just hired a sales person,as they were making calls they were told we should get on 'the glass network' what is the glass network? is this a tpa like safelite or lynx.

Be more specific. Calling on who?

are you in arizona?

they are calling on insurance agents in northern part of MN

They are telling everybody to get on the networks because it's less work for them & they get a profit from the network mark up. I do nothing but fight with the networks & it's because they short pay on EVERY invoice I submit even with thier pricing structure. It's gotten so bad that I have to call to get approval for moldings when it's required by nags & this is through lynx. They also will not pay late fee's no matter how old the claim is, I have one that's over 6 mo. old!

the glass network covers all of Minnesota and is owned by independent shops and insurance agents (not insurance companies). We have fought against short payments at the legislature, the Dept. of Commerce and in Arbitration for shops and won. We do not steer or condone steering.

See theglassnetwork.net for information.

So do independent shops get a % above nags or below nags?

Hey.....APGS.

By "glass network" the people telling your rep that are not talking specifically. I think that they are talking generally.

The glass "network' isn't the Glass Network but the network comprised of Lynx, Safelite, Harmon and a few others and if I am correct, you are new in the business and are in for a rude awakening.

I hope not for your sake.

If your rep is calling on insurance agents, it isn't like fifteen years ago when the agents approved and in many cases directly paid the claims through their office funds or however.

Let me save you some time and your rep some shoe leather.

Calling on insurance agents--in the main unless you turn them into golfing expense account buddies--isn't worth the powder to blow that idea to hell and in the end is as effective as fitting a pair of rubber gloves over the end of a toilet plunger.

They have no power other than to refer someone to you in which case you will STILL be required to join their network or end up direct billing in which case they will be told to stop referring business to you in the first place.

A Catch 22 and a relentless march up the down staircase.

hey Jim, so just how do you get business from insurance agents, we know we dont make enough money to take them golfing if we have to pay. someone said something of the glass network to go to their website, have not had time to check it out but wondering if that would be a good way to get insurance work. I do body shop work mostly and that is getting to be a headache, they tell ME what they can now pay and want me to do R&I's for nothing.

just checked it out, this looks like exactly what the independents need, a network by the independents, with the independents and for the consumer,,,,, WOW what a concept! We'll have to get more info!!! looks way cool, great site!

APGS,

Welcome to the AGR business!

My personal opinion is that it is AN ABSOLUTE WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY to send a salesperson out calling on insurance agents! 90% (or more) of the auto glass claims never come across the desk of an insurance agent. The policyholder calls the 800# on the back of their insurance card which puts them into the hands of one of the networks (Lynx, Harmon, SGC etc etc etc) and the job is "dispatched" out to "member" shops from there. The insurance agent doesn't even know about it in most cases!

I think you would be much better off putting your salesperson to work calling on dealerships, fleets, local and state governments and anyone else you identify that has vehicles on the road. You will likely get a much better return on your investment!

I feel your pain on the body shop work. The R&I pricing in my area is so beat up its not even worth doing.

apgs.

I couldn't put it any better than what AGN outlines in his reply above.

Jim & AGN

You guys have probally never made a sales call on a agent in your life. I have been in this business 35 years and we have always called on insurance agents since the beginning. Insurance customers call their claims to the agent 1st almost everytime. If you train your agents to have them call you the shop and not the 800 number, You will win everytime. We do about 10-15 insurance claims "DAILY" and the are generated through either repeat customers that were sent to us from the insurance agent,new referals from the insurance agent, or new referals from the insurance customer.

We always make more money on insurance claims than cash or dealer work. Our cash and dealer work is cheap fill in work, you guys need to crunch a few numbers and see if you can get a few good agents on your team. Its hard work, and takes persistence to get them to come with you. Most agents just want their customer taken care of. They know how the networks treat their clients and the good ones will put their customer first. It is real easy to go sell cheap dealer work, you will have to be good and just not sharpen your pencil to gain their trust.

Going after and getting insurance work will seprates the "MEN" from the "BOYS" when it comes to gaining a insurance customer.

So crunch those numbers and tell me if I am wrong.......Invest a little money and wine and dine a few agents and you will never regret it.

And one more thing, the normal agents only have a couple claims a month. You need to go after the big guys with the huge books of business (5000+ vehicles). Get to know the agents and the girls in the office will do the rest.

Good luck "BOYS"...........

Great words exp. I totally agree on calling on the agents. If you have a sales rep who knows anything about the business, let them talk. Talk about Quality, talk about timeliness, talk about your re-do rates, talk about safety, talk about AGRSS, and they can even talk about the taboo phrase - loss ratio.

Selling nowadays is all about relationship building. You don't need to wine and dine them until you feel it's appropriate and the business is there. Most of them are aware of margins. Hand out desk pads so your name is under their nose, give them calendars, again to keep that name under their nose. It's called "Branding" or "name recognition". If your salesperson is not doing this then you're wasting your time and the agents time.

Thats funny I thought agent steerage was illegal, I am sure people in your area would love to know who you are wining, dining and gifting there EXP. I seem to remember some lawsuits purtaining to this a few years ago. Gifting like that would defininently be grounds for them being removed as an agent of some insurance companies.......but who knows, I have been wrong before.

You ain't wrong in this case, MUDFLAP. Of course that kind of "gifting" does occur but certainly not to the extent of years ago.

And "J".

I'm not sure who or what you are vaguely referring to. What I see is a healthy and informative discussion concerning the pros and cons of calling on insurance agents.

The gentleman who has been calling on agents for 35 years may have a close relationship with them and might very well be fortunate enough to receive occasional direct referrals from those agents because of those relationships.

But...

