GREEN MOUNTAIN AGENT A PUBLICATION OF VERMONT INSURANCE AGENTS ASSOCIATION
October 2015
7
th
Green Mountain Agent is a publication of
In This Issue: October 2015
P.O. Box 1387, Montpelier, VT 05601 Phone: 802-229-5884 Fax: 802-223-0868 www.viaa.org VIAA Officers President Daniel Lussier Vice President Peter Richards Secretary/Treasurer Erin Odell IIABA & PIA State National Director Ron Bixby Immediate Past President Michael T. Walsh, CPCU
Directors
4 Message from the President
Features 6 VIAA Elects New Officers 9 Help Wanted 11 YAC Make-A-Wish Walk 16 VIAA Annual Convention Scrapbook 23 Sales Success: How to Hold Your Salespeople Accountable
News 29 Co-Operative Insurance 30 In Memoriam: Garret B. Crowley, Jr.
Chip Ams Alan Kinney Paul Plunkett
Staff Executive Director Mary Eversole meversole@viaa.org
GMA Publication Design Thorin Markison thorinmarkison.com
Are you trying to reach Vermont’s Independent agent’s? Do you have a great ad that represents your company and have nowhere to place it? Are you looking to hire? Place your ad in VIAA’s monthly publication and have the opportunity to advertise and market to Vermont’s Independent Agents.
Questions on how to place an ad? Contact Mary Eversole at meversole@viaa.org for placement options and advertising rates.
Message from the President Return on Investment First, let me start by thanking everyone who attended our 109th Annual Convention and Golf Tournament. I’d like to extend special thanks to our sponsors and partners for their support. I’d be remiss if I did not congratulate the Young Agents Committee on a job well done with Casino Night. I can’t wait to see what they do next year! It’s that time of the year again for the InsurPac Phone-A-Thon. The national goal is to hit $1 million before the end of the year and they are very close to reaching it. You can help. Our InsurPac Chair, Paul Kendall, will be making calls this week. This is a wise investment. In 1998 the VIAA Board of Directors took on a capital campaign to purchase our current headquarters. It took a few years but they did it. The association has been fortunate to have this asset. It has served us well for the many years. As you know we’ve leased the first floor of the building to a great tenant and will do the same starting next month for the second floor. What does this mean for VIAA? It means we are moving our operations but keeping the building as we begin to realize a greater return on investment. Our vision is to establish an education center in Chittenden County with offices for our sole staff member. This move will help us curtail the costs of hosting classes externally while giving us the ability to expand classes in other areas of the state. We hope to be settled in our new offices by November 1 and will keep you posted on our progress.
Dan Lussier, VIAA President
4
Leasing: A Seamless Customer Experience
But don’t take it from us. Listen to your peers. Agents Express Leasing is an effective solution to manage your clients needs with today’s best equipment technology. Jay Byrnes of Byrnes Agency experienced how easy our leasing solution is for his agency: “As a longtime member of the “Big I”, I always knew of InsurBanc and their commitment to the independent insurance agent. Recently we wanted to update the agency with a new computer network and desktops, so I turned to InsurBanc for leasing options. From start to finish I experienced firsthand how seamless it was to conduct business with them. We have a 35 person agency so to update everyone’s computers was a decent size upgrade. InsurBanc made the process very easy and offered attractive terms and competitive rates which helped to manage the agency’s cash flow”. – Jay Byrnes ~ Byrnes Agency How it works: • Lease terms are 24, 36, 48 or 60 months with a minimum transaction of $5,000 • You are looking for 100% equipment financing, including certain soft costs such as software, shipping, installation and maintenance* • No down payments or advance payments are required • Monthly payments can be customized to meet your special business needs • You are looking for potential tax benefits associated with equipment financing**
We invite you to see for yourself. Contact us today for help preserving your cash flow with an equipment lease solution. These materials are for informational purposes only. The availability of any financing described herein is subject to approval of applicant’s credit, the equipment supplier and the equipment. *Soft costs are limited to 20% of the total amount financed. **Nothing herein constitutes tax advice and customers are advised to consult with their own tax advisors prior to electing specific rates or options. Agents’ Express leasing is a program of De Lage Landen Financial Services, Inc., a third party not affiliated with InsurBanc, a Division of Connecticut Community Bank, N.A.
