Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello and welcome back to Up to Speed. We've got a great episode today trying
to really find ways that we can be better, faster, smarter at our insurance practice.
I'm joined with my buddy here, Brendan Kaur from Lost Run Pro. How we doing?
What's up, Samantha? Nice to see you. Thank you so much for having us today.
It's going to be amazing.
So right now, we keep talking about a hard market.
(00:22):
We keep talking about the struggles of being an insurance agent all over the
US of A, but especially here in California, it is tough.
And as a commercial agent myself, I'm always trying to find ways to be faster.
And your product is something I really love.
And I think a lot of our listeners can really get into it. So tell us a little
bit about what it is you're doing and how you can help the independent agent and help them grow.
(00:47):
Absolutely. Man, yeah, it's so great. I mean, part of me also feels bad for
all the agents out there.
It really is so hard, but we're in a unique position and we've been in business
now live to retail agents for about the last three years.
And Loss Run Pro is designed to do exactly that, help agents be better,
(01:07):
faster, stronger in their quoting process with their commercial prospects.
And so one of the things that we specialize in is helping agents to really reduce
the friction when they're prospecting a new customer and how they gather their loss run information.
Without maybe alerting the incumbent broker.
(01:28):
And of course, as everyone's switching into the commercial market space,
it's getting more and more crowded.
And of course, the underwriters, they're being inundated with quotes,
moving business, but yet they're needing three years, five years of loss runs.
So we certainly are in a unique position to help a lot of agents out in that initial quoting phase.
I love it. And it used to be when you, you know, ask for lost runs as an insured,
(01:51):
you know, you're kind of breaking up with your broker, right?
And a lot of people feel uncomfortable.
They don't want to have the conversation. Well, now people are just pissed because
we're getting canceled, non-renewed. They have no choice.
And maybe the agents aren't able to get them as fast as they'd like them.
And so this service is so cool.
It's so easy. It's so slick. And I mean, from start to finish,
(02:11):
I mean, you could be inputting information, sending out an e-signature document
and the whole thing could take maybe three minutes.
Absolutely. I mean, it's the beautiful part of it. Now, of course,
I can't give you the information for your customers policies.
But once you have that, you know, it is start to finish, like you said,
three to five minutes, and it's out the door sitting in your prospects inbox for them to e-sign.
(02:34):
Now, part of this also is the incumbent agent isn't necessarily incentivized
to release loss runs to an insurer, right?
So if they have been canceled, if they have been non-renewed,
or they just don't want to have that awkward breakup conversation with their incumbent,
incumbent this gives the prospecting broker a
(02:56):
way to not only look better to the customer but
it also gives them an efficient way where the
customer doesn't have to do all the work in having that awkward conversation
calling a carrier they input all of the carrier data the policy numbers select
the line of coverage and in loss run pro you are also able to create all of
(03:20):
the different lines of coverage.
So this way, your prospect, your insured, is only actually having to sign one e-signature.
And once those letters are signed, they're instantly sent out to all of the carriers instantly.
So it's like a one-click solution for your prospect.
And it drastically improves that communication and also just maybe how your
(03:42):
agency looks to that prospect who you're hoping to win business with. A hundred percent.
It's like this level of like leveling up, I think. Totally. So much.
And the other thing too is, you know, when you've got multiple different policies
for an insured, you know, there's multiple different letters that,
you know, you're having to generate and then you got to send them all these signatures.
So this is cool. You literally put the information in, name,
(04:04):
policy number, address, and it's going to generate it for you.
One of the other things I really love is part of the renewal process.
So once the insureds are in your world, then at renewal time,
it's going to do the the same thing and go out and get these loss runs for us
so we don't have to go and start this process every single year.
Yeah. So the renewals is very unique.
(04:25):
And certainly most of our customers come to us for the new business because
everybody... Who doesn't like adding to their bottom line, driving new revenue?
But I think there's so much value in the renewal that is overlooked because
that's actual quantifiable dollars.
How can I relieve time and energy and the workload load from my service team, from my CSRs.
(04:49):
And through our renewal platform, if I have a policy with AmWins,
for instance, I can preload an email.
Now you build the email in the system, but then based upon the expiration date,
I can schedule when I want that email to go out.
So instead of having Samantha, you, if you're a CSR, you might have to send
(05:12):
an email to AmWins 120 days out, 60 days out, and 30.
