history and business plan for SIG

Our agency opened its doors as an independent agency in 1987 in Bryan/College Station, Texas with Rodney Hurt as the owner and producer.  In June of 2000 Richard Pollard joined the agency and Service Insurance Group, Inc. was formed.  Since that time Richard has taken the responsibility to open and manage sales offices and Rodney primarily manages and produces for the College Station office.  Our corporate plan is research and open several new sales offices each year, and we are meeting our goal.  See the current list of sales locations.   Accounting, computer management, marketing and corporate management are centralized in College Station with sales/service functions handled by each office.

Our business plan is to grow through new production, agency acquisition, producer acquisition, joint venturing with financial institutions, and maximizing internet opportunities.  All of our producers are dedicated to increasing their production, and we are staffed to accomplish this.  We are looking for agency acquisitions and for opportunities to acquire good experienced producers at any location that we believe is underserved.  We have developed a "turnkey" plan to open new offices and provide producers with a unique ownership arrangement.  We are committed to blending the combination of agency computer systems and the internet to reach for maximum efficiency in our operations.  It is currently not our goal to acquire customers by solicitation through the internet, but to utilize the internet for sales and service, including our own website.

Our plans are to target future prospects based upon certain market characteristics.  We desire for our markets to assist us in prospecting with competitive target programs, providing state of the art website marketing and superior customer service.  We prefer that our markets provide us with unique opportunities by designing excellent programs for specific types of businesses.  Our target customer of the future is one that buys both for personal service and for electronic efficiency.

Our producers have an average of over 15 years experience selling insurance to individuals/businesses as part of our selection process for new locations includes producers who have spent most of their careers working and living in the areas where our agencies are located.  Their future marketing plans evolve around the many contacts/prospects they have established over the years and attaining successful sales goals under a mentoring program.  All of our producers have training to utilize underwriting guide/markets ranging from "manual" to "website".  We have a corporate wide mentoring/marketing program for commercial insurance.  It is directed out of our College Station office, and all producers receive additional training and marketing advice as it relates to commercial insurance production.  Additionally, we utilize advertising, telemarketing, target marketing and "center of influence" to maintain a volume of prospects.  We plan to grow in all lines of insurance and to have all types of customers that fit within certain parameters determined by a variety of target programs.  Our overall specific goal is to double our sales volume every five years; however, we are on track to more than triple our volume from 2000 to 2005.

Our perpetuation program is integrated into our overall business plan as the spread of locations and the development of a management group reduces the potential for any major disruption in the organization due to retirement, death or disability.  We also believe our structure provides many benefits to insurance markets such as a spread of risk for weather related losses and the ability to acquire customers in rural type areas that are less litigious without having concerns about the ability of a small town agent being able to sustain enough overall markets to survive.