Marketing Agency of the Month

Easier to market than to sell

It all starts with the employees at this New Hampshire agency

By Dennis H. Pillsbury

“Our most valuable resource is our employees,” says Tom Minkler, CIC, president of the Clark-Mortenson Agency (CMA), Keene, New Hampshire. “We have built an extremely good reputation that is based on the actions and abilities of our people. More than 90% of the staff is involved in the community, and 100% of the staff of 52 people understands that they are all responsible for helping our clients. We have empowered the staff to do that and brag about it on our Web site, where clients are directed to the services we provide ‘For You’ or ‘For Your Business.’

“We call it the CMA experience,” Tom continues, “and it basically means that every client or prospect will have the same type of experience no matter who he or she deals with at the agency. We have built our reputation as a trusted advisor to our clients and we guard it jealously. Our goal for each of our clients is to help them be ready for anything.”

This focus on client service can be traced back to 1877 when the GH Aldridge & Son Agency was formed. It was later purchased and the name changed to Clark Insurance. One of its principal and friendly competitors was the Mortenson Agency. About 10 years ago, David Westover, who headed up the Clark Agency, and Howard Mortenson, who led the Mortenson Agency, sat down to discuss a merger.

“Both men realized they needed a bigger presence in the marketplace if they were going to succeed in the future,” Tom says. “The combined resources of the agencies were needed to fuel growth and achieve necessary efficiencies.” At first, Tom reports, things were a little shaky as the inevitable fallouts occurred.

“Combining two cultures is never easy and some people just were not comfortable with the new, larger agency,” Tom points out. “However, we also recognized that this was an opportunity to redefine our culture in a way that would make us even more effective in our marketing area.” Tom, who was a partner in an agency in Massachusetts prior to the merger of Clark and Mortenson, moved to New Hampshire after his marriage. He soon tired of the two-hour commute to Massachusetts. Opportunely, he was asked to join Clark-Mortenson, which was looking for new talent to help with the cultural change.

“Once things settled down, we started to really focus on bringing additional services to our clients and to focus on those clients that would appreciate those services,” Tom notes. “It started when we began working with Compliance Check about seven years ago. That was the catalyst for change. We started a seminar series for clients and prospects as a result of something we learned from Compliance Check. We now conduct seminars every four to six weeks on compliance issues.”

The seminars are offered free of charge as a resource to the local business community. They cover a range of topics from labor laws to state and federal mandates. Recent topics included “Be Ready for the Updated FMLA Regulations” and “Be Ready to have an Effective Employee Manual.” The seminars are designed for company owners, managers and HR directors.

“These seminars aren’t infomercials; there’s a lot of meat on the bones,” Tom notes. “We emphasize that everyone has to deal with regulations, but they shouldn’t have to deal with fines and penalties.

“We tell our clients and prospects that, ‘if it has an acronym, we can help you with that’—whether it’s OSHA or ADA or any of the other confusing array of federal and state acronyms that usually mean more work for businesses,” he says. “And these seminars have had an unexpected result as well. The business community sees this as a community service that has enhanced our reputation throughout our marketing territory.”

Ken McGee, director of business solutions at Clark-Mortenson states, “This consultative approach has been enthusiastically embraced by clients. The seminars often serve as a starting point for one-on-one consultations where we expand on the seminar topic and really get into the areas that keep our clients awake at night. A lot of times, the solution does not involve insurance, but we’re there to help. It really has cemented our relationship with our clients. We are seen as a business partner just like their attorney or accountant.”

Ken continues: “This has allowed us to compete for business with any agency or even national brokers. We recently took a half-million-dollar account away from a national broker. We were recommended by one of our other clients, and they liked our consultative approach.

“They were impressed by our resources, and that really says something. They saw us as offering the same quality of service as a national broker along with the extra advantage of being local. They also appreciated the fact that the person they talked with when we were competing for the business was the person they would be dealing with after the account was written.”

