected.
This halftime report finds the Big “I” continuing to move the chains in so many ways on behalf of our members. We continue to work so hard because we know how effective we can be, and we must be, because our members depend upon us. We’re encouraged to know that if the Saints can win a Super Bowl, anything is possible if we set our minds to it.
—David Daniel, Chairman
This month’s issue
The March issue is out now!
