Page 191 - The UnCaptive Agent

164 THE UNCAPTIVE AGENT

agency networks don’t qualify as agency development
organizations and certainly clusters and aggregators
don’t. So, while these forms of market access providers
have proliferated and offer easier access to insurance
carrier representation, they have only solved one part
of the agency startup puzzle.
One Agents Alliance (my company), which operates in
the Midwestern part of the United States and California,
is affiliated with Strategic Insurance Agents Alliance.
SIAA is the largest Insurance Agency Development
Organization in the country. Approximately thirteen
percent of the independent agencies in the United
States belong to our organization. Together, SIAA and
its Master Agencies (like One Agents Alliance) create
over four hundred new agencies from scratch each year
with ambitious, driven insurance agency entrepreneurs.
All of them are making more money than they would
with virtually any other organization. In addition, insur-
ance carriers value, in an unprecedented way, the agents
that participate with us because of the sophisticated
management that we provide their books of business.
Companies especially value our organization because of
the large organic growth that we provide them through
the development of new and existing insurance agencies.
Importantly, their new startup failure rate is dramati-
cally lower than agencies starting on their own or with
aggregators.
One of the things that Agency Development
Organizations like OAA offer are coaching and mento-
ring for insurance agency principals. I think its common
sense to recognize that anyone who seeks excellence can
benefit from coaching and mentoring. Consider the
fact that virtually no professional athlete, even those
like golfers who operate on their own, fail to utilize
a coach or coaches. Bob Nardelli, the former CEO of