My first 100 days as an NFU Mutual Agent – Meet Joel Hawkins

Agents across the UK-wide NFU Mutual Agency Network are self-employed business partners, who run their own agencies in partnership with other Agents and have access to advice and support from teams of experts at NFU Mutual. It can be a big step to become a self-employed Agent – particularly if you’re used to having a regular salary. So, we talked to Joel Hawkins, a new partner in the North Somerset and Chew Valley Agency, about his first 100 days as an Agent and how he found the transition.

Hi Joel – thanks for talking to us today. Can you start off by telling us why you decided to become an Agent of NFU Mutual?
Before I became an Agent, I was an Assistant Branch Manager within an NFU Mutual agency for four years, which was a salaried role. Whilst I worked hard and really enjoyed the role, regardless of how much I worked and what the agency achieved, I received a fixed salary. As a self-employed Agent, you have more control over your destiny. In a commission-based business, it’s ultimately you and your partners who make the decisions. Now, if I do well, my earnings move with my performance. This was a major factor for choosing to move to a self-employed role.

100 days in, what are the main differences or challenges?
I guess the major difference is how much time I’ve spent being involved in things which I maybe wouldn't have considered as an employee. So, I’ve been looking at partnership contracts, speaking with the accountant, and in some cases with solicitors. There's a lot more of that sort of thing, because we’re running our own business.

The challenges in this role are the different responsibilities I have as a partner. I was brought into the agency partnership to drive and grow the new business function. I’d been doing that as part of my previous role, and it was what this partnership was looking for, so it was a natural fit. While that’s still part of my role, I’ve also been involved in introducing myself to existing customers and servicing their accounts, so they have confidence in me and our business.

I’m also the NFU Group Secretary for the area. On a day-to-day level, although it’s a comparatively small part of my role, it really helps when dealing with farming customers, because it allows me to provide a more holistic service.

As partners, we all have areas of responsibility, but it's a small business and everyone has to do a bit of everything, which is what I enjoy.

What was it about this particular agency that attracted you?
What particularly appealed to me about this agency, was that it’s a really ambitious business. It's embraced what NFU Mutual wants in terms of commercial growth – finding new customers to work with in new sectors is what appealed to me. This is a successful agency that’s still looking to expand. That was exactly what I wanted.

We have a broad range of customers and are a fairly large agency by NFU Mutual standards. There’s a strong farming and agricultural base, which will always be central to our business objectives. However, we have to be pragmatic – UK farming alone is unlikely to provide the growth we’re seeking, so we’re looking for opportunities to expand into different sectors. As we’re based on the fringes of Bristol, we’re lucky to have plenty of options and already have a big commercial book, with customers in sectors including construction, the motor trade and hospitality and leisure. Since I joined, I've been dealing with a variety of both commercial and farming customers.

I'm also involved with our private clients’ market. NFU Mutual is looking to grow its footprint in the high-net-worth residential home sector, and again our agency geared itself up for that a number of years ago. So, I'm also spending quite a bit of time with private clients, understanding their needs and how we can help them.

What are the challenges of attracting more commercial business?
With commercial clients, there’s quite a lot of work required to explain the full spectrum of services we can offer. Often, they don't realise that we have, for example, a personal lines service offering, or that we have a financial services arm as well.

Our traditional farming customer base is exceptionally loyal, so the retention rate there is very high. As we move into the wider commercial markets, our service proposition differentiates us from many other brokers. But we’re targeting business people, making decisions that are best for their businesses, with tendering processes built into their operational models. So, although they’re really pleased with the services we offer, they’ll still look to tender every few years, so we need to be prepared for this and have plans in place to defend the account.

Finally, what are you looking forward to in your next 100 days?
The big things over the next 100 days are the pipeline development for the agency and ensuring customer persistency remains high. We need to get our sales function really firing, making sure we're finding new customers, keeping in contact with them, and winning those opportunities when they arise. At the same time, we cannot overlook existing customers and need to consistently be delivering high-value for them. Our excellent relationship with our NFU Mutual Sales Development Manager (SDM) is key in providing the support we need to help us achieve these goals.

A big part of our SDMs role is to make sure our new business sales are aligned to NFU Mutual’s expectations. So it's been really helpful for me to work with our SDM and build a plan for new business. We're going to achieve our figures this year, but I’m already working with our SDM on how we can keep the pace going and build the business to achieve even more next year. So that's the next big 100-day focus – there’s no letting up here!

Join us on our journey
Like Joel, you can take control of your future and enjoy running your own insurance business with the support of NFU Mutual. Find out more about the Agent opportunities here.