Career agent: Service is the secret for success

After nearly 40 years in the insurance business, Kenneth King insists things have never been better.

In fact, he's convinced the best is yet to come.

"I just wish I would have done this 25 years before," says King, partner at KC Benefit Services Inc.

King, along with partner Jim Cirqua, opened the doors of their own agency 10 years ago after working his way through the ranks. After a stint in the military, King dove into the business as a life debit agent back in 1968. He's spent time as an agent, field manager, sales manager, district manager up to vice president of the company.

"I think I'm going to make a career out of it now," he quips.

KC Benefits Services is a full-service agency with a strong worksite focus. But the secret to the company's success lies in their ability to manage huge accounts with a consistently high level of service that includes conducting enrollment meetings before the sun comes up.

Benefits selling: What would you say is the secret to your company's success?
Ken King: We are very high on service and probably 95 percent of our business comes from referrals. We started that way with the first case: do the service, get the referrals. We are unique. We do all our own claims work, so if you are a client of ours, and you have a claim, you never really deal with someone else. You always deal with us. We provide the claim forms for you, walk you through the process, file the claim. Someone here will follow up. We are very hands-on. We know we are doing it right when we get people who call and leave a message and they ay "Ken or [my partner] Jim, this is Bill. Please call me. I have a claim." They know us.

BS: You do a lot of work with municipalities?
KK: Yes.

BS: What is different about them than a traditional worksite case?
KK: When you are working municipalities, whether it's boroughs, townships, cities or on the state level, it requires a very high degree of competence. They will either become the best referring resource you can have or your worst enemy. If you didn't treat them correctly -- particularly when you deal in municipalities when you have police forces -- they aren't bashful. They have a lot of claims. They use the products and they are a very loyal group to one another and they have been to us. Again it comes back to the service we provide. When we did the University of Pittsburgh Police Department, I was actually there at 2 a.m. on a Saturday doing an enrollment. It would not be uncommon for us to be somewhere at 4 a.m. to catch guys coming off a shift.

BS: And that's not unusual?
KK: They are not used to that level of service -- no one else does it. But we do it simply because we think we owe it to them and it shows our commitment to be out there not just at the time of sale but to take the claims.

BS: Is there a different type of set up or access in terms of enrollment when dealing with municipalities?
KK: I think the key is the security issue you have to deal with, particularly when you are dealing with police departments. Again, a relationship helps us because everybody knows us. When we call in, for example to a call center, the dispatcher, of course, has the caller ID. He knows who we are. They know us on a first name basis. It makes our access easier. It is a very difficult market for most people to break into because of that. Getting to know the people, the logistics of how to manage it, the different shift work. Those are all issues that are unique to municipalities.

BS: How is it you found yourself so involved with municipalities?
KK: It really is a niche market. I wish I could give you an answer to say this is exactly how I did it. But I have always had a special place for law enforcement and even in my life insurance days, I did a lot of work in police pensions. I am not sure why I gravitate there except I was successful at it early on and generally if you are successful, you kind of stick to those things. Over the years my partner has been the same way. And we literally have hundreds of accounts from one end of Pennsylvania to the other.

BS: There are some who say there is no real training ground for younger people. How would you respond to that argument?
KK: I would agree in one aspect. I don't see a large bench of players ready to come into this arena. I have over the years recruited, trained and developed agents, many of whom are still in the business. But worksite marketing is a unique animal. You can have a group of 50 prospective worksite agents at a particular meeting and very quickly you will find there are probably five or six agents who get it. The other 45 don't and you won't live long enough to train them so they do get it. The worksite arena is tough to break into. I have one son I hope at some point will come into the business. I think he has good people skills. He has a good work ethic. I see that as more of a problem than anything. You have to be very careful who you allow in your accounts because that relationship could be ruined overnight.

BS: What is the best way for this industry to address the lack of new blood?
KK: I'm not sure. A lot of the companies have changed the way they have worked. They have downsized and streamlined. It takes a number of years to bring someone along in this business. And I think family-oriented businesses like mine where we have a son and maybe my partner's daughter coming in is where you are going to get the new blood. I don't see a lot of the models that some of the companies have out there aren't models that I prefer like recruiting a number of agents at the end of the year you have 25 out of 500 left. I guess that is a way to do it but it is a very costly and I think it is a very dangerous way to do it because you don't have people who established those relationships.

