Andy Patton is the owner of Patton Financial & Insurance Group, an independent agency In Nashville, Tennessee. He’s also a pastor, and he has experience providing loans to both churches and commercial businesses. His dream was to work at a full-service financial firm and insurance agency serving commercial clients. When he couldn’t find a firm that lived up to his vision, he decided to build one instead, and network support helped make it possible.
Finding the Right Career Fit
Like many people, Andy didn’t set out to become an insurance agent. “I’ll admit I was afraid of the insurance industry in my 20’s and 30’s,” Andy confesses. When a friend suggested he’d be great at running an insurance agency, he dismissed the idea at first. However, his friend eventually persuaded him to join Liberty Mutual and earn his license. “As they say, the rest is history. I’ve had my license the last 10 years,” he explains.
However, it wasn’t always smooth sailing. Andy’s friend was right – he excelled at insurance – but he didn’t like the corporate side of the industry, so he left the business for a while, although he kept his license active.
Andy was pulled back into the industry when an acquaintance needed help building an independent agency. “I didn’t know much about the independent side, but I got to learn it through my experience helping him,” he says.
The experience helped him realize that he could build a terrific book of business for himself as well. “I saw my agency as being more than just selling wedges of insurance,” he says, explaining that he wanted the freedom to do business lending and offer financial products and financial planning services as well. “That’s where Patton Financial & Insurance Group began.”
Kissing a Lot of Frogs
Once Andy decided to open his own independent agency, he knew from his experiences he needed carrier access. Securing it on his own proved impractical, so he considered joining a larger organization, but unfortunately, the organizations he found didn’t impress him.
“They wanted a pound of flesh just to get access to their carriers,” he says, describing companies that would take ownership of his book of business, and charge enormous upfront and monthly fees. One company said he could own his book, but when he really looked into it, he discovered he’d realistically only own 45% of his business.
“I went through the process of kissing a lot of frogs and no princes,” he recalls.
One day, everything changed – quite by accident. Andy was meeting with a different network representative who kept mentioning Smart Choice – and not in a good way. In fact, he was so critical of Smart Choice that he piqued Andy’s interest in the network, and Andy thought “If your competition hates you, you must be doing something right.”
Andy took a closer look at the Smart Choice model and realized he’d found what he described as “The prince of insurance networks.” With Smart Choice, he could get the assistance and carrier access he needed without all the fees that the other companies were charging. “I talked with my state rep, Tony Davis, and I signed up the exact same day,” Andy says. “That’s just how easy it was.”
Why Smart Choice Stood Out
Of course, every business needs to make money to survive. However, Andy noticed a major difference in Smart Choice’s approach. As he explains, “When I met with Network X and Network Y, all I heard was talk about money – How much of my money they’re going to take and what they’re going to give me in return. When I met with Smart Choice, they talked about opportunity, and how they would walk alongside me because they have a vested interest in my success.”
Andy was intrigued by the idea of having a partner to help him grow. “That was the difference between Smart Choice and Network X, Network Y and all the aggregators out there,” he says.
Once Andy joined Smart Choice, he was impressed with how his state director, Tony, was always available to answer his questions. “I don’t know how he does it, because he has an entire state to run,” Andy says.
The dollars and cents penciled out for Andy as well. Smart Choice offers a 70-30 commission split, which initially might not look as attractive as the 80-20 splits that some organizations offer. However, there are no upfront costs and commissions are capped at a certain level, enabling him to keep 100% of his commissions above that level.
In Andy’s words, “In a network, you take a little haircut on the commission, but isn’t that better than having to go and buy reciprocal licenses in all 50 states? Isn’t that better than having to pay a bunch of money upfront to have access to all those great carriers?”
Best of all, it’s only a matter of time until Andy’s agency reaches the commission cap, and then they will keep 100%.
Building a National Commercial Agency
Andy is counting on Smart Choice to help him build a national brand in the commercial space. Some agents might be intimidated by that prospect, but he sees it as the logical way to succeed. With access to top-rated commercial lines carriers, niche expertise and dedicated underwriting support, Smart Choice offers the foundation he needs to build his business.
“The problem that I think most new agents run into, and why they are afraid of commercial, is that they don’t try it,” Andy says. “I think that not only do you get a nice bang for the buck from a commission standpoint, but it’s easier to build a long-term book with commercial insurance.”
Whereas personal lines customers tend to jump ship to save a few bucks, Andy can build long-term relationships, and provide a variety of insurance products for the businesses and religious organizations he serves.
Want to see how “the prince” of insurance networks can help build your business?
