Business Insurance Questions

[Agent1986]

I have been a P/C agent for 4 years. I concentrated mostly on personal insurance (home and car). However, I had been having success with restaurants and have a few other commercial accounts. Therefore, at the beginning of this year, my boss and I decided that I should concentrate solely on commercial. He sent me to several commercial training classes and I have been targeting local businesses for their property, GL, workers comp, business auto, etc.

We are a small independent agency with direct appointments through Travelers, Liberty Mutual, Selective, and Grange. At this point, I am getting frustrated with the way commercial insurance seems to work. It is soooo slow.

Company reps come visit and ask us to send them target accounts and when we do, we are either not competitive or we just don't even get a firm quote to present. Has this happened to any of you? I am having the most trouble with contractors, non profits, churches, and manufacturers.

My compensation is commission only. I get paid half of the commission that the agency receives on my new business and renewal accounts. Although I feel this is a fair split, commercial insurance feels different because it's not nearly as fast as the home/car insurance process. I'm having a hard time staying afloat and am getting discouraged with the companies that we do represent with their ability to get quotes back to us in a timely fashion. Do we need to pick up some other commercial carriers? What would be a few solid companies to look into? We are located in South Carolina.

 

[djs]

Commercial is a much longer sales cycle and is even less impulsive than auto/home.

Quote times are directly proportional (usually) to how targeted the quote request is to the company that you asked to quote and how complete the quote package is. The more research they have to do, the slower it gets. If you have a reputation of submitting harder to quote business, you will get slower responses as well.

Put yourself in the shoes of the underwriter doing the quote for you. They need to clear so many a day. If you have something easy, it gets done quickly.

Beyond that, see if you can talk to the person at the carrier that assigns your quotes and find out what you can do differently to help expedite the process. They might just be backed up (not much you can do) or they may give you that little thing that will help.

In the meantime, also write some auto/home. Its a much faster sales cycle and a much broader market. Commercial pays better in the long run, but not in the short term.

Dan

 

[robtmccarthy]

I have been a P/C agent for 4 years. I concentrated mostly on personal insurance (home and car). However, I had been having success with restaurants and have a few other commercial accounts. Therefore, at the beginning of this year, my boss and I decided that I should concentrate solely on commercial. He sent me to several commercial training classes and I have been targeting local businesses for their property, GL, workers comp, business auto, etc.

We are a small independent agency with direct appointments through Travelers, Liberty Mutual, Selective, and Grange. At this point, I am getting frustrated with the way commercial insurance seems to work. It is soooo slow.

Company reps come visit and ask us to send them target accounts and when we do, we are either not competitive or we just don't even get a firm quote to present. Has this happened to any of you? I am having the most trouble with contractors, non profits, churches, and manufacturers.

My compensation is commission only. I get paid half of the commission that the agency receives on my new business and renewal accounts. Although I feel this is a fair split, commercial insurance feels different because it's not nearly as fast as the home/car insurance process. I'm having a hard time staying afloat and am getting discouraged with the companies that we do represent with their ability to get quotes back to us in a timely fashion. Do we need to pick up some other commercial carriers? What would be a few solid companies to look into? We are located in South Carolina.

Contractors are tough. but you aren't looking at the right markets for those types of risks. Up in the northeast... non-profits are better off with a Philadelphia, GuideOne etc.... not any of your companies.

 

[mcnebraska]

If you want to be good in the commercial field I would suggest finding a niche market that your carriers are good at or find a carrier. Personally, I enjoy more difficult risks because you have less competition but you need to understand your product and the types of coverage that is needed for that particular industry

 

[NCSU INS GUY]

Selective is good at non profits and churches in NC. You can add Philadelphia with no dollar commitment as well (as long as you place business with them)

 

[1manshow]

Second the niche suggestion. Your post didn't specify if you are getting max credits...any credits? and still not competitive.

 

[Soundadvisor]

My suggestion would be to find some commercial business your agency does well, hopefully there is some, and focus your efforts on trying to replicate it. Use those markets, underwriters, policy forms and rating information as templates. Chances are good what you do for one risk will work for another. That way you are not reinventing the wheel from one risk to another.

Do a spreadsheet on a few of the agency’s more profitable commercial accounts. See how their coverage is structured. If done properly, it gives you a good pattern to follow.

As you become more comfortable with commercial lines, markets and the underwriting process, you could broaden your scope to include more diverse clientele.

Unfortunately, however, I doubt there is a quick short-term solution to your dilemma.

 

[allanreich]

These kind of businesses take time to grow. Identify where you are lacking. Overcome your problems and keep doing what you are doing.