Table of Contents 

Marketing Agency of the Month

A happy workforce is a productive workforce

Building on and adding to Dad's business model leads to more success for Roeding Group Companies

By Dennis H. Pillsbury

When Edward Roeding founded Roeding Group Companies (then known as E.H. Roeding & Co.) in Covington, Kentucky in 1921, he had a very simple business model: “Go the extra mile for the client and support the community.” His son, Ted, joined the agency in 1961 and soon assumed a leadership position which preserved that standard. It was Ted’s leadership that initiated the agency’s tremendous growth in the ’70, ’80s and ’90s. His brothers, Steve, Roger, and Ken, joined in the 1970s. Steve took over the leadership position soon after Ted’s retirement in 2001. Ted continues to serve as chairman. Roger retired last August. Ken continues with the firm as an owner and one of its leading producers.

Today, Steve heads up the agency and has built on the success produced by his dad’s and Ted’s original model. The result has been an agency that has reached $8.7 million in revenue and now resides in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, utilizing 13,000 square feet of a 37,000 square foot building owned by the agency. “There’s room to grow here,” Steve says. “We occupy the third floor and part of the second and have a commercial sales office in Lexington that is also the center of our public entity division. We merged with Public Entity Insurance (PEI) in 1998. Sue Porter, who founded PEI, continues to serve as president of that division.”

The agency’s mix of business is 48% commercial lines, 13% personal lines, 11% benefits, and 28% public entity P-C business. There are 10 commercial lines producers (six in Crestview Hills and four in Lexington), five benefits producers, and one personal lines producer. PEI has three producers in its Lexington headquarters. The Crestview Hills office services the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky marketing area while the Lexington office covers most of the rest of Kentucky.

The agency has a total of 66 employees, with 49 in the Crestview Hills office. “And they’ve been one of the most important keys to our success,” Steve notes. “We have outstanding employees who have stayed with us for many years. The average tenure is probably around 10 years and we have some people who’ve been here longer than me. I joined the agency in 1976.

“We try our best to make it a fun place to work as well as a profitable place to work,” Steve continues. “We have seen that a happy workforce is a productive workforce. Good benefits, fun events, and time off all result in improved productivity. We schedule a lot of outings, including a ‘Girls’ Day Out’ when all the female employees leave at noon and go somewhere together. It’s a chance for them to get to know each other better in a relaxed atmosphere. We also provide an excellent benefits package and have maintained a 100% match for the 401(k) plan.”

Exceptional people get ownership

“Our management team includes our seven shareholders,” Steve says. “That number expanded when we instituted a program of rewarding exceptional people with ownership. It has really helped us attract outstanding people to our agency.” Ken Roeding and Bill Holocher are long-time owners. Rob Hoenscheid, who manages the producers in Lexington, is a new owner. All three started as commercial lines producers and continue to be the leading producers in the agency. “They all serve as mentors to new producers whom we bring in on a regular basis. We’ve hired four new producers in the last three years. They are put through a three-year validation plan working with their mentor.

“We’ve put the word out that we’re always looking for talented young people and haven’t had any trouble finding them,” Steve points out. “Our latest hire is a young person with no insurance background but with good sales experience—which is what we’re always looking for. We put her through the interview and testing process. Everything lined up, so we hired her.”

Other owners include Steve, Sue Porter, Bruce Baker, who heads up the Benefits Department, and Dan Scherff, who is responsible for sales management, operations, and technology.

Automation enhances service

“We fully use our Applied System,” Steve says. “We constantly evaluate what we do in technology to make certain that it results in better service to our clients and more efficient workflow for our employees.”

Dan adds, “We are completely paperless in personal lines and small commercial (under $20,000), and are close for large commercial. We hope to be completely paperless for all lines by the end of this year.

“All prospects and sales go into ‘activities’ so we can break down sales by producer, determine hit ratios, etc. We use e-mail to communicate with companies, all our marketing is done via e-mail, and all changes are done electronically. Needless to say, this has greatly reduced paperflow. Even incoming mail is scanned and delivered at the desktop.”

Dan continues, “We committed to the carriers that were committed to technology. When we converted to a paperless environment in personal lines, we reduced the number of personal lines carriers that we used from 12 active to four primary companies because those four were the most committed to working with us via technology. We use Transformation Station as an aid to communication with our companies.”

