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By FBNews.net
A Powerful Focus For Delivering Work
DE: "How do you get such highly competitive people to collaborate and work to one purpose?"
NE: "Everything we do, we do in a way that fulfills our promise of respectfully selling a good policy to every customer. On the compensation end, I make it pay for people to cooperate. Agency managers share in the success of their agents, divisional managers are compensated for the success of the company as a whole, not just for their particular region. In this way, people help each other to succeed. They share information, pitch in for each other and do whatever it takes to do the job."
RE: "Nicolas taught me something that Iīll never forget. He said, "This business is a marathon. Every move you make has an immediate impact but there is a long term perspective as well." Let me give you an example. Years ago when some of the national companies tried to move into our territory, Nicolas announced that we would no longer give quotes over the phone. Many agents were upset. They felt handicapped. Then Nicolas explained his thinking."
NE: "When you give a quote over the phone, you set yourself up to lose the first round. Being a smaller company our prices were a little higher. In addition, it was more difficult to demonstrate the service and respect that really is our competitive advantage over the phone. They canīt experience what it is like to do business with us. They donīt get to feel the sense that, "You get taken care of at Estrella." People canīt sign an application over the phone. They canīt give you a deposit. To do those things they have to come to the office anyway. But they can easily say, `No,ī over the phone. It is harder to say `noī face to face. Getting people into the office letīs us win the first round in the battle for a new customer."
RE: "Nicolas teaches us to think of the long term, to see the bigger picture."
Honoring The Culture In Practice
DE: "Tell me more about your style of leadership."
NE: "I think of myself as a talent discoverer. A lot of people in my company have started at the bottom and worked their way up. I started with no experience whatsoever, selling insurance out of a briefcase. So itīs always been my philosophy that Iīd rather train someone from scratch than bringing someone in who might have baggage that I donīt want."
"I like to match a person to a task and then let them run with it. Basically I let them do what theyīre capable of doing and then I look at the results. I am a firm believer in results. There has always been a predecessor who established a track record. At first it was just what I had accomplished in that role, but over time others have set the bar as well."
DE: "Rick, whatīs it like to work for Nicolas?"
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