Get ready for a riveting journey into the world of insurance! We're ecstatic to have with us Jeff Bair, head of IA Marketing and National Accounts at Foremost Insurance, who shines a spotlight on the delicate dance between insurance agents and carriers. Market complexities abound, and maintaining customer trust while navigating premium increases is no cakewalk. Jeff deciphers these challenges for us, and emphasizes the power of clear communication in keeping this intricate relationship thriving.
Our conversation with Jeff then takes an exciting turn as we venture into the realm of meaningful dialogues. Ever been held back by the fear of missing out or fear of looking dumb? You're not alone. We shed light on how these fears can stifle understanding and actually close off productive group conversations. Not to mention, the relationship between territory managers and independent agents could be the key to unlocking untapped potential. Hold on as we dissect the dynamics of this crucial relationship, unearthing the significance of nurturing it for mutual success.
Finally, we couldn't let Jeff go without picking his brain on the recipe for a successful partnership between agents and carriers. From the importance of regular communication to adopting new age channels, Jeff's insights are a treasure trove. We also delve into how agents and carriers can champion for each other, creating a symbiotic and profitable relationship. So, buckle up and join us in gaining invaluable insights from an industry veteran on maintaining carrier connections in the insurance industry. This is one episode you won't want to miss!
Get ready for a riveting journey into the world of insurance! We're ecstatic to have with us Jeff Bair, head of IA Marketing and National Accounts at Foremost Insurance, who shines a spotlight on the delicate dance between insurance agents and carriers. Market complexities abound, and maintaining customer trust while navigating premium increases is no cakewalk. Jeff deciphers these challenges for us, and emphasizes the power of clear communication in keeping this intricate relationship thriving.
Our conversation with Jeff then takes an exciting turn as we venture into the realm of meaningful dialogues. Ever been held back by the fear of missing out or fear of looking dumb? You're not alone. We shed light on how these fears can stifle understanding and actually close off productive group conversations. Not to mention, the relationship between territory managers and independent agents could be the key to unlocking untapped potential. Hold on as we dissect the dynamics of this crucial relationship, unearthing the significance of nurturing it for mutual success.
Finally, we couldn't let Jeff go without picking his brain on the recipe for a successful partnership between agents and carriers. From the importance of regular communication to adopting new age channels, Jeff's insights are a treasure trove. We also delve into how agents and carriers can champion for each other, creating a symbiotic and profitable relationship. So, buckle up and join us in gaining invaluable insights from an industry veteran on maintaining carrier connections in the insurance industry. This is one episode you won't want to miss!
Hello and welcome to Insurance Agency Talk Shop. I'm your host, doug Coombs, chief Marketing Officer at SIA. Today's episode is Maintaining Carrier Connections. I'd like to introduce my guest, jeff Baer, head of IA Marketing and National Accounts at Foremost Insurance. Hey, jeff.
Speaker 2:Hey Doug, thank you very much for having me on your podcast. I'm privileged to be asked and look forward to having an interaction with your audience today, so thanks very much.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us. It's awesome to have you here. So I'm going to set the stage a little bit. The relationships that agents forge with carriers are not just about policies, premiums or underwriting, but, to the heart of the matter, it's about the underlying trust and mutual respect, I believe, and a strong agent-carrier relationship facilitates smooth the transactions, fair communication and enhanced opportunities for both, especially at times like now and considering the hard market that we're all slogging through. So in this episode of Insurance Agency Talk Shop, we're going to delve into this critical relationship and explore how agents can nurture these invaluable connections to weather any storm or make things even better when the market is doing well. So we'll start off with the first question to you, jeff, and that is from your perspective, what are the primary challenges agents face during a hard market?
