2004 Best Practices Study

REVENUE SIZE CATEGORY HERE AGENCIES WITH REVENUES BETW EN $5,000,000 ND $10,000,000

EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVES

EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVES

Keys to Their Success When asked to comment on the keys to their success, participants in this group focused first and foremost on the quality of their employees. Beyond simply hiring the right people, these Best

PROFILE

Practices agencies invest significantly in the profes- sional development of their employees and creating an environment that will allow them to retain these most important assets. Digging deeper, success in finding, developing and retaining talented producers and the development of an agency-wide sales culture were both frequently-cited keys to success for this group. This is evidenced by their Best Practices results - the average commercial lines producer in these agencies manages a book of business totaling $817,503 in com- mission income and generated $109,871 in new com- missions last year. The average Life & Health produc- er generated $102,744 in new commission and over- sees a book totaling $614,027 in commissions.

Factors Most Critical to Agency's Success

REVENUES/ EXPENSES

(Top 5 Listed in Order of Frequency Mentioned) 1. Having high quality employees 2. Acquiring new, young producers 3. Focusing on growth / new business development 4. Having strong agency leadership/ management accountability 5. Keeping multiple stable markets

FINANCIAL STABILITY

EMPLOYEE OVERVIEW

Challenges They Face Not surprisingly, one of the primary challenges faced by this group is also personnel-related: find- ing, developing and retaining talented employees, especially producers. Although 87.1% of group members plan to hire an average of 2.3 new producers in the coming year, many still struggle with

PRODUCER INFO

where to find them and what to do with them once they're hired. Over 47% of agencies in this group hire producers away from other agents & brokers. Carrier rela- tionships were also cited frequently as an ongoing challenge. In light of the recent waves of insurer consolidation, agencies are finding the need to build new relation- ships, a process that takes time and impacts these agencies' ability to get business writ- ten today. The perceived ever-changing appetite of insurance carriers also proves to be an ongoing challenge for this Best Practices group.

SERVICE STAFF INFO

Top Challenges (Top 5 Listed in Order of Frequency Mentioned)

1. Lack of young people coming into industry, especially new sales talent. 2. Carrier relationships in light of market changes, consolidations, volume commitments, etc. 3. Perpetuation of agency 4. Balancing growth and profitability 5. Increased competition

TECHNOLOGY

INSURANCE CARRIERS

APPENDIX

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