Case Study: Systems Insure Success

Company Name: Security and Freedom Partners Insurance Agency, Inc.
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Owner: Bob Jugan
Years in Business: 21 years as an agent
Coach: Shannon Brodie, Certified E-Myth Consultant
Website: www.securityandfreedom.com

E-Myth Worldwide: Bob, how many people do you have in your office?

Bob Jugan: Three people plus myself are on the payroll. I have one part-time sales person, one person to handle administration and in-force servicing, and one receptionist. I also have a VP of Finance who is off-site.

EMW: Can you give me an idea of your annual revenue?

BJ: Last year we did about $230,000 gross from about $1.5 million in sales. We are about to acquire another agency that I estimate will just about double that next year.

EMW: Let me ask you about this acquisition. This is a big move. What got you to the point where you had the confidence to do this?

BJ: Great question! It really was a confidence factor. In 1996, Allstate allowed us to buy agencies. So suddenly, there were a lot of agencies available to buy--with people getting out of the business. I had written an action plan about how to look for and examine an agency to buy. But at the time, I really didn't have the confidence to make that move. I'd been talking to this gentleman for a couple years, and finally I kind of had a breakthrough. I realized, just recently, that all the work I'd been doing with E-Myth had gotten me to a point where I had my entire organizational chart filled in. I'd been working for the last several years to get my sales systems documented. I'd just hired a part time sales person, my in-force and administrative person has been with me for 11 years, and that job is completely systematized now, and our receptionist has been with us for a year, and that job is systematized. So, suddenly I realized: "Wait a minute! We can literally double our client base overnight and not have to bring in any more personnel."

So, I'll be merging his accounts via computer, his phone number will roll over to us, and it ought to be pretty seamless from the clients' perspective.

EMW: Can you give me an example of a system you've put in place?

BJ: Here's a big one: The corporate offices have told us this over and over, and this is something that they're absolutely right about: Clients leave because of a perceived lack of interest on the part of their agent. They feel the agent doesn't care about them.

So we developed an Annual Review process. Every year, each client gets a call from Christine. The call is completely scripted. She says: "Hello. This is your Allstate agency in Huntington Beach. We'd like to set up a review to determine if you're getting your discounts and having your needs met properly." Obviously, the word "discounts" is the key. Everybody agrees to an appointment. In the first year we started this, we led the southern California region in life insurance sales.

But we originally structured this in a way that had me personally going out and calling on 4-5 clients a day. I'd be coming back to the office with all this data, all these new sales, and thoroughly exhausted. I was working like a dog, and the money was coming in--but I was spending more and more time at the office and less and less time with my family. I just knew that being the in-home agent was not the way I was going to be able to take this business to the next level--but I wasn't getting any direction or any kind of business management training.

About this time, in December of 1995, I was given a copy of The E-Myth Revisited. I finished that book on a Friday, and felt that Michael Gerber was talking directly to me. The next day, I went for a bike ride--and my head was churning with different ideas about applying what I'd just read to my office. In the midst of this, a woman on the bike in front of me falls, I fall over her and break my shoulder. Now, I'm sitting at home for four weeks, recovering from this accident--all the while thinking about how I can put these E-Myth principals to work.

So, I signed up for E-Myth Mastery in about March of '96--just a few months after my accident, a few months after Allstate made us independent contractors, and at about the same time my wife asked me for a divorce! Timing is everything, right?

EMW: I'm sensing a "Company Story" here.

BJ: You're absolutely right. That is my Company Story! I started working with Shannon, my coach. We began, of course, with my Primary Aim and my Strategic Objective-- and I realized that my Primary Aim revolved around my time with my kids--that it represented my true priority in life--and that the way I was running my agency was my biggest obstacle to getting that. So, my Strategic Objective described a company that, when it was done, was not going to depend on me being there in order to thrive.

Shannon and I worked a lot on the Annual Review system, and we coupled it with a Needs Analysis that we could conduct over the phone with current clients and prospective clients. It's all scripted--a comprehensive series of questions. Then we compile the results and mail it out with suggested remedies for their stated needs.

We put together some focus groups around this, and we discovered a lot about what clients need. Clients will say they leave because they've found a cheaper product. The important question after that is: "Why did you go looking for a cheaper product?" And the answer to that question is: "Because I never heard from my agent after the sale."

EMW: So you have a scripted system that automatically re-engages with your client annually. Have you been able to measure its success?

BJ: I'd say so! My coach has been insistent on my quantifying every aspect of this process, including the cross-selling. Our retention is 100%! We don't lose a client. And often, in the course of the Needs Analysis, we discover a need and opportunity for additional products.

EMW: So Bob, you're saying that this original Annual Review program is an idea that came out of Allstate, but that nobody used it. Do you think that's still the case?

BJ: I'm probably one of the only guys using it--and certainly I'm the only guy using it to this degree. And part of the reason I'm using it so successfully is because I documented and systematized the whole thing, and that's kept it alive for us. It wasn't something we were told about, used it for awhile, and then forgot about. We documented it, used it, quantified the results, and continue to fine-tune it. It's now, as Michael Gerber says, "the way we do it here."

EMW: Bob, we often talk with professionals who are concerned that the E-Myth concepts would not apply to them. They insist that they could never remove themselves from their practice because their clients are only satisfied if they're dealing directly with them. What would you have to say to them about that?

BJ: Look, I'm buying this agency. Those clients are not going to know Bob. They're going to know Security and Freedom Partners, Inc. The clients really don't need to see me. It was a little hard for my ego to realize this at first, but it's true. When Christine calls to book these annual reviews, she says: "I'm going to book a time for you to talk to Linda, our new associate." And they say, "OK." Then Linda talks to them and they're happy as can be. I'm watching the statistics, and they're all renewing. This is working! So what I'd have to say is that it's a difficult transformation for the owner to realize that it's not about him or her--it's about the client's needs. I think we're doing a better job meeting those needs now. I don't want to touch the computer. I'd much rather be out doing the strategic work--buying agencies, working on our Client Fulfillment systems.

EMW: Would you be anywhere different if you hadn't come to E-Myth and started working through Mastery with your coach?

BJ: My father and mother divorced when we were about my children's ages. My dad remarried and pretty much ignored us. I think I would have gone down the same path after my divorce. But, I was just starting E-Myth, and I did that Primary Aim process, and, as I said, I realized how much the best part of my life revolved around my kids. And I sat down with them and said, "Look, I can either go back to work like I used to--60-70 hours a week, or we can spend more time together and sell the house." And they said, "Sell the house, Dad." I think that one of the biggest benefits I got is that I reestablished my relationship with my kids.

I would never have had the systems in place that would have allowed me to do that--to actually spend more time with the kids. I would never have had the organization chart done, and the beginning of an understanding of how other people could be able to do the work that was keeping me away from home. I would never have had my financial house in order.

So, the answer to your question is that, without E-Myth, I think I would have been where my dad was--that is--running away from my children.

Looking back, I'd say my real success is not in making bucket loads of money. My real success is in having a relationship with my kids--and that's priceless.

Look, this industry has you on-call 24 hours a day. I don't do that. People will call in now and need to file a claim. They can talk to Catherine, and she assures them that she can handle that. I was in that old pattern where I had to talk to every client.

I have my systems in place, and E-Myth has empowered me to do this.

We get solicited all the time by different people with different programs about "how to be a better insurance agent." But no one has seen the big pictures the way E-Myth has.

EMW: Bob, it's been a pleasure talking with you.

BJ: Same here. Is it alright with you if I have Christine give you a call for a Needs Analysis?