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VIAA Elects New Officers St. Johnsbury’s Dan Lussier as President; Brattleboro’s Pete Richards as Vice President; Bradford’s Erin Odell as Secretary/Treasurer. South Hero’s Alan Kinney Joins Board as Officer. MONTPELIER, Vt., Oct. 13, 2015 – Dan Lussier, managing director of NFP P&C, Inc. in St. Johnsbury was recently elected president of the Vermont Insurance Agents Association (VIAA). Lussier’s election as VIAA’s president follows an active involvement with the association that includes serving as vice president, as a member of the Executive
Dan Lussier, President
Committee, VIAA board member and cochair of the Trusted Choice Vermont Junior Golf Qualifying Tournament. Other officers include: Peter Richards, of The Richards Group, in Brattleboro as vice president; Erin Odell of Odell Insurance in Bradford as secretary/treasurer; and Ron Bixby of Ludlow Insurance in Ludlow as national director The following agents also serve on the VIAA board of directors: Chip Ams of Finn & Stone in Manchester; Paul Plunkett of Hickok and Boardman in Burlington; and Alan Kinney of Kinney Insurance in South Hero.
Pete Richards, Vice President
Erin Odell, Secretary/Treasurer
Alan Kinney (Right) sworn in by his father 6
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Help Wanted
Personal Lines Customer Service Representative South Burlington, VT T.S. Peck Insurance, based in South Burlington, Vermont is looking for an experienced personal lines customer service representative to join our team. This position involves assisting new and existing personal lines clients with billing, claims, and policy changes for all personal lines policies. The position requires the ability to work closely with fellow customer service representatives, producers, management, and insurance carrier personnel. The work environment is professional and very supportive. The ideal candidate should have excellent interpersonal skills, 3+ years of CSR experience, and fluency in the Applied Management System. A property and casualty license is required. T.S. Peck offers a highly competitive salary, profit sharing, and benefits package.
Please send your resume to: jakehynes@tspeck.com T.S. Peck Insurance Attn: Jake Hynes 41 IDX Drive #135 South Burlington, VT, 05403
T.S. Peck has been providing personal and commercial insurance solutions to Vermonters since 1869. As a local, independent agency we have deep roots in the community and offer superior service to our clients.
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VT Young Agents Raise Nearly $1500 For Walk For Wishes Noyle W. Johnson Agency wins VIAA Walk for Wishes Challenge! VIAA’s Vermont Young Agents Committee laced up their sneakers and raised funds for the Make-a-Wish Walk for Wishes event that was held on Sunday, September 13, 2015 at the Shelburne Museum. The Vermont Young Agents held an inter-agency competition to see which agency could raise the most money. NFP P&C and Noyle W. Johnson accepted the challenge. Noyle W. Johnson won the competition and raised $530 with NFP P&C coming in second with $465 raised. NFP went on to raise an additional $198 after the walk for a total of $663. Thank you to everyone that donated and spent their time and effort in helping to make another Wish come true. Dan Rodliff Chair Make-A-Wish Committee, VTYACS NFP P&C
VERMONT
“Thank you to the Vermont Insurance Agents Association and their Young Agents Committee for raising nearly $1500 in support of Walk For Wishes. Congratulations to the Noyle W. Johnson Agency for being team winner of the VIAA Walk for Wishes Challenge! Pictured is Dan Rodliff (right) from the Young Agents Committee presenting a check to MakeA-Wish Vermont CEO, Jamie Hathaway and Wish Dog Addie.
11
Perpetuate the Industry? Check.
Don’t wait until the office is empty to find new talent – support InVEST and find new recruits now. InVEST is a free, classroom to career program designed to increase awareness of the insurance industry with high school and college students. And, InVEST has been making huge strides over the last year. With a new student center, career center and more scholarship dollars than ever before, InVEST is touching more and more students daily. InVEST, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit, is supported by financial contributions from insurance companies and individuals, in addition to the active involvement of hundreds of insurance professionals. For volunteer and donor opportunities visit www.investprogram.org.
10 Reasons to Attend the Big “I” Young BESTAgents Leadership Institute OF A REGIONAL. September 24-25 at the Fairmont San Francisco
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3. Make connections with other young agents—share your successes and challenges to watercraft, classic car and more. ® 4. Hear from top insurance carrier executives on issues to your agency has the products your Safecoimportant 5. Network with industry and association leaders customers need most. OF A NATIONAL. 6. Take away tools to help you work smarter products you need ü7.TheDiscover new marketing best practices claims ü8.24/7Spend time with good friends and get great ideas in class quote and ü9.Best Play a little jeopardy with our friends from the ACT issue platform 10. Check out the sights and sounds of San Francisco, Calif.
