Beating the Big Players on Large Accounts

Many producers and entire agencies are nervous about competing for larger commercial accounts. Perhaps they believe they’re too small, they don’t have all the services, they don’t have all the carriers, or they don’t have whatever.

​Success, especially in sales, is built on using your strengths rather than focusing on your weaknesses. Sales success is also built upon your competitors’ weaknesses.

Focus on your strengths. Whatever your strengths are, build them stronger, advertise them, and if you have a serious weakness, address it proactively. But do not focus on all the reasons you cannot win. That is a losing proposition.

Understand your competitors’ weaknesses.

• Just because a competitor is larger does not mean they do anything you cannot do and even do better. Many large distributors do a lot of very transactional business. One awesome option is to identify accounts that might seem large for you, where you could treat the accounts extremely well, but the accounts are too small for large competitors to really care. Go for the low-hanging fruit. If you have good sales management or, as a producer, you have good sales discipline, you will be making a list of these accounts as your priority prospects.

  
  

One of the most valuable benefits you may have is that the account will not be shoveled into a service center, especially an offshore one. And hopefully, your account managers will actually know what they’re doing because you’re not servicing so much debt. You can afford quality account managers with reasonable workloads.

• Just because a competitor offers lots of additional services you don’t offer does not mean they deliver those services. And often, even when it looks like they’re delivering those services, they don’t. Many times, they are just going through the motions to keep up appearances, but not providing anything of value. Ask prospects to share these details with you and then go through each item, professionally inquiring whether the client gets any value or extra care from those “value-added” services. I recently saw a situation where the insured had never seen any evidence whatsoever of those services. It was easy to convince them to leave.

  
  

• Many quality value-added services do not require material dollar expenditures. They require discipline and education. If you cannot exercise self-discipline and obtain a quality education to generate more sales, that’s on you.

  
  

Good examples of this involve coverage checklists, knowing coverages, taking the time to learn clients’ true exposures, and often, simple but valuable safety services. Very often, it’s about doing the basics well.

I’m a huge believer in quality stewardship plans. Quality stewardship plans can be built and tracked with nothing more sophisticated than Excel and Word. It is better to deliver value than pretty pictures, and quite a few brokers’ fancy stewardship plans are stuffed with filler rather than real value. To do stewardship plans well, the most important element is discipline, followed by hard work and education.

• Many larger brokers grossly overcharge insureds for their “value.” Their “value” might include their size to move markets, “value-added” services, consulting “expertise,” or some other imaginary element. I have seen such charges exceed $1 million for absolutely nothing. You might think large, sophisticated accounts would have risk managers and CFOs who would catch these ridiculous charges, but that is not always the case. It happens more than you might think.

  
  

A key to writing these accounts is learning what the prospect currently has. In most cases, I’m not a fan of reviewing the incumbent broker’s program because it's often junk, so it’s better to just start over. But in these cases, you want to know their current status so you can identify any extra charges. This is especially true if they are being charged fees or hiding the commission rate.

Then, when you identify the extra charges, especially when the client thinks they’re getting a deal for some reason, you will now face interesting challenges. You might think, at that point, it would be easy to get the customer to change, but it often is anything but easy.

First, the customer must recognize they’ve been taken advantage of for years. No one likes to admit to themselves, much less to a new insurance agent, that they were duped. You must make them feel smart for figuring this out.

Second, don’t offer to take over the account until you know your client can break the existing contract. Some contracts show evidence of working harder to trap the client rather than to solve their risk exposures.

Third, some carriers don’t want to support the new agent because they, too, know that the incumbent broker was taking advantage of the client. In these situations, it might be best to use a different carrier rather than completing a BOR.

• Be educated on alternative options. Larger accounts have likely been approached by someone offering alternative risk transfer solutions such as captives, large deductible plans, parametric insurance, and so forth. You cannot approach these accounts if you do not possess enough education to speak intelligently about these options. There is no need to be an expert, but you cannot be ignorant either if you expect any success. This does not mean you need to sell these products either. You need to be able to help clients make a decision, and sometimes this means making friends with true experts in these fields who can help your prospect make intelligent decisions.

  
  

Don’t be intimidated. If you have the education and take these steps, you can compete effectively. I have relatively small clients taking large accounts from large brokers on a regular basis. In each case, they have taken these steps, so I know this advice works. And it is a lot of fun taking accounts from much larger brokers.

---

NOTE: The information provided herein is intended for educational and informational purposes only and it represents only the views of the authors. It is not a recommendation that a particular course of action be followed. Burand & Associates, LLC and Chris Burand assume, and will have, no responsibility for liability or damage which may result from the use of any of this information.

None of the materials in this article should be construed as offering legal advice, and the specific advice of legal counsel is recommended before acting on any matter discussed in this article. Regulated individuals/entities should also ensure that they comply with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations.