We asked brokers what they thought made an ordinary broker an elite broker – and it wasn’t a simple case of ‘show me the money.’
The latest Insurance Business poll asked the question: ‘What makes an Elite Broker in Canada?’ and the majority of replies pegged ‘Respect Among Peers’ and ‘Big Numbers in a Small Market’ as the top criteria to being an elite broker.
Coming in tied for second were expectations of a high level of expertise and total revenue numbers.
Some of the hopefuls for this year’s Elite Broker honours include Vincent Boulanger, of Assurancia Group Confiance in Montreal, Que., who identified a few qualities necessary to make it big as a successful broker.
“You need to be obsessed with client services, be a sales superstar, and really open to technology and be an intelligent entrepreneur/dreamer,” he told Insurance Business. “You have to be a problem solver and a consultant for clients.”
Andrew Clark, who made last year’s Top 30 Elite Broker listing, is utilizing his expertise in the directors and officers’ insurance space to grow his new company ALIGNED.
“That is my expertise, and that product line is drastically undersold in the company space,” he told Insurance Business. “There is certainly a lot of product out there, it’s just not a lot of companies buying it.” (continued.)
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Clark speculates that his intimate knowledge and comfort level in the D&O space gives him an advantage in selling the product.
“When you get into the underwriting process (with D&O) it requires a certain kind of intimacy,” says Clark, “because you are getting involved in the company’s financials. There is a severity of exposure there, so it is not for everybody.”
This year’s Elite Top 30 survey is now open to brokers, and can be accessed from the Insurance Business Canada website home page, or by clicking
here.
The deadline is July 27, and only those surveys that are completely filled out will be considered for the Top 30 list, to appear in the September issue of Insurance Business magazine.
Our next
poll question looks at the future of brokering, asking where companies are looking when hiring.
