Buckle up, it's the internal podcast. So AIA is the wholesaler, right? Right. And I'm not as familiar with wholesalers in our business, only because from the retail side, we're we are captive, so not really anybody comes and talks to us. I know when I was at Merrill Lynch, the wholesalers from the mutual funds and all that would come in constantly. And I'd love I'd love meeting with them because they would always come with a great idea. That was their way into that. Hey, you have a minute? I have a great idea about prospecting. So is it similar in you guys are connecting with agents where you come up with some great ideas to get your foot in the door?
SPEAKER_01Right. So what we try to put ourselves out there is being in that we have a work comp program that we manage everything. We're like a small insurance company, I guess is the best way to put it. We do the underwriting, we handle the claims in-house, we have all the invoicing, we direct building. Insured, it's like if you were dealing directly with an insurance company, but it's a small operation. So you get to know the underwriters, you get to know the adjusters, the claims handlers, you get to know the people in accounting by first name. So that gives us uh an advantage when we're walking in the door, especially with an agency that's used to deal with these large corporate insurance companies where every time you call, you get somebody different on the phone. Or it's an online rating system now where you're just going and plugging information in and getting a quote back. We deal with a lot more complex types of risks, so we tend to have a lot more conversations about the risk, understand the risk, know what's going on, and we expect the agent to do the same. So a lot of our, you know, we look at an agency to determine are they the experts in this particular career industry or niche. And if they are, we see that as an opportunity for us because we're experts in certain niche areas for workers' compensation. So uh we we are able to go into let's say and it's an a retail agency that focuses on health care or even home care, home health care, then we say, okay, yeah, these guys may be a good opportunity for us to go and have a conversation because we our product with our workers' compensation program, we can offer something to them. That there's not a lot of companies out there that really go after that type of business, especially from a model hour comp standpoint. So yeah, I I think that's you know, you talk about adding that value to the agency, getting that agency something that they can say, oh wow, okay, that's a great strategy, or that's a good opportunity for us. That's where we try to focus in to say, hey, we can add that value to what you're giving to your customer. So that when you go and present that quote or present that account, you know, try to try and write that account, you've got the backing of someone like AIA that can provide you with additional information that you need outside of just pricing in order to sell the quote. Commercial lines, we you know, you want to be in the ballpark when it comes to pricing, but that's not always what sells the account. And for us, once we find that once we write it, a lot of times we keep business on the books for years simply because our claim services are so hands-on. And we help the we in turn help the insured lower their premiums over time because we give them tools and processes and ways to improve their loss ratio by handling their claims better over the years. So uh those are some of the things that we really try to focus on going into an agency.
SPEAKER_00That's awesome. I workers comp is real interesting because we don't in the captive world do a ton of workers' comp, but I find it fascinating. And and even Carruthers, when we were talking with him, it's a great, I think, foot in the door that to then branch out. And if you focus on your niche, maybe you deal with, I don't know, whatever, ice cream shops. And then niche is ice cream shops, but you can get your foot in the door by having a great workers' comp product because everybody needs to have it.
SPEAKER_01Right. If you can find a specific line of business, I mean whether it's cyber or whether it's something unique uh from a coverage standpoint, you can walk in into that, you get an introduction to that customer by saying, hey, we're the experts in this field. We can offer you something that you may not be able to get through a generalist type agency. We see a lot of uh agents that have the greatest success are the ones that are the experts in a particular uh industry. And whether that's in a particular coverage or just across the board within that industry, they can they provide the value to the to the customer, to the insured, you know, as we're just trying to provide the value to the retail agent.
SPEAKER_02What are some of the niches that you guys cover that you see agents really having a lot of success with?
SPEAKER_01Some of your Yeah, I mentioned healthcare because that's a big that's an area that their coverage is becoming more and more difficult just because of what we've gone through the past year. Uh so I mentioned that.
SPEAKER_00And uh do what You said who it cut out right when you said Oh, I'm sorry, healthcare. Oh, healthcare, okay, right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mentioned that earlier because that's one that we're seeing. Just just a real you know, it's just a problematic area uh industry right now for insurance. And so if you can come in and provide uh a coverage or or some expert advice, uh that's definitely an area that's growing.
SPEAKER_00Is that like individual doctor's offices, hospitals, or all of the above the whole supply chain?
