Don't Just Complain, Create Change: How Agents Can Shape the Industry

Feeling frustrated with the lack of control in the insurance industry? Shane and Toya discuss how independent agents can move beyond frustration and take action. From carrier councils to industry advocacy, learn how to create real change for your agency and the industry. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 30 Second Intro
• 0:29 Main
• 2:59 30 Second Outro

Transcript

This is IA Forward your playbook for success as an independent insurance agent. Here to help you knock it out of the ballpark are your hosts Shane Tatum and Tonya Lied. Welcome to IA Forward.  

Let's talk about how to get involved with the insurance process today. And by that, it kind of feels like it's a dictatorship, right? We don't have any control over pricing, we don't have any control really over the products we sell. So for somebody like me, that can be a bit disheartening when things are going wrong. So, as voters in the United States, you know, we can get out and vote and change our politicians. There there are things that we can do to be a part of the political process for change. What can we do within our industry to be a part of that change? First of all, I love the fact that you talked about voting. Go vote. Your vote counts, no matter what they say. And don't become part of that group of people that says, what does it matter? They're going to do what they're going to do. Why do I vote? Go vote. Especially in local elections. You know, people always turn out for presidential elections, but local elections are what really matter to you from day to day. They do, school board elections, your local community, your council, your city council, your town councils, county county government, our parish government in Louisiana. Is there anyone else? I think I've asked this question before that that have parishes or is it all just now Louisiana? Is it? In the United States, just Louisiana. The rest of them are in France. Y'all think y'all have to be so special over there. Well, it's because they love Jesus and it's French base, you know. Okay, that was good. Yeah, I like that. What's really interesting about this question or really this topic is that just kind of breaking it down and agencies are sales organizations. That's at the core and a lot of businesses have an opportunity to set their price. Even retail businesses. They still get to set their price because they buy it and they get to decide what it should cost. If they want to charge three times, four times their cost and have that markup, they have the power to do that as a retail type business. Insurance agencies do not have that opportunity. We don't even have the option for couponing or giving a friends and family discount. No, we can't rebate. It's against regulations. We can charge a fee on top of commissions if you get the required disclosure form signed in in most states. You can charge an application fee, you can recover some things. Standard preferred carriers don't love it. They don't love what it makes them look like, but many agents do that. Speaking of Louisiana, a lot of my Louisiana friends and your Louisiana friends brought fee-based insurance to the forefront several years ago out of necessity and it's very prevalent in the state of Louisiana. There's things that can be done, more consultative risk management sort of things to help with your income side of things, your revenue producing side of things, but we still don't get to set our price. I have been through lots of different things. There's lots of areas that agents can get involved with. First and foremost, carrier councils. Carrier councils are and advisory groups. Ask your rep. If an opportunity ever comes along where you have an agency council or do you even have an agency council? Most carriers do. Just throw your hat in the ring. It's not an election process. It's really an appointment thing. The reps recommend, the management recommends that up to the national level from a regional level and you may have a regional council you can serve on and that may actually get you to the point of being able to serve at the national level. It's incredible. I served on a carrier council for seven years. They had a three-year rotation. I had the opportunity to serve at the national level, became the national level officer, vice president, president, past president. So that took my time at that council level beyond most opportunities that most people have, most agents have. I called it basically the equivalency, if not better than an MBA. What I learned in that seven years serving on that carrier council was absolutely incredible. It gave me an underneath the hood look at what really goes on at the insurance company level and as an agent it was priceless. Okay, you sold me, I'm ready to be on a carrier council. Well, you got to sell your rep. So you got to make sure that you get nominated and you have to be professional. The other thing is your demeanor. Whether it's a carrier council, whether it's opportunities to get involved with the big eye in your state. Most states in the US have independent agents and brokers of America state associations. So independent agents of Texas, independent agents of Louisiana, etc. And they also generally have a PIA, professional insurance agents. That's the two main large organizations that from a state or a national association, an agent association standpoint. Go to their conference. They're always looking for people to volunteer, to serve, and to get involved. They need volunteers. When you think about it that way, if all you want to do is be self-serving and get your way, then you're going to struggle on any of these things. You have to think about taking a step back and realizing that when you're serving on a carrier council, when you're serving