One of those four companies, Travelers, recently recognized Roeding as its Personal Lines Agency of the Year for the company’s Great Lakes Region. The award, which was presented in March 2007, is based on the agency’s growth, profitability, and application of technology. Roeding has produced profitable business for Travelers Personal Lines for the past 10 years and double-digit growth for the past four years.

“All of our service personnel use dual monitors,” Dan notes. “This has greatly enhanced service to our clients as well as improved efficiency. In personal lines, we went from six CSRs to five while business continued to grow.

“We’re always trying to stay ahead of the game in technology,” he concludes. “I am on the Ohio Casualty technology board and worked with that company on its service center, as well as their commercial download. I also have worked with Travelers on their upload and download. We meet regularly with our companies and vendors to make certain we remain on top of our game.”

Dan’s other hat

“A few years ago, I took over as sales manager,” Dan says. “We needed to focus on a sales culture. It meant going back to basics (with an automation twist)—generating prospects. We purchased Zywave and started doing regular mailings of brochures as a way to keep ourselves in front of clients and prospects. We also instituted targeted contact campaigns that fit with our insurance companies’ appetites. Another key change was getting our producers to ask for referrals. We now have a referral campaign in the summer with incentives for bringing in prospects or referrals. Now it’s become a habit to ask for referrals.

“We also encourage producers to join groups to which their key customers belong. We want them to be seen at customer trade association meetings. When customers know that we support their organizations, it helps our relationship with them and often leads to referrals.

“We also added a marketing manager who works with the producers on qualifying accounts and prospects. We have a centralized marketing department that handles all communication with the companies and knows what companies want. We take a tough look at accounts from a marketing standpoint, and producers have learned what will fly. They no longer bring in unqualified accounts that we know will be a waste of time for our marketing department and our companies. It just isn’t worth it.

“The result has been that our relationship with our companies has strengthened,” Dan maintains. “They know that our business is quality business.” Today, the agency has two marketing managers—Kay Bryant for mid- to large-sized accounts and Roberta Stamper for small commercial.

The agency also enhanced service to policyholders in 2001 through the addition of a full-time loss control consultant for commercial clients. Clients can receive detailed loss analysis, assistance in the development of a safety program, OSHA training and many other loss control services.

Public entity

“One of the areas we identified as a desirable target market was public entity business,” Steve says. “However, when we started marketing to governmental entities in particular, we kept bumping into another agency: Public Entity Insurance. We met with the owner, Sue Porter, and found that she was a person with a wealth of knowledge and expertise that we would have had difficulty duplicating. It’s been a great merger for both of us.”

Sue Porter adds, “Joining with Roeding has allowed me to access other carriers that are interested in insuring exposures unique to public entity business. With these carriers, we have been able to expand our business to include school districts, municipalities and other political subdivisions.”

Prior to starting the agency, Sue worked for the Kentucky Association of Counties (KACo) for 18 years. “I actually started with the association on a part-time basis when I was going to college, so I really did grow up working with county governments.” Working with KACo was a wonderful experience,” she remembers. “I was provided with many opportunities to grow and learn in a service-oriented environment.” One of the many services KACo offered to its member counties was a self-insurance fund. The self-insurance program turned out to be a great success, with 115 of Kentucky’s 120 counties going into that program.

“As times and insurance markets changed, I saw an opportunity to form my own insurance agency specializing in public entity business. As Steve mentioned, I also found myself competing with Roeding. It wasn’t long after I started the agency that Roeding approached me with the idea of merging. They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. It’s been a great partnership. Working with professionals that I respect and trust has been a win-win situation for all of us.

“In our PEI division we have a team approach for serving our clients. We have a talented staff dedicated to providing exemplary service. In recent years, we have also been rewarded with the opportunity to form an alliance with KACo again and represent their insurance programs in a large portion of Kentucky. Additionally, we are extremely fortunate to have relationships that allow us to represent other Association insurance programs specific to Kentucky municipalities and Kentucky school districts.

“With our background working with these Association programs, we understand that nothing is more important than serving the clients that put their trust in us. This forms the foundation of our success.”

The numbers speak

RGC’s changes have transformed the agency into a sales powerhouse as evidenced by the dramatic improvement in the hit ratio. Prior to 2005, the agency’s hit ratio averaged between 23% and 27%. In 2005, the hit ratio was 62%; it was 48% in 2006, and was 71% in January of this year.

We are proud to recognize Roeding Group Companies as the Rough Notes Marketing Agency of the Month. *

CONTACT US | HOME