Allianz Cornhill divides brokers up by size
Allianz Cornhill has revised its commercial lines segmentation for brokers.
The strategy involves segmenting brokers into four key groups: nationals, consolidators, networks and super provincials, provincials and high street brokers.
New sales and distribution manager John Warburton will oversee the strategy. Warburton said that the new plan was not about cutting costs but instead about servicing brokers better by investing in Allianz Cornhill's sales and underwriting staff.
He said the new approach did not include severing ties with smaller brokers.
"We are not in the business of cutting relationships with brokers for low business volumes," Warburton said. "We will be actively recruiting new agents and we will be actively prospecting those dormant accounts."
He said that while the new strategy divided brokers up by size, the service they received would be based around the needs of each broker as well as its size.
Under the new strategy, Mark Hadfield will be national broker manager. Hadfield said brokers in this group included Aon, Willis, Marsh, Jardine Lloyd Thompson, Heath Lambert, HSBC, Opus, SBJ and Alexander Forbes. Hadfield said these brokers would be serviced by Allianz Cornhill's national broker teams in Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham.
Allianz Cornhill wants to grow its small business accounts with these companies as well as mid-market business.
Networks, consolidators, super provincials and alliances, generally controlling premiums in excess of £100m, will be looked after by national key account manager Dave Ball. He said brokers in this category included Folgate, Oval, Country Mutual, Smart & Cook, Giles, Stuart Alexander, The Broker Network, Cobra and Broker Alliance. Ball said that due to the differences between these businesses, individual solutions would be developed for each.
Under the strategy, Allianz Cornhill will retain its Key Partners club for businesses controlling premiums of between £10m and £50m. Broker partnership manager Chris Garrett will look after 250 such businesses, which include Bishop Skinner and Chambers and Newman, as well as specialist schemes brokers.
Garrett said that Allianz Cornhill planned to drive more value out of these brokers. "We'll work very, very closely with those people that are going to work with us," he said. Allianz Cornhill will increase the number of 'business developers' it has to service this business, and brokers will be sub-segmented to receive different types of benefits based on their needs.
Allianz Cornhill is also looking to increase dealings with smaller high-street brokers with premium up to £15m. New Allianz Cornhill broker development manager Lloyd Hanks will look after this segment, which currently numbers around 2,500 brokers. "Because they happen to have small accounts with us and our competitors, they're not second class citizens," Hanks said. He is currently working on an "innovative" new strategy of ways to service these brokers, which will be announced early in 2005.