With Loss Run Pro, you're able to do that all in one sitting,
and then you're just choosing those dates.
And the beautiful part of this is that can be built for a year,
two, three, all the way for up to six years out.
(05:35):
So it drastically improves, again, Again, that kind of, how are we making our
teams more efficient without adding to their workload?
And this certainly does a lot of that. Yeah, it's incredible.
So now what happens if you run into the situation where we use the service,
we get it out there, and the lost friends aren't coming back our way?
Because that's another thing.
(05:56):
Sometimes they're not. You guys have got a whole crew that can go in and help extract them.
Yeah. So on the renewal side, most of the time, the agencies,
you guys are the agent of record on those accounts.
So that doesn't happen nearly as often or quite rarely because they're coming
back to you guys. You guys are the agent of record.
There's no real issue. It's not getting lost in translation.
(06:17):
On the new business side, certainly there is sometimes some delays with that.
In most states, carriers have 10 business days to respond.
And so what we do in our platform is we give you a dashboard that allows you
to track it once it's been sent, signed, delivered.
And then on our backend, we have all the analytics of, has it been received?
(06:39):
How many times it's been opened? Has it been forwarded? All of those things.
But overall, we're seeing we're about 72% of our loss run requests are coming
back within the first three business days.
Great. It is really quick.
But to your point, are there some that go past that 10 days?
Absolutely. You know, there are some, but we have a whole team on the back end.
(07:02):
So if you don't get it within the 10 days, you can alert our team.
We then escalate with those carriers to get them released.
I love it. I love it. One of the things too, we were chatting prior to getting
on the show here was just the process of writing commercial business.
So in the old days, you know, You used to fill out your accords,
your SUPs, and then, yeah, the loss is clean.
(07:24):
You tell your underwriters, ah, there's no losses. Now an underwriter isn't
even looking at a risk unless it has the loss run.
So leading with the loss runs was something that you brought up. It's one now. Yeah.
It's been a big selling point for us and not only to individual agencies,
but we're also taking our platform to a lot of wholesalers and carriers because
(07:45):
we're asking them the question, hey, do you guys want to write more business?
Well, how many quotes are on their desk that are waiting and pending on loss runs?
So is Loss Run Pro a tool that they can give to their retail agents to be proactive
in that quoting cycle? But you're absolutely right.
I used to be able, or not me, I've never been an agent, but people used to be
(08:08):
able to quote with no known loss letters or get loss runs in the 11th hour after
they've already received it.
In the last 18 months, that's all changed. changed.
So we have had a lot of people who are actually leading with Loss Run Pro and
they're saying, hey, timeout, Samantha, I'd love an opportunity to win your business.
(08:30):
But the most important thing or one of the most important things is we're going
to need your loss runs. I'd like to start that conversation today.
I need your policy information, lines of coverage, all of that.
I'm going to send you an email. I need you to kind of e-sign it within Loss
Run Pro. Bro, that gets the ball starting.
A, then you're not waiting on loss runs at the 11th hour.
(08:53):
But then B, it's also helping the agent kind of understand where that customer
is and how likely they are to let you quote the business. Yes.
Yeah. Do that. They're like, move them down the list, right?
If they can't e-sign a document.
Yeah, no, a hundred percent. And I think even now, I mean, I write commercial
(09:14):
properties, my gig and even a new purchase.
I mean, you can't even get an apartment building quoted if it's a new purchase.
I mean, it used to be, nobody cared about what happened before we took it on.
Now, even if it's, you know, I got to contact the prior buyer to get their loss
history industry because carriers aren't even interested in looking unless they
have the full, they want to see the full kimono, baby. Let's open it up.
(09:36):
A hundred percent. And also like, and I get it. I mean, look at, look at the industry.
I mean, the industry is hard, right? Especially in so many markets,
but especially where you are in California.
And we're seeing a lot of people who are also just trying to,
you know, kind of survive and they're starting to write more commercial business,
just because the market is dictating it, well, they never saw the other side.
(09:59):
They never saw you could just quote without loss runs.
So they're trying to at least even get their feet settled is how do I quote?
What's the best way? I didn't even know I needed five years of loss runs.
So even in our selling process, we're having a lot of those conversations with
agents who are really diving into the commercial space.
(10:19):
They're maybe not a first-time agent, but to the commercial market.
They're really starting to pivot into that.
