Brian Dixon
Brian Dixon
An Interview with Brian Dixon
Brian Dixon runs a small ($250k) but rapidly expanding agency in Irving, Texas, specializing in property and casualty business. Before choosing SIS and PartnerXE, his experience with agency management systems included both AMS and Applied Systems. “I stated my angst with some of the other vendors for agency management systems and asked, ‘Is [PartnerXE] user friendly? Can I get trained? If I call you, would you answer the phone? And if I tell you that I’m not satisfied, will you care?’” As Dixon explains, “It’s that human element that is missing from those other companies that I feel like, from the very get-go, I got from SIS.”
SIS: What niche does an agency management system fill?
Brian Dixon: An agency management system is an important business tool because we’re human, and to be human is to (a) make mistakes and (b) put things off because we’re disorganized, and we tend not to do things in a systematic, organized way… There has to be some consistency to your systems and your business. So, part of the decision to invest in a system is planning, and part of it is awareness that we’re human and are probably going to make some mistakes without some sort of structure.
SIS: Could you run your business without an agency management system? What does it do for you that you couldn’t do for yourself?
Dixon: Do I absolutely have to have a management system at this point in my agency’s development? No.
But as you grow – and I intend to grow significantly in the next six months – you have to consider at what point you might say, “Okay, now I have to have one,” before you have to go back and spend a month trying to make up for the fact that you didn’t do it right to begin with.
We’re still fairly start-up for the simple fact that our marketing plan is just now becoming fruitful. In the next six months I intend to hire two more producers. Then, when you’re growing – you have a marketing budget and you have plans and goals you need to achieve – you’re crazy not to have an agency management system in place.
For us, growth is not “if,” it’s really “when.” The opportunities are there if you do your homework, develop some relationships, do the marketing and make the right business decisions… That’s what we’re doing. It’s slow, but nothing good ever happens overnight.
SIS: How important is an agency management system to the ongoing operations of an agency?
Dixon: It’s vital.
It allows the agency to capture information that would otherwise just be in an agent’s head – or piled on his desk. What if that guy dies? Or he’s out for a week? And not just that… It’s the tool that allows you to follow your marketing plans. It’s being able to run reports – that’s a huge thing for me – summarizing agency activities without counting beans myself. It’s becoming green and going paperless… there are so many benefits to an agency management system.
SIS: What would you say to somebody on the fence, trying to decide whether to get an agency management system or not, particularly given the current economy?
Dixon: I really don’t understand the mentality of why you would wait.
To me, it can help your business be prepared for whatever happens. Being prepared keeps you from feeling the fear and anxiety of the unknown that comes with a collapsing economy, or whatever you want to call it. So if you prepare yourself to meet the challenge of an economy that might be slipping, you’ll be in a better position to be one of the ones who can actually succeed in a down economy versus someone who just sits in fear, waiting to fail themselves. It’s the cup half full, cup half empty thing. Those that make it in a down economy are usually the ones who realize that there are new potentials there that weren’t available before the economy started failing.
SIS: So, what’s your current business strategy?
Dixon: We believe we can help people and benefit.
These days there are people who maybe have not paid attention to some of their costs before. Who hasn’t second-guessed the cost of their morning latte and other frivolous spending? Now they need pay attention to all of their monthly expenses. People tend to forget about home-owners’ because they just pay it as part of their mortgage. We can help them save a couple a hundred dollars a month, and maybe save their home…
Long story short: if you prepare yourself, and you plan, and you try to help people deal with their anxiety by lowering their home payments, it all becomes a new opportunity in a faltering economy. It just makes sense.
SIS: Since you’ve had experience with several agency management system providers, what can you say about PartnerXE?
Dixon: SIS has done it more efficiently, more pragmatically, more cost-efficient. I am amazed at the detail that’s involved in SIS’ program that, honestly, I didn’t see with [the others]. With SIS you literally just have to know how to use Outlook®. Okay, it’s a little more complicated than Outlook, but the use-friendly aspect of it lowers your anxiety towards taking that step: going ahead and getting an agency management system.
SIS: What is SIS like as a partner?
Dixon: One of the things I look for is real people.
There’s a personal side to every businessperson. There’s a relationship to be built, and that’s when business relationships flourish: when both people realize that we’re both human, we’re both have good days and bad days, we both have families and needs and wants and fears. When someone approaches me on a human, real level I tend to do a lot better.
From the very beginning I felt like I was treated like a human and not a number or a statistic. It means that you do care that I’m spending my money with you. It means that you do care if I’m dissatisfied or maybe I’m freaking out because that thing I thought I understood isn’t as easy as I thought it was… It’s that human element that is missing from those other companies that I feel like, from the very get-go, I got from SIS.
