In the right space

Wayne Drye picked up his license in 1962, selling insurance door to door throughout North and South Carolina. He worked his way through the ranks at Combined Insurance Co. and, at one point, earned the distinction of the "leading salesman in the world" with a streak of 52 weeks in a row with sales of at least 100 policies each week. Naturally, he earned a spot as one of the youngest officers on staff, managing thousands of agents and millions of dollars worth of premium.

But it still wasn't enough. Drye wanted to run his own show. But after amassing $50 million and a year of storefront shopping, nothing caught his eye. So instead of buying a business, he opened is own. And World Insurance Association was born. The insurance marketing company operates in all 50 states and even overseas.

Benefits Selling: What's the secret to your sales success?
Wayne Drye: Probably the greatest secret to my sales success and to my organization has been to understand how to analyze the business and focus on a niche market. Niche marketing is the way I see the most successful organizations growing -- and I've got a very wide definition of niche marketing -- and we've learned that if you will compete in the areas where you can be strong and be a dominant force and provide superior service, that's where you are going to show significant growth and gain in your success area. It's not rocket science, but if I had to focus toward a single thing, I would say understanding what a niche is and how to market in it.

BS: How do you define a niche?
WD: We take a look at niche marketing and analyze all of our divisions based on seven different principles. A niche in its essence is an area -- whether that is a product alone or if it is a group of consumers or group of businesses -- that you can come in and do a superior job, devote more resources to and support a field sales force for better than most. That's how you will develop a niche market and grow a business around it.

BS: You work with group medical, voluntary and [property and casualty]. What drives most of your business right now?
WD: We have our company divided up into basically eight different divisions. But it is medical, life, long term care, DI, property and casualty products, a special risks division, a technology solutions division, and then, of course, supplemental products. What drives the focus of the organization? It's tough to say because we are so segmented within our divisions, but we are very large in the group benefits side, so obviously, medical, which includes dental, as well. That's a big part for us. Long term care is a significant part as one of our spin-off divisions. And those are probably our driving factors.

BS: How do the divisions work with and relate to each other?
WD: Each one is a stand-alone division. It operates with its own department head. It operates with its own support staff. It can stand on its own individually. So, they will operate individually and go in and win on their own. They can obviously pull other support, other department heads in, to help win a particular case or win the support of an agent. And we market to a lot of agent distribution channels. We will pick up blocks of agents at a time and it really centers around the services. So we might have our medical division go and team up with our technology solutions division. We have a lot invested in the technology right now. That has been another critical factor for us. We have a full support team of Web engineers and an IT director, and it has given us a significant advantage.

BS: What area are you seeing the most growth in right now?
WD: Right now we are really excelling in our long term care area and our medical. Because of the technology side of things and partnering up with those divisions, we have seen some significant increases. The long term care division is a spin-off company called LTC Compass. It focuses on an area that not a lot of other general agents choose to focus on. That's really developing an education system for agents to understand how to sell long term care and focusing on the multi-life side of distribution and technology to win the larger cases. On the medical side, we have significant growth because we have outstanding people. We have outstanding people throughout the organization but with medical in particular being able to go in and not be a typical spreadsheet organization where you go in an create unique solutions. We have seen a very significant growth in the 20-to-200-life marketplace.

BS: So how do you see the future of medical going? How is that changing and what is the solution for the average American employee?
WD: Well, there is good news and bad news. The challenging news is that there is no good solution for the medical situation. The system in and of itself is fundamentally flawed in the way our medical system operates. However, on the bright side, you are going to see more employee education. We are going to get back to insurance in the medical arena the way it was 20 or so years ago, where employees understood the main reason for group medical and why employers were putting it into place: to protect assets for the employees rather than pumping everything to be a $5 co-pay. You are going to see a big move toward disease management and education about wellness programs. You will see a lot of online and telephone-related services where employees will start to do a lot of disease management. But education alone will help solve some of the issues as we move into the HRA and HSA environment. That's just with the way that the pricing structure is working even though it is starting to show less of an increase. You are going toward that with higher deductible plans and understanding the costs more. It is critical employees understand that it is not $5. An office visit doesn't cost a $5 or $10 co-pay. Your drug order doesn't cost $20.

BS: What is your secret to selling LTCI?
WD: Devoting the resources to two main things: education and technology. The biggest issue with long term care products is that the product itself was very poorly marketed by the industry when it initially rolled out. It has a stigma associated with it, which is really not what today's products represent. The reason we have a lot of success with long term care is that we moved into an environment of long term care planning or longevity planning. There are few carriers out there that have adopted that. On the group side of the employer marketplace, that is really where we are well known around the industry. We do a lot of large multi-life long term care enrollments -- not true group enrollments -- and it absolutely comes down to the technology and the education we put into it. It makes all the difference in the world. We have placement ratios that are five, six and seven times the industry average.

BS: You work with a lot of private religious schools, is that right?
WD: We have a division called Educator Resources. It markets in the private school and church marketplace because it fell into one of our niche arenas. So we do a lot of work within that group.