And so for them, they're relying upon people.
And also, it's nice that they're relying upon Lost Run Pro to kind of help as a part of that process.
Well, and the part that I love so much is this is an affordable asset for any firm.
(10:40):
Okay, we're talking $29 a month per user to have access to the system.
I mean, where else are you going to get something that's that big of a bang
for your buck? Let's be honest this year. Yeah, I...
I don't know if there's a better ROI on the market. I don't know every tech solution.
(11:01):
I certainly know that there are other solutions that do more than Lost Run Pro, right?
But for what we do, if you don't write commercial, we're not a fit, right?
But if you write commercial and you're a broker and you are prospecting new
accounts, I don't know how $29 a month doesn't make it into the budget for a
(11:22):
product that drastically improves,
how you communicate with your prospects and how quickly you can get data back
in order to fulfill a quote to an underwriter. I mean, there is nothing.
I mean, most agencies either have inside talent that they're paying a salary
to do and it is a part of their job.
Still, it's three minutes and you can get what you need done here and attack a lot at the same time.
(11:45):
Or Or maybe you have a dedicated overseas component, somebody that's helping
you get those loss runs, which I know we've used in the past.
You're still paying somebody an hourly wage to get these documents.
And it's not coming in. It's not, I mean, it can be organized.
But I mean, if you only have 50 policies a month that you're working on, that's one thing.
But as your agencies grow, I mean, you're talking two, three, four, 500 policies.
(12:08):
I mean, that's a lot to manage. And this is a tool that can really easily manage
it for you and keep it all in one place and make you look like you know what you're doing, right?
Totally. That's half the battle too, is just like having the right things in place. Yeah.
We, you know, it's so funny because like sometimes I talk to these agencies
and, you know, one of the kind of the objections I get in the sales process
(12:32):
is, oh, you know, Samantha does a really good job of getting loss runs, right?
Oh, we have people that do that because if you're not in the weeds, right?
Maybe you don't know the pain point or you don't know the work that goes into it.
But also, this week alone, I've talked to two customers who have both told me,
(12:53):
I don't know why we waited so long.
You know, A, everybody has a process for everything, but how do you know it can't improve that?
I'm not saying Samantha hasn't done a very good job at her job of getting lost
runs, but for $29 a month, month, I can really improve your internal workflow
(13:14):
to make you more efficient,
to make you look better to your customer, but then also free up time for you
or the staff or the overseas team to do other things that might be more warranted
or to solve another bottleneck.
And so I'm seeing that.
And this brings up my next kind of thought is it doesn't matter your agency size, right?
(13:38):
Loss runs are across the industry. So it doesn't matter if you are mom and pop
shop or you are USI and hub with hundreds of locations around the country.
Loss runs are needed regardless, right? And that's also why it's priced the way it is.
I dig it. So now let's say we're in, we're subscribing.
(13:59):
How long does it take us to get onboarded and be able to use the system?
Oh, it's so easy. So A, you can sign up directly online because we wouldn't
be a very good automation tool if you couldn't do that.
So anybody listening, you can go to lostrunpro.com and sign up today.
But also we have signup forms. We have different kind of network aggregators
(14:20):
that we're a part of and all that stuff.
But once you sign up, the system is live.
So you have access to our entire system, both solutions, new business and renewals instantly.
The system comes preloaded with over 3,600 carriers.
So for you guys who are thinking, hey, well, how do I get them to the carriers?
(14:41):
We have all that taken care of.
And then in terms of training, once you're signed up, you get a welcome email.
So if you sign up three people in your office, Samantha, you,
me, and Tim, we all get welcome emails with our credentials, two training videos.
But then most importantly, we have live trainings that we host every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
(15:06):
And that's a way for us as a service team to stay available to our customers.
Some days we have people, there's four people on those and other days there's 50.
We have people who have been customers for a year who come back and join because
they They want to get better at a particular piece of the puzzle, you know?
So that's a way for us. It's super easy to get you signed up,
(15:27):
but also for us to just make sure that your team is trained with how to use
the program moving forward.
I dig it. Making insurance cool, making insure tech cool.
Many of us have been so afraid of it for so long, but as we can see,
there are a lot of things and systems in place that can help us be better,
faster, smarter in the insurance industry. industry.
(15:47):
Brendan, I can't say thanks enough for your time today, and I hope that everybody
is being kept up to speed.