“The activities that PIA-CCEO have been engaging in for some time are concentrated on developing stronger, more aggressive, growth-sale-profitable agencies,” explained Patricia A. Borowski, PIA senior vice president of government affairs. “We have [developed] methods, tools and strategies that are intended to stamp-out the term cross-selling from the vocabulary and recognize that you are going to continue to service and work with your clients to expand and develop their portfolio for all of their insurance needs.”

Scott Kuczmarski, recently elected chairman of PIA-CCEO, further explained the 'Value Difference' theory, a comprehensive educational program that helps agents develop broader strategic plans for their agencies. The program, he said, also “provides the tools to make the necessary changes in the agency to support whatever that plan might be.”

Mr. Kuczmarski, the vice president of independent agent sales and marketing for New York-based MetLife Auto and Home continued, saying that, “cross-selling or cross-buying would be one small element of the 'Value Difference' Series. It is a much more comprehensive program than that.”

The idea of this program is to provide long-term, profitable growth for the agent, he said. The way to accomplish that goal is for the agent to develop a “strong strategic plan and vision” with a “very strong emphasis on tactical planning.”

The PIA-CCEO was developed back in 1996 when PIA asked senior executives from national and regional carriers to form the CCEO. The idea was to develop programs to support independent agents and identify opportunities in the agent-company partnership.

Ms. Borowski said that research and development of the “Value Difference Program” began sometime in the fall of 1999 with focus groups and ran through 2000. By mid-2001, the program was formally rolled out for agents.

What is different about this program, say Mr. Kuczmarski and Ms. Borowski, is that while other programs are a blueprint for a sales program, the “Value Difference Program” gives the agent the tools to decide what he or she believes would produce a successful agency.

“It is a process agents will go through that leads to different decisions for every single agent, Mr. Kuczmarski said, noting that decisions will depend upon what an agent's beliefs are, what his or her values are, and what the agent is trying to provide for the community.

The program “does not try to define what the solutions are specifically. It says, 'Here are a whole bunch of possible solutions, and here are a couple of ways of thinking about it and you take this information and this process, Mr. or Mrs. Agent, and you decide what works for you.' And it should, and does, result in a different answer for every agent because no two agents are exactly alike.”

Besides giving agents the tools to make the decision about where they want to be going, Ms. Borowski said, the program also produces a partnership with carriers. Once the agency has a strategy in mind, the carrier can respond to the agency as “an operational unit” and support the agency with the lines it needs to augment that agency's plan.

A typical “Value Difference” session first begins with meeting the state or regional PIA representatives and discussing what issues are most on the minds of agents there, Ms. Borowski said. In a seminar setting, agents receive a presentation discussing their concerns and discuss what they need to do to become more successful.

There is a self-evaluation survey designed for agents to help them better understand where their business is and where they want to be.

More discussion follows, with a personal evaluation over what they expect to accomplish over the next 60 to 90 days.

Agents walk away, not only with the tools to enable them to begin the process of improving their businesses, she said, but also with support. There is a follow-up session within 60 to 90 days of the first session, additional materials are sent to agents, and a CCEO company member agrees to work with the agent to get where he or she wants to be.

Whatever type of agency the producer is looking to be-whether it's one guided by the goal of aggressive sales growth or managing assets, for example–the important thing is to develop a brand for the agency and build from there, noted Mr. Kuczmarski.

“This is not about one agency type being more successful than another type,” Ms. Borowski emphasized. “What is important is that the agency has an abiding commitment to being a successful agency.”

“The agent can pick almost any strategy to do, but the key is to make a decision,” Mr. Kuczmarski added. “What we do is to teach how to develop a strategy and follow through with a business plan.”

Because of limited resources, and growing demand among the affiliates for the program, PIA-CCEO is developing alternative plans for deliver to agents. Mr. Kuczmarski said that in addition to seminars, the venture is looking at technology including a Web-based program for PIA agents and “other innovative ways” of delivery.

More information about the program is available through state and regional affiliates, and the PIA-CCEO section on the Web at www.pianet.com.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, January 20, 2003. Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.