Another Company Gal visit yesterday……same company as the “other” Company Gal from last week..couple of my favorites…

They both represent that company that came into Minnesota like Gangbusters a few years back….now, the senior management..(same guys that came in like Gangbusters) have been changed…because the probably didn’t listen to the Actuaries…or they were too greedy…can’t be for sure….

“On that account, we’ll be taking a 28% increase… on that other account 18% and that other one over there…were just not sure yet…..but it’ll be big….”

I asked her if the accounts were profitable….and the answer was…”well, we’ve had some activity”…. I persisted in my question….finally…. “yes they are”….

Well, I didn’t go back to the questions of why such high increases…because I’d hear stuff like..”everyone else is doing the same”…..”we are just adjusting our pricing where it should’ve been to begin with”… and all that…

I think Company People all over the world go to a seminar and learn this stuff…wouldn’t it just be easier if the Company Guy’s came in and said stuff lke…”it’s a hard market and were either going to get the pricing or lose the business and we really don’t care one way or the other”… and “We don’t have any control over this….the same dumb poops who are in senior management are forcing us to do this”…. ????? I know I’d feel better…but the poor Company Guys and Gals are the messengers….and they don’t have much choice… sometimes I think it’s awesome to be an agent…..like now.

Here’s the rub….. when we move the accounts out of necessity and our book of business dwindles with that carrier, then the same Company Gals will come back to us and imply that our contract will be cancelled because we aren’t giving them enough business….more message delivering from senior management… (I know this because I used to be one of them…. a Company Guy)..and in my former company, we had a program we called “shoot the stragglers”.. we didn’t tell the stragglers that…but that’s what we called it…and I must’ve cancelled a dozen company contracts……

Fortunately, we have a comparable plan for all of our carriers that we’ll discuss later.

Now to add humor to the entire meeting, she tells me that we are only one of Five of her agents that have been “selected”..(I always love that word)… to do our own rating on their website… In other words, “we picked you to do our work for us…and it’s easy as pie”…. Naturally, I asked how much additional commission was being paid to our selective agency?… “none..but it only takes twenty minutes and is easy”.. (that easy thing suggests the opposite)..and what the carriers refuse to acknowledge is that it takes time off the underwriters desk and puts in on our shoulders..so that twenty minutes adds up to more staffing, more costs of doing business… and less staffing for the carrier and more profit for them…Unfortunately, it’ll get so automated soon, they won’t need underwriters or company gals and guys… we’ll function like The Wizard of Oz.. just go on some website, listen to the big company guy (the only one left because everyone else will have been automated out) who’ll spew the same old lines we heard from the now departed company folk…and the funniest thing of all..he or she will think their being original..like we never heard that one before…sometimes, I think we’re in politics, not insurance….oh well…..must be why I really am grouchy…. but then again, I’m such a “tell it like it is” guy, lots of people use other words to describe me other than grouchy…. a lot less complimentary too…

Then I get a visit from one of my clients…Bob…. now, Bob is a nice older guy… he is Manager of a Homeowners Association we insure….and he’s in trouble he thinks… I must’ve told him ten times to see a lawyer…but somehow he thinks I’m going to give him legal advice… in the end I wrote up a meeting announcement for him and sent him on his way..hopefully to a local attorney….I don’t think he committed any crime mind you….he’s just dealing with challenges from a unit owner and he doesn’t know what to do…..thats lawyer country..not insurance agent country..

The thing about Company guys and agents is that some company guys act like they have all the power…. sometimes they puff up like those little Banty Roosters you might seen on a farm somewhere and strut around like they’re in control of everything….and sometimes they act like their company is the only one out there..so we better “get in line” or else!…..

Just some..not all… my Company Gal visit from earlier isn’t like that at all..and I mean that.. but I’ve had two such encounters in the past ten days…and I really don’t like those guys…so I let them know where they can maybe find more submissive agents…and leave me alone.. I even had one company guy that I’d never met before…he called the office and left me a message…”I’ll be at your office to discuss a potential contract on the 10th at 2:00 pm… if you can’t make it..call me”… needless to say I had something else to do that day, didn’t call him…and according to our receptionist he was quite upset that I stood him up…go figure…

As for our “plan”… our agency as most independent agencies, make most of our money if not all of it from Profit Sharing… that’s a check you get for the previous year from most companies.. based on your growth and profit…the rest of our income is spent on operating expenses and the like…so our partnership has agreed that as an agency, we must reach a Profit Sharing premium level with each of our carriers by years end 2012….. so, if an insurance carrier doesn’t help us grow…. they cease to have value from an income perspective…and this is business…..and when they hand off work for us to do that they would otherwise do..like “rating” for example, it exacerbates the problem because it digs even further into our profit….in fairness, most if not all of our carriers have some form of automated rating programs..but the carriers we do the best with never lose sight of the fact that this is still a people business…and everything else, is negotiable….so, we’ll have to see what the end of the year brings… I’m pulling for my Company Gal Company…but the ball is in their (and every other carrier we represents) court…..