for a state association committee, that you're working on behalf of that organization. You're volunteering for the benefit of that organization, then the industry or the state inside that industry. You have to kind of understand that and if you're kind of a dictator mindset, then that may be a struggle for you. So kind of know your strengths and weaknesses and you may need some self-improvement there in order to manage temperament and I've been around those agents. There are agents that would serve on those councils and they spent the entire meeting berating the underwriting manager or going off on the product VP. And guess what, they didn't get their opportunity to be invited back. Nobody wants to hear that. They want to be held accountable, but in a professional way. Or as we would say down south, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Exactly right. What all is involved with being on a carrier council? What does that look like specifically? Most of them have changed over the years. Several decades ago, it was a good old boys club. Several companies started understanding that they were missing an opportunity to really, really improve what they were doing with their distribution channel. These being mostly independent agency distribution channel companies and started creating agendas that took things into a day or two type meetings and agendas are preset and there's a lot of pre-work done in a lot of cases where the carrier might be presenting you some topics that they want to tackle. Today's councils out there are a lot different than the 80s and 90s councils that I always heard about. I've only served in a capacity of the more business-like councils where it was truly like going and getting your hands dirty in terms of talking directly with leadership and them sharing where they're going in direction and you giving them brutally honest feedback about that direction. Issues that got brought to the table by the actual council members. Hey, your system is clunky and hard to use and specifically, it's the quoting aspect of your auto rating system. These are the problems. A lot of times agents would bring those from their own staff. Like these are the experiences that my staff have and if you could fix that, then our world would be a lot better. There has been so many things that have been improvements at the carrier level that were directly driven by agency councils. In talking with my carrier rep, do I give them my resume? Do I submit an application? What is the process in making this happen? It's not that formal. Okay. So I said a formal process, but it's generally a conversation. And things are generally just brought to the table through that conversation. Hey, just so you know, if you have an agency council and y'all have a council opportunity, I'm willing to serve. And you may not say that to every carrier. You may have some carriers where you wouldn't want to serve on their council. Maybe you're not an expert yourself at commercial lines and you have a commercial lines producer, you're more of the personal lines expert. It probably wouldn't be a great thing for you to request as an agency owner to serve on a commercial lines agency council. So you want to have some knowledge to bring to the table. However, you might have a right-hand man or woman in your agency that is the commercial lines expert that you could help involve them and that elevate your agency within that carrier by having your commercial expert serve. What kind of time commitment are we looking at? It's not as bad as you would think. You're a resource for the carrier. They want your guidance and advisement. So you're probably looking at two to three conference calls a year and a in-person meeting. Probably no less than two days out of the office. So not much different than a attending a conference in terms of time commitment out of the office. The conference calls may be regularly scheduled or they could be as needed. Most of the councils I've served on probably had no more than three conference calls in a single year, sometimes less. Beyond being on a carrier council, let's talk about what we can do from a political standpoint. The big eye has a political action committee. I'm not sure what all packs do. But that's probably one of the biggest things our agent association do for us is they lobby on our behalf for the industry. They're watching out for legislation that is going to harm us. And if you are interested in politics, a lot of times there are days at the capital. You may have in the state association, the association will take a group to the state capital, will meet with legislators, meet with congressmen, senators, all the way up to the national level. They generally do that around some conference. So you're not just doing that off-base from the conference itself. A lot of times they're centered around that. But number one, you can give to the pack. Number two, you can get involved on a committee and volunteering is just as important. Being willing to serve in a committee or in that capacity to represent the association at the state capital and being willing to be out of the office and go do that. Those are things that you can do as far as the association goes. The other thing, back to your comment about local, is you can actually consider running for office. I am a two-term former city councilman in our community. You're a recovering politician. I'm a recovering politician. Two terms on our city council, two terms on our school board. I've paid my dues in politics. It's not for the faint of heart. My biggest learning curve there and really it's something that I'll forever be grateful for is understanding that there's always three sides to every story. There's his side, her side and then somewhere in the middle is the truth and being able to separate your own