Improving the Agent-Carrier Connection
By: Bob Fulwider
On my visits across the country, I’ve heard the challenges some members have shared about their cooperative efforts with companies they represent. I’ve listened carefully and have heard some common themes. We are being asked to take on more work for the same or less compensation. Company proprietary Web sites are less efficient and thus more costly to use, and do not take full advantage of real time advances supported by the industry. We miss the opportunity to do true joint planning with our company partners.
This has been disappointing and surprising for me to hear. It is disappointing because effective agent and company relations may be very challenging to tackle but has the potential to result in substantial benefits. And it is surprising because I am in an entirely different environment when it comes to agency and company relationships. It’s not because I’m a super agent—many of you are far more successful and had it not been for your careful mentoring, the few successes I have realized would still be unfounded. No, it’s more than that—during my years of leadership with you I have gained a new appreciation for the companies that have chosen to do business in my great state of Iowa. It’s pretty obvious the insurance climate there is outstanding and the companies domiciled there or marketing there with some stability are wonderful partners—my point: not all agencies face this dilemma, but we must recognize a growing concern among those that do.
What are some specifics I see of the opportunities we have together to improve the business environment and hence our efficiency and effectiveness, together? For starters, the insistence by some companies that their proprietary systems of automation are the only way to do business restricts our ability to embrace the future in an efficient way for everyone. Friends, we need real time immediately on all of our platforms. It’s a wake-up call to our membership as well—we must all use it. We need to streamline, simplify and make cost-effective the increasing burdens of multi-state licensing. This is a regulatory issue that we can address now and in a meaningful way by supporting the NARAB II bill in Congress. Trusted Choice® membership: the challenge goes out to companies and agencies alike—if you aren’t a member by now, shame on you. Your distribution system needs to be branded as much or more in a soft market than at any other time. Recognize that agents like everyone else, want to be paid fairly for the work they do and value they deliver. This is true in every market. And the list of opportunities continues: providing markets in impaired risk areas, bringing new talent into our agencies, establishing new coverages for new niches and needs, co-authoring business and marketing plans. Didn’t we establish Best Practices together? What have both carriers and agents done to uphold our part of that bargain?
The agency force has and remains a viable and industrious lot. If we think for one minute that a reptile trying to drink from a water fountain in a park or a cave man needing psychiatric visits can do a better job than we can you’re missing the Caliper results on most of us and sadly mistaken. We want to compete. We want to grow. We want to drive your numbers up. We want to think of new ways to help our clients. We want to maintain the best marketing Web site in the community. We want to retain the one constant that has been there since our inception—that independent insurance agents are the best distribution channel in the industry! Our future is not in the hands of regulators, legislators, vendors or competitors.
Our future lies with our consumers and ourselves. We remain the bridge between the company and the consumer. Our girders are strong—they can be even stronger. Help agents reach a higher level of prosperity and success by assuring that carrier-agent partnership evolves, and that each challenge we face becomes an opportunity to grow together.
To our fine company friends who have stood with us in the past and followed those pursuits, we ask that you do it again. Please join us in our pursuit to continue that public confidence and to partner for the benefit of all.
Bob Fulwider
Chairman
This has been disappointing and surprising for me to hear. It is disappointing because effective agent and company relations may be very challenging to tackle but has the potential to result in substantial benefits. And it is surprising because I am in an entirely different environment when it comes to agency and company relationships. It’s not because I’m a super agent—many of you are far more successful and had it not been for your careful mentoring, the few successes I have realized would still be unfounded. No, it’s more than that—during my years of leadership with you I have gained a new appreciation for the companies that have chosen to do business in my great state of Iowa. It’s pretty obvious the insurance climate there is outstanding and the companies domiciled there or marketing there with some stability are wonderful partners—my point: not all agencies face this dilemma, but we must recognize a growing concern among those that do.
What are some specifics I see of the opportunities we have together to improve the business environment and hence our efficiency and effectiveness, together? For starters, the insistence by some companies that their proprietary systems of automation are the only way to do business restricts our ability to embrace the future in an efficient way for everyone. Friends, we need real time immediately on all of our platforms. It’s a wake-up call to our membership as well—we must all use it. We need to streamline, simplify and make cost-effective the increasing burdens of multi-state licensing. This is a regulatory issue that we can address now and in a meaningful way by supporting the NARAB II bill in Congress. Trusted Choice® membership: the challenge goes out to companies and agencies alike—if you aren’t a member by now, shame on you. Your distribution system needs to be branded as much or more in a soft market than at any other time. Recognize that agents like everyone else, want to be paid fairly for the work they do and value they deliver. This is true in every market. And the list of opportunities continues: providing markets in impaired risk areas, bringing new talent into our agencies, establishing new coverages for new niches and needs, co-authoring business and marketing plans. Didn’t we establish Best Practices together? What have both carriers and agents done to uphold our part of that bargain?
The agency force has and remains a viable and industrious lot. If we think for one minute that a reptile trying to drink from a water fountain in a park or a cave man needing psychiatric visits can do a better job than we can you’re missing the Caliper results on most of us and sadly mistaken. We want to compete. We want to grow. We want to drive your numbers up. We want to think of new ways to help our clients. We want to maintain the best marketing Web site in the community. We want to retain the one constant that has been there since our inception—that independent insurance agents are the best distribution channel in the industry! Our future is not in the hands of regulators, legislators, vendors or competitors.
Our future lies with our consumers and ourselves. We remain the bridge between the company and the consumer. Our girders are strong—they can be even stronger. Help agents reach a higher level of prosperity and success by assuring that carrier-agent partnership evolves, and that each challenge we face becomes an opportunity to grow together.
To our fine company friends who have stood with us in the past and followed those pursuits, we ask that you do it again. Please join us in our pursuit to continue that public confidence and to partner for the benefit of all.
Bob Fulwider
Chairman
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