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Marketing Agency of the Month The year of great behaviors Planning helps this Michigan agency move to the next level By Dennis H. Pillsbury It's about 300 miles wide at its widest point and 150 miles high at its highest and is really cold in the winter. That’s the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or, for Hetrick & Associates Insurance Agency, headquartered in Marquette, that’s their marketing territory. It’s a marketing territory with incomparable beauty and very few people. In the more than 16,000 square miles of the U.P., there are just over 300,000 people for an average of only 19 people per square mile. You have to cover a lot of ground literally to achieve success. Not to mention the fact that you have to contend with an annual average of 185 inches of snow; business travel starting with a “puddle jumper” flight to Chicago, Detroit or Minneapolis; and the nearest company partner being 300 miles away. As Sales Manager Scott White, CIC, puts it: “Geography creates some challenges but some opportunities as well. We are the agency of choice here in the U.P. and have been working very hard to maintain that position. We aren’t resting on the fact that we’ve been here since 1895. We’re actively pursuing opportunities and working to find the best way to utilize the diverse talents of our 25 employees. We have a great team of quality people that has allowed us to distinguish ourselves from the competition and recognize opportunities where others might see only problems.” Scott, along with Bill Hetrick, CIC, Christine VanAbel, CIC, and Betsy Robar, took over ownership of the agency in 1997. “We’ve tripled in size since then, reaching a little more than $3.1 million in revenue at the end of last year.” Scott goes on to point out that one of the major changes was “to really get all the people involved in the agency’s success. Much of this has to do with our joining the Sitkins 100 and embracing Roger’s concepts. We have evolved to become a more dynamic sales organization where everyone in the agency is part of the team. We’ve been having monthly state-of-the-agency meetings for six years now where we share our progress and do our planning as a team. We also have an annual planning meeting offsite and identify our goals. We close the agency and bring everyone together for that event. We’ve identified this year as the ‘Year of Great Behaviors’ where all our employees will strive to be even better stewards for our community, our customers, and our fellow employees.” Positioning for success The agency, not surprisingly considering its geography, writes all lines of business. “We’re about 38% commercial, 36% personal, and the balance is in benefits. Clearly, the accounts that we have represent an important opportunity for growth,” Scott notes. “But, although we did do some cross-selling, it was not something that was identified as a goal for the agency. Well, it is now. And, it came about as a result of those meetings where we focused on understanding our market opportunities. “We created divisions within the agency, including a small commercial division and a small group division,” Scott explains. These divisions take over small accounts from producers so “they can constantly increase the average size of their accounts. This has resulted in better service to our larger accounts while not sacrificing service to smaller accounts.” Each division is fully staffed with sales and service personnel, and all employees are rewarded for cross-referring accounts. “Five years ago we divided the agency personnel into three vertical growth teams to work on identifying new opportunities. Employees go to industry events and often come back with great ideas, as does the management team. Now we have teams that are responsible for evaluating and implementing these ideas. We sit down and discuss any ideas with all the team leaders and decide which team will take on a new project. This has really helped to reinforce the concept that this agency belongs to all the employees. Everyone gets involved in implementation of a project and design of any special programs needed, including tailoring the program to fit our market.” Opportunities “We’re fortunate to have a strong group of great company partners. One of them is ProAssurance,” Scott points out. “During one of our brainstorming sessions, we identified this relationship as providing us with a unique opportunity to put together a program for a segment of the marketplace that has been having real difficulties in finding coverage—medical professionals. We worked with ProAssurance to put together a medical malpractice program that we could bring to the medical professionals in our marketing area. We have four or five meetings a year with our physicians, work with them on risk management and risk mitigation efforts, and then present them with a reasonable renewal when the time comes.” Scott adds that workers compensation is one of the best areas to provide value-added services that can make a real difference. Hetrick & Associates always has worked with its clients to reduce workplace injuries and mitigate losses that do occur, and reviewed experience mod worksheets to make certain they are correct. The result of these efforts was the creation of a unique program, ProComp Systems℠, which provides “the necessary tools to drive down what is, for most employers, their third largest expense. ProComp Systems assists employers in taking control of those costs,” Scott notes. The program focuses on five areas