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for that question, doug, and it's interesting. I was with a group of agents over the last two days about 20 of them and we had this conversation several times about the hard market and I think, if I'm being elegant in the answer in a way, the construct is really pretty simple. It is retaining customers and as part of that retention effort, it's the actions that you as an agent have to do to retain those customers and the output of that which is really explaining premium increases. So, exploring that first one for a moment retaining customers it's that discussion around. What do you do about deductibles? What do you do about coverage limits? How do you explain what the change in premiums is relative to what the marketplace is doing and what you're seeing, what other carriers are doing? That's sort of everyone else is doing. It might work very well with long-term customers, but with shorter-term customers we're seeing increased shopping in the marketplace and you're seeing people moving and jumping around the basis of premium changes. So, kind of coming back to that premium change, a lot of discussion from the agents I was with around that piece about how to help insurers understand that this isn't a profit motive on the part of the independent agent or a profit motive on the part of the company. It is really an attempt this year more than any other I've been doing this for over 40 years to ensure that we have the right pricing in place, given the constraints at the insurance department level in many cases, or even constraints in terms of our ability to get the right content into the insurance department in the manner in which it's anticipated To explain to insurers the cost elements.
Speaker 2:The individual cost elements have increased so exponentially high that the amount that they're paying extra isn't even relative to the expansion of risk that we've seen. A customer who has a $50,000 kitchen has a fire a few years ago. That's $100,000 kitchen a day. A customer that had a vehicle that would be in the shop for a couple of days now has to wait a couple of months to get their vehicle in the shop. So that continuing aspect of labor shortages, along with shortages in supplies and in that chain, continues to be very pervasive and challenging. And it is fortunately for us anyway because we work with primarily independent agents up to the expertise of our independent agent constituents who explain those premium differentials and work to retain their customer base. I hope that wasn't too long of an answer.
Speaker 1:No, that actually is good and, as I'm listening to you in here and you talk about understand, they need to help the end client understand. It really comes down to communications in many ways, but not just between the carrier and the agent, but that needs to carry through nicely to, obviously, the client, the insured. But as you were talking, I thought you know some of the things that folks or agents could deliver to their clients in terms of communication and understand. It would be things like remember that bumper you used to replace a decade ago? Well, when you replace that bumper today, it's got a camera built into it, it's got multiple sensors built into it. It's just it's a lot more itself than it was and so that's going to reflect, obviously, a price increase across the board, right. So I do think that it's that kind of at the ground level communication and conveying an understanding to the client that will help, I think, especially with existing customers, obviously in the hard market.
Speaker 2:Yeah, doug, and quite frankly it goes back to the old onboarding offboarding conversation. I think that many agents are aware of right A customer sold on the basis of price will leave you on that same basis. So agents that do a fantastic job of being trusted advisors, explaining what the coverage elements are, ensuring that they align with what the customer's exposure is, are the ones that are able to navigate this time and this space very effectively.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and well, put thank you for that. So let's take that, then, a little bit further down the path. And as we're talking about these challenges, and we understand that communication is a key component to kind of meeting the challenges associated there, what about how this affects the relationship between agents and carriers? What are the issues there?
Speaker 2:That's a really I'm sorry I hate to say that's a really interesting question, but I think all of your questions here can be really interesting. As a matter of fact, that dynamic is incredibly important because it's something you said a moment ago and it really is communication. I do think there's a way and maybe this is only my own personal position in this area, but there is a way, when you have challenges or difficulties or in fact, maybe conflicts with your carriers, to come to the table clearly articulating what that challenge or problem or difficulty is, whether it's pricing, whether it's underwriting. In articulating potential solutions and, by the way, in a positive and solution-oriented manner, that ability to keep that communication line open is incredibly important. I think about our agency advisory council that we have. They bring those elements to the table, to us, in a very thoughtful and also solution-oriented way, and I think that's probably one of the most important pieces in navigating this time.
Speaker 2:Also, I think agents need to be in a position to ask carriers for the tools that they need to properly explain to customers premium differentials, underwriting changes and give them aspects of the business that are valuable excuse me, collateral that they can use. It's valuable to really help reinforce that with their customers. I just noticed that the big eye put out a piece recently IAVA. It's actually a toolkit that agents can use for really navigating this space A lot of I'm going to say tips and tricks, but quite frankly they're very elegant and very practical to retain their customers. So that kind of collateral that's in the marketplace and also asking companies to provide that, I think is essential to maintaining that relationship in this difficult time.