BS: What words of advice would you give to someone trying to break into this business?
KK: I actually had two calls in one month from two parents, one from a manager of one of our accounts. He prefaced his questions by saying, "When you come in, our people are always excited. We always have a good time when you are here and you make this look so easy." That is how he started the conversation. And then he said, "My daughter is graduating from college and she was actually recruited by a company to come in for an interview to do what you do. What do you think about that?"

BS: What did you tell him?
KK: I went through the whole process about what a great business this is and I gave him the other side, too, that it is very difficult and I recommended that she try to get with someone with an established agency. I gave him some names of people I respect in the area to get some experience and some hands-on training rather than to be just thrown into the arena. I think there are too many people being brought in who are otherwise good people [but] who fail for the lack of a support system and they leave our industry with a bad taste. They think it is something other than what it is. I think it is the greatest thing that has ever happened. And worksite, I think, is the salvation of our business going forward. I think people coming into this business, there are great careers for the next 10 to 20 years.

BS: What would you say is the biggest obstacle to success in this industry?
KK: I think getting some guidance early on, having a support system. It is not something you can learn out of a book. You have got to be taken into the field, shown how to do it. Unfortunately many of the young people, coming in today always start with a circle of friends, relatives, who their parents know, business owners they do business with -- but it is a very small circle that they have to work with. there are a lot of people out there who can do enrollments, can be very good at an enrollment. I think you can teach somebody to do that process pretty quickly if you have a limited number of products.

BS: But there's more to it than that.
KK: There are very few people who can open the case, sell the case, enroll the case and manage the case after the sale. That is a process that takes quite a long time to develop the expertise required to keep your prospect happy. But I think we do that well and that is why, for us, prospecting is kind of a non-issue. Not that we don't do it. We certainly don't go out and do some cold calling from time to time but I never enjoyed cold calling. And I trick myself into thinking that if you gave me a referral it's no longer a cold call. And we have really built our business from the referral aspect of it and I think that is something a lot of the younger folks need someone to teach them. Again, it is like the gentleman said to me. He said it makes it look so easy when you come in and we all have fun. I said to him it has only taken me about 35 years to make it look easy. And he laughed and said I understand. But I think that is what we need. At one time, we would recruit a lot of agents, bring them, you could put them on a financing system, [and] you could support them financially until they were up and ready to go.

BS: What motivates you more than anything else day in and day out as a broker?
KK: I think what motivates us is the fact that you can go out and sit with people who have never seen you before, quickly develop a rapport, and maybe market some products to them that they desperately need. That's the most rewarding part. And there are all the mornings you get up early, the nights you work late. When you know you have paid the mortgage payments, the car payments, kept that family above board until they are able to survive financially otherwise, that is the most rewarding part. The rest of it, the money, obviously is good. But that is not the motivating factor. When you see your product at work and know what it does for families, what other job, what other career could you be in when you show up with a check. Everybody else shows up with, "I'm sorry. How can I help?" But you actually do something financially, something tangible. That is really the essence of it. What you do for people and the rest comes with it. We always try to do the right thing for the client. The financial end will take care of itself. Over the years we have gone to many conventions and trips, but I think when it comes right down to it, you kind of have to be a people person if you are going to be in this business.

BS: Are there any particular products you care a lot about?
KK: We do a lot of business in the accident arena. It is a very underrated product. It is the kind of product that we like. We can go and sell anybody regardless of their qualifications, medically or otherwise. We do a lot of guarantee issue but I would say our primary products are accident disability, cancer and some supplemental hospital plans. Having worked in the municipal area, we sort of know what they like, so that's really why we stick to those sorts of products.

BS: What is the state of the industry? Where do you see it going?
KK: I think the industry, from a worksite standpoint, is in its infancy. I think if you have a son or daughter who you could bring into this business, there are fortunes to be made in the next 20 years if you look at it financially. And the way that we have developed our marketplace over the years, we get the referrals, we get the repeat sales and we have a great time doing it. I am 59 now. If I had done this back when I was 25, who knows what kind of booking business we could have built and how many more friends we could have made over the years. It's wide open. The most exciting times are yet to come.

BS: What's so great about what you do?
KK: We enjoy doing what we do. What other business could you pick up the phone and call one of your competitors and have a conversation with another broker and have him tell you all of his secrets? If he called me, I would do the same thing. I think it is a great business to be in. There is no real competition except how you conduct your business. I have been fortunate to be in contact with a lot of good individuals who have guided me over the years. Those who are successful in worksite figured out it is a very simple process: You get up early in the morning, go to work, treat your people well and take care of them. In turn, they take care of you. So, I would encourage anyone to get into business with someone that has some experience. It will be the greatest experience they ever had.