The views of Company CEO’s on the University East Panel were echoed by members of the panel of principals of general agents, at the session. The panel, consisting of Mary Marines of Pennock Insurance Company, Leonard LoVullo of LoVullo Associates, Frank Mastowski of Jimcor Agencies, and Adam Devine of Excess Insurance Company, offered the view that building and maintaining business relationships -- partnerships with companies, and service and value-added relationships with retailers -- were the keys to sustaining business and remaining profitable under current market conditions.

The panel members also spoke to the unique ways in which each of their organizations sought to cultivate those relationships, from offering greater efficiencies through technology to a “kinder, gentler” but “performance driven” corporate culture.

Building relationships with companies requires both promoting the particular strengths of each company and proving that you are trustworthy, said Pennock’s Marines. Organic growth is going to be difficult for wholesalers to achieve in the next two to three years in a marketplace that has seen a 20 percent increase in supply and a 30 percent decrease in demand, added Jimcor’s Mastowski, who believes that a long term view of partnership with companies will be the best way for general agents to be survive the soft market.

With respect to retailers, Marines believes that agencies need to see and project themselves as problems solvers. “Retailers need to think that you’re sitting at your desk just waiting for them to call so you can help them,” she said. In the wholesaler/retailer relationship, it’s all about service to the retailer. “When your phone rings, someone has a problem and you need to be there to solve it.” There are areas that remain untouchable to the standard market, Marines added, and this is where the E&S markets can shine – both in the renewal and new business arenas.

LoVullo stressed that retailers had become more comfortable with and learned to use excess and surplus lines during the last hard market, and that while the market had recently softened, demand would return, and with it, the retailers that may have recently moved toward the standard market. In the meantime, doing a faster, more efficient and better job is the only way to take business away from your competitors, said LoVullo, adding that he believes his centralized office has been the key to his success.

LoVullo predicted some convergence as a result of both the current market conditions and the recent spate of mergers and acquisitions that has resulted in “bigger and more refined” retailers “who don’t need 40 wholesalers” to meet their needs. “A one-stop shop is more appealing to retailers,” he said, suggesting some ways to accomplish this, including broadening product lines, managing the submissions process to focus on the ones that are most likely to go the excess and surplus market, providing quick answers -- even if the answer is “no” – and increasing efficiencies by offering retailers as much value-added service as possible in one location.

Loyalty also plays a greater role in the relationships between retailers and their customers, than in the relationship between retailers and producers, said Mastowski. For the wholesaler, building and maintaining relationships with retailers requires three key attributes: great people who know the available products, great service through technology that provides efficiency for the retailer, and great products, which in a soft market means identifying quality products that fill identifiable gaps.

For Essex Insurance’s Devine, differentiating his agency from other with which it competes depends on making the retailers’ jobs easier, and he believes that investing in technology is key to this, both in current and future markets.

At the end of the day, an oft-repeated message from the panel was that no “one size fits all” – especially in the current market. Each agency operates in the way that it feels best answers the opportunities to solve problems and meets the needs of their customers, and in so doing, becomes both trusted partners with companies and trusted advisors to retailers