Speaker 1:And you make a really good point there, jeff, and as I'm listening to you talk about, you know, getting the tools, asking for the tools, I think about some of the things even even SIAA has done for its member agencies and even for agents at large, relative to panel discussions which were inclusive of carrier reps talking about how do we come together to meet the challenges of this hard market, how important to your point communication is, how important the relationship is between all three players, and it's just, I think, evident to me that there are tools that either are or can be made available. I see a willingness personally from the carrier side in terms of exchanging and provision of such tools and that I think that it's incumbent upon the agent to also make sure that they're availing themselves of those same tools, that information, those resources.
Speaker 2:Yeah, doug, I couldn't agree more and I know this is to a broader audience than just the SIAA constituency. But obviously there are groups and yours certainly include to do an exemplary job of providing those particular pieces of collateral. So those conversations can be more effective. But I'm going to bring it down to the core level again, and agents will tell me this all the time. Right, it's built into their natural paradigm. They're there to be a trusted advisor. They're there for the service they can provide to their customer. We can provide all the collateral in the world.
Speaker 2:In fact, I look at CompetiScan, one of the sources we use to gather information, and there's tons and tons and tons of pieces out there that are saying to consumers did you know the building costs are going up? Did you know vehicle costs are going up and vehicles are more complex? Did you know? Did you know we're all saying about the same thing yeah, until that agent, until that individual, that producer, that CSR, that person has that conversation where they do in fact personalize it to that customer and really talk about their exposure portfolio. That's where the rubber meets the road. That's where people understand what's happening in the marketplace, where we're going and why the relationship with the independent agent is so incredibly important in this dynamic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, agreed, and as you say that I'm also thinking that the ways that the agent can grease the wheels, so to speak, is to blog about some of these issues on their website or on social media or different posts that they would make their newsletters that they would send out to their clients. Those are ways to grease the wheel before the one-to-one communication is taking place and, to your point, there are tools available out there to be utilized on the behalf of the agent to make that happen, and that's good stuff.
Speaker 2:Doug, each agency has their own business model. When it comes to retention activities, I mentioned the group I was with this week. I spent a lot of time asking them questions because I knew we were going to have this conversation. And you hear from some agencies and again, scale is a challenge. The larger you are, the more difficult it is to deploy some of these particular aspects of communication and contact. Some agencies have an annual review, so customers just know that conversation is going to occur, or at least the offer for it. Others said and it was interesting, right Unless the premium is going up x% or $100 to $200, whatever that benchmark is they won't have a conversation with their customer. Somewhere in the middle of all of those aspects is probably the right recipe for that. I'm going to use your words right To grease the wheels. So when things happen, that line of communication is open and it is the most effective at that point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, agreed, that's good and that's good insight. I want to step back then for a minute and get back to the relationship between the carrier and the agent, and I guess I'm thinking about and maybe it's somewhat jaded in that I'm thinking about SIA's experience here, but we have a lot of members who join us who are startup agencies, and so I'm thinking to myself for those agents and God bless them and start up in the heart. Yeah, I'm thinking about the initial steps that they can take to establish that rapport with the carriers that they utilize.
Speaker 2:When you talk about brand new agencies. That really is an interesting… piece to consider in this. So I'll try to make my answer maybe combine brand new agency startups and also perhaps more established agencies? Sure, we do, and I think most companies do have territory sales managers or marketing reps or field reps or inside sales representatives on the phone. Creating that level of connection is really important and I think it starts at the level most companies and ours included, right will reach out to new agencies, will have those conversations. Will we have very, very strong onboarding efforts? But they're essentially product specific, right.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking about foremost, I'm thinking about Bristol West in the conversations we're having, yeah, but it is also important that those agencies have the wherewithal to reach back out to their territory and sales managers and marketing reps to ask for more information, to get more detail, but then to also upstream them. I know through your group, doug, we've been asked several times to have group meetings or group sessions. That's incredibly valuable, I mean. So I would say to, for the smaller agency listening to this or the network or any other group, do you have those conversations with your territory manager so they can upstream it to the next level of leadership? So, if we need a group meeting to explain what's happening in the marketplace, we can put that in place. I think most organizations, certainly foremost included, are more than happy to put those in place, because that one to many Communication stream is incredibly effective for us, not only in terms of conveying information, but also getting back those harder questions, and I would say so my soapbox for a minute here, when we're doing these sort of one to three hundred, one to four hundred, very valuable, very interesting.
