At its recent Connect Summit in Chicago, IL, MarshBerry celebrated the regional winners of its prestigious MAX Performer Awards, a mark of distinction given to independent agencies and brokers with solid financials, operational excellence, and that provide world-class client service. While Hotchkiss Insurance was announced as the national winner of the MAX Performer Awards, all the regional winners had exceptional performance, dedication, and innovation. MarshBerry selects winners by evaluating firm performance in areas such as organic growth, new business acquisition, profit margins, commission and fee structures, and employee engagement and culture.
MarshBerry heartily congratulates all of the 2024 Regional MAX Performer Award winners:
- Midwest: Associated Insurance and Risk Management Advisors, Rolling Meadows, IL
- Southwest: Hotchkiss Insurance, Houston, TX
- East: Risman Insurance Agencies, Medford, MA
- Southeast: Snellings Walters Insurance Agency, Atlanta, GA
- West: CMR Risk & Insurance Services, San Diego, CA
During a panel at Connect, leaders of the regional winners answered questions and offered insights into what makes their firms stand out.
What was one key strategy that your firm implemented that sets your firm apart from the rest of the industry?
Billy Potter (CEO, Snellings Walters Insurance Agency) – Culture. In 2012, we adopted the EOS system (entrepreneurial operating system) because we lacked follow-through on things that were important to us. It had a domino effect on our firm. The culture it helped us establish was an intentional one. Some of the success we’ve had with growth and profitability has been a result of defining a beautiful culture. That’s fostered an environment of truth and openness, resulting in growth and profitability. We’ve created a culture that allows people to be open and honest.
Henry Risman (President, Risman Insurance Agencies) – Acquisitions and strong leadership teams. When we joined our MarshBerry SIG (Strategic Issues Group), I started to think differently about using debt, and we started acquiring a lot of small agencies. Good management is important – it is positive and has good ethics.
Travis Pearson (Principal and CEO, CMR Risk & Insurance Services) – Formalized ownership plan. One thing that’s been the catalyst for our growth is our ownership plan. We have a formalized ownership plan – we start to give away stock to brokers at certain revenue thresholds, it then requires selling at a certain age. It’s really allowed us to compete with firms that are a lot larger (national brokers etc.) to attract talent, many with an entrepreneurial spirit.
Josh Herz (President, Associated Insurance and Risk Management Advisors) – Goal setting. This started with honest assessments: Where’s the risk in the business? Who are the main producers? How do we create sustainable growth? Then we set goals, determining where we wanted to be. We wanted to go from a $20 million firm to a $30 million firm. Continue to set goals and meet those goals. Then helping the production team in raising expectations, putting the goal out there. Raise the level of expectations with producers, including stretch goals, such as reaching 250k+ plus.
Mike Hotchkiss (CEO, Hotchkiss Insurance) – Rewarding performance. In 2008, Hotchkiss shifted from 100% ownership from the founder and dispersed it to high-performing shareholders. We’ve built a model that really connects performance with reward, in a unique way. That sets the stage and has enabled us to recruit, retain and reward high performers. We spend a lot of effort coaching for our leaders, executives, producers, on everything from culture to teamwork. We learned a way to build culture at a MarshBerry conference from David Friedman from CultureWise who introduced a system. We developed the Hotchkiss way: 36 behavior fundamentals that are behaviors focused on performing well for our clients and treating each other well.
How have data and analytics helped you make decisions or measure strategic performance at your firm?
Travis Pearson (Principal and CEO, CMR Risk & Insurance Services)–We use data analytics as a starting point to get a conversation going. If we see something outside of a normal average, we’ll ask why. We look at data on the service side, to look deeper into activities. For example, we’ll look at how many change requests are being made along with the overall book of business or number of policies. We have project management software, and we’ll have milestones for service teams. For example, the number of days we presented a proposal. Again, these are still conversation starters. We’ll use the data, analyze it, as a starting point for further discussions.
Josh Herz (President, Associated Insurance and Risk Management Advisors) – I think we need to put data into action. How are we using data to improve our business and, more importantly, helping our clients improve their business? We’ve invested heavily over the last six or seven years into data and analytics, first for clients: putting in ways to track claims, build dashboards, then taking information on frequency, severity; and putting that into action from a loss control perspective.
In terms of internal data, the number one thing was, once we recognized that in their personal lines business at the time – less than 10% of our clients represented 90% of our income. But we were spending a lot of time on the smaller clients (under $50,000 of premium). We decided to invest and build more, including changing our compensation structure, to focus on the upstream segment of business, to really grow that business.
Henry Risman (President, Risman Insurance Agencies) – If you compare PHP data from year to year, things stand out and you can use those to improve. You’ve got to be profitable, then it’s easy. You can invest in the best people and invest in the best technology. You can go out there and acquire.
Can you recall a time when your Strategic Issues Group (SIG) held you accountable to action items that really changed the way that you operate today?
Mike Hotchkiss (CEO, Hotchkiss Insurance) – In years past, during some times of dysfunction within the company when we’ve tried to be longstanding and patient with someone, our SIG members have asked for a commitment from us to make a change. We’ve been reluctant, but we know we have a timeline. Then we’ve realized the joys of taking a toxic person out of our culture. At least two times we’ve done that, and our SIGs played a big part in objectivity around the situation, and it’s been transformational.
Billy Potter (CEO, Snellings Walters Insurance Agency) – When we started our relationship with MarshBerry, after initial meetings for two days together, we had 36 action items to improve the firm. Which was a daunting task because they were all very big things. We took off and attacked all those, and that really started our rocket ship. We sit on a ton of associations to improve our business, and I was asked recently which one is the best. And I said MarshBerry. The reason I said MarshBerry has much to do with the SIG, because we have data to look at. When we looked at the data, we saw that our contingency was half of what it should be. Fast forward 12 months, we doubled it. That was an intentional process, and a blessing from our SIG.
Travis Pearson (Principal and CEO, CMR Risk & Insurance Services) – I would say it’s the process in general. Having a group that holds you accountable, it does change behavior. It’s tougher to go to a group of other people on the same level and say you haven’t done anything and claim that you’re busy with clients. Having that sounding board helps change behavior. I want to come back to my SIG and say that I took action on A, B, and C.
Henry Risman (President, Risman Insurance Agencies) – I would say we are better firm now because of our SIG and SIG leaders. We are motivated to go in there (to our SIG) with better numbers. Having employees come here and see what can be done by other agencies that are as good or better – having employees exposed to that, it helps them be better. It’s like an outside board of directors.
Josh Herz (President, Associated Insurance and Risk Management Advisors)–We approach the meetings looking for nuggets, one two or three key things we can take away. Then we implement one or two things from each meeting. Over ten years, it’s highly accretive. For example, our SIG challenged us to look for a Director of Business Development (COO). We initially didn’t do it, but we were pushed to hire someone who didn’t have a book tied to them to drive their sales. We hired a COO and he continues to help transform the business.
