A number of commercial insurance giants–some of them global inscope–remain hungry for growth in the Main Street market. Theycompete with smaller and more specialized firms by offering broadcoverage along with risk management tools and service options tosupport independent agents whose bread and butter prospects aresmall-business owners like themselves.

Each carrier queried for this article cited a common “secret”for success in the small-business market–the easier it is foragents to fill out applications, bind coverage and service MainStreet accounts, the more successful both the carrier and producerwill be. Carriers recognize that to be profitable in thistight-margin market, producers must spend a minimal amount of timeon administration to maximize their sales goals.

All said they had built their small-business programs to a pointwhere agents could quote and bind in a short period of time, and afew said that for many classes of business, the process would noteven involve a live underwriter.