SPEAKER_01We've seen a lot of opportunity with home health care. You know, there's a lot of exposures in home health care that you don't get with a doctor's office just because you've got people going into an unknown environment of like of a home where you can't control uh the exposures that are in that uh in that in that area. So uh so that's something that we have a lot of uh underwriters that have expert, you know, have had the expertise of work of working in not only that career field, but uh but working with a lot of uh insurers that uh that specialize in that. So yeah, we've seen a lot of a lot of uh help growth in the healthcare market. Nonprofits and social services, that's another area that's really uh unique kind of uh niche industry where it's really a growing area right now, especially on the social services side. Municipalities. One thing about municipalities, the relationship is a huge deal on that end. So getting into the right person within a county or uh the decision maker within the county or within the city uh that that makes the decisions on those on where that insurance is going being placed is uh is a huge part of uh writing that municipality business. And then being able to answer questions, you know, bring some legal advice. Uh you know, we see a lot of there's a lot of problems with police, you know, police forces right now, especially with uh some of the violence uh that has happened over the last year, finding that um the ability to write liability on our police force. So from a municipality standpoint, if you can be the expert, you know, and another thing we've noticed too with especially with municipalities is a lot of the agents that specialize in that are are starting to age out. So you've got an older group of agencies that age for our retail agents, producers, they're starting to hit that retirement age, and you don't have a lot of young producers that are coming up behind them that have that expertise on uh being able to provide that advice to Alice and Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What other opportunities like where do you see like if you were coming in as an agent, where do you see the biggest opportunities? Obviously, you just mentioned municipalities, that'd be a great uh niche to look into. But what advice would you give to somebody that's looking for maybe like a niche or some sort of opportunity today?
SPEAKER_01Well, first off, what you know, what do you enjoy? And I I mean, if you're trying to force yourself into a specific industry that you really don't care about, you're not ever going to be successful. So find some things you enjoy. So if it's uh what you specialize in forestry products. I mean, a lot of guys like to get out, get in the woods, maybe they're hunters, you know, maybe they like to hunt, maybe they like to uh be outdoors. Forestry is a uh, especially in this area in the southeast, it's a uh is a is a pretty big industry. And if you can get in, get to know the people that go out and do the uh logging or or do the timber cruising, things like that, then you know, then there's a real opportunity right there in and of itself.
SPEAKER_02Love it. I didn't even think about that. I I know nothing about forestry insurance. That is 100% true. That's why I was asking you. Like what it's interesting to what's great about what you know and and what you deal with is there are going to be a lot of these areas that maybe somebody newer wouldn't look into right away. Because of course, you go into the insurance business, the first thing, oh, auto, hum. You know what I mean? Like that's everybody knows it. Then you start going a little deeper and you start learning the special niche insurance, or you know, I don't know. And it then it you start seeing all that stuff, and then I think it becomes a lot clearer on what uh I'm not not, I don't uh personal lines is great.
SPEAKER_01I mean, they're especially if you're sales oriented and you're people person, you can do extremely well in personal lines. I've just never really gravitated towards that because of my b engineering background and I like to problem solve from a complexity standpoint, and I so commercial lines is can just be there's just so much more complexity in the coverage aspects of commercial lines, but uh but that's you know that's really like I was going like I was saying earlier, you know, it depends on what you like to do personally. So if there's an area that you enjoy working, then dive into that. I mean we see a lot of uh we see a lot of agencies that just specialize in uh we've got one agency in Nashville that just specializes in recyclers and uh you know waste haulers and that sort of business. But that grew because that family that owns that retail agency, they used to have a recycling operation and they uh and from that started the insurance to help write the uh write the insurance on that particular operation and then grew from there to where they write that type of business station right. Uh and they're able to do it because they're they understand the business, they know what goes into it, um, whether it's uh scrap metal or whether it's waste hauling or whatever that particular operation is, they understand the coverage that the insured needs.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And you create a lot of value too when you when you're niched down like that, because this is all we do, right? So it buys a lot of goodwill with the with the prospects out there, right? We this is all we do, right?
SPEAKER_01Especially if you're new and you're just coming in to uh to be an insurance agent. If you try to go out and be everything at everybody, you're never gonna be it's gonna be extremely difficult to to make your way with all the competition that's out there from an insurance agency standpoint. You've got to set yourself apart. And the best way to do that is to be the expert in a particular industry.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And we see it all the time too, even in the captive world where we can do home auto and life, and then we can do all the other stuff, but it's on kind of pieced together different platforms, it takes forever, and it gets away from our bread and butter, which is the home and auto, home auto life. And I mean, that's what drives bonus, that's what drives our maximum revenue for our agency. So it doesn't make sense to go and do that. And you'll see it on Facebook or whatever. Hey, I have this thing, you know, it's it looks real good, and it's like they you get almost starry-eyed about this big premium and go down the rabbit hole when you could have spent a lot of time just focusing on what you do, which is quoting lots of home and auto. May not be the most glorious thing in the world, but it's what pays the bills. So you shouldn't detract from that.
SPEAKER_01If there's ways to get into certain industry associations where a lot of your potential clients might be a good way to good way to get your name out there and get in that work, and those associations are always looking for those experts that provides value for the association.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, they're looking to draw members as as well as you're looking to find those clients. So find associations that deal with those particular uh industries, then that's a great place to start.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So Patrick, somebody new coming in, how could AIA be of service to them? And what would the steps be to find you and leverage uh the things that you have to offer?
