When you started your insurance agency or brokerage, you probably envisioned working with the best and brightest middle market insureds and prospects on your hit list. However, economic realities and market relevance concerns are requiring carriers to reassess and identify the best-in-class agency partnerships that truly align with their immediate and long-term organic growth and underwriting objectives. How can your firm continue to specialize, reinvest, differentiate, and leverage inherent franchise value in today’s ever-changing insurance environment?
One step is to evaluate your current aggregation model (or consider subscribing to one). Is your participation enabling your firm to succeed in the 3 R’s – wRite, Retain, and Round Middle Market business? Because, if we’re being honest, can you really scale your firm by simply focusing on just Small Commercial and Personal Lines?
Things to consider when evaluating your aggregation partner
Let’s face it, offering market access or profit-sharing eligibility are table stakes for aggregators. However, what do most aggregators offer beyond this? Technology or cross-selling recommendations may have some value. But how many times are you going to rob from Peter to pay Paul as you shuffle your book to a carrier paying more today or keep a partner satisfied because you’re still not writing enough new business to meet their volume requirements?
As you (re)evaluate your aggregation partner, here are a few questions you should ask yourself:
- In 30 seconds, can you or your sales team clearly explain how your firm can be more impactful for your prospects and insureds compared to your local or national competitors?
- Understanding that selling trust is a careful balance of evidencing capabilities, the ability to execute, and deploying your intellectual capital, can you leverage existing critical assets required to Play Bigger and Win?
- How many agency partnerships openly share essential deliverables to write and retain high value, prized Middle Market customers for their members and carrier partners?
- Can you assert yourself as a specialist without clearly and quickly evidencing and delivering the benefits of scope and scale required by these same highly coveted Middle Market clients?
- Size (scale) provides little benefit to a client if you can’t leverage it on the insured’s behalf. And unless you can share deep, relevant knowledge (scope) to the insured, an insured quickly recognizes you’re a mile wide and an inch deep.
- Would you rather play checkers or chess? Wouldn’t it be great to let your competitors play checkers with limited business insights to share and minimal, rudimentary data intelligence as you strategically play chess?
- Properly presented data, analytics, and proven resources drive successful outcomes for the insured, your carrier partners and your team.
As you look to strategize your approach, think how you can learn to play bigger and win when you are empowered to organically outpace, outperform and outgrow your competition within a healthy and sustainable environment that promotes data-driven insights and proven strategies for success.
If you have questions about Today’s ViewPoint, or would like to learn more about how you can use proven talent acquisition strategies to drive growth acceleration for your firm through MarshBerry Platform aggregation programs, email or call Keith Captain, President, at 704.831.8708. For general inquiries, you can also get in touch with our team.
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Do you have what it takes to be a Platform Emerging Agent? A refreshingly unique twist on aggregation, MarshBerry’s Platform selects best-in-class and high potential Commercial Lines agents or brokers who aspire to be market leaders in their geography. Emerging Agent firms have producers who were bred to actively and aggressively focus on building Commercial middle market books of business but currently have less than $3M in annual revenue. Contact the Platform team at Platform@MarshBerry.com to learn more about driving meaningful differentiation for your firm.
