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Producer Eileen Greene’s excellence at building client relationships has led to great referrals, plenty of cross selling, sales awards and even getting to hang out with Lloyds’ CEO Inga Beale
Eileen Greene really racked up the frequent flyer miles last year.
Greene, who is a vice-president and partner at
HUB International Limited and works out of the company’s Toronto offices, spent a lot of time flying to meet with clients as a result of 2013’s extreme weather. She was on the road regularly, ensuring that her company was delivering on its service commitment after flooding in Calgary and Toronto, not to mention a major windstorm in Edmonton.
And then she had some really long flights. There were multiple trips to London, UK, as a result of her nomination and ultimate triumph as the winner of the 2013 International Women in Sales Award for Insurance. That was quite the big deal in its own right, but it also earned her the right to be personally mentored by new Lloyd’s of London CEO Inga Beale, leading to even more overseas travel. Taking full advantage of this tremendous opportunity has effectively raised the bar for one of the world’s more accomplished salespeople.
Eileen Greene started her professional career as a filing clerk in a mid-sized brokerage in North Toronto right out of high school. Over the course of 17 years, she moved on to reception, data entry and personal client service, then became a licensed broker and eventually vice president of VIP Services. “While being educated on the insurance piece, I fell upon my passion for sales,” Greene says. “After my first child was born, I elected to take the risk and move into a production role.”
Her book of business grew in all lines of insurance, generally starting with catering to her clients’ personal insurance requirements. “This role allowed me the flexibility to raise a young family and still have a very fulfilling career,” she says.
For professional and personal reasons, Greene made the move in 2007 to HKMB International Insurance Brokers, which is now part of Hub International, Canada’s largest insurance brokerage and one of the largest privately held brokerage firms in North America. Through consistent relationship-building and a penchant for client advocacy, she developed a significant portfolio of major commercial and high-net-worth personal insurance clients, leading to her 2010 appointment as a vice-president and partner. She is recognized annually at HUB’s sales leadership awards, and was honoured in 2013 with the Legend award, which recognizes those who have consistently achieved new business production at the highest levels for five consecutive years.
CUSTOMER-CENTRIC PHILOSOPHY
The ability to provide truly first-class customer service has always been a key to Greene’s success, and the drive to do so has set her apart from her competition. “Everyone always concentrates on the technical side of things,” Greene says. “I think a weakness that we have as an industry is that we don’t necessarily manage the client relationship and experience very well.”
Greene makes it a priority to stay in front of her clients, constantly staying in touch and therefore staying top-of-mind when it comes to their insurance needs. This is made possible by the support she receives from her team at HUB. “Our dedicated professionals take care of all of the insurance detail work, which allows me to do what I do best – which is to manage relationships,” she says.
Doing things like flying in to visit clients dealing with claims last year, ensuring she was delivering on her service commitment, has a major impact, Greene says, on solidifying the client experience.
As big as HUB is, Greene says it still operates very much like a boutique firm. HUB doesn’t operate in silos and the team is very collaborative. “When I find an opportunity, I get the team involved. We decide as a team how we are going to land the account,” Greene says. She’ll quarterback the relationship, but the client has a full team of dedicated experts to handle their every need.
REFERRALS AND CROSS-SELLING COME NATURALLY
An obvious benefit to being a strong advocate for her clients is that it opens the door to some strong referrals – something Greene admits that for too long she didn’t focus on, instead seeking out new leads. “If you deliver excellent service on a claim, it is a perfect opportunity to ask for a referral,” she says. “It’s become a very natural ‘ask’ for me now … a lot of my business now is just natural referrals.” Greene says staying involved with her clients – getting to know their teams and spouses, and perhaps even participating in their charitable endeavors – makes any referral conversations easier.
Of course, referals aren’t Greene’s be-all and endall. “I still prospect,” she says. “Everybody you make eye contact with is buying insurance from somebody.”
Greene’s portfolio crosses over to many different practice areas, and her high-end personal lines portfolio often leads to commercial sales opportunities. She doesn’t hesitate to ask to take a look at the commercial side. “The majority of my clients are pretty well cross-sold over the company,” she says.
One of Greene’s very first clients has developed into one of her very best clients. “I wrote his personal lines policy 22 years ago when he was single and just starting out,” she says.
As his career and personal life has evolved, Greene has remained involved in all of his insurance transactions, and isnow included as part of the team along with the client’s lawyer and accountant in due diligence on any new opportunities he explores.
The client has married, has children who drive, owns numerous properties, and runs businesses including sports teams, foundations, entertainment, restaurants, hotels and more. “Twenty-two years later, we are handling every aspect of his insurance spend,” says Greene, “including the next generation, in-laws, partners and friends.”
And what better testimonial to client service is there than that?
This feature is from Insurance Business Canada's May issue #2.2. Please click on the link to read more.