Speaker 2:But what we don't get a lot of times, doug, are the underlying questions that people don't want to ask. When I talk to our teams, I think, doug, just making sure you've heard of FOMO, right, fear of missing out. Yes, one of the things I talked to our teams about is fold, folde, fear of looking dumb. We have this thing where we don't want to ask questions. We want to try to figure out on our cell, on our own. Can we get to the answer without much help? I really want to encourage agents when you're talking to your territory managers, when you're in these group sessions, don't worry about fold, ask the question. It's important to you because many times the question that you think exposes something you don't know. It's going to be incredibly valuable to everyone else in that audience and also to your fellow agents, especially ones that are in the new and startup mode.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and that's it. That's such good insight and it's. It's really the truth, right, I do. I think that fold. It comes into play way too often, far too often, and and yeah, especially in those group environments, this should be a little bit of strength and numbers in terms of you know, hey, it's okay, somebody else has that same question, they're, and they're not asking it.
Speaker 2:So now Doug like a personal story on that real quick. Right, I was working in one of our projects years ago and I call this having my head held underwater on it, because that wasn't my forte at the time. Yeah, it was a whole new experience in the infrastructure and the joint architecture Meetings that were in place and I'm in these meetings and they kept saying, well, we'll do that through kt and I would write down, accomplish to kt and they said kt is gonna be the process for that. I went through about two weeks and I finally went to someone in it and I went I don't understand, how is kt gonna solve all our problems? They went oh, that stands for knowledge transfer, we'll just tell the other team what we're doing. Two weeks of my life.
Speaker 1:It's nice to know that another specific industry IT has as many acronyms going around as the insurance industry. I'll tell you that, so that's a good story. I'm wondering, though, as you were talking about the territory managers, I'm trying to I'm an honest assessment, jeff, if I may, from your perspective, of the responsiveness of the territory manager to the independent agent.
Speaker 2:So can you give me a little bit more detail around that one? I'm sure I can give you a response when you Responsiveness well about responsiveness.
Speaker 1:I mean is there, and I realize, obviously, that we're dealing with the, the issue of numbers and just in terms of how many agents there are out there. But what I'm getting at is that, okay, I have a startup agency reaches out to a territory manager and I have an established agency that reaches out to a territory manager. Obviously, there's only so much time in the day. There's gonna be some prioritization going on. I mean, once in a while I'll get that kind of feedback or those kinds of things will come back to me that I, you know, I can't get, can't get ahold of them or her.
Speaker 2:Okay. So I'll give you a bit of insight on that. I think I think visa VR team and I don't know that applies universally. Okay, um, I One of the things I think about that effective territory managers do, and I'm a bit biased there because I've been with a foremost for over 40 years, in fact I'm I'm so old that I wasn't called territory manager when I started.
Speaker 2:I think it was called a special agent. But when I visited with my the non-new agencies, right, more tenured groups, I would say what's your expectation on my contact level? How often should I be in contact with your agency? And I think really good territory managers ask that of their agencies because, quite frankly, I think there are a lot of salespeople that wander around Pre-covid, right and maybe a little bit post-covid, drinking your coffee and wearing out your sofa and bringing in donuts Not the job, not the job. The job is to advance the agency's business forward. So if territory managers and agents are doing good job of communicating about what that level of contact should be, that then creates the space for new agencies to be able to reach out.
