Never forget to sell every day. This advice has proved successful at my agency, Cobbs, Allen & Hall. It has kept the agency growing from its start in 1887 to where it is today: 175 employees with five branch offices, in addition to its corporate office in Birmingham, Ala. The agency is employee owned, with more than 40 shareholders, from the president to account managers. Humble beginnings
Cobbs, Allen & Hall was founded in 1887 as the John G. Smith Co. The name was changed in the 1920s to reflect the principals in charge at the time. The business grew as an insurance and mortgage brokerage firm around the Birmingham area during the middle part of the last century. In April 1992, a group of investors, headed by current president Grantland H. Rice III, purchased the agency. At the time, the agency was a small insurance brokerage with offices in Birmingham and Gadsen, Ala., writing $10 million a year in premium with 20 employees. In 1993, Bruce S. Denson joined the company as CEO to grow Cobbs, Allen & Hall into a large regional brokerage. Denson's vision was for the agency to grow steadily at a rate of 15 percent a year for the next decade. By 2004, the agency boasted 140 employees with $300 million in annual premiums. Today, there are 175 employees in the corporate office in Birmingham and other branches: Gadsen, Montgomery and Mobile, Ala.; Atlanta; and Shreveport, La. In 2000, the agency joined Assurex Global, a partnership organization of elite private brokerages around the world.

Rice, who headed the group of investors in 1992, began his career in insurance with our agency. He previously had served as a vice president of a regional travel management services company.

Denson, whose vision was instrumental in the agency's growth, began his career in insurance in 1971 and previously served McGriff, Siebels & Williams as chief operating officer prior to joining our agency in 1993. Specialties
Cobbs, Allen & Hall's targeted specialties as a risk management provider are construction, manufacturing, non-profit, risk management accounts and captives. The economic situation is having quite an impact on the construction and manufacturing industries, which are a large part of our business. However, rather than shifting our focus away from these industries, we are using our expertise in these industries to help our clients now more than ever. We provide benefits to our clients by carefully reviewing their risk management programs, ensuring that they have the right ones in place. By mitigating our client's risk in a proactive manner, we can help minimize their cost and potential losses, thus imporving their bottom line. Effective risk management is a must in today's economy. Commercial lines business makes up 80 percent of our revenue, employee benefits are 16 percent, and personal lines 4 percent. Although this ratio remains true in our current economy, we are seeing and feeling the impact in a number of ways. Health care cost is a huge concern to employers. We continue to see increases in premiums annually, a trend that is requiring employers to reevaluate and look at other possible alternatives. The continued rise in cost is eating away at shrinking profits of employers and their employee's paychecks. Our role is to help clients find alternatives and solutions to reduce their cost. We have consultants who work with our clients to educate their employees on safety, wellness and consumerism. These initiatives take place at our home, too. At Cobbs, Allen & Hall, we participate in the National Start! Walking Day annually. We also have “recess at work.” Every day for 15 minutes or so, employees move from their desks and walk outside or up and down the stairs. Setting an example is important. We offer our clients a number of value-added services and resources to help manage their overall risk. These services range from analytical software applications to legislative and information portals. We also work with our clients' data to drill down into claims information and pinpoint where an employer may be having issues. We look for trends, and then develop custom solutions and programs that specifically address their issues. Prevention is the key to properly managing risk. In line with that philosophy, we offer our clients consulting services for human resources, healthcare management, safety and loss control and employment law. We position ourselves as an outsourced risk manager and go beyond just insurance by providing services that impact our client's total cost of risk. This philosophy has helped improve our clients' success and has allowed us to be successful regardless of the market conditions. What is unique about Cobbs, Allen & Hall is our approach. It's not a cookie- cutter approach by any means. Every business is different in their people, operations and culture. In order for us to be effective in our role as a risk manager, we must truly understand our client, how they do business and their overall objectives. We have a great staff of employees with a wide range of expertise in various areas. They use their skills and knowledge to “peel back the onion” and find the crucial areas where we can truly help our clients. Friends in more places
As an Assurex Global partner, Cobbs, Allen & Hall has developed relationships with leading insurance brokers in more than 20 countries. Assurex Global boasts more than 20,000 insurance professionals on six continents and more than 115 independent brokers who generate annual premiums in excess of $23 billion. It is the world's largest privately held risk management and commercial insurance brokerage group. Partners are selected based on their market positions, growth histories, quality, breadth of services and commitment to clients. Assurex Global benefits our agency in many ways, according to our company president, Grantland Rice III. “We bounce things back and forth and you learn in a peer group,” he said. “It also gives us both international and national presence. For instance, if I have a client in Alabama with a manufacturing plant in Argentina and I need to know local laws in that country, globally I can go to my partner and get help.” Agency automation
At Cobbs, Allen & Hall, we constantly are looking for ways to be more efficient and provide our clients with exceptional service. We recently implemented a system, CSR24, which allows our clients to report claims, access policy and certificate information. This system allows access to several other features 24/7, via phone or Internet. We are in the process of implementing a new system called ProspX. This system is a tool for our salespeople to track and manage sales opportunities. Our philosophy is to give our employees the education, resources and information required by their roles as team members–then support them and hold them accountable for exceptional service to the client. With that in mind, our human resources department offers training and education for a variety of positions and roles within the agency. In addition, we also bring vendors onsite to conduct educational classes. Fortunately, we have not had any layoffs. We are all aware of the economy and no employer is immune to the possibility of layoffs. We are watching expenses closely and looking for ways to do more for less so Cobbs, Allen & Hall can be as efficient and productive as possible. >Our company's leadership is always looking ahead and preparing us for whatever conditions we might face. They always have our client's, our company's and our employee's best interests in mind. “We try to stay a little ahead of the curve,” says our company president, Grantland Rice III. “In late 2007 we looked at ways to improve our efficiency. We aligned people with service teams and people who are able to handle more work.” Rice stresses that the company isn't immune to the economy. “Our clients are suffering and feeling the pinches of the economy and we are right there with them,” he said. “We are trying to help our customers become more competitive and more efficient, and improve their risk profiles with a number of the value-added services we offer.” With more than 120 years since inception of the company, the agency as seen many changes and continues to evolve and grow. However, one thing that has remained a constant is our reputation for providing exceptional service to our clients.