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MARKETING
Unique, data-driven approach convinces clients and carriers to buy-in
J. Gregory Brown & Company (JGB), Inc., an agency with offices in Los Angeles, Torrance and Newport Beach, California, uses a unique approach to find potential target classes and convince insurance companies that they should want that business. This approach began two years ago when Greg Brown, the firm's founder and chairman, recruited Everett R. Newman, Jr., president and COO, to aggressively build the property/casualty business of what had been a predominately life-based business for more than 20 years.
The process begins with data from MarketStance, a company in Middletown, Connecticut, that develops, markets and supports data-based products and services for the P&C industry. JGB uses the data to identify niche markets with significant premium potential coming from the middle and upper middle-sized accounts with high on average loss ratios. (See Chart I.)
Once these markets are identified, JGB researches the particular industry to determine what insurance problems it has had and what external problems it faces. This allows the agency to determine whether a loss control program will produce cost savings for the businesses in the niche. If all those ingredients are there, JGB looks at other factors to whittle the group of niche markets down to a manageable size. Here, too, the agency uses MarketStance data on industry growth rates, breakdown of premium by-line and other key factors. (See Chart II.)
Everett Newman says, "This approach lets us focus on markets that can benefit from an upstream approach to mitigating or eliminating risk." In the workers compensation area, for example, J. Gregory Brown offers the Advantage Compensation^sup 8M^ program, which involves a complete assessment of eight critical management systems at a client company:
1. Accountability
2. Performance data
3. Performance feedback
4. Consequence management
5. Training
6. Orientation
7. Communication
8. Teamwork
Performance management consultants from J. Gregory Brown gather data through a series of interviews and questionnaires with a cross-section of employees and supervisors. The information is compared with loss analyses. A report is prepared for the company, listing its strengths, challenges and the consultants' recommendations.
Based on the findings, a service plan is prepared that sets forth the actions that need to be taken, the dates for these...