What it Means  to be a True Partner

One of my early career positions was with a Fortune 500 manufacturing company. They were innovators, market leaders and had one of the top twenty most powerful brands in the world. To my surprise what they also had were scores of partners. In every facet of their business, they had established strategic relationships with other companies that could help them fulfill their customers’ needs. They were also partnered with one of their competitors – because they understood that doing so made both company’s products more appealing to the marketplace.

At Smart Choice the entire foundation of the company is based on the power of partnership.

It is what we describe as the "Freedom to Succeed." We believe that the only things keeping you from reaching your full potential as an agency owner are having the best markets in place and having an association with a team of seasoned veterans who can help keep your business plan on track. At last check we have over 9,500 partnerships with independent agencies.

The "Freedom to Succeed" is also about putting you back in control of your agency—it is not about being controlled by the companies and vendors you represent. While we believe it is imperative to meet, and hopefully exceed, the annual growth and productivity objectives of each of our carriers, it should not come at the expense of agents being unable to help their customers make the right buying decisions.

An article from a few years ago written by Rodd Wagner and Gale Muller entitled “Why Partners Need Complementary Strengths,” (a summary of their longer book “Power of 2: How to Make the Most of Your Partnerships at Work and in Life”) detailed research they conducted on what makes a successful partnership. Three of these statements emerged as the most important for determining how well your abilities mesh with those of your collaborators:

• We complement each other's strengths.
• We need each other to get the job done.
• He or she does some things much better than I do, and I do some things much better than he or she does.

Clearly, the relationships that Smart Choice has with their agency partners exemplifiers each of these characteristics. In recognition of this symbiotic business structure, Smart Choice was recently recognized as an Inc. Power Partner award winner. The award recognizes companies that are devoted to providing entrepreneurs with the tools and resources they need to start, run, and grow their businesses. This new recognition program establishes a seal of approval for the companies—from SMBs to full-scale enterprises—that other companies rely on to level up.

What the Inc. 5000 does for fast-growth businesses, Inc. Power Partners does for B2B providers—validate and thereby bring recognition and opportunity to the partners that power businesses to reach new heights. Those honored in each of the 22 categories were selected after the customers of nominated companies completed and submitted surveys to Inc. that measured their overall satisfaction and their willingness to recommend the partner. These were reviewed and scored and then combined with Inc.’s own research to create a list of winners – with Smart Choice being the only insurance network awarded. This is the inaugural year for the Power Partners award and Smart Choice has been recognized for the past four consecutive years with their inclusion on the Inc. 5000 list.

Oprah Winfrey has been quoted as follows, “Surround yourself only with people who are going to take you higher." This helps explain why Smart Choice is the fastest growing insurance network and why our agents eagerly share stories of their own success.

Smart Choice Gives Agents Access to Products and Appointments

“After working for two different agencies, I decided to establish my own agency. But the hard part was getting carrier appointments. So, I looked into different aggregators and networks and for several of them, I would have had to pay a large down payment -- with Smart Choice there were no fees. Bottom line is that our business has grown dramatically every year, I’ve hired three people and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Smart Choice. They really helped me.”

– Letisia Aguirre, President of Capital Insurance Services of Florida

Smart Choice Gives Agents a Fair Contract

“There are other aggregator type groups out there, but I feel like their contracts tie you in much longer and much deeper. One big advantage is that Smart Choice stops taking a commission percentage once a certain level is reached. With some of these other networks and aggregators, you don’t have that cap. They’re going to take a percentage of what you do in perpetuity, and they’re going to take it at that same percentage no matter how big your book gets. To me, that makes Smart Choice a very equitable and fair proposition.”

– Allan Miles, R. Allan Miles Insurance Agency

Smart Choice has a Fair Compensation Structure

“Everything has worked out great. I capped as an agent last September. Everything that they told me was going to happen with the pay structure has happened. I can tell by what they offer to me such as giving me direct contracts with companies… I know that they’re not in it just to make money. They’re there truly to help me build my agency and help me become a better agent.”

– Becky Cates, Cates Insurance Agency

Smart Choice Ensures Agents Remain Completely Independent

“They’re not hovering over me telling me to do things a certain way. We're still able to run our agency exactly the same, because it is exactly the same. With Smart Choice, there's no buy-in. They don’t say you’ve got to pay $10,000 to get in or $50,000 to get out. There's none of that. All those restrictions that make me unsure if I want to jump in the water – all that's been removed with this network.”

– Bryan Clinkscales, Boone Ritter Insurance

Smart Choice Helps Agents Grow their Revenue

“We started in November of 2019, and we've got a $4 million book of insurance. We're writing over $200,000.00 of business every single month. Plus, new agents are interviewing and joining our team every month. Of course, Smart Choice can’t take all of the credit for this, but the network has made a big impact. Smart Choice has been great to me. They gave me the opportunity to have this agency and to be successful. In the future, I will roll business with any new carriers to Smart Choice because they’ve been so great to us.”

–Chris Walters, Integrity Insurance Group

“I’m proof that Smart Choice is able to take a teachable agent from zero to more than $2 million in just a few years. I’ll probably surpass $250,000 in commission this year, simply because I trusted Smart Choice’s guidance,”

–Francisco Castro, JCC Group