March 11, 2021
To All Premier Agency Owners
Please see the attached article published earlier this month in an insurance trade magazine. I’ll be back to those points soon under “So Much More” below…
First, this coming week marks the 1 year anniversary of Covid-19 in the U.S. From filming a commercial with nearly 100 Premier agents on Friday, 3/13/20 to lockdown the following Monday, it was a crazy and challenging year. But together we made it my friends! Our industry and YOU showed resilience and continued to help people through a year of incredible catastrophes – fires, hurricanes, and the recent Texas storm to name a few, against a backdrop of personal challenge and hardship for many as well. As we do see rays of sunshine coming they deserve our attention to optimize our business and re-emerge stronger and better than ever before - Premier for you, and you for policyholders.
Profit Sharing and Year End Overrides – A record number of you qualifying will participate in a record payout from carriers to Premier and Premier to you. Thank you for your performance in 2020! Payouts will begin this month, with a separate deposit targeted for March 26th for the qualifying funds and data received by carriers to date. Additional funds will follow in April where carriers have not yet paid. Please be patient as we allocate all hands on deck to calculate and disperse your individual payouts.
NEW > Premier Statement of Benefits – Ending April we will provide each Premier Agency Owner a Premier Statement of Benefits. For agencies above $100,000 in gross revenue, which there are many, it will be a custom statement, and include ideas for you to reach the next level. For those of you newer, and below the $100k mark in 2020 it will be a template to aid you in optimizing the opportunities and tools before you that are there to help you to get to where you want to be in your business.
NEW > Premier Agency Staff Pipeline Program – Ending April we will also pilot a program to help alleviate your and the Industry’s # 1 pain point – P&C Agency Service and Sales staffing. No other group has even thought of helping their membership with this. If you have plans to increase your P&C Agency Sales or Service staff in 2021 please reply to this email and we will survey you with additional Qs to help meet your individual agency staffing needs.
“SO MUCH MORE” - Important Items regarding $:
- The Carrier Extra Compensation for 2021 is now listed on the Premier Agency Owner website – Click Here – Please review it periodically to stay up on all of the latest overrides, and special Profit Sharing and incentives that Premier negotiates on your behalf. (If you have sign-on issues, please contact ChrisB@PGIAgents.com.
- Nationwide Coop – for 2021 has more rigor behind it to qualify. It turns out some agencies who participated in the Coop program in 2020 had lackluster production with the carrier sponsoring the program. Obviously this is not the intent of the program nor any program an individual carrier sponsors… If your Nationwide PL production in 2020 did not exceed the standard benchmark minimum that most PL preferred carriers have of two package policies per month, you will likely not be eligible for ’21 Coop. If you wish to appeal with a sound business case showing above benchmark strong quality production for 2021, please send directly to me at RexH@PGIAgents.com, but know the Coop budget for 2021 is already in high demand and limited.
- Agency Net Income – at its simplest is a function of $ in and $ out. A huge focus in ’21 is on your NET. If your agency is beyond it’s first year in its lifecycle and your “money in” is strong, but you are not making 50% or more margin (NET) monthly, please contact me directly. We have a program that can help by analyzing your agency operations, expenses, productivity and efficiency. Additional Qs will be asked of you, but it is time well spent – WORKING ON YOUR BUSINESS AND KNOWING INDUSTRY BENCHMARKS. (PS – if you are at 50% margin, trust me there is room to go higher; there are Premier agencies already above 75% margin!)
- Commercial – As the attached article points out – huge opportunities in Commercial Lines in ’21 and ’22. GDP in the U.S. is to be a record 5-10% with stimulus and small business opening back up and many opening anew. If you haven’t yet spoken with Matt Genova or viewed his interview – Click Here – please do. Matt is our new (as of 1/11/21) Director of Commercial Lines. You can reach Matt at MattG@PGIAgents.com There is none better to help you to get up to speed on commercia lines and learn and focus on commercial in a manner that works for you…
- Tech, Digital and Social Media – These tools are required today for most agencies. – Click Here – for the Premier Digital offering. We encourage you to take advantage of this resource which is well discounted below most you will find in the marketplace with proven ROIs. The convergence of the BEST in both Contemporary and Traditional means to generate and close business, and to provide exceptional service is a must for the varied customer audiences and demographics today.
- 3Rs – Rounding Referrals and Retention - As the attached article points out with Auto Rates going down these 3 MUST Dos have never been more important. If you need assistance with any of them for both PL and CL your PL Trainers and Commercial Consultants (a title & responsibility transition from CL Account Executive) are here to help you with robust ready-made tactics to consider that you can customize for your own agency situation.
- Data-Lists, Data-Lists & Data-Lists to Bring You $ - Chris Bixler, our Manager of Technology has been working tirelessly to provide to you data and lists that you need that is ACTIONABLE to “Ring Your Cash Register”. This month Chris will have ready for you an array of lists to provide you with opportunities to mine the gold within and to also win back the gold. Specifically – Monoline Auto Lists, Monoline Home lists, Cancel Lists, Upcoming Renewal Lists, and additional data that can help you. If you plan to proactively work such a program please contact Chris directly at ChrisB@PGIAgents.com to obtain your lists.
Last, Premier will be moving soon – packing up on FRI March 19th and then in our new home MON March 22nd. The new address is below, highlighted in my signature block and is ~ 10 miles South of Downtown Denver on Broadway. The purchase of a nearly 30,000 square foot 3-story building gives us room to grow and build out state of the art agency training and development facilities as we continue to climb the ladder in the Top 100 Agency Universe and in performance with our carrier partners and each of you. (Once Covid-19 is fully out of our conversation we will plan a Grand Opening, sometime this summer we expect.)
In closing, as noted earlier, there is SO MUCH More… Nearly 50 Premier staff stand ready to help you! Rather than inundate you in one reading, this year there will more frequent outreach with an aim to in a concise manner bring you actionable information you can use over the next 30-60 days around the corner…
If you would like to hear more on any subject or request new subject information please let us know by reaching out to me directly at RexH@PGIAgents.com
TO YOUR SUCCESS! (Together we are #16 in PL & #48 Total P&C out of a Universe of 36,500 Agencies!)
Email Attachment - Building Your 2021 Playbook
Rex, Young, and Shawn
Rex Hickling, CPCU, AIM
President, Premier Group Insurance, Inc.
Cell: (303) 818-6218
Office: (720) 457-0206
Fax: (866) 275-1213
8089 South Lincoln St., Suite 300
Littleton, CO 80122