In this day and age of 800# networks, the very idea of hiring a salesman to call on agents is preposterous and doomed from the start.

Ergo: don't bother or the result--in my estimation--is to end up crashing and burning.

Mr. Exp;
There is one thing that I still don't know & that is how do you avoid the networks when most of the claims I send through to my agents get kicked back from the insurance company & directed straight back to the network for payment? & thats where my FUN begins! I too am a veteran in the industry & still do all my own cold calling & installing, And if you read enough post Jim just likes to spout & try to insult on a John Kerry word format but all in all he just another glass guy like the rest of us!

HEYJOHNL

We still bill through the networks(no contracts), We just do the leg work fo the agent so their customer don't get steered to the network owned shops. Our agents know the difference between us and the other guy, They trust us and we do not let them down. Sales calls do work and take alot of hard work and follow up work to prove yourself.

Why do some of guys think taking an agent or his staff to lunch is illegal, its been happening for decades? I bet the TPA'S sales staff entertain the insurances company hancho's, It's a fact of business!

Some of you guys are brain washed and need to learn how to lead for a change.

exp i tell you what I agree with you, anyone that you buy lunch for once a month that gives all his/her business to you is an idiot.. lol thats like somone getting to 3rd base for buying your date a Mc Tasty...

LOL any agent that is infuence by one lunch here and there is a very easy date.

Your correct Larry, Lunch is a very cheap way to get to know a agent and his staff. And it's not illegal to have lunch like some TPA's would love these rookies to believe and have them think they are doing something bad.

Interesting comments that you make about "rookies", exp.

Particularly since I've been in this business for nineteen years and you appear to consider that "rookie" status.

Using my amount of experience as a yardstick, I can only hope that I live long enough to become a fossil since that seems to be the next step up in some mythical hierarchy.

I don't have the benefit of residing in a town with four or five insurance agents to wine and dine once a month each for business. In fact, if I were to tear out the yellow pages of insurance agents in my area and send them to you COD, the cost of the weight alone would probably bust your expense budget for the remainder of 2007.

Any salesman I hired would visit those agents about the same time frequency that Halley's comet appeared and I don't call that an intimate relationship.

On the other hand, I could be off base since I am merely a "rookie" along with the others who agreed with me. What do I know?

My advice to the person who originated this post about where to send a sales person to drum up business remains the same and at the bottom of that list of potential business is insurance agents unless he resides in a town where sheep and horses outnumber potential customers.

As for the guy with the offhanded and cheap comment about "spouting".

Try to remember that junk to some is treasure to others even though the obverse is true as well.

That's the definition of being open-minded. Easy for some; difficult for some; virtually impossible for some others.

Jim

Assuming is is a better word to describe you. If the rookie word offends you, It probally fits a little better than you would like. And again, Too Bad you forgot so much. You should have learned to retain some of that knowledge over the ninteen years of being in this business. Maybe, A little too much of "BUD" over the years? OOPS, there I go ASSUMING like you.........

Jim I'am sure you mean well, I think your just a little mad that those insurance agents that you have tried to call on did not like you. OOPS there I go assuming again..........

Hey exp. - you seem to know the business pretty well. You mention you call in 10-15 insurance claims daily either from agent referrals or repeat customers. Is that how many windows your company installs on a daily basis?

Let's see.... a very motivated auto glass rep should make $50,000.00 - $70,000.00 annually. How many friggin replacements would a company have to perform to pay for that, and put somethin' in the bank? 10 years ago or so it was feasible, nowadays it's a waste of time and money and impossible to justify (calling on agents), in my view. You're lucky to bank a couple hundred bucks per network job, usually less than that, and then pay a sales person comission and salary on top of a slim profit?
In our market/situation, car dealers and body shops are far more profitable. And once or twice a year you set up a grill or take 'em to a booby-bar and you get all their business and a--loads of referrals.

Al-
20-30 a day with cash,fleet and dealer work.

Glassgod- The insurance end of it also has a lot of referals. The purpose of this thread was to show some of the guys here that if you crunch a few numbers you will see that the insurance business is much more profitable than cash or dealer. You just said that you make about $200 hundred per insurance job. What do you make per dealer or cash job? Probally half that.

There are a lot of independents that are brained washed that insurance work is only for TPA owned shops. You and I know thats not true, But there are a lot of new guys that just give up on that end of this business. Most guys need the mix of business to make a decent living. It is hard work to get an agent on your team. But it is well worth it when it happens.

Wrong exp..we don't hafta low ball our car dealers and shops to receive the work. 20 years of loyal following...they would rather have it done right the first time. And they put a mark up on our invoice so they don't give a crap what we charge, but we charge fair market for our area. And we get hundreds of referrals annually from dealers and body shops.

Glassgod

I understand and our dealers are the same way with us. We are the exception and not the rule. What I was trying to get across is there is insurance work avaible to indepedents if they pursue it, and the profit is more than most are making on cash or dealer work. I'am not debating your profit margins, just the new guys and some that do not understand insurance profits vs. cash.

EXP:
I was wondering if the "fair & reson@#$%%%^able" pricing structure is as damaging to your bottom line as it is to my area in the northeast? RE: I refuse all my progressive customer's & have them pay out of pocket now because what "Progressive" request as fair is lower then what I pay some times, and I would also like to know.....well I know a little about how they conclude to these discounts but since this is a free market would'nt they (the networks) have to show how they came to these conclusions & also what they are charging exspecialy if your not contracted with those CLOWNS!? I beleive these are some concerns & questions that should be charged to them instead of these steering suites, perhaps we can all ban together & demand the calculations of their undermining structure & put the profit back in the business/art of glazing.