Agency Profile: Who’s Our Next New Account?

Teague Insurance Agency Inc.

Founded: 1954
Employees: 42

The quest for new business is the leading driver for the 14 producers of this Best Practices agency.

And the San Diego County agency is successful in that mission, thanks in large part to a competent service team that frees producers’ time. Principals say the agency’s biggest challenges include validating new producers and helping established salespeople stay focused on new business. While Teague Insurance has no niche—unless new business counts—producers develop personal books around individual categories.

Customers are split almost evenly between personal and commercial lines, and commercial business accounts for nearly 90% of the agency’s $5–$10 million in annual revenue. The agency maintains direct appointments with major carriers and is ramping up its social media and SEO efforts.

BRAD WILSON, VICE PRESIDENT

We are a privately held, local agency with direct appointments with all major carriers. We focus on developing and maintaining superior relationships with our carrier partners. It used to be that carrier appointments were sought after and mutually beneficial. Nowadays, it seems that anyone can get access to carriers through wholesalers or aggregators. We find we are able to differentiate ourselves in a very competitive environment by being able to negotiate terms and conditions on behalf of our clients and prospects directly with underwriters. Of course, claims advocacy is a component as well.

BYRON JOHNSTON, PRESIDENT

To help producers stay focused on new business, we have bi-weekly meetings where we discuss cold calling, cross-selling, asking for referrals and assessing real opportunities in the new business pipeline. Another big challenge continues to be vetting prospective producers, for both book size and fit in our culture. We’ve recently revamped our producer mentoring: We now put all new producers through the Liberty Mutual training program and assign an owner to meet weekly to discuss all the habits necessary to become a successful salesperson.

TOM GEISBUSH, VICE PRESIDENT

In the future, we will continue to explore acquisition opportunities as well as support our production team to add new business revenue to the agency. Our producers continue to find success with maintaining relationships with centers of influence, as well as networking through chambers of commerce. We are working diligently to add new content to our website and increase our blog and social media posts, all of which help drive traffic to our website—and in turn improve SEO results. We’ve had great luck with TrustedChoice.com, which has also increased traffic to our website.