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2015 VIAA Annual Convention Scrapbook
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2015 VIAA Annual Convention Scrapbook
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Golf Tournament
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Sales Success with John Chapin How to Hold Your Salespeople Accountable In an article a couple of months ago I mentioned that one of the biggest issues I see when it comes to managing sales teams is a lack of accountability. Because it was only mentioned briefly as one of several issues, I’ve had many people come back to me asking for more on this particular problem, so here it is. Five Steps to Holding Your Salespeople Accountable Step 1) Set high standards during the hiring process. Whatever your standard expectations are for your salespeople, double those expectations when talking to a potential new hire. For example, if you expect your salespeople to make 50 phone calls a day, tell the candidate it’s 100. If you expect them to go out and knock on 25 doors a day, tell them it’s 50. If you expect them to work until 7 at night, tell them it’s 9. Do you expect them to work on Saturday? Tell them Saturday and Sunday. Yes, I hear some of your groaning right now. The point of this is to test the candidate during the interview process. You’re looking for hard workers, not skaters or slackers. You can adjust your numbers to something more reasonable later but if you start with average numbers, you’ll get average people to agree and then fall short even on those numbers. You have to set expectations high to begin with. Note: You also need to be hiring attitude and aptitude. You can’t teach work ethic, drive, self-motivation, and perseverance, and you can’t teach people to sell who aren’t cut out for it. You need to hire people willing to do the hard work and make tons of calls, even cold calls if necessary. Have a tough hiring process and stick to it no matter who the candidate is or how good they seem to be. Make them jump through some hoops and be tough. If
they can’t take a little heat from you, how are they going to take the heat out in the streets? Step 2) Hold people to the expectations they agree to. Everyone needs to have annual, monthly, and weekly goals that translate to daily activity. Are they making the number of phone calls and knocking on the number of doors they need to? Are they working on Saturday if that’s what they said they would do? What’s their work ethic? Are they meeting their daily numbers, exceeding them, or falling short? Do they show up early and leave late? The key here is, whatever they agree to they need to be hitting those numbers and ideally exceeding them to some degree. They also need to be working hard on the right activities. If they aren’t hitting the numbers, are they putting up a valiant effort? Do they need some skills development or time management help? Whatever the issue, if they are falling short on their numbers it needs to be corrected quickly which leads to the next step… Step 3) Everyone needs to be on a 180-day employment cycle. Every new hire should have an original employment contract of 180 days. Look, you probably know within a couple of weeks whether or not this person will make it so you don’t want to be stuck with someone for longer than 180 days. With new hires you want to micro-manage their activity a bit in the beginning and review numbers almost daily. Track calls and activity and the bottom line is: ultimate sales numbers don’t lie. If they are falling short in the first 90 days, and they have the right attitude and aptitude, they should be able to make the necessary course corrections and you should see marked improvement and growth in the second 90 days. If numbers are still abysmal after 180 days, it’s time to cut bait. 23
All your other producers, even the veterans, should also have a serious 90 and 180-day review. When you look at their last 90 days, if there are problems, they have 90 days to get them corrected. You may not have to be as strict and overt with your “good” people, but just make sure they aren’t getting into a comfort zone, developing bad habits, and/or getting complacent. Note: This is another area where sports has it right. The goalie not stopping pucks, pitcher giving up runs, and quarterback throwing too many interceptions isn’t the starter for long. Step 4) Check up on your people. In addition to tracking the number of phone calls everyone is making, you also need to be listening to phone calls and going out on calls with your people. The best way to listen to and go out on calls is with no prior notice. What I like to do is call someone out in the field, ask where they are, and then meet them and go on a few calls with them. I also walk into someone’s office and say, “Let’s make some phone calls.” And then I listen in. The element of surprise is the most effective because the salespeople who are making the calls and are out doing what they are supposed to be doing won’t be offended and will appreciate the help and insight. The mediocre and poor producers who aren’t prepared for the phone calls, or who say they’re out making calls but in reality are hiding out at a coffee shop, the movies, or elsewhere, will hate this. Note: As with Step 3, you know who your best people are and you can let them be a bit more autonomous. You may not have to surprise them like you do the person you suspect isn’t doing what they say they are. That said, no one gets a pass on accountability. If people are allowed to rest on their laurels, most will. Be careful of being too lax even with your best people.
