MARKETING AGENCY OF THE MONTH
Oklahoma City agency started off with one niche and built from there
By Dennis Pillsbury
Some of the Professional Insurors' staff who are the "reason for the agency's success": (from the left) Sandy Winegeart, CISR; Sandy Steel; Vickie Brill; (standing) Kelly Miller, CIC; Janna Drennan, comptroller; Lisa Ridenour; and Pam Thurman.
When Cliff Miller founded Professional Insurors Consultants Agency, Inc., Oklahoma City, in 1976, niche marketing didn't have the cachet it currently enjoys. But it looked like a good way to do business to him. He wrote only apartment buildings for the first couple of years, even turning away business that fell outside that niche.
"You need to really get to know your clients and their business--and who your competition is," Cliff maintains. "You get involved in their trade association, advertise in their trade journals, and go to their conventions. You become known as the agency that handles that business."
Cliff used that formula to branch into other niches with new producers. Today, Professional Insurors writes more than 100,000 apartment units; 350 to 400 hotels and motels; 50 churches from a new program started in late 2000; and is the largest writer of mobile home dealers and landscape nurseries in Oklahoma. The agency's real estate clients are scattered throughout the nation. Commercial lines (the only business they write) premium volume exceeds $25 million, with revenues at $2.9 million last year ($300,000 over budget). There are 22 employees, including eight producers. Cliff continues as CEO of the agency and his son, Kelly, who joined the agency in 1987 after graduating from Oklahoma State University, is president.
Extra effort
"We're extremely proud of our team," says Kelly. "People make this work. We've got good people who put in the extra effort," he continues, explaining that this has been an integral part of the reason for the agency's success.
"We've got one person, Pam Thurman, who has been with us for 19 years and always steps up," he adds. "She's worked late at night when necessary. She's an example of the type of great people who support the agency. We truly have some amazing people."
He continues that they look for growth of 10% to 20% every year. "We have such a wide variance in order to reflect market conditions," Kelly explains, adding proudly, "Last year we grew 24%."
Providing incentives
To assure that kind of growth every year, Kelly continues, "We need to have everyone on the same page. We have a number of incentive programs that are designed to help our people focus on growth."
Professional Insurors' team of producers: (from the left) Terry Foran, CPIA; Jeff Benson, CPIA; Christopher Moxley, CIC; Larry Jones, CIC; and Christopher D. Hayes. (Not pictured) Tommy Keith, CISR, and Henry Hand.
For the support team, the agency has a kind of Fantasy Football every quarter where each team drafts a producer. For every dollar in new commission, the team gets a point. The winning team is the one with the most points at the end of the quarter. They get a half-day off, lunch on the agency and a $75 gift certificate to the local mall.
They also have an annual incentive program for the support team in which 3% of the agency's revenue growth is placed into a pool. All employees who have no unexcused time off and have been there for more than a year are eligible. "They really like that," Kelly points out. "They watch the revenue growth and really get excited about it. Last year, we paid out over $12,000 in bonuses in that contest."
The support team also is rewarded if the agency meets its revenue goals. This year, seven of them went on a trip to Cancun as a reward for the agency's exceeding last year's goal of $2.6 million. The winners decide where they want to go. The trip leaves on Thursday and returns Sunday night so they're back at work on Monday.
Producers also have several incentive programs. At the top is the agency's President's Club, which is achieved by producers with more than $300,000 in commission income. President's Club members receive a custom-designed insignia ring in the first year. A diamond (up to four) is added to the ring for each additional year that the producer qualifies. All members of the President's Club also qualify for the year-end sales trip. Other producers qualify by meeting their sales goal for the year.
Cliff Miller, CPIA, founder and CEO.
Producers also can win gift certificates to a clothing store by increasing commission income each quarter--they get a $150 for a 15% increase, $200 for 20% and $250 for 25%.
At the beginning of the year, producers also receive a $5,000 check that has only one problem with it--it's unsigned. If they are $25,000 over their sales goal at the end of the year, they bring it in and get it signed. Meanwhile, it gets taped to the refrigerator at home and spousal pressure begins. "A number of our producers hit their sales goal early," Cliff points out. "This incentivizes them to keep going. It helps them to work right through December."
The winners are recognized at a January awards dinner, which is held instead of a Christmas party. The dinner also is used to show appreciation to anyone receiving an industry designation. "Everyone gets credit in front of everyone else," Kelly says. "They really look forward to the party. It gives them and their spouses a chance to dress up and have a good time."
Part-time consultants
Once a year, Cliff and Kelly take off for an annual planning meeting. "We get away from the agency and look at ways to improve it," Cliff says. "We try and step out of our role as principals and act like consultants to our agency."
"We went to Phoenix for four days for our most recent planning meeting," Kelly says. "We sit down for four or five hours each day and look at the agency as if it was someone else's. Then we try and decide what we would do to make it better. It's an interesting exercise, but also very important. It helps to keep us from becoming complacent." Or as Cliff phrases it: "You have to be scared every day or you start believing your own BS." The planning meeting helps keep the principals "scared," but uses that fear to create growth and change.
