However, over the years, some trends have developed. For instance, account development (cross-selling) has risen in importance from the first study, going from No. 18 to 10 to 6. Not surprising, since it ties directly into retention, Cuprisin pointed out.

Other factors that have grown in importance since the first study were staff education (No. 11 this year) and perpetuation (No. 26)–apparently a direct reflection on the graying of agency ownership.

The National Alliance put together the list of 38 factors in 1993 with input from the Big I, based on feedback from agency owners, Cuprisin said.

Interestingly, part of the survey included input from front-line insurance company personnel–and they, too, ranked retention as No. 1 in all three studies, Cuprisin said. In fact, insurer reps and agents are pretty much on the same page of what's important, with the biggest difference being product expertise (which company people ranked five positions higher than agency owners). Other differentials were market penetration (rated much higher by insurer employees), and having adequate company markets (ranked much lower than agents, for obvious reasons).

The study also takes into consideration agency size, and in general, respondents were fairly close in what they rated as important, Cuprisin said. All agreed that retention was biggest issue, but public image more important for smaller agencies than larger ones.

As far as challenges, here are the top 10 in this year's survey, according to agents:

1. Finding and training new producers: 4.02 average
2. Achieving agency growth objectives: 3.49
3. Establishing personnel for perpetuation the agency: 3.45
4. Achieving profit objectives: 3.40
5. Instilling a sales culture throughout the agency: 3.38
6. Getting all producers to use a consistent sales process: 3.32
7. Maintaining high employee productivity: 3.26
8. Establishing niche markets: 3.17
9. Earning sufficient compensation for my time and effort: 3.00
10. Maintaining a quality service staff: 2.92

Do you agree?