Experience - Payroll & Insurance
The next phase of my career turned to the payroll and insurance industries. This began with a new position as the Director of Operations for a employee leasing company, called a PEO. Business to business services were completely new to me, and I quickly learned that while many of my previous skills translated well, many others had to be refined in order to be successful.
To begin, I had to learn all about payroll. One might think that there was a training program. There was not. Nor was there much interest on the part of the payroll staff to teach me. Internal politics were very powerful at this office. So what to do? I figured that payroll laws should be pretty easy to find (they were), and the software couldn't be too difficult to learn (it wasn't), so I set aside time to learn about payroll on my own. And before long, I could explain exactly how garnishments should be calculated, how 941 forms were filled out and filed, and how to work through the process in the payroll software from start to completed payroll. In other words, I learned that if there was something that I didn't know in the world of payroll, the answer was always out there, and was easy to find, if you knew where to look.
In short order, I found myself becoming a near expert on payroll, and eventually took over the management of the payroll staff as part of my regular duties. And the department flourished and grew. As the now expert in the office on payroll, I accompanied sales reps on client visits to become the subject matter expert when discussing payroll. And I realized very quickly that the key to sales in this environment was knowledge. The same steps as in a retail setting existed; diagnosing needs, recommending solutions, closing the deal. But in this environment, the key was that we were the subject matter experts on a subject that the client was often ignorant on. So proper communication of the solution, tailored to the client's level of skill was the key to closing the deal. Eventually, the sales staff just set the appointments, made the introductions, and let me run the meeting, as I was the most effective sales person in the room. Simply by being the subject matter expert.
I found myself realizing that my vision for what this business model should be like was different from what the owners had in mind. With that, I decided that after nearly five years to start my own small business services firm, offering payroll services, HR consulting, and insurance services. I knew there would be new challenges, but never one to back down from I challenge, I took the plunge, and embarked on the most challenging venture I've had to date.
I began in business with one client. Obviously not enough to pay the bills. So I had to find clients, and fast. But of course it's not that simple. I needed new payroll software. I needed an office. I needed to figure out how I was going to market to new businesses. I needed a banking relationship for direct deposits and tax payments. The list was long. And a lot of the challenges were new challenges. But what had already started could not be stopped, so I carried on.
I haven't really mentioned insurance to this point. I was licensed already, but had never sold a policy. I knew that payroll and insurance businesses had some great synergy between them, as they had the same end customer, and in the case of workers' comp and payroll, the billing was directly related, but I had a problem. I didn't actually know how to sell an insurance policy. Really. So I met some wholesalers, and forced them to hold my hand through the process. It turned out that selling insurance was pretty easy. Especially with their help. After selling a few policies, I no longer required their help and actually became a quality producer for them, until I earned carrier appointments on my own. But the key takeaway here? I started selling insurance without any idea of how to sell insurance. But I made it work.
The first few months involved the set up. The software, the office, the banking relationships. I got that all set up, and I was ready to bring on business. Next challenge? How? I wasn't much of a cold calling kind of person. I tried it, and it did not work. Networking? Sounds great, but I had no network, so I had to build that. And a quality network takes time. So where did I turn? The internet, of course. Internet marketing was the key to driving sales leads for us. But, (I hope you are getting used to the trend here), I didn't really know how to do that either. What I knew was that once I identified someone with a need, I was exceptionally good about presenting my product and closing the deal. So I had to find the businesses with the need. And through a variety of sources, (and a substantial amount of learning on just how to actually do it) I developed a complex internet marketing program that drove me sales leads and I did just what I set out to do. I signed up new business.
Now came time to start developing new products, namely, tying workers' compensation insurance billing to the payroll process, known as pay-as-you-go workers' compensation. It's a commonplace product now, but back then, it was in it's infancy, with just a couple of insurance carriers offering a very limited product. I set out to change that. I identified one particular carrier that was trying to develop a new pay-as-you-go program, and pressed them very hard about being a partner company for the first phase. Persistence, patience, and 18 months of waiting finally got me in the door, and we worked with them to develop their first pay-as-you-go program for independent payroll companies. And we were instantly successful with it for one major reason. We also sold the insurance to go with it, instead of trying to partner with outside agencies. Like no other independent payroll company, we embraced the program, and sold over $1 million in insurance premium in the first year, exceeding our goal by over 1000%. During this first year, we provided technical feedback on the product, and helped the insurance carrier establish a program that eventually rolled out on a broad scope. Now every payroll company sells workers' compensation insurance. But none are as good at it as we were.
The experience of leading this company earned me more skills and experiences than all of my other employment combined. I hired, trained, and managed a team of up to 30, with positions ranging from entry level to industry professionals. I processed payroll for the simplest of companies, and the most complex of companies. I partnered with insurance carriers, 401K providers, labor unions, health insurance carriers, accounting firms, and many other types of related businesses to create synergies across our combined energies. I earned major victories, I was dealt tragic defeats, and learned valuable lessons from every experience. And I have some really bizarre, amazing stories, from dealing with very unique companies, to dealing with the many attempts to defraud my business (emphasis on the MANY), to the wonderful interactions with the teams that I built over the years. I would not trade the experience for anything. Would I have done things differently, if I had the chance to do it all again? Absolutely. But that's the process of learning. And I'm wiser today as a result.