BS: Are you in all 50 states?
WD: All 50 states and actually outside the United States a little bit, as well. We are doing a little bit of marketing in Europe now.

BS: How is that?
WD: It's very different. I'd say that we are doing it very well but we are certainly learning a lot. It's very difficult to cross over borders. The carrier system really isn't set up that way right now.

BS: What regional differences do you see in the States?
WD: Regional differences are tough. In my opinion, regional differences come down to training within distribution channels, carrier preference. Certain carriers in different parts of the country really become positively or negatively reflected. And then, when you say regional differences, we are talking about agents, training, distribution and technology. We see a lot more technology embraced in the South and the Midwest than we do in most other places and that might be unique to us in our experience but it does make a big difference. Training makes a big difference, as well. We see different levels of training in the different states we market in.

BS: What to you is the most satisfying part of the sales process? What do you get the most out of?
WD: There are a lot of things, but it is very rewarding to see the light bulbs go off in the right training session where you are teaching agents not to scare or to try to force a consumer into something. A lot of people say, "Hey, it's more satisfying to help customers." Well, I think we should all get satisfaction out of that, but when you know you are expertly trained and you know exactly what you are doing.

BS: More benefits brokers appear to be getting into the retirement side of things.
WD: That's definitely a growing trend. Look at the way long term care distribution is going. Long term care, while it has always been considered a senior product, is working its way strongly into the worksite and being used as a planning product. You are seeing a lot more financial planners who want to utilize their resources in the employer marketplace. We have a number of CPAs and attorneys who have come to us to partner with us as we work on benefit programs for employers that focus on retirement planning and the more elderly side of the work force.

7 little secrets
A focus on niche marketing has helped propel Wayne Drye and his company to international success. Drye elaborates on the steps he forces his divisions to consider when looking at a new niche target.

Diversification
"One, we are going to analyze this particular market and ask, 'What's our diversification strategy?' We need to see if we are going to establish a career track of either agents or brokers. An agent is going to be one who is going to be focused on a handful of carriers. Is he going to be an expert on that particular carrier or are we going to go look for a broker track that is going to become an expert on a particular product? They will be experts in that industry. Figuring out the right mix makes a difference on how you are going to start marketing to a group or an affinity group."

National vs. regional
"Next, you have got to decide if you are going to be promoting yourself as a national operation. You have to be able to demonstrate you can effectively market in all 50 states. If you are not a national operation, you have to be allying yourself with one. When you are going to work in a particular marketplace, showing that you have got a local contact is important but showing that you have national scope is almost critical, particularly if you are dealing with an association and you are going to an affinity side."

Technology
"Organizations today have to invest in technology. Both in the people who are going to support the technology and their equipment and software. Leaders in our field, in my opinion, are investing in it so it will customize their own software, develop their own Web portals they will have full-time in-house people to meet technology needs on a dime and can create anything they need for a group they are marketing to. A lot of our divisions have success because they can have a Web site up for a particular group or a particular set of agents. The head of our medical department will do four or five different Web sessions weekly for agents and consumers. So, when you go and you are going to have a niche market, you have got to figure out what type of technology you are going to put into it."

Marketing
"You must have a marketing strategy that is paper-based, people-based and electronic. I am not really talking as much about branding, but the way you design your own marketing materials gives you a significant advantage over agents who are relying on carrier materials."

Partnerships
"The fifth area that is important for any organization of any size is developing the right alliances and partnerships. In today's global marketplace, you cannot do it all by yourself. It is critical to develop these alliances focusing on your strengths but also looking at another distribution chain and helping the focus with them. You can develop those partnerships with different associations, as well, but the association marketplace is very fickle. To find the right association with the right mix of affinities is very difficult. We market with more associations that probably have been a drain on time, money and resources than I'd even care to talk about, but every once in a while you will find the right ones that have the right affinity mix and have the right way to help you market to members and bring significant value, and it can really be a win-win."

Branding
Now, the sixth way we look at things is our branding strategies. The old ways of branding in the insurance marketplace just don't work. It's too expensive to get into a repetition strategy in the media. It's critical to get in and start developing brand recognition within your different areas. A lot of that's done on the Web. We spin these divisions off, but creating their own brand and niche branding, in my opinion, has always been the most effective and economical. People miss simple ways to brand and developing the right brand strategy for an organization will make the difference on how your sales and recruiting goes. And, if you have the size behind you, private labeling some products is still very much in style. We do that with a couple of our carrier partners and do it very successfully."

Compliance
"And then, lastly, is developing the right in-house compliance and legal system. We have two attorneys on staff and a compliance expert. It makes a significant difference in negotiations with carriers, large marketing opportunities and generally being able to effectively demonstrate to carriers, employers and consumers alike that you have got the legal and compliance side of things locked in.

"We always take a look at those seven elements and incorporate those into any type of niche marketing, which is really what our success is."