opinion and personal benefit, which politicians don't do very well in general, and get to the true objective direction and answer in any given situation. Our city government, county governments, school districts have huge, huge obstacles in that a lot of times they are handed down what is called unfunded mandates and it's basically they have to do something because the state says they have to do something or the federal government says they have to do something, but there is zero funding in order to accomplish that thing. That's a huge burden on our local governments. One of the biggest things I think that the insurance industry needs long term is tort reform. And it's also one of those things that trial attorneys have huge budgets for their lobbyists for this and we're on the other side of it. And one of the things that I learned a long time ago is how easy it is to actually get the attention of a local or a federal official. And how many people making phone calls, not emails, making phone calls to a senator or a representative or a member of Congress, do you think it takes for it to become top priority for their office? I don't know. Do you want me to guess? Yeah, guess. A thousand calls. Five. Wow. People are so not involved with the political process in our country that if a US senator gets calls from five different people about a specific bill or topic, it becomes top priority for him. That's amazing. That's almost so amazing that I'm struggling to believe it. Yeah, it's crazy because when a constituent calls with a specific concern for something that they're looking at, that's not someone that's being paid. That's not a lobbyist, that's not a pack. And I think people don't realize how easy it is to get involved with the political process. Now that being said, if you're the person calling the office over and over and over and ranting and raving and going nuts, then that's different than calling as the owner of a business with an educated concern. But yes, it takes about five people to call for something to become urgent for them. Just to have that knowledge of if your call matters. No different than does my vote matter? But if I'm 20% of getting to priority, that's a big deal. I mean, if I'm one of the five, just the idea that you can move the needle in that type of effort is kind of an amazing stat. A lot of people don't take the time to make the phone call, they send the email or if there's something that's going out, you'll get an email from a specific organization that says, you know, fill out this form and send it. That is absolutely not the same thing. Also, if you're ever anywhere near your state capital, reach out to your representative, reach out to your senator and make an appointment, especially when they're in session. You would be amazed at how quickly they're going to make time for you to see them either in their office or in between sessions. And people just don't get involved in the process and let their officials know that these are the things that are important to them. If I take the time to drive to Talasi, which is three and a half hours away, to talk to my representative, then what I'm there to say to him actually really makes a difference. You know, I think it's really important that we as independent agencies understand that we are small businesses and that small businesses are the backbone of the US economy. Not only that, but we are in one of the most needed and necessary industries for the US economy, being the insurance industry. So we kind of have the double whammy effect, a small business and insurance industry. As those small business owners, I have this belief that it's even more so important that we use our voice and that we get to know people, that we serve, that we meet individuals. It is a relationship thing. Who you know does matter to involve yourself is to get to know people and that relationship can carry you through the rest of your career. I was kind of shown this around 2003, 2004. We actually entered the state of Louisiana at that time with one of our first aggregation models and I happened to meet an individual through another individual, an agent, then met an individual that that agent knew, who was connected on the political side to the Department of Insurance. And as a 30-year-old, young, aspiring entrepreneur that I was, I never once thought that, you know what? I think I'll go meet the insurance commissioner. Or I think I'll go visit the Department of Insurance. However, I met Mr. Mike and Mr. Mike knew the commissioner and knew the commissioner's office and deputy and was very familiar and he decided that after we had lunch that day, that we were just going to go visit and drop in and he was just going to introduce me to uh some folks in the commissioner's office and he waltz me right in to the commissioner's office and met the commissioner, met Deputy Commissioner and a couple of different people and it was just good people that were willing to have a short conversation and I never thought that that was actually possible. One of the ways that I was really able to get involved over the years is volunteering on campaigns. And I always kind of walked a strange line on this because representing the media, I had to always be careful to make sure that it wasn't perceived as favoritism. But as a person, I had every right to volunteer on campaigns. And by doing that, I would make myself available to the person running and became a trusted advisor, became a connector. I didn't have the kind of money to give to a campaign that would make a difference. This was back when I didn't even have a phone. I had my pager that the the company that I worked for provided and I would walk the two blocks up the street to the payphone to call people back. So I didn't have money to give, but I had time or I created time. And by