“Of course, this hasn’t come cheaply,” Jim Neal, the agency’s CFO, adds. “We’ve invested in our people so we have the best resources available. We have two individuals on staff with degrees in safety and occupational health. But the investment has paid off. Our retention rate exceeds the national standards by several points, and nearly all our business comes from referrals.”

The same approach for personal lines

Because Clark-Mortenson is located in a rural state, the agency has to be a generalist, writing both commercial and personal lines, as well as benefits and financial services. The agency’s main office is in Keene, a city with a population of about 22,000. Seven branch offices are located throughout New Hampshire and Vermont.

Personal lines provides 42% of the agency’s revenue of $4.5 million; commercial lines accounts for 45% and the balance is group benefits and financial services. “Obviously, personal lines is not an accommodation business for us,” Tom remarks. “But what we have done is focus on that segment of the market that needs risk management services. Our Select Client Group works with clients who may need to consider kidnap and ransom coverage or separate coverage for art or jewelry and so on.”

Niches help growth

“Although we are a generalist,” Tom says, “we do have some niches that have helped us grow. We have a strong concentration in hospitality, construction and social services. And most recently, we started getting involved with business associations where we become a sponsored agency for the members.

“One example is an association of small retailers. We put together a workers compensation self-insurance plan for the group,” Tom explains. “It’s been very successful. We just had a 30.4% dividend thanks to excellent loss experience.”

Giving back

The agency supports and encourages staff to volunteer with civic and/or charitable organizations. Each employee is given a paid day off for volunteerism. The result is that members of the staff actively participate and/or sit on the boards of 42 different civic and volunteer organizations. Through this effort, the agency has supported Relay for Life, Girl Scouts, Habitat for Humanity, Community Kitchens, Flood Relief Victims, Enrich, Dollars for Scholars and many other organizations. Members of the staff also serve as instructors for driver’s education programs at the local high schools.

Last year, the agency partnered with the NH-West Chapter of the American Red Cross. Employees participated in blood drives, online CPR training, distributing emergency preparedness materials during the United Way Days of Caring program, and much more. Clark-Mortenson donated more than 75 hours of community service to the NH-West Chapter. And that’s only one of the many community efforts in which the agency is involved.

The agency staff also is involved in giving back to the insurance industry. Both Tom and CEO Heather Minkler, his partner at the agency and at home, are involved in local, state and national insurance agency associations. Several of the employees are past presidents of the New Hampshire Big “I” Association.

Tom is currently going through the chairs at the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America. As an officer of the association, he serves on the executive committee and also chaired the Government Affairs Committee of the Big “I”. Heather served on the Trusted Choice committee and is currently a member of the InVEST Committee. “The involvement is very time-consuming,” Tom admits, “especially during the last two years when I’ve been an officer of the IIABA. But the contacts and strategies we’ve learned from this extended industry family have helped us position our agency. Our investment in time has come back tenfold. It has been an integral part of our success.”

Protecting its most valuable resource

To come full circle, “it is the employees who make all this possible,” Heather points out. The agency believes in mutual respect and gratitude that is outwardly displayed by hand-written thank-you notes from colleagues recognizing each other’s efforts, ceremonies to honor employee milestones and accreditations, and the occasional ice cream social or pizza party. “Tom still hand-writes a thank-you on employee paychecks,” Heather points out.

Staff recognition culminates in the yearly Summit Awards, in which employees nominated by coworkers are recognized for their extraordinary efforts. Clark-Mortenson also offers a partnership bonus program based on profitability, flex time during spring and summer months, special corporate rates on loans to purchase personal computers, and, of course, the paid day for volunteering.

It should come as no surprise then that Clark-Mortenson was recognized as one of the best places to work in New Hampshire. However, it was better than that. The agency was recognized as the number one business to work for in all of New Hampshire among companies with fewer than 100 employees by Business NH Magazine. The announcement was made in the December 2008 edition.

At the same time, the agency also received the Greater Keene Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year award for its contribution to the economic strength, community health, and social well being of the Greater Keene area.

We at Rough Notes are very pleased to add our own accolades by recognizing Clark-Mortenson Agency as October’s Marketing Agency of the Month.