Placing an Agent in an Auto Dealership

LDG

Expert
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I've spoken to a few agents who market heavily to auto dealers including one who parks an agent at a dealership and partners with them.

Does anyone have experiences to share with partnering with a dealership and staffing the dealership with an agent? It's something that i'm considering and would like some advice.

Intuitively I would think it's hard to capture the preferred business leaving only no prior customers and poor risks.

Can anyone share their experiences?
 
Depends the type of dealership and their clientele. I'm actually in a BHPH, and yes lots of non-standard. You can glean some preferred risk if you do it right. Don't plan on building a large preferred book from it unless the dealership has a more affluent focus. The upside to a BHPH or other lot that handles financing is you will have an endless stream of xdates via lienholder notices.
Plus always someone to talk to. Just be careful not to step on any sales guys toes.
It can be profitable, just depends how bad you wanna grow and how open you are to the profile of your book.
 
Depends the type of dealership and their clientele. I'm actually in a BHPH, and yes lots of non-standard. You can glean some preferred risk if you do it right. Don't plan on building a large preferred book from it unless the dealership has a more affluent focus. The upside to a BHPH or other lot that handles financing is you will have an endless stream of xdates via lienholder notices.
Plus always someone to talk to. Just be careful not to step on any sales guys toes.
It can be profitable, just depends how bad you wanna grow and how open you are to the profile of your book.

A friend of mine owns 5 Ford dealerships located in small towns in Florida.

I'm working on a pitch and considering offering an agent at one of the dealerships who would quote business for all of the dealerships.

Or perhaps my auto agent could be contacted via text and the sales deal emailed for quoting.
 
A friend of mine owns 5 Ford dealerships located in small towns in Florida.

I'm working on a pitch and considering offering an agent at one of the dealerships who would quote business for all of the dealerships.

Or perhaps my auto agent could be contacted via text and the sales deal emailed for quoting.

The bigger question here is if your friend owns five Ford dealerships why aren't you trying to write those instead of this other idea??
 
The bigger question here is if your friend owns five Ford dealerships why aren't you trying to write those instead of this other idea??

We are a auto and property agency.......we refer our commercial business.
 
I was never an advocate of this business model, however....indienoise did it & now has his own agency for himself (and that's just 1 BHPH..) so it appears that if implemented correctly...it can work.
 
Well it is not for the faint of heart. Of you don't know how to deal with the clientele, you're better off leaving it alone. Especially right now. I've issued 40 auto policies since thursday, of which probably 1 out of 4 will actually stick for a full year. The rest will non pay within 3 months. I've spent 12 hour days at the office and my home and landlord cprospects are getting their proposals between 10 and midnight after I've had dinner.
Its all about scale though. I'll take a week off in April. :/
 
Well it is not for the faint of heart. Of you don't know how to deal with the clientele, you're better off leaving it alone. Especially right now. I've issued 40 auto policies since thursday, of which probably 1 out of 4 will actually stick for a full year. The rest will non pay within 3 months. I've spent 12 hour days at the office and my home and landlord cprospects are getting their proposals between 10 and midnight after I've had dinner.
Its all about scale though. I'll take a week off in April. :/

Thank you for your response. I assumed that persistency would be low for this segment of business.

40 apps since Thursday are a lot. Are you working out of the dealership itself or do you have your own office and how many dealerships are you working with?

Do you bind with the customer in front of you or is all of this business via telephone?

A dealership generally has repeat customers and they have credit information. There must be some way to tap into standard auto business and then cross sell the property. Am I just dreaming that type of scenario?

I own 3 agencies and would probably designate one or two of my agents to handle this business but then you have the issue of nights and weekends.

Any feedback and insight that you can provide would be appreciated.
 
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Don't forget the dealer is collecting insurance info. Constant flow of xdates. Then your calls are as simple as hi, I'm partnered with *dealership or salesman name here* and would like to offer you the service of reviewing your upcoming renewal to identify better value.
I'm currently working a great example of this. Two weeks ago I closed a homeowner policy for a dealership client, yesterday she brought her daughter for her auto, and in the process for her multi car auto and two rental properties as well. So it's not all transients you're dealing with.
As far as my location, I'm solely at the dealership right now. I've been working with this dealership for years on upgrading and maintaining their technology, and they actually suggested the idea of opening an agency there. Its my sole location for now but plan on opening a separate office within 1-2 years. Something more conducive to preferred business.
 
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Don't forget the dealer is collecting insurance info. Constant flow of xdates. Then your calls are as simple as hi, I'm partnered with *dealership or salesman name here* and would like to offer you the service of reviewing your upcoming renewal to identify better value.
I'm currently working a great example of this. Two weeks ago I closed a homeowner policy for a dealership client, yesterday she brought her daughter for her auto, and in the process for her multi car auto and two rental properties as well. So it's not all transients you're dealing with.
As far as my location, I'm solely at the dealership right now. I've been working with this dealership for years on upgrading and maintaining their technology, and they actually suggested the idea of opening an agency there. Its my sole location for now but plan on opening a separate office within 1-2 years. Something more conducive to preferred business.

Congrats, sounds like a good setup. The unlimited X dates is what excites me about the dealership idea. So are you more working on X dates and future effectives than trying to bind coverage for a vehicle they just purchased?

Also how do you renumerate the dealership or salesmen.....what's in it for them? Are you paying rent or cutting them in for a share of the commission? One agent I know splits new commissions 50/50 but one of the owners of the dealership also has an insurance license.

Are you working nights and weekends or do they just contact you if you are gone to quote? Staffing a dealership for all of their open hours would seem to be exhausting.

Thank you for all of your help!
 
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