We went and visited a retail insurance agency today. The person we met there, the vice president of a large agency, was really kind. She took the time to tell us all about their agency in their operations. She was even kind enough to tell us who inside the organization would be useful to us. Who would read receptive to our product offerings. And she even mentioned some people outside of her organization that she thought would be a good fit for us.
But one thing she said, left me struggling.
She said that "Suzy X. may have all of the markets that she needs."
The problem I have with this statement is a fundamental problem I see in the insurance business. It seems that everyone does things essentially the same way. The only thing that differentiate one managing general agent from another is: 1. Do they have a market that will take the risk? And 2. Are they as good as the next one. Susie X. may have a market for everything, but is each market really the same?
You see, insurance brokerage firms are all essentially the same. They call it a people business because that's the only differentiation in one competent broker to another. Nobody does anything special. In fact there are so many twists and turns in the regulation and in the fundamental structure of the distribution systems, that is unbelievably difficult to be different.
What we're trying to do here at Lime Tree Underwriters is to do something essentially different. We want to focus on becoming the fastest, easiest, brain-dead simple way to get business on the books. We will use our narrow box underwriting approach and our extremely automated five minutes to bind platform to stand out. That's our value proposition to the agent. If you do business with us it will be easier than any other place.
My sales team is now armed with the message: "Yes, we know you already have markets, but can they do this?"
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