ENTREPRENEURS SERVING ENTREPRENEURS

Seattle agency's game plan: "We make house calls."

by Dennis Pillsbury

One of the unique things about the Independent Agency System is that it allows anyone to join. But that doesn't mean that anyone will succeed. Generation after generation of Beesons has appreciated this inclusivity. Four generations have taken advantage of the ease of entry and their own peculiar bent toward entrepreneurship to "do their own thing." And the most recent Beeson to reach the age of "maturity" has done the same thing with such success that he has made our cover.

Five years ago, Peter Beeson, CIC, CPIA, established the Seattle Insurance Agency, Inc., to service the needs of entrepreneurs. He was joined by his father, whose name is also Peter. The elder Beeson had set up Beeson Company in Seattle with his brother. Today, Seattle Insurance Agency has $300,000 in revenues and the same two employees. When clients call, they get to talk to Peter. Beeson Company continues to be a strong agency, with a specialty in construction. But the Seattle Insurance Agency reflects the younger Beeson's dream of being more of a generalist, with a focus on small, entrepreneurial enterprises.

We talked with the younger Beeson about his client-focused approach to reaching and retaining clients. We also discussed why he decided to go out on his own rather than join one of his elders' successes.

As Beeson explains, it was because he really didn't know what he wanted to do when he grew up. Now he doesn't have to. "I really love finding out what everyone else does to make a living. My passion is what my customers do. I go in there and try to understand their business and help them with it. Sometimes that means providing insurance protection. At other times, the clients may be looking for an attorney or an accountant familiar with the needs of entrepreneurial firms. We help them with that. We're an entrepreneurial firm that has been through a lot of what they're experiencing. We've already scoped out the area and can often help them find the right people for their needs as well as provide the coverage necessary. We just go in there and help them out and, in the process, provide them with our own service, which happens to be insurance." In addition to entrepreneurial enterprises, the agency also handles high-value personal lines, often for the same clients.

"Servicing the needs of entrepreneurs is really fun," Beeson continues. "You get to meet interesting people at unique firms. For example, one of our clients, Prism Designs, manufactures sports kites. The business is just full of brilliant colors and people having fun making a living."

Seattle Insurance Agency targets entrepreneurial firms with premiums of around $7,500 or more.

An accident

Beeson admits that, despite the experience of the three previous generations, "I got into insurance by accident. I was working at United Way when Dad talked to me about setting up an agency together. I liked the idea of building a business and figured that if I didn't like it, I could always get out. But if it worked, that would be phenomenal. Well, needless to say, I liked it--a lot! It's been great. I have a great job and a great boss."

Beeson admits that his father's previous success helped greatly. "He was a known individual with the companies, and some of them were willing to come and give us an appointment. Thanks to our growth and continued efforts, we were able to acquire other appointments. I think it's extremely important to represent a number of companies so we can offer our clients the best programs and coverages available."

Learning about the business

Beeson's venture into the insurance business was as a novice. He had never worked in his father's agency and knew very little about the business. "Dad was focused on education and keeping up with the changes in the industry," Beeson notes. "He recognized that the insurance world had changed significantly for him and that education was the key to keeping pace. I jumped into it, getting my CIC and CPIA and am now studying for the CPCU. One of the really helpful things for me was the plethora of sales information that is available at CPIA meetings and the dynamics of selling offered by CIC. I had never sold anything in my life, and now I was entering a business where I was selling a commodity you can't even touch. It was daunting."

Beeson learned from many of the speakers at CPIA functions. "I kept getting bombarded with ideas, but the basic philosophy was quite simple: Take care of your customer and make him/her your number one concern, and the rest will fall into place. And I've found that if you do that, your business grows in the most effective way possible--through referrals. There's nothing better than hearing from a referral that one of your clients told him or her that Peter Beeson is the only person to talk to about insurance."

Mark Reed (right), president of Prism Designs, is one of the Seattle Insurance Agency's clients. "Servicing the needs of entrepreneurs is really fun," says Peter Beeson II (left). "You get to meet interesting people at unique firms."

For the Seattle Insurance Agency, implementing this philosophy was summed up as "We make house calls." "We focus on getting to know the clients and that means sitting down with them eyeball to eyeball at their place of business to see what they do and how they do it," Beeson explains. "We've identified a market that enjoys talking owner to owner and, with us, that's what they always get. My phone and computer are always with me. Although I'm in the office early in the morning, I don't stay there very long. I'm usually out visiting clients, so we've leveraged technology to make certain that people can reach us even when no one's in the office. (The office is a 'palatial' 470 square foot area that's primarily used for processing paper.) When someone calls, they get to talk to a human named Peter."

The agency also uses a digital camera as part of its effort to proactively maintain relationships. "We take a photo of everyone we contact," says Beeson. "We get pictures of the owner and his/her team, building and grounds. We don't want our clients to just be numbers. If one of our clients has a loss, we send his/her photo to the adjuster and a note saying this is the person behind the name. We also send out congratulatory cards, thank-you cards and so on. We try to vary what we send to be unique. This year we sent out Valentine's Day cards asking our clients 'Will you be mine again?'."

"We leverage technology by creating custom CDs for our clients. "

--Peter Beeson II

"Another way we leverage technology is by creating custom CDs for our clients. While working with one of our realtor clients, we developed a CD for a new homeowner that included pictures of the interior and exterior of the new home. We pointed out some of the unique features of the house and, in some cases, particular things that would need to be scheduled."

Mixing in some low-tech marketing

"Some people are scared of technology. You can go too far with it. We try to mix in some low-tech with the high-tech. We always ask our clients how they want us to contact them, and we note it in their file. Some want e-mail, some want a phone call. We do whatever they want. We also use an approach with our clients that doesn't involve any technology. It's a small sales drama."

"Everyone eats at some point in time," continues Beeson. "So we took the restaurant experience and made that an insurance experience. We go into the client's place with a beautiful template menu that includes a customized menu of coverages. We seat him/her, place a white linen napkin in his/her lap and present a customized menu of coverages. Of course, there are no prices on the menu. This is a classy place. Then we present the client with the bill in a restaurant-type billfold that shows him/her the amount due now. And we walk away with a happy customer."

Beeson says that his customers enjoy the fact that he uses technology for their benefit but isn't married to it. "We never take information down on the notebook computer because that would be distracting for us and the client," says Beeson.

Generosity of his peers

Beeson says that he owes a great deal to the generosity of the broker community throughout the United States. "Through the CPIA, I've been at meetings where I'm surrounded by mega-agents, and I've asked them thousands of questions. These people are willing to share their wealth of knowledge. Oftentimes, they're simple concepts, but they add up to a tremendous marketing tool that just can't be equaled. Things we use on a daily basis are ideas that brokers recommended to us at CPIA meetings. One broker simply told us: 'Don't quote.' We don't. 'Use a handwritten thank-you note.' We do."

"I've been able to pick up the telephone and pick someone's brain," Beeson concludes. "And everyone I call is happy to help out. I've got a network of people who think outside the box. It allows us to compete with anyone."