Page 3 - Simkiss Rough Notes FlipBook

Members of the Property and Casualty Team.
From left: Gina Tamburri, Account Manager; Christopher Baird, Commercial Risk Specialist; Maura B. Klembecki, Commercial Risk Specialist; James L. Hahn, CPCU, Executive Vice President; Joseph W. Kolok, CPCU, Vice President; Karen Hall-Thomas, CPCU, ARM.
are actively involved in the business as executive vice presidents. The agency’s name was changed to Simkiss & Block in 2015 in recognition of Brian’s sig- ni cant contribution to its success.
More changes
“I’d only been at the agency a cou- ple of years when John Simkiss once again introduced another innovation,” Brian remembers. “John stepped back and looked at our rm and realized that our traditional approach to acquir- ing business didn’t make sense. He
saw that we had a deep enough range of expertise that we shouldn’t need to cold call or get involved in bidding.
“Needless to say, not everyone was thrilled with the idea of changing our sales philosophy,” Brian continues. “We had grown very nicely through all the traditional sales tactics and knew it would take time and some pain to turn the warship. But John was insis- tent that we needed to redirect all our resources and energy to those clients who want to choose us as their sole broker and risk management advisor.
“Not surprisingly, we had a deep base of expertise in the contracting eld thanks to our beginning as a surety rm.” Brian continues, “We built on that expertise to develop an under- standing of contractors’ needs for other
property/casualty coverages and natu- rally, we had a built-in educational opportunity in the form of our current clients who were only too happy to tell us about their business.
“And, over the years, as we added new clients, we immersed ourselves in their businesses in order to reach that same level of deep understanding. That was especially important once we had decided not to be bidders for business.”
Client- rst philosophy
“We are asking people to make
a leap of faith with us,” Brian adds.
“So, in my view, it is important that
we always put the client rst. Our approach now is to get to know a pros- pect’s business in advance of them becoming a client. By digging into the policy language of their existing cover- age, we determine if they really have the coverage they need. There are many policies that need to be customized, and we view that as something we should be doing regularly. That should not be viewed as an extraordinary effort, but as the normal way of doing business. It’s what the customer deserves for choosing us to be their insurance and risk management partner.”
Of course, if you’re not cold-calling and bidding, new client acquisition has to come from another source, and
that’s “referrals and networking,” Brian notes. Simkiss & Block began working with private equity rms as a source of new business. “That’s been a wonderful source over the last 10 years, where we’ve been brought in as part of their due diligence team and help them before they buy a company by evaluating the acquisition target’s insurance program.”
But, like many things, it didn’t start out as a positive source for business. “Our initial exposure to private equity was probably about 20 years ago,” Brian explains. “We had some private clients who were sold to private equity rms and then we were replaced as their broker. We decided that we really needed to get to know that world, and it literally took more than a decade
for us to develop an understanding of the multifarious transactions that can occur in that business and how quickly a transaction can change character if the private equity rm decides on a dif- ferent approach.
“At the same time, transactions are subject to changes in the nancial environment. Closing dates can get extended and rates can change. So we really had to understand this com- plicated world and, at the same time, persuade some private equity rms to take a chance with us and put us on their due diligence team.”