that can lead to overpayment of work comp premiums: 1. Experience modification management Pam Stewart, account executive, helped develop this exclusive program for the agency. “Pam serves our clients as a risk reduction advisor,” Scott explains. “She is a Certified Work Comp Advisor with extensive training in the intricacies of the work comp system,” he adds. Measuring success “Planning is only part of the process,” Scott says. “We plan with our clients, producers, company partners, and all our employees. The next step, however, is implementation and results. “What gets measured gets done,” Scott continues, “and that’s been a key to our success. Everybody in the agency has a defined role that we all agree on in our planning sessions. One of the goals is to keep producers in the field by having other people taking care of the work that needs to be done in-house. The pipelines are a constant challenge. We need to keep them full. We have a quarterly pipeline retreat and talk about development. We go over our key indicators and look at what has worked and what hasn’t. “One of the things that came out of those meetings was a commitment to an approach to clients where our producers always leave with deliverables,” he notes. “We want to position ourselves as the agency of choice and to do that, we need to emphasize our commitment to the value-added services. We know that we have to be competitive and have a great product, but it’s what we do below the waterline that really separates us from the competition. We focus on developing relationships to avoid the price game. The result is a consistently high retention rate in the 90s.” Scott adds, “We also recognized the need to reinforce our value-added focus with targeted marketing campaigns. A few years ago, we created a business development center with Jessica Hokenson serving as business development coordinator. She is responsible for developing quarterly marketing campaigns to targeted accounts. These are designed to meet the goals of our producers and our company partners. She also serves as the assistant sales manager.” The continual measurement of success naturally uses the technological resources available at Hetrick & Associates. After trying other systems and entering sales information into spreadsheets, the agency created its own Web-based program, MySalesResults.com. Producers enter their information into one centralized reporting system. Variances from goals are calculated automatically. Sales reports are continuously updated for review by sales managers. The system includes information on new plans, accountability, X-dates, sales, and internal and external referrals by producer. MySalesResults.com proved so efficient that Hetrick & Associates plans to market it to other agencies, and it is currently being beta-tested by two agencies. Giving back The agency actively participates in giving back to its communities and its industry. “We’ve always been active in supporting community activities,” Scott says. “We’re very fortunate to have Bill Hetrick who leads by example. He was the Marquette Chamber’s Person of the Year a few years back and deservedly so. He always goes the extra mile to help the community and to help every person in the agency. He truly wants everyone to succeed. “A couple of years ago we identified two major projects that we wanted to help—The Beacon House and Bay Cliff Health Camp. The Beacon House is a place where families of seriously ill people can stay while their loved one is in a nearby hospital. It’s similar to the Ronald McDonald House. We contributed $25,000 to that. We also contributed $25,000 to help winterize the Bay Cliff Health Camp, which is a summer camp for disabled children that we hope will eventually become a year round camp.” Scott continues, “This industry has allowed us to help our communities, our clients, and each other, so we certainly believe that it deserves our support and time. We are active participants in the Big ‘I’ of Michigan and of the U.P. We are also members of the Associated Risk Managers of Michigan and of the Sitkins 100.” It’s the people Scott concludes, “We wouldn’t be anywhere without the tremendous work of the people in the agency. Our revenue per employee has grown from $60,000 to $130,000 thanks to their efforts. And that’s without a big increase in the number of employees. Most of our business comes from referrals. That’s thanks to our people living up to this year’s goal of maintaining great behaviors. They have gone beyond themselves to help us become the agency of choice for our current clients and new prospects. “Of course, their commitment to professionalism also is evidenced by the fact that we have six CICs, 11 CISRs and a number of people working on their CRM and CPCU. Most of the time, they have to go into lower Michigan or Wisconsin to take classes and complete the tests for the designation. That’s a real commitment.” The employees share a warm camaraderie as part of the agency’s “Pro Fun Mon” effort. That’s achieving professionalism, having fun, and making money doing so. “We’re professional, but not stodgy,” Scott says. “We have a lot of fun together and host a number of events where our people can get together and relax, including a Super Bowl tailgate party, a Valentine’s Day breakfast, a family summer picnic, BBQs when the mood strikes us, a chili cook-off, and an agency Christmas party.” We at Rough Notes are proud to recognize Hetrick & Associates Insurance Agency as the Marketing Agency of the Month. * |
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