While trying to put together a short description of this blog, I set myself a challenge. I tried to describe the blog in one sentence of less than 10 words. I failed miserably. I have a very clear idea of what I want to say in these posts, but constructing a sentence that covered everything was tough. During the process, I threw down a few words on the page to brainstorm and quickly realized I wasn’t describing the blog. I was describing Sukay & Associates. I wasn’t using a sentence either.
Here’s what my brainstorming came up with:
Goals
Our clients’ goals are the starting point of everything we do. When we first sit down with a client, our first task is to help them define their goals. Then our job is to help them to achieve them.
Value
Most of our clients ask about value at the outset, we don’t provide valuations without meeting the client and discussing the business. However, value plays a big part in what we do. With every client who wants to sell their agency, before we start looking for buyers, we look for ways to maximize the agency valuation.
Partnership
We use the term client, but that’s not exactly how we see the relationship. Partnership would be more appropriate. Once we start working with an agency, we dedicate ourselves to achieving the agency goals, as if it were our own business. We typically work with a single agency for a period of months and develop strong and lasting friendships with the owners, and we give them everything in return.
Choices
Being an agency owner is all about choices. Our primary goal with every client is to help them to make the right choices, for the right reasons. We never encourage a client to do something that we don’t believe is the right choice for the agency, regardless of its effect on our time or our fee.
Emotion
Emotion plays a big part in every one of those choices. Selling an insurance agency isn’t simply a business decision. It affects families, alters communities and changes lives. We tell every owner that they will reach an emotional moment when selling the agency, that is simply the culmination of a journey littered with emotion.
Change
The most difficult part of selling your agency is coping with change. Once you sell the agency, everything in your life will be different. How different is up to you. The important thing is to be ready before you start the selling process.
Experience
Our greatest asset in dealing with agency sales is our experience. Most owners will only ever be involved in the sale of one insurance agency. We have helped owners of agencies of all sizes sell their businesses. That experience tells us when we need to change things and helps us to guide clients through the process. That doesn’t mean we’re never surprised. We also spent most of our career buying agencies so we understand the risks that will concern the buyers.
Meetings
We spend our lives in meetings. We meet potential clients, potential buyers and facilitate meetings between the two. The thing is, we also spend our lives trying to arrange meetings. That appetite for a face-to-face meeting may be a secret of our success. You simply can’t replicate the experience of meeting someone in person, and it makes everything else easier.
Perpetuation
We operate in a slightly paradoxical reality. We earn our greatest fee when we help a client to sell their agency, but our ideal result is always an internal perpetuation. It’s better for the business and for our clients, which is why we do this in the first place.
Values
As distinct from ‘value’, values are extremely important to us. When we started the business it was over a conversation about the right way to do this job. We don’t believe in chasing the highest fee or the quickest gain, we set down a specific set of values that go to the core of everything we do. I hope this list has helped you to understand those values a little.
Now, I have a challenge for you. Can you describe your agency in 10 words or less? You probably already know the words, but it always helps to write them down.
