this to protect policyholders? And it’s leaning toward states and state law. But it’s not a settled question, at all.”

And as the maturing HMO industry has developed prob- lems, so may the banks in the insurance industry.

“So we look at these interactions between law, insurance, and banking. And I think we’re going to see more connections, and more questions that we should all be talking about together,” Howard concluded.

+++ SUPERCHARGE yon CREDIT INSURANCE SALES

very bank wants to sell more credit insurance. But is there a E simple way to supercharge your sales performance?

Is there a simple way to supercharge your sales performance?

Surprisingly, the answer is yes. And the solution comes from three important words: rewards, recognition, and incentives. That’s what makes a credit insurance program really come alive, according to Lynn Gelseman, vice president in the Assurant Group’s Knowledge Development Center (Atlanta, Georgia).

Revealed: The most powerful motivator Gelseman spoke at a recent meeting of the Credit Insurance

Marketing Association (CIMRO), which was hosted by the Association of Banks-In-Insurance (Washington, D.C.). She started off by challenging the audience with a question.

“What do employees perceive as the most powerful long- term motivator?’ Gelseman asked.

Gelseman gave her audience a choice of answers. “Is it the option of having flextime?” she queried. “Or of

knowing their job has a career path? Is it money? Or is it personalized instant recognition from their manager?”

Some people thought money was the great motivator. “Money is very important to get people toperform,” Gelseman

advised. “But it’s not the only thing, however. And studies will prove that there is a different answer to that question.”

So what’s the answer? “The answer is the last one!” Gelseman revealed. “For long-

term employee motivation, rewarded recognition allows our employees to keep performing, and doing the things that we want them to do. If you’ve been in management for any period of time, you’ve heard and known that this is true. You’ve certainly read study, after study, after study that proves that this is the case.”

Old Kent’s success story Heidi Voorhees, sales and communications officer at Old

Kent Financial Corporation (Grand Rapids, Michigan), also

agrees. And she shared Old Kent’s success story in motivating credit insurance salespeople.

“There are different things that Old Kent does to reward and recognize its employees,” Voorhees noted. “My favorite is the top producers conference, which I’ve been in charge of for a few years now. The strategy of this conference is to identify the individuals who have made a difference, within our corporation, as far as selling credit insurance. So it’s a very basic goal.”

What makes a credit insurance program come alive? Rewards, recognition, and incentives.

Any Old Kent employee who offers payment protection on closed and consumer loans is eligible to attend the top producers conference.

“This conference is a two-day event,” Voorhees explained. “We typically hold it in May or June, which is probably later in the year than some people might expect. In the past, we’ve coordinated it with our festival, which is held in Grand Rapids. That allows the people to have an extra long weekend. They would come in on Thursday for our conference. Friday morning we had a discussion, and then they had the whole weekend to attend the festival in Grand Rapids.”

Old Kent has made this into a family outing. “We also encourage people to bring their kids,” Voorhees

said, “not to the dinner, but we like to make it a family outing. If they want to have a weekend on the bank, this is their chance to do that. So a lot of people appreciate that.”

But all the activities are done to achieve a single set ofgoals. “Our goals,” Voorhees divulged, “are to reward sales achieve-

ments in a unique way, create product awareness, increase productivity, and to gain senior management support.”

As anyone in bank insurance knows, top management sup- port can make or break a program.

“So senior management support is a very big thing that we focus on,” Voorhees explained “We invite senior management to the top producemconfiemceevery year. We wanttoseemorethanjustaverbal, ‘Yes, we support you.’ We want them there, and we want them to see

4 BANKS IN INSURANCE REPORT NOVEMBER 2000 Q 2000 John Wtley & Sons. Inc

the people who make an impact on the program-the ones who matter. We want them to congratulate these people on their achievement.”

After the awards are given, Old Kent hosts a relaxed discus- sion session for employees.

“The following morning,” said Voorhees, “when we have our discussion, it’s very informal. We want them to share ideas with us. We want to keep them up-to-date with what the new changes are in our programs. So we talk about new techniques, and new products that are coming. We brainstorm, and share successful tips.

“And this is definitely one of the best parts for us in the department,” she added. “Without a doubt, we learn more from them thantheydofromus! Andwereally appreciatetheirfeedback. Wehear right from the people who are out there-day in and day out-what problems they’re running across, what they think needs to be done. And then, that gives us a chance to go back and fix things for them, so do they don’t continue to run into these problems.”

What’s the most powerful long-term motivator of employees? Hint: I f isn ’t money.

~

Growing the conference Old Kent has been holding these conferences for more than

a decade. “Initially, our first top producers conference was in 1990,”

Voorhees said. “The requirements to be invited were very basic. People knew what the guidelines were, so they knew whether or not they were able to attend each year’s conference. Officers had to have a minimum of eight loans per month, or 96 loans year-to- day. And they also needed to sell credit insurance successfully on at least 50 percent of these loans.”

The first conference was not an elaborate affair. “Our first conference was just a one-night dinner, at a local

restaurant in Grand Rapids,” Voorhees revealed. “There were 13 people who met the criteria that I just mentioned. And a total of 19 people attended.”

The next year, Old Kent expanded the conference. “We continued in 1991,” Voorhees explained, “to add the

spouses. There again, we’re getting back to our goal of having

recognition, praise, in front ofthe right people. We wantedthe people to have their spouses, who were important to them, to see what they do every day. It all gets down to just providing more recognition.”

And the conference has evolved over the years. “We have changed quite a bit,” said Voorhees. “Ten years

later, we found that our invitees, this year, wrote more than $3.5 million in new premiums-which represents 36.4 percent of the total written premium last year! We had 41 invitees, plus their guests or significant others, for a total of 155 people. So as you can see, we’ve increased in size.”

So the conference has really grown. “And that’s great,” Voorhees remarked. “We’re pleased.

Every year, we try to get more people to attend. We don’t want to limit it to a certain number ofpeople. The more people who can attend, the better.

“But there have been changes in the bank, as well, that have resulted in our reexamining our criteria,” she continued. “We try never to lose sight of the goal-which is to bring recognition to the people. So people who make phone loans are eligible to attend the conference, as well. And last year, we did have three people fiomthe alternative origination area [phone loans]. And this number is going to increase, because they’re just selling like crazy.”

One company has made its reward event into a family outing.

Including more people And Old Kent has taken other steps to include more employees. “We also started inviting loan officers whose premium per

thousand was in the top 25 percent ofthe entire corporation,”said Voorhees. “What we were finding was that some of them were unable to meet the requirement of 96 loans year-to-day. And so we did not penalize them.

“We don’t ever want anybody to think, ‘Well, I’ll never make that, so I don’t want to sell.’ We want to encourage as many peopleas possible to attend the conference. So wejust took alook at the premium per thousand. And if they were in the top 25 percent, then we just invited them.” W

MANAGING YOUR AUTO LOAN RISK any banks make automobile loans to customers. But those loans aren’t made without some risk to the bank, however.

Kirby Jordan believes that self-insurance is part of the

What’s the best way to manage auto loan risk? serf- insurance may be one answer.

M So what’s the best way for a bank to manage that risk?

answer.

BANKS IN INSURANCE REPORT 0 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

NOVEMBER 2000 5