volunteering on those campaigns, meeting people, becoming a connector, that created an expertise in the mind of the political candidate that when they won or when they ran again and then won later, then I was the person they would call to ask questions. Without sounding like you're a know it all, without sounding like you are the constant need to be the one-upmanship, volunteering and then being willing to help gets you into knowing people in circles where you can become an expert and you can share knowledge that you've gained. One of the things that I've seen that's the new generation way of doing this is without coming across as arrogant or being arrogant, I've seen agents have success inside Facebook groups on social media with sharing their knowledge, willing to share their knowledge and end up in a situation where that helped them connect with people that actually got them to a place where they joined a group or became part of a volunteer environment where they could serve and help a cause. There's just something to be said about that. I think it's a fine line because there's so many keyboard warriors out there that don't know what they're talking about and people have to be careful about who you're listening to and you have to be careful about who you're listening to and who you actually take advice from. But I see some of that converging with the digitization of insurance now and this need to actually volunteer for service at the same time. and it's a connection point. Being willing to step out of that comfort zone is just something that a lot of people struggle with, but it's not rocket science. These aren't big bad scary people. These are human beings and sometimes we just have to take that sort of leap of faith or step of faith to be willing to put ourselves out there. This reminds me of the Thomas Jefferson quote where he says, we do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate. Whether we're talking about our industry and serving through a carrier council, whether we're talking about communicating with our local state and federal officials, whether we're talking about within our industry and working with the big eye or the PIA, I think getting involved is really the only way especially right now when it feels like things are so out of control. If you've listened to our podcast for some time, you'll know that I'm a big fan girl of the triple I. And I think one of the things that they do is so important is they take the statistics and they turn it into the stories that make a difference when it comes to working with our government officials. And go to the Triple Eye's website. If you're if you're wanting to talk to our officials, if you're wanting to get involved in that political process. I think the Triple Eye's website is a great place to start because they are taking that insurance speak and putting it into political speak that helps you in making those calls and and being able to tell our story. I hear a lot of agents complain about their state association or they're not going to join the state association because it's just not helpful to them. It's an association. I find two different types of people there. The people who just want to complain about it and don't want to do anything and the people who will actually get in and roll their sleeves up and and make change and make something happen. And if you believe that it's not doing what it's supposed to do, well then go serve and either one of two things will happen. You will either learn that you were wrong and it does a lot and it is serving a a great purpose or you can affect change by being involved. To just sit on the sidelines and complain is the new American pastime and I think we need to kill that and we need to get out of that type of mode in life. And if you're going to sit on the sidelines, you don't get a right to complain. If you are going to complain, then get involved. And what I have found because I'm a very big advocate of this that there's a lot of ignorance including in my own mind about how things work or how they're supposed to work and I don't know actually how they're supposed to work until I get underneath the hood and understand. And once you get involved, you understand more. This was my school board education. I was one of those that was just like, why are the property taxes at X? Why don't we do this? Why don't we do that? And then you get in and you realize that some of the stuff works very well actually. I'm a huge public school advocate, mainly because of my time on the school board. And so before I went in, before I served, I was ignorant, didn't know and I was probably guilty of being in one of those sit on the sidelines and complain and once I went through it, once I got involved, I gained immense respect for our educators and administrators and understanding kind of the worlds they deal with and what that work looks like. It changed my perspective. We made some good decisions, we did some good things. And there was some other things that once I understood it and had more knowledge and was no longer ignorant about it that I said, okay, that's about as good as it's going to get. Let's keep going. And so I think that's the thing that we need to do as an industry, as an agency channel, independent agency channel is we need to get involved and understand instead of just sitting on the sidelines and complaining. I'm going to leave us today with going all the way back to ancient Greece from Plato. One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. Attitude a choice, make a great one. Bye y'all. Ready to get the ball rolling with your independent agency? Learn more at integragent.com. That's integragent.com. Thank you for joining us on IA Forward. Make sure you never miss a show by clicking the subscribe button now or learn more at iaforward.com.