Meagan and John here from MCA. In our last video, we talk about how we think about the small commercial marketplace. We talked about different ways to succeed and that there is a lot of consideration based off your specific company.
One of the things we touched on was exploring new markets to expand. So, John, what would you consider if you were a carrier looking to expand into a new market?
Expanding into small commercial or into a new appetite within small commercial, the tactics and strategies can differ based on how you’re looking to expand.
The needs are very different if you’re looking to take what you do today and move into a new geography. Or if you’re looking to move into a new industry or different size of risk, all of those tactics will be different. But some key things to think about is what has made you successful so far and will that translate into the new market?
If you’re looking to change your geographic footprint or move into a new state, historically maybe your agency plan has protected you. Can you rely on your new agents to do that in the new state? So how do you think about ways to protect you if the things that have helped you in the past don’t align in the new market?
Additionally, if you have a new agency plan, how are you going to get them to bring you the best business? What differentiates yourself from the carriers that are already in that market? Are you going to compete on price, ease of doing business. Are you bringing unique coverages that no one else is offering? These are all ways to distinguish yourself in the market, particularly if you can’t trust the new agents like you’ve trusted
The relationships you’ve built over the last number of decades. Quite a bit to think about. Based on your experience, are there any words of wisdom you have for carriers that are looking to diversify? We see very often a lot of carriers are looking to move into the same space. They all want to move into the low-risk business, and that could be a winning strategy.
You just got to make sure your capabilities align with that, and you distinguish yourself in the marketplace because there are a lot of players. It’s hard to compete against some of the very large carriers that spend millions of dollars on a quoting platform and tons of data scientists building various sophisticated pricing plan. The small stuff.
That’s where that stuff really matters. Figuring out a way to distinguish yourself is very important in that space. There’s the adage of you either need to be ten times better than your competition or you need to be different So if you’re moving to a space where there’s a lot of competition, how are you going to be better or different?
So, John, sounds like there’s a lot to consider if you’re looking to expand. This is something that’s going to vary a lot by carriers. If you want to learn more and talk about your specific business needs, reach out to us. We’ll be more than happy to have a conversation with you.
In our next segment, we’re going to talk about how you succeed having a generalist appetite. Stay tuned for more.