That is a statement that we hear each year and we understand it is hard to differentiate one crop insurance salesperson from another. Everybody is a ‘nice guy’ to deal with but how are they going to manage the details once they pull out of your driveway? How much time will be spent on your policy each year to make sure things are accurate?
Here are some things to consider from an agency that has focused solely on crop insurance since 1953 and has a full-time staff in the office year-round working for you. Once you sign the application for coverage with one of our seven agents it is time for our agency to clock-in on making sure everything is perfect on your policy.
For a quick analogy, let’s rewind the clock back to your high school or college years…now picture yourself in class where the teacher hands out the course book for the semester to everyone. All the same information is handed out to the whole class, the teacher teaches the same info to everyone and at the end of the semester there will be a grade for how well each person learns and retains that info.
Now…did everyone in that class get an A or was there a wide variation in the grades? And if there was a variation then what can that be attributed to? Everyone had the same opportunity to succeed but only a small percentage actually achieved the A. It’s the same for crop insurance agencies and agents as it is for most things in life. It comes down to good people who care enough to focus, put in the time, do a good job, and are driven to stay sharp. We specialize in only servicing crop insurance policies and our business is built around doing a better job each and every year. Our agency covers a lot of ground being in 22 counties across Indiana and Illinois and we are growing every year, so we push ourselves to stay sharp in our office processes and we have systems of checks and balance established to run a tight ship.
Ninety percent (90%) of the new policies that we get each year have had critical issues that have not been managed properly, which means the policy that you were paying for was a lame duck until we dig in and get it straightened out. It is frustrating for us to see the shape that some of these policies are in but it reaffirms our motto of keeping the farmer first in all that we do. Last year we had two new policies sign on with our agency and they were missing many years of production history, which lowered their revenue guarantees for future years. We were able to work with the client to get the missing production and their corn yields came up 53 bushels/acre and their bean yields came up 35 bushels/acre. Those were huge issues that had been left dormant on their policy. That is only one example of the many issues we see each year with new policies.
We are blessed to have some 3rd generation clients and we don’t take that responsibility lightly. This is a complicated industry and there are many rabbit holes of details that cannot be easily breezed over by a passive salesperson, so we take the time to dig deep and understand how to best make each policy work for each operation. Regardless of what county or crop the policy covers it will be checked in triplicate at each phase of the year for accuracy by our client service team and your agent.
Each year the USDA and RMA change things on how the policies work so our staff attends 4-5 trainings a year per person to make sure we all stay sharp. Our office is relentlessly pursuing new ways to improve our processes to find more efficiencies for the way we do business and how to make your experience with us better.
We also understand that you do not have time to become a crop insurance expert to make sure you’re getting the best coverage for your farm and that is why we are here. We make an effort to understand your farming operation and then make some recommendations for the best options that we see may be a fit. Then the next step is to help make sure you the farmer understand exactly where the coverage floor will step in to protect you when something affects your crop. Farmers have many big decisions to make every year and they need to lean on their suppliers and their company representatives to do what they are promising to do. We are specialists in one category, and that is crop risk management, and we would be honored to have a seat at the management table of your farm to make sure this very important category is managed properly. When you sign on with coverage from our agency, you’re not only gaining a new agent, you are gaining a new team of people working behind the scenes to make sure your crop risk management is buttoned down tight and being monitored properly.
So to answer the question we began with…
”If crop insurance is all the same why should I buy from Sims Crop Insurance?”
It costs the same to have a “nice” sleeper agent as it does to hire a whole team of “nice” crop insurance specialists at Sims Crop Insurance who are focused on keeping your family farm profitable for generations to come.