Setting Expectations, Shoptalk Series – Episode #12

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck talk about understanding the significance of setting expectations from a carrier standpoint and a managing standpoint.

Episode Highlights:

• David shares that people who are starting to get into the middle market don’t understand the difference between writing commercial insurance to small businesses and writing commercial insurance to non-small businesses. (1:45)
• David talks about managing expectations. (2:04)
• David shares that the carrier has to get an understanding of what risk looks like through your communication with them, and specifically your submission. (3:27)
• David mentions that he’s a big fan of including loss control, audit claims, and underwriting in an on-site visit to that client. (3:36)
• David shares that one of the best things you can do is put together a good narrative that tells the underwriter exactly what it is that they’re looking at, don’t make them do a bunch of guesswork. (4:10)
• David says that setting carrier expectations sometimes are having legitimate marketing meetings with them. (5:16)
• David realized that there are a lot of agencies that despise the marketing visit. (5:23)
• David mentions that when you’re building out a niche product or a pipeline, one of the best ideas is to go to the underwriter or the marketing rep. (5:59)
• Kyle thinks that you need to have a good type of relationship with the underwriter to where you can pick up the phone and have a conversation with them. (6:42)
• Kyle shares a story about one of his payroll partners that were trying to pull them away from the PEO relationship. (7:16)
• Kyle explains why they think that the claims were manageable. (8:25)
• David says that you must have historical results of proving yourself right. (9:35)
• David mentions that you need to do something better than every other agent out there. (11:23)
• David shares that when setting an expectation standpoint with a carrier, you should understand how they are going to take claims data in, and then report it back to you. (12:41)
• David says that one of the significant details is that we need to have claims reported by location. (12:55)
• David mentions that one of his biggest pet peeves is getting loss runs that lack detail. (14:10)
• David talks about the baseline risk assessment. (16:00)
• Kyle mentions that there’s nothing more disappointing than not following through with the expectations. (21:33)
• David shares a story about the time he went on a drive-thru at Taco Bell with his buddy, Lance Crawford. (21:55)
• David explains the two significant phases of setting expectations. (23:23)
• From a managing expectation standpoint, David thinks that sometimes people don’t set the expectation at the beginning and formalize it because they don’t want to have the pressure of having to follow through. (23:55)

 Tweetable Quotes:

• “One of the reasons why we’re able to get things done with carriers that other agencies aren’t sometimes is because they know that we’re transparent in that process…There’s no smoke and mirrors.” – David Carothers
• “That’s the type of relationship leveraging that you need to do to get some things across the finish line. If I just go and submit that online and we’re not having any conversation, that gets shut down all day.” – Kyle Houck
• “Number one set the expectation, and then most importantly, hold them to it. Make sure that they actually stick to what they said they’re going to do for you. If you do that, you’re going to find that you make your life a whole lot easier.” – David Carothers
• “If you’re truly going to be a partner, they should always know what’s going on. That’s a major deal in terms of managing the relationship, and if your goal is to hit it and quit it, and you write the account and walk away, you’re going to lose the account just as fast as you got it because you’re not doing anything to keep it on the books.” – David Carothers

Resources Mentioned:

• David Carothers LinkedIn
• Kyle Houck LinkedIn
• Florida Risk Partners
• The Extra 2 Minutes
• Lance Crawford LinkedIn