"Another thing that has been immensely helpful to us is our membership in the Greenwich Group," Kelly adds. "The members all share ideas with each other. At the meetings, we're each supposed to provide one great idea. One of them has saved us money and helped us become better known in our niche areas," he continues, explaining: "We get a lot of calls asking us to sponsor holes at golf tournaments put on by the associations of the various niche markets with which we do business. We don't want to turn them down. Instead, thanks to one of the 'great ideas,' we tell the caller that we're willing to put up a $5,000 savings bond for a hole in one instead of sponsoring a hole. We have a real estate type sign that has room for our brochures that is prominently placed at the event. It's been great advertising for us."
Dual monitors allow Chris Hayes and Pam Thurman to look at scanned information while continuing to update a client's file on the other monitor.
The aforementioned brochure was designed by Professional Insurors' advertising agency. It is a general brochure about the agency with room for an insert that can be customized to reflect the particular niche market for which it is intended. The insert is printed on the agency's color printer using a template provided by the ad agency.
Mini-businesses
One piece of helpful advice that also came from one of the members of the Greenwich Group was to set up individual teams almost as mini-businesses to handle the niche. The producer serves as the team leader and has account managers and other support staff on his or her team.
"Before we set it up this way, we kept getting into situations with the support staff trying to determine which producer's job to do first," Kelly remembers. "Naturally, each producer thought their job was the most important. Now, it's up to the team leader to set priorities. We tell them, 'It's your team, organize it.' All of a sudden, they're responsible. Each team meets every other week."
The agency has a large training room that is used for these meetings. "We schedule the meetings for them," Cliff says. "They run about 45 minutes and we'll sit in once in a while to see how it's being handled. We try not to interfere, but if we see that a team is running into trouble, we'll step in and help out. And our door is always open if they want to come to us for help."
Open books
The agency shares all financial information with its people. "We want them to know that we're making a profit," Cliff says. "They talk about it all through the agency. They like to see that their hard work is producing results."
The open-book policy also has helped to head off potential problems. "We have a year-end planning meeting in December with the producers and follow that with a meeting with the support staff where we go over the same stuff," Kelly says. "This year, we found out they had concerns because of the economy and the insurance market conditions. Some agencies had run into trouble and they were worried about their jobs. We were able to assure them that their jobs were safe and show them that our numbers were great. We also took this opportunity to remind them that our books were open and they could look at the financials anytime they wanted to."
Kelly continues: "Our employees, our clients, and our companies also know that we plan to be in business for a long time. We have a perpetuation plan in place. Cliff has set up a trust and will be turning over the reins to me in six or seven years. He's already turned over parts of the agency's operations to me and lets me run those areas my way. Although, he's perfectly willing to tell me if he thinks I messed up."
Cliff, who is 58 (Kelly is 37), adds: "I won't be retiring in six or seven years. I'll just return to being a full-time producer."
Automation: enhancing workflow
While people are the principal drivers to success, it also takes a few workflow-enhancing doodads to help make certain the ideas are translated into action as effectively and efficiently as possible. And these days, most of the doodads are computerized.
Among the many tasks on which Cliff and Kelly must focus their esemplastic abilities is automation. They have to make certain that in this self-induced world of mini-businesses, they have a system that will enhance not only the success of each of those entrepreneurships, but of the agency as a whole.
The agency is close to paperless. "We began T-filing in 1995, and started scanning all documents two years ago," Kelly says. "We've set up dual monitors on every desk so each person can work on the file on one monitor, while still bringing up faxes or e-mail on the other." He adds that "85% of our correspondence with our companies now is via e-mail."
Professional Insurors uses MAPS (Marketing Auto Pilot System) to drip feed letters, faxes and e-mails to clients.
No secret sauce
Professional Insurors doesn't rely on secret ingredients or an exotic blend of 57 spices and herbs. Instead, it lets it all hang out. Many owners know what it takes to be a top-performing agency. They just struggle in doing it. "The difference that makes our agency able to grow more than others is our people," Kelly reiterates.
Cliff adds: "We don't accept average and our people don't either. We want the 'average' to work for our competition."
"We always look for people who want to walk the extra mile," Kelly says, pointing out that agency plans include adding a new producer about every two years. "We work with new producers on identifying an appropriate niche market and then mentor them until they reach about $100,000 in commission income."
He concludes that the agency's short-range goal is to reach $5 million in revenue in three years. "That's part of the five-year plan we instituted two years ago," Kelly notes. "We're well on the way. We've been recognized as one of the fastest growing businesses in Oklahoma City and we plan to stay on the list for a long time."
We at Rough Notes think it's safe to say that Professional Insurors undoubtedly will continue to grow and prosper. It has all the necessary ingredients and for that we recognize them as our Marketing Agency of
the Month. *