Going it Alone…or, Better, Together.

Many agents and brokers aren’t interested in being involved in industry affairs and organizations. They won’t commit time and effort on common issues, matter of fact they won’t even attend meetings. They leave those issues to a relatively small group of dedicat ed and committed agents that serve year after year. I realize that their time is valuable and the business is highly competitive and demanding. It is for every independent agent and broker. Unfortunately I believe that their decision to not be involved will in the long run hurt them as well as the independent agency system. Agents and brokers need to stop for a few minutes and reflect on their problems and needs. Once you do its easy to see all the reasons it makes sense to join together and work on common issues. Independent agents and brokers are real entrepreneurs. Their innovative in developing workflows and procedures that allow them to effectively handle their client’s needs on commission levels that have been stagnant at best. The level of competition is increasing every day and presents a constant threat to their retention and growth. Company demands for increasing volume are not going away and have forced mergers and acquisitions as well as the proliferation of agency clusters. The aging population of experienced insurance professionals has put great demands on agencies to search out, hire and train new young talent. Unfortunately new young talent is not attracted to the insur ance industry, especially at the agency level. Even with serious unemployment and underemployment for college graduates and staggering college loan debt finding young talent is a major problem. Even when agencies are successful in attracting and hiring young people there are more hurdles to overcome. Educating, mentoring and managing these new employees takes time, resources and money. These new young employees are quick to point out how antiquated many of our sales and service systems and procedures have become. They want to use technology, the internet and social media to bring agency operations into today’s fast paced world. Some young people have even made the decision to control their own destiny by starting an agency from scratch. A Herculean task with a very limited success rate. Getting direct company representation is nearly impossible and in some areas even market access in any form can’t be found. The sad thing is many of these young agents are the key to diversifying the agency force. Agent diversification is a goal of our association as well as many insurance carriers. The independent agency system is significantly behind the rest of the industry in reaching this goal. Every agency is experiencing the current business transition in our industry. Customer service demands are increasing and the time they will allot to provide that service is getting shorter. Competition is significant and coming from an increasing number of sources. Companies demands are increasing. Technology is expensive and changing at light speed. Running the day to day operations of an agency has become increasingly more demanding and takes more resources. Markets, regulators and legislators continue to place more demands on an already overwhelmed and overworked independent agency system. With all that going on its easy to say you don’t have the time or desire to get involved. Don’t people realize you’re out there alone fighting the system and doing everything you can to be successful? Well there are a significant number of agencies just like yours fighting the same issues and problems. Why go it alone? Why not band together? The American Indian tribes that made up the Iroquois Confederacy learned that over 200 years ago. Separately they were easily defeated but joined together they were strong and a force to be reckoned with. Instead of going it alone now is the time to get involved! The creative power of the group is superior to that of any individual. Approaching issues and problems as one sends a clear and serious message to those people who have the power to make the changes that need to occur. As a group we have a much better chance of attracting, educating and managing new young talent in our industry. We also get the economies of scale on the cost of creating things we need. Our competition all work together in various groups and we need to do the same. The nice thing about being an independent agent or broker is that even after we have worked on a problem or issue together we have the luxury of deciding how we want to incorporate that  change into our operation. Stop going it alone. Join together as a group and leverage the talents and skills of that group. Create programs that address common issues using the economy of scale to keep costs down. Serve on committees and give back to the future of the industry that has served you. Work together to attract new talent and share the experience and expertise you have developed over the years. Individually your chances of success are limited but working together there is no limit to what we might achieve.