Marketing Agency of the Month

Doing old things the new way

Relationships, service and underwriting are constants, but implementation is new

By Dennis H. Pillsbury

The Stolly Insurance Group, Lima, Ohio, has seen a lot of changes in the 100-plus years it has been in business. But far more important are the things that haven’t changed and that have been the bedrock of success at this family-owned and operated agency.

“Service is literally the same as it was when the agency was founded in 1904,” says Mark Stolly, agency manager and president and a member of the fourth generation at the agency. “And a lot of the underwriting is still the same and the business still depends on developing good relationships with your customers and your companies. Our challenge is to use current tools, like technology, to do an even better job in each of these areas.”

The agency was started by Mark’s great grandfather, A.A. Stolly, in a small town south of Lima. It was located above a butcher shop. Two years later, his primary company asked him to move the agency to Lima, the county seat and the largest town in the area. It’s been there ever since.

Mark joined the agency in 1976 and worked alongside his grandfather, father, uncle and three inside people. “We were about 85% personal lines, with most of it being agency billed business,” he recalls.

Today, the agency—now in its fifth generation—has 50 people working in four locations. Half of the $4.5 million in revenue comes from commercial lines, with another 25% from personal lines and 25% from life/health and employee benefits.

As the fourth generation of Stollys entered the agency, the focus moved to commercial lines and an expansion of the market base. Mark was followed by more Stollys—Tim, Bill and Kevin—at about four-year intervals, setting the stage for an expansion of the agency that continues today.

Building on a solid foundation

“My dad, Dick Stolly, and uncle, Tom Stolly, laid the solid foundation of values that we try to work by, and we were able to build on it,” Mark notes, adding that “none of us were forced in here. Those shared values motivated us to come together as a team. That system of values really exists well throughout our staff. We all knew the agency business offered us a chance to make a good living, but we each took our own route getting here.”

For Mark and Tim, it was a direct route into the agency, where they both focused on commercial lines production. Tim started in the agency in 1979. “In 1987, we decided to expand our focus to include an emphasis on life/health and employee benefits,” Tim recalls. “Because I was the leading life salesman at that time, I became the manager of the life/health department. We brought in an individual from the Blues—Randee Henson— who later became a co-owner, to jump-start the effort.

“Our first-year revenues, however, were less than impressive at $4,000. It was in the mid-’90s when we really started moving. Today, the division adds about $1 million in revenue from six producers and five service people.” Tim points out that he is primarily a P-C producer in which medical professional liability is his largest niche, but he also enjoys managing the life and employee benefits division.

“It’s really paid off,” he continues. “As the market continues to be quite soft in property/casualty, it’s been our life and health division that has added increased revenues.”

Medical professional has been an important niche for the agency for more than 100 years. In fact, “Our great grandpa wrote the first medical malpractice policy for the agency in 1906,” Bill says. “It provided a $5,000 limit for $10 in premium. We do promote that long history in the field with physicians,” he adds.

Bill is in charge of marketing in addition to being a producer. He came to the agency after a stint at Continental Insurance and then working as a broker in New York City. “When I was in college, I decided that insurance was what I wanted to do, so I transferred to the College of Insurance between my freshman and sophomore years. Continental was a co-op sponsoring company and I worked there throughout college up until graduation. After graduation, I worked with Walter Kaye and Associates in New York City as a commercial broker.”

That experience has proven to be invaluable in his role at the agency where he develops programs to help producers build their books. He also assists producers with submissions. As Mark points out: “A proposal from Bill is always first class. The only problem he has sometimes is remembering where to put the decimal point,” he adds with tongue in cheek. “Our target account size is around $30,000. Bill was used to handling much larger accounts at Walter Kaye.”

Kevin also chose the College of Insurance route. From there he went to Continental/CNA as a commercial lines underwriter. “After that, I returned to Ohio and worked for Motorists in Columbus,” he says. “Then I joined the agency as commercial lines manager and a producer. I oversee the in-house service for the commercial lines group.”

