Make Commercial Lines Part of Your Vocabulary

Mark Brandt, Assistant VP, Commercial Lines

[ KUH-MUR-SHUHL LĪNS ] noun, adj.

Recently, I was quizzing my son on his vocab words for his High School English class. As I scanned the list, I noticed what appeared to be a misspelling. “Magnificent” is spelled incorrectly here, they have it as “munificent.” “No, Dad. That’s the right spelling,” my son replied, his eyes rolling. Sure enough, munificent is a real word that I had never heard of or it had been long lost from memory if I ever did learn it. It means “an overly generous gift or gesture,” like leaving a very large tip for your server when dining out. I consider myself to be a decent wordsmith, so I was quite embarrassed to be unaware of a word being used in 10th grade English class. Time to work on my vocabulary!

Many of our agent partners have that fear of embarrassment when it comes to selling Commercial Lines, lacking the acumen or a dedicated commercial staff to tackle it. They speak fluent Personal Lines, and rely on a client base of family, friends, neighbors, and community members, all who need Personal Lines coverage. Great! Nothing wrong with that.

Or is there?

Did you know 1 in 7 Homeowners is also a Business owner? If the agent owns the client’s Personal Lines, but is not insuring the business, someone else is. Do you think that Commercial agent is asking about the client’s Personal Lines? You bet they are! It’s not just a missed opportunity to gain share of wallet with current clients, bringing the agency more revenues and increased retention. It’s also a protective measure against the competitive pressures of other agents seeking to steal the clients’ Personal Lines business away.

The US small commercial marketplace is well over $100B in premium, controlled largely by the Independent Agent channel, is consistently profitable, and highly fragmented. In other words, ripe with opportunity.

Although there is significant energy and investment in insurtech, and some willingness of business owners to consider purchasing direct from carriers, Independent Agents continue to control this space. But how to get started? It’s not that scary. That Personal Lines client base is a great starting point! When it’s time for an annual coverage review, ask if the client owns a business, and if you may quote it for them. There’s a wealth of business to be had if you’re willing to do a little digging with your existing customer base.

Although many Personal Lines agencies find venturing into Commercial Lines to be intimidating or daunting at first, our Smart Start program enables our agent partners from any background or experience level to find success writing Commercial insurance. With the ability to quote, bind and issue on behalf of the agent, Smart Start makes the process fast and simple. Agents need only to submit basic information about the business via a short online intake form. This process takes 2 minutes or less, and we take it from there! With a typical turn-around time of 2 hours or less, up to six Standard National carriers will provide bindable quotes with industry standard coverages. The agent can then present to the client, request coverage to be bound, and receive policy documents electronically the next day. That’s it! More importantly, they add another policy to their portfolio for that client, which increases retention rates.

Adding Commercial Lines to the agent’s vocabulary will bring both growth and diversity to the agency, and those new revenues might just inspire some “munificent” tips at the next dinner out!