Jason Magruder, CLCS
Account Executive,
Morgan-Marrow Co.
Virginia Beach, Va.
Years at company: 5
Putting in the time pays dividends
I work almost every weekend and get to the office around 6:15 a.m. each day. If you want to succeed in this business, you have to put in the hours. And it pays off: Last year, I set a company record in commissions produced in one year—and my company is 107 years old. When I was in insurance school earning my Commercial Lines Coverage Specialist designation, there were maybe 15 of us. Our teacher said 'In two years, there will be 10 of you left, in three years, there will be six, and in five years there will be two.' I'm rounding out my fifth year as an agent, and being named the top producer at my agency made me realize that all of this hard work is worth it. (My wife would tell you that I don't have a personal life.)
Yes, it gets cold in Virginia Beach
Being five miles from the ocean, our biggest hazards are hurricanes and windstorms. But in 2014, we had a cold spell early in the year and we received more frozen pipe claims than we have had in the last 10 or 15 years. The biggest claim I handled was a frozen pipe in a brand new hotel. It destroyed 63 rooms and the loss came in at a $1.7 million. The client called me at 10:30 p.m. on a Saturday night and I went right to work.
Why I love my job
My dad was a business owner, and growing up, I worked for him, cleaning cars. I saw the success and his struggles. Insurance premiums have never bankrupted anyone, but being underinsured or uninsured has. I want to prevent that from happening to my clients. I get to help people protect what they have worked hard to build, and become their trusted advisor in an industry that most don't understand. Each business is like a jigsaw puzzle—I just have to find the right carriers and coverages to complete it.
Tackling a challenging account
I cold-called a long-haul trucking company out in Roanoke, Va. As luck would have it, he was facing a non-renewal in 30 days. His agent at the time just gave up and said there was nothing he could do. In the trucking industry, there are only a handful of carriers that want to play, because the exposure is massive. I called five of my carriers—four of them said no. But the last one was on the fence. I asked what we could to make the carrier more comfortable writing the coverage. We gave the carrier my client's financials and a safety manual. The carrier asked my client to include pre-inspections daily on his trucks and to log that. The carrier also asked for the installation of a monitoring system that tracks speed, distance and equipment malfunctions in the truck, and my client did all of that. Now, he's my largest account.
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