Page 159 - The UnCaptive Agent

132 THE UNCAPTIVE AGENT

the agency exclusively. In other words, they prepare
insurance proposals, issue client-requested documents,
and so forth but don’t engage in selling activities. That
limited role for CSR’s is dying rapidly today, however.
Remember, agencies must be sales operations! I love
this quote from management consultant Gary Hamel:
“The sales department isn’t the whole company, but the
whole company better be the sales department.”
When you hire people to perform the service func-
tion, you should also look for people who aren’t afraid
to ask for the order. One of the reasons that the average
independent insurance agency has only 1.6 policies
per client is that they do a poor job of cross marketing
their business. That can be corrected with service rep-
resentatives who are also salespeople. Begin by hiring
people who aren’t afraid to ask for the order and follow
that up by making a significant part of those people’s
compensation based on either bonus or commission
for new business.

The Advantages of Service Centers

An increasingly valuable component of agency service
is the utilization of insurance company service centers.
Many small agency owners have resisted using service
centers because they believe they cost too much. I think
that insurance companies have played into this mis-
conception—and have missed an opportunity in the
way they market these services to agency owners by
describing the fees as costs rather than savings. What
do I mean by this?
When you look at the cost to the average insurance
agency to provide the service function to clients, it aver-
ages about twenty-five percent of revenue. Insurance
company service centers typically charge agencies 1.5 to