Speaker 2:I would also say that and again exposing my bias here, one of the things that we have at foremost is we have an inside sales staff and we have field sales staff. Field sales staff can only get around to people when they can get around to people right. Yeah, inside sales can easily triage that call and good relationships between field Representatives and inside sales representatives and in our business they are on equal footing that ability to navigate that back and forth and Triage that request is what creates the efficacy of contact. Along with that, doug Guess what, thanks COVID. We now have a lot more ways to contact people. Unless I'm Amazon or Netflix, I hate to say thanks, covid, but we do have a lot more ways to contact people. We have learned More ways to do business now than we ever have before, so that opens up the complete toolbox.
Speaker 2:The other thing I would say for groups and again I think I'm exposing my own personal opinion here One of the things I've seen our claims organization do that I think larger agency groups could do as well is create informal connections between new Individuals that are new to the enterprise. I'll give you an example for claims. Yeah, we have our claims people out in the field when they're brand new. When we finally set them forth, they go out there. They come back in at an interval of I think it's 90 days and we get them together not just with their supervisors but with each other, and we observe their questions and their interactions. The stuff that they're able to provide to each other that are tips and tricks and great ways of doing business and also to expose the most important questions Really creates value for us as a company, and I think if organizations that have more new agents built that kind of mechanism, they could upstream really valuable information to companies that we could act on.
Speaker 1:You know that is so. That is so good. I mean, you're providing, I love this, you're providing some insight for agents to see that you know there are there are things happening that they're probably not in tune to that the that the companies, such as foremost, are Involved in in order to better serve the needs of the agent. And I and I don't think the agents necessarily think about that Very much because on any given day, obviously the stresses of life and business etc. I come into play but but it is refreshing to hear that foremost anyways, and hopefully others are are are Implementing these kinds of processes in order to understand what the challenges are in the relationship overall.
Speaker 2:Yeah, again, that's incredibly important that we get that information upstream to lesson. I think I'm probably speaking for more carriers and foremost, it's really easy for an agent to pick up the phone and call somebody and tell you all of the things that are not going right For them because of you. When they do it in a solution-oriented manner or when they aggregate that content and we get aggregated contents from state associations, we get aggregated the contents from a master agents in your group or from regional presidents in other groups that is uniquely valuable to us because we can act on it on a macro scale and great create the greatest amount of Efficacy for the largest population of any individual group.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's all, and it's perfectly logical to take that approach, obviously. So I, I get it and that's great. Now that kind of leads me to my next question, then, which is what are the qualities that a carrier or a representative or a territory manager values most and an independent agent?
Speaker 2:Yeah, in some ways this is going to feel like asked an answer, but I'll try to not recap it too much. Really thoughtful, transparent communication. It is real easy to pick off the things that are not going well for a company. In fact, we have been through some challenges in the past as an organization vis-a-vis acquisitions. It's really easy to pick those things out. It really is.
Speaker 2:But when agents can come to the table and I had again I keep going back the last two days it's very fresh in my mind where an agent pulled me aside and sat down and said you're doing this and I get it, but what if you did it this way? It was incredibly eye-opening because they were trying to solve for us, with us. That was just. I mean, I look, I've been at this a long time but every time it happens I shouldn't be amazed, but I am. I'm also rewarded by it because that connection is incredibly, incredibly important when agents are thinking about business that way and giving us really insightful ideation.
Speaker 2:Along with that and maybe I'm going too far in the same question I think one of the things that impresses me so much about the independent AC channel after all these years is the consideration of mutual profitability, the things that an independent agent will ask to do to ensure that mutual profitability, and the ways that they can help the company by asking those questions, getting that detail and then acting on it. That's so unique in our business channel, in the independent AC channel, that does not exist elsewhere. It's essential to the continued success of the channel. It's one of the reasons why we continue to gain share over other channels.
Speaker 1:That's well put. That's a good insight. You're right, it is fairly unique, isn't it?
Speaker 2:It most certainly is. I'll tell you when it occurs. It is lightning bolt valuable for the business to get that kind of insight from independent agents, especially when it's solution-oriented.
