AGENT RELATIONSHIPS
Insurance agents are dedicated, hard-working professionals who are deeply committed to serving their clients' best interests. Catalyze strives to maintain a positive relationship with your insurance agent and works cooperatively with your agent's team to achieve your desired insurance outcomes.
The Agent's Role
Understanding the agent's role in managing your insurance program is critical to developing appropriate expectations of the agent's services—and where an insurance consultant may be able to provide additional value.
Insurance agents come in all shapes and sizes. In the most basic terms, an insurance agent is an entity that is licensed with an insurance company to place an insurance policy on behalf of a policyholder. Most insurance agencies operate as independent retailers and are able to obtain insurance quotes from multiple insurance markets. Because peer agencies commonly have access to overlapping markets, agents must adopt new strategies to maintain a competitive edge. Sometimes agents specialize in specific practice areas (construction, energy, retail, technology) to serve a particular customer base. Agents may also offer additional services (claims management, contract assistance) to support their clients' insurance-related needs. But the agent's primary function remains to market and sell insurance.
The Consultant's Role
As agencies grow and change staff, it can be challenging for agents to meet their primary sales objective while simultaneously expanding or fulfilling the services offered. The role of the insurance consultant is to provide extra horsepower, empowering the insurance agent to do what they do best—broker good deals. Catalyze assumes responsibility for services exceeding the agent's scope and works synergistically with the agent to ensure your core objectives are met.
Catalyze is jointly accountable with your agent to set and maintain operating benchmarks that meet your standards and exceed your expectations. But due to your company's size, industry, or specific needs, there may be times when your current agent just isn't a good fit. In those circumstances, we can help guide you through the difficult process of agent selection—from informal interviews to full-scope requests for proposals.