“Kevin is the real go-getter in the agency,” Mark points out. “He brings a high energy level and is the driver that keeps us moving forward. He’s responsible for working with the young agents and keeping them motivated, as well as being one of our leading commercial lines producers.”

Apparently, Kevin is also the executive in charge of acronyms. He established the FAST 250 program for young producers, or First Accountable Sales Training, which involves formal training at one of the companies the agency represents. “After the formal company training, we have them working on obtaining X-dates from 250 prospects to get them used to talking to potential accounts and getting the pertinent information,” he explains.

Education is a key component

In addition to establishing FAST 250, Kevin also was responsible for the agency’s SUCCEED program, or Success Using a Consistent Commitment to Education to Enhance Dissemination. Last year, Kevin handed responsibility for that program to one of the six owners of the agency, Jon Wade, who is a producer and runs the Wapakoneta, Ohio, office. Randee Henson, a life/health producer, also is an owner, along with others.

Bill points out that “Dad was always pushing for education. The SUCCEED committee was set up to formalize this commitment. We commonly have eight to ten people working toward a designation, and we support them financially and by recognizing the accomplishment.”

Kevin adds: “In 2004, we started a scholarship for secondary education. We’ve given out $7,500 so far.”

“Our expertise is an important part of what we offer to clients,” Mark notes. “Education is a key component in making certain that we continue to maintain our competitive advantage. All four of us are CPCUs and two are CICs. Tim and Kevin have additional designations.”

Technology helps empower people

“Our goal is to maintain proactive contact with all of our clients,” Mark says. “Service is what holds it all together and to accomplish that, we have to empower all our people to make contact with customers. Where we have been most successful is getting new clients from agencies that don’t provide proactive service.

“We have bonus programs for all departments that include goals for customer contacts by CSAs. Technology has played a key role in letting us implement the customer contact program and monitor its success,” he explains. “We rely heavily on our AMS agency management system. It’s a good tool for monitoring employee success. It helps us set standards by allowing us to see what is achievable and what is not. Our goals, in part, are based on what our best performers have shown us can be done. We don’t want to set goals so high that people are discouraged. This lets us show people that the goals can be reached.”

Mark continues: “We’ve also built up a tremendous marketing database. We have more prospects in our system than clients. This has been an invaluable tool in determining the goals for our young producers.”

Working together

“The future success of our agency depends on our ability to bring in new blood and help young producers succeed,” Mark says. “While our technology allows us to identify prospects and monitor progress, the real key is giving of our time to teach and encourage. All our seasoned producers work with a young producer. They go out with them on client and prospect visits. They work with them to make certain they are inputting information properly, and they show them how to present an account to one of our companies.

“And sending the right account to the right company is just as important as any other task we undertake at the agency,” Mark points out. “We need to make certain that we show the underwriters that they are important to us and that we appreciate the job they do for us. One of the best ways to do that is to provide them with a submission that makes their job easier.

“We’re fortunate to have a lot of strong regional carriers in Ohio. We know most of their people and are able to establish a good relationship with them. They are very accessible so if we ever have an issue with the company, we know whom to call,” he says. “This has really helped in our drive to implement Real-Time in our agency. We’ve gone from three Real-Time carriers to seven. This year, we’re averaging 1,200-1,300 Real-Time transactions and more than 120 comparative quotes per month. We want to double these numbers in 2009. I’m on The AMS Users’ Group board and have been working to get more companies to use download.”

Mark concludes: “In the end, it all comes down to service and relationships. Our drive to improve technologically came out of a desire to enhance our service and to free up our time to be more proactive with clients. A lot has changed but, in reality, nothing has changed. The values and goals that we had in 1904 are the same today. We just have new tools to help us succeed.”

Rough Notes is pleased to recognize The Stolly Insurance Group as our Marketing Agency of the Month for its commitment to excellence and its focus on those values and goals that have made the independent agency system the premier marketing system in the insurance industry.