SPEAKER_01So we're a regional uh wholesaler, so we focus on four or five, six states in the southeast where we we can actually write coverage in those states, and then we are able to write incidental exposures beyond that in the number of states surrounding that area. So what we try to do is we try to get in front of those particular retail agents through, as I mentioned earlier, associations is one way. Um we've redone our website and gotten that uh done a lot of things to try to get it to uh pop on Google or a few other areas uh so that you know somebody just goes out and types in workers' compensation in Alabama, hopefully AIA is pop into the pop into the top so that we can uh we can attract that kind of uh that kind of agency. And then once that happens, and once we get that lead, we try to make sure it's a fit. We don't do business with every retail agency out there because I mean we we would water ourselves down and we're not gonna provide value to every retail agency out there. So once we get the lead in the door, whether it's an inquiry or somebody calling or sending an email or sending an application, we get our marketing team on it right away. And so they reach out to that agency and have a conversation, find out about that agency, what their needs are, and then let them know what AIA brings to the table. And hey, we're we're the experts when it comes to workers' comp. If you're looking for this type of workers' comp insurance to be able to offer to your clients, then maybe there's an opportunity there for us to move forward. And uh, you know, we have a we have a producer agreement we go through and all that, but we don't really have a huge, we don't have a premium volume commitment or anything like that. We feel like if there's that relationship opportunity to develop, the revenue and the premium will come over time. Um and so we work through that with the with each agent almost on an individual basis. And that's kind of how we underwrite our accounts. We underwrite them on an individual basis. So if you send in an account, we're not gonna decline it or accept it just right out of the gate based on a certain you know box that whether it fits the box or not. We're gonna take the time to go through it, understand the account. We may even pick up the phone, call the agent, tell us a little bit more about what's going on here. You know, initial look at it, it says, I don't know, I don't think that's something we want to write, but maybe there's more of the story. And so we try to get that from the from the retail agent and give them the opportunity to sell us on it as well. Because ultimately we've got to sell the insurance company that we represent on it. So we've got to make sure we have all the facts and make sure we can get the best price back in the hands of the retail agent and get them the information that they need in order to sell the sell the coverage.
SPEAKER_02Thank you, Patrick. I just want to ask you one final question, and that would be any insurance agent coming into the industry or any agent that's been in the industry for a while that really wants to kick it into high gear, what would be the one piece of advice that you would give any insurance agent out there?
SPEAKER_01One piece of advice.
SPEAKER_02That's it, the major one. The top of the pyramid.
SPEAKER_01Get to know your customer beyond just the high-level facts of an application. Dig in, get to know who they are, what drives them, what makes them tick, and then that'll that'll make all the difference in the world when you turn around and try to sell that, sell your policies and your coverages back to them. You can't tail if you're gonna tailor insurance to a particular company or an individual, you gotta know you got to know what they're about and what their needs are. And so the only way to do that is to get to know them. And it used to be that meant go and sit down with them face to face, but there's a lot of other ways to do that now. So you can do that through like what we're doing today, through a virtual meeting, you can do that through social media. There's a lot of opportunities to get to know and understand who your customer is. But yeah, we talked about it from the beginning of when I got into the insurance business. That part has not extremely important. There are a lot of tools to get to that relationship that have changed, but the actual relationship piece of it is just so important.
SPEAKER_02Love it. I think that is the competitive advantage at this uh time in the game. That's the lost art, nobody's doing it anymore. So that's awesome advice. Patrick, thank you so much. Um, if anybody wants to get a hold of you or anything, how do they do that? And we're gonna put that in the show notes.
SPEAKER_01AIAMGA.com. It's very easy, uh, and it's got all of our contact information on there. You can find me on LinkedIn and those other social media sites. But uh, best way to get in touch with us is just to check the website out.
SPEAKER_00Well, and as you're listening to Patrick on this episode as it winds down, make sure to scroll to the bottom of your iTunes thing and give a review and say how awesome it was to hear from Patrick, and we'll be able to get more guests just like him on here. So thank you so much. It's been a ton of fun, and uh we wish you the best of luck.
SPEAKER_01Well, keep crushing. It's been great. Yeah, y'all made this easy. I was really nervous about this. Y'all made it fun, so thank you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, you know, number one insurance podcast in the world. So I'll thank you, Craig. All right, we need Magic. Have a good one. Thank you. So yeah.
SPEAKER_04Hey Jason. Yes, Mr. Craig. That was another awesome episode, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_04Well, if people want to get a little bit more action and learn how to do uh like 100,000 in premium of even the worst internet leads, where could they go? They can go to live.teledude.com. Ooh, that sounds exciting. Are we in a video?
SPEAKER_03Yes. It's a weekly call that we're doing right now that will it's live and it will show you the process. The entire process.
SPEAKER_04I love it. Let's do it.
SPEAKER_03Let's do it. Right now right now, live.teledude.com.
SPEAKER_04Live.teledude.com. That's live.teledude.
SPEAKER_03I cannot wait to tell everybody about. It is our live working community where you and I are going to enter the people who wanted and give them free content. Well, we're gonna get back to the way.