Speaker 1:Yeah, agreed, Agreed, Good insight. There's a build here and you've probably already headed down this path, but I'm thinking about what you've just said and how that kind of facilitates the ongoing relationship. But are there other consistent actions or behaviors that an agent can engage in that will be complementary or will be enhanced, that trust, that relationship with the carrier?
Speaker 2:I do think— I mean— Go ahead, doug, go ahead.
Speaker 1:I was going to say. I mean, you've talked about how you approach that situation and that kind of communication is critical. I'm just thinking about the ongoing maintenance of that relationship.
Speaker 2:Sure, one of the things I think about there is agents that are truly interested in the—I'm going to say that the financial health of the carrier and the carrier's ability to sustain their value proposition are the ones, I think, that maintain the best relationships. I think about a conversation recently not over the last two days, but maybe a few weeks ago where somebody said tell me how things are going, just tell me how things are going with the company. Then they said tell me how we fit into that picture. They want to write themselves into the story of the value proposition and the growth and profit plans of the organization. That is such a rewarding aspect to hear because they're concerned in the long-term viability of the organization, because it impacts the long-term viability of their agency. They're not just thinking about how they can swap out carriers and move business around to ensure that their revenue stays on a consistent level. They're thinking about ways that they can continue to perpetuate the growth of that carrier and their agency by working hand-in-hand on moving that process forward.
Speaker 2:That's one—another one I might add and maybe I'm going down the wrong trail is to ask for interaction with leadership when appropriate I think most companies, but I can certainly speak for foremost, when you need to get to the next level, you'll get to the next level, you will. You'll have a conversation with somebody who knows maybe a bit more than a territory manager that can provide a bit more insight or listen to things in a slightly different way. I would say, when it's necessary to upstream, to get the next person involved, absolutely do that. Reach out for it, because I think your territory managers, your salespeople, will also value that interaction as well, because we do, quite frankly, all work as a team to ensure the success of the independent agents.
Speaker 1:Yes, excellent. It's funny because, as you were talking, I'm thinking to myself okay, if you answered my next couple of questions, which—sorry no, this is good. This is good because I was going to talk about, or ask you about, how do agents make sure this scene is valuable partners? You've answered that. How do they get constructive feedback from carriers? You've answered that. Then the next thing, I guess the next question I have that I want to touch base on, is you talked back a few moments ago about how the agent, or even the territory manager, should ask the question how often do you want me to be in touch with you? Let's swap that. How often should agents want to have that contact from your perspective, wow?
Speaker 2:I'm going to give you the world's vaguest answer on that, and it's the best I can offer. A number of years ago, someone said to me—and they were a member of the National Association—they just said out loud you know how many types of independent agents they are. I went no, how many. They said as many types of independent agents as there are. It is, in fact, that incredible mosaic that makes our industry so powerful, but at the same time, it makes it sort of challenging.
Speaker 2:I think that agents need to understand take back the word need. It's important that agents understand where the company, where the carrier, is positioned within their office. So, are they an accommodation carrier? Are they a core carrier? Are they a I'll need you and I'll need you carrier? And that, I think, creates the level of interaction that agents should ask for. So, if I'm 40%, 50% of your shop, obviously that connection should occur, certainly, certainly if when things are going well on a monthly basis and again, it depends on the size of your portfolio, if foremost is a bit unique.
Speaker 2:We have more than 33,000 producers, excuse me, agencies that represent us on a legal business entity basis, so we have to think about how we utilize our resources, but we have a wide variety of agents who have raised their hand and said email, when something happens, just email me. And then we have another group of agents that says, hey, quite frankly, the way things are going, I need to see you every two weeks. And another group of agents says monthly is fine. Then we have another group of agents that really is focused on profit sharing and they said drop by every quarter when the loss ratio changes and tell me how we're doing Gotcha. So again, good sales representatives create that conversation because it is need satisfaction selling, and part of that need is what need do you have for information? What need do you have for me? How can I, as a sales representative and it should be the goal of every sales representative to lend value to that agency and to that relationship.
