Will You Be A Survivor?

Or will you be voted off the Island?

by Ron Webber

The popular television program, Survivor, has been a tremendous success. Each week, we gather around the tube to see who is going to survive the tribal council, or more to the point, which is the next one to be voted off the island.  This brings to mind the survival struggles of many independent insurance agents.  

It is not a tribal council that seals the fate of the agency, but most

often the decisions made by the agents themselves.   One of those

decisions is whether to automate or not.  

In the past few weeks, I have been phoning insurance agencies all over the US who had made inquiries about our software since 1997, but did not make a purchase.  I have discovered a startling fact relating to the longevity of independent insurance agencies.  During the weeks of calling, I discovered that hundreds of these agencies no longer exist.  

Approximately 30% of the agencies that have contacted our company since 1997 are no longer in business.  I have do not know if this number represents a true national average, but it is certainly eye opening.  

Our company had also recently completed a mailing to hundreds of

agencies across the country and I noticed that the number of returned

mailings due invalid address was significant.  When I followed up on the returned items, I discovered that a large percentage had moved or merged with another agency.  

What had happened to those agencies that were no longer in business? Did they fail, or were they purchased or did they merge?  These were agencies that were exploring agency automation, but never automated. The remaining 70% of agencies in our data bank since 1997 are active and fall into one of three categories.  Half of those purchased our software or some other agency automation product.  The other half is still looking for the right product for their agency.  I wonder if these agencies will survive until they find the right form of automation.  

Am I just suggesting that if you do not automate your business, you will not survive?  You betcha! I strongly believe you must automate your insurance agency to survive.  Insurance companies are preparing their hit list of agents they intend to vote off of the island.  If you don't

or can't comply with their automation requirements, you may be the next loser.  

If you have survived this long without automation, why would I think

that you would not continue to prosper?   With the current soft market

that nearly everyone is experiencing and the cost of delivering

insurance products to the market place, insurance companies have no choice but to favor their most productive producers.  The less

profitable agencies are quickly becoming the undesirables.

What kind of impression does it make when a marketing representative of an insurance company you represent visits or calls with an inquiry and you are not able to find the customer file and cannot answer a simple question.  You will be judged even more harshly if they have just left or called an organized, automated agency, where everything is in place, retrievable and they were able to answer questions immediately.  

Now, be totally honest with yourself ... when was the last time you can remember going for one week without the embarrassment of not being able to find a customer's file folder or their pending application?  You may not be able to go one day without this occurring.  The real reason is not your fault.  In the beginning you were taught, as most of us were, to create a manual file folder and file it.  As the documents,

inquiries, declaration pages, attachments, payments and endorsements arrive, you locate the file folder and drop the paperwork in.  The downfall of this system is the misfiling of these folders or dropping the paperwork into the wrong folder.  Then, all of that mail begins to pile up on the cabinets.   It needs to be filed, but there is just never enough time to catch up.  

Marketing representatives tell me they can judge an agency's

effectiveness by the number of inches of file folders and papers piled

on the cabinets!  

The good news is that it is never too late to automate your agency.

But, don't let anyone kid you about the facts of automation.  Automation is change and change is never easy.  If it were easy, you would have done it long ago.  Change takes commitment, resolve and guts.  Like anything new, in the beginning, you will feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel.  But, I promise that if you will make the

commitment and have the courage to withstand a short period of

adjustment, you will be one of those shouting for all to hear, "I love

automation!"  

Automation will make you more productive.  Automation will make you more profitable.  Automation will help prevent you being voted off of the island.    

Until next month, keep automating those agencies; I really believe the

only way that you are going to be a Survivor in the 21st Century is to

automate.

Remember, the bottom line is "Automation equals Productivity and Profitability."  

Ron Webber

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