PROGRESSIVE

[playball41]

So I have been selling HO and auto for an indy in PA for 1 year now. We have a writing number for progressive, however my mentor states he won't sell Progressive because of the political leaning of the CEO and also that they undercut the agents by selling online and potential customers calling in for a quote. I have seen Progressive become increasingly more competitive in PA, the quote system is pretty user friendly and they have a new commission tier scale.I'm not so worried about the CEO's political stance I just am looking for opinions on Progressive as far as pricing and the fact that they undercut the indy agent. Any all thoughts welcome. Bottom line should I be quoting them? I notice alot of others in the area using them.

 

[Heather]

The commission is very low with these tiers, only the largest massive agencies are getting a decent commission. We use them everyday basically because we have to if we want the sale. But if another company has a comparable price go with the other company. If your agency is getting 8% but another company is paying 15% with profit sharing then that may be why your agency owner wants to shy away from Progressive.

 

[Heather]

I am heavily into local/state politics but I haven't a clue what the Progressive CEO is up to. Nor do I care, money is money, my commissions and my customers wallet are what matters.

 

[Web320]

Bottom line should I be quoting them?

If they are an available market, offer a sound policy for your client, their distribution model doesn't bother you and the commission is lucrative enough to justify your time. Why wouldn't you?

 

[VolAgent]

While hard, sometimes it is best to walk away from money.

Travelers and Progressive effectively made a bet they could get agents to work for less money. Every time you send them a policy, you prove it true. There are companies that will gladly cut your throat if you let them. Stop rewarding those companies with business.

Personally, I prefer regionals and super regionals. They don't have the huge advertising budget and generally have better relationships with their agents. Also the pay is usually better too. Finally, you may need to revisit your marketing. Progressive typically does not do well with preferred and super preferred risks. While other carriers love them, have good rates for them along with good comp and profit sharing for you.

 

[VolAgent]

I'll lay it out with a concrete example.

I saw elsewhere where an agency owner posted about his experience with a company. Basically the company came through and cut comp for everyone in the state. He said fine, I'm not writing you anymore and he followed through. Several months later his rep comes and offers him higher comp to write them again. Basically back where he was before, maybe even higher. He asked his rep if everyone was getting higher comp. The rep told him no, while most said they wouldn't use us anymore, we actually got more business than before from most of the agencies.

We are literally telling the companies, "Thanks, we'll gladly work for more." Stop doing it, cut off the companies that are anti-agent. If you insist on sending them business, then only send them the high risk business that no one else will take. Send them what no one else wants.

 

[playball41]

Thanks VolAgent makes sense yes we as agent need to stick together and not give them any business.

 

[Heather]

progressive gets the high risk that no one else wants in my agency, I have some great regionals but they credit score and some of my most reliable long term clients are poor and have bad credit and all I want is to get them off of progressive at some point.

 

[VolAgent]

progressive gets the high risk that no one else wants in my agency, I have some great regionals but they credit score and some of my most reliable long term clients are poor and have bad credit and all I want is to get them off of progressive at some point.

And that is exactly how to use them in my opinion. A place to send what your better carriers don't want. Protect your loss ratio and relationships.

Of course this still leads me back to something I have said for years. I'm still waiting for a study that clearly shows a link between credit and claims.

 

[Web320]

I'm still waiting for a study that clearly shows a link between credit and claims.

When our underwriters and actuaries did their diligence for our home program, the data absolutely suggested a correlation. That being said, we omit it because the type of risk we go after tends to have owners on the less than ideal side of the bell curve.