Speaker 1:Very good. That's actually. I like what you've just said because, frankly, it acknowledges that not one size fits all and it also acknowledges that there's a very logical way to approach this and it's kind of common sense when you talk about, hey, if you had a little grid and you're thinking about you know which carriers are providing how much of your business, that should help guide your thought process about how frequently you should be in touch. And you took it a step further and said and market conditions also come into play, right, so it may be a case of in a different market, you would look for that contact once a month or maybe just via email, but in a hard market like we're dealing with now, it may require more frequent contact.
Speaker 2:It may require more frequent contact or it may actually require sometimes more hands off. And agency might say during this time I'm rereading, actually, an old A3R book playing to win. And the PAG talks about the focus on the customer, like who is your customer and what level of focus will you have to ensure you'll have the best relationship with that customer? Agencies may say to us at this time we'll see you in two months because right now it's all hands on deck with retention. We are making 60 calls a week to talk to our customers to ensure that they're going to stay with us. So we have to balance that as well. And again, that expression of wearing out your sofa and drinking your coffee I did the work. I could tell when I walked in an agency they didn't want to see me, and so that's how I established the practice years ago of saying how often should we be talking? Gotcha?
Speaker 1:So so it's interesting and I can't believe we're actually running out of time here, but great conversation. By the way, I'm thinking about what you just said about current market all hands on deck. Should agents and I think carriers and companies already are thinking about nurturing the long term relationships beyond the scope of today's environment, and I realized that there are a lot of folks in this industry right now who are looking at this and going nothing else matters. I got to get through this. This is unprecedented, but the reality is that you always you need to look forward as well. So lots from your perspective about what agents should be thinking about beyond the hard market in terms of the relationship with their carriers.
Speaker 2:When I think about that, beyond the hard market and, by the way, I think you've heard so many industry speakers this year say and I'll add my voice to it I've never seen a year like this, ever I've never seen anything like this. And I'm not only the hard market that we're talking about, but as a carrier, I look at this and go my gosh. Which catastrophe is happening next from a weather standpoint? What can I look forward to? I'm watching the tropical storms coming through. You need to have a long view in this industry because we've been successful over the long term.
Speaker 2:I can't think how many years ago it was that one of the major consulting firms came out and announced the death of the independent agency system. Well, guess what? That didn't happen, pal, and this too shall pass. This difficult challenge we're having will pass. So I would ask agents and this is my own bias again to advocate for innovation on the part of the company and also to challenge their own paradigms as they go through this hard market. I do see some agencies deploying company facing APIs on their website to allow for consumer quoting and sometimes booking. I think agencies should consider new ways of doing business that keep in touch with the way that the buying and servicing population is moving, can agencies focus more on bringing in, onboarding new customers and maybe consider other ways to handle servicing so that the revenue light stays on while the retention light is strong in the background through servicing? So I think establishing a bit more innovation and a bit more advocacy around automation in the agency is probably going to be the next step that helps agents be successful for the long term.
Speaker 1:That's so well put and, in fact, you've just given me a new catchphrase I'm going to use advocate for innovation going forward. Well, let's face it To your point, you can't always predict what the next year is going to bring. And therefore, innovation, if you innovate, obviously you're able to deal with something new and different because you're introducing something new and different. So, yeah, it's great advice and appreciated. So we actually have run out of time, jeff, but I want to thank you so much for joining me today. I appreciate your time. I know it's valuable. I know you've got a lot going on and, seriously, it's been great to spend 30 plus minutes with you talking about this whole issue of making sure we maintain carrier connections. I want to thank you again.
Speaker 2:Well, doug, thank you very much. It's obviously a privilege to be asked and it's a privilege to speak in front of your audience. So thank you again, so much.
Speaker 1:Sure enough. I just want to remind everyone that our guest today has been Jeff Behr. For Most Insurance, he is the head of IA Marketing and National Accounts, and I also want to thank everyone for tuning into Insurance Agents Talk Shop. I am Doug Coombs, chief Marketing Officer at SIAA. To learn more about SIAA, the Agent Alliance, the largest alliance of independent insurance agencies in the US, please visit SIAAcom. Jeff, thanks again and everyone take care.