Exclusivefocus Spring 2013 - National Association of Professional ...

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The Seller’s Side of the Sale
By Brian Spillman
I
recently sold my agency after 17 wonderful
years with Allstate. Okay, so
maybe only 15 were wonderful and the
last two fell slightly short of the mark.
I purchased two other books during my
tenure as an agent and built a combined
book that exceeded $4 million in premium.
The company sent me the standard
warning letters threatening termination
if I didn’t sell more policies. So like
many other agents, I took it upon myself
to get out of a difficult situation – that
was only likely to get worse – by putting
my book of business up for sale. Besides
the constant stress and harassment, there
were many other personal reasons for me
to get out, including my desire to spend
more time with my family.
I knew that managers in my region
and elsewhere were on a mission to replace
tenured agents like me with a new
generation of agents, perhaps in the
hope that they could somehow improve
agent attitudes and morale. I also knew
that these managers had a stable of preapproved
buyers in their hip pockets
who they were ready to present to selling
agents at the drop of a hat. I took advantage
of this opportunity and that is when
the “fun” began.
Allstate managers marched buyer after
buyer in front of me – a total of five in
all. “Great,” I thought. I would be able to
choose the highest bidder among them,
as long as he or she was a good fit for
my agency and my clients. But that’s not
how it worked out. Instead of me being
able to select the buyer of my choice, it
appears that one of the competing managers
must have “won out” in a back
room deal – I’m guessing in a hotly contested
game of “rock-paper-scissors” –
because suddenly, his buyer became my
only option. In my mind, I pictured him
installing an inground swimming pool in
his backyard with the bonus money he
earned for finding a buyer. The company’s
decision was set in stone and I would
sell to this one buyer. Period.
Lucky for me, the buyer who was being
forced down my throat tendered a
reasonable offer and was a good fit for my
agency. But I could have fared a lot worse
if their buyer had given me a low-ball offer
or was of dubious character; either way,
I doubt whether the company would have
cared. Their goal is to hire bodies to fill a
spot and collect a bonus – keep in mind
that the ground had already been broken
for the inground pool and hot tub in the
victorious manager’s backyard.
At that point, I began to work out the
details with the buyer that the company
had custom-chosen for me. I was retained
as a consultant for three months
to smooth over the transition and keep
current customers from leaving in droves.
I was prepared for this.
What I wasn’t prepared for was how
poorly Allstate prepared the new buyer for
this job. He knew how to run a business,
but had no prior insurance experience.
When he came back to the office from
Allstate training, he didn’t know how to
take a payment or do an endorsement.
Granted, these are tasks normally done
by the agent’s staff, but any agent needs
to know how to do them in the event the
staff is on vacation, sick or quits.
I also wasn’t prepared for how much
time the buyer spent away from the of-
14 — Exclusivefocus Spring 2013