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Step 5) Post sales numbers where all can see and use peer pressure. The lunch room is a great place to post numbers. The point here is that people with low numbers will feel pressure to get their numbers up and the champions don’t mind some friendly competition and pushing one another. You also want a positive environment of winners where the people who are working hard and doing the right things will thrive and the negative people and slackers will conform or exit stage right. Overall the most important part of accountability is to be committed to it and don’t let people slide, because if you do, most will. John Chapin is a sales and motivational speaker and trainer. For his free newsletter, or if you would like him to speak at your next event, go to: www.completeselling.com John has over 26 years of sales experience as a number one sales rep and is the author of the 2010 sales book of the year: Sales Encyclopedia. For permission to reprint, e-mail: johnchapin@completeselling.com
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Company News Co-operative Insurance Companies’ Vice President of Human Resources Named 2015 HR Professional of the Year Co-operative Insurance Companies’ vice president of human resources was recognized by her co-workers and industry peers for her contributions to the company, her profession, and the community this month. Gina Larrow received the 2015 HR Professional of the Year award from the Society for Human Resource Management at the group’s state conference in Burlington on September 10. Larrow was nominated for her work to improve employee development and HR requirements planning, her leadership on a company-wide succession planning and management initiative, her refinement of Co-op’s recruiting and hiring processes, and the trust she’s earned from the company’s employees during her 15 years there. “Gina’s guidance and leadership have enormous impact on our ability to develop our current staff for jobs of the future and to recruit and hire the right people,” wrote Co-op president and CEO Marie Jewett in the nomination letter.
Gina Larrow
Larrow, a graduate of Champlain College’s business program, holds the Professional in Human Resources designation from the Society for Human Resource Management. She has earned certifications to administer and interpret both Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Predictive Index tests. She was a past leader and member of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies’ HR committee, and assisted in organizing national industry conferences. Closer to home, she is a past member of the Middlebury UD#3 school board and the board of directors of the United Way of Addison County, and is a champion for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.
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Gerritt B. Crowley, Jr.
In Memoriam
Gerritt B. Crowley, Jr. passed away from heart failure on October 3, 2015 at the University of Vt. Medical Center with his family by his side. Gerritt was born in Burlington on December 15, 1938, son of G. Bernard and Ila Crowley. He graduated from Burlington High School in 1957 and Champlain College in 1958. Gerritt was always a hard worker starting his early years on the Vosburgh farm in South Burlington. In 1954, he went to work for S. R. Carter Farm Supply Company in Burlington, first as a stock clerk, later on the road as a traveling salesman. He then worked for the Reliance Company out of Connecticut selling farm equipment. During this period he served his country in the Army National Guard of Vermont. In 1966, he joined the family firm of Crowley Insurance Agency with his parents and brothers. He retired from the Agency in 2003 and in his retirement years worked part time for Bond Auto Parts, once again running the roads. In his 40 years in the insurance business Gerritt belonged to many insurance related associations including the PIA Professional Insurance Agents of New England and the ARM Group of Vt. Agents. He served as a commissioner on the Burlington Fire Department in the 1970’s and also served on the Grand Isle County Reparative Justice Board. Gerritt made many lifelong friends through his connections with the insurance industry and for years hosted annual Insurance and Ice Fishing Seminars along with golf and lobster parties at the Crowley camp in South Hero. Gerritt was a long-time member of the Ethan Allen Club and the Burlington Elks Lodge. One of his 30
proud accomplishments was working with the Burlington Elks Lodge to build a cabin for his South Hero neighbor, Camp Ta-KumTa. Gerritt married Nancy Patrick in 1960 and together they raised four children. Gerritt enjoyed living on the lake, boating and spending many happy summers with his family. Gerritt is survived by his wife Nancy of 55 years, their children, Patrick Crowley and wife Maryann of Vergennes, Pamela Crowley of Shelburne, Kelly and husband James Clements of East Aurora, NY and Gerritt (G.B.) CrowIey Ill of Burlington; grandchildren, Matthew Crowley and wife Heather of Vergennes, Jack Badger and wife Megan of Vergennes, Jared and Jeffrey Badger of Shelburne, J.P. and Kellen Clements of NY, great granddaughters Ila and Clara Crowley of Vergennes, brother-in-law Gene Patrick of Richmond and many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents, his brothers Thomas and John Crowley and in-laws Thomas and Norma Patrick. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday, October 9, 2015 at 11:00am at St. Anthony Catholic Church, 305 Flynn Ave., Burlington, VT. Visiting hours will be on Thursday, October 8th from 4-7pm at the Corbin & Palmer Funeral Chapel, 9 Pleasant Street, Essex Jct., VT. The family would like to thank Dr. Christopher Hebert, the Cardiology Team at Tilley Drive and the McClure 5 nurses for their compassionate support and care. Donations may be made in his memory to Camp-Ta-KumTa, PO Box 459, South Hero, Vt. 05486.