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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
2008 BROKERAGE REVENUE: $83.2 million
EMPLOYEES: 478
Beecher Carlson's business model, which includes a segmented approach to service, is what sets the Atlanta-based broker apart from its competitors and keeps clients coming back, said Tom Golub, president and chief executive officer.
“It's not very sexy. It's just lots and lots of work and having people who are very good at what they do specializing in particular industry verticals,” Mr. Golub said.
By organizing its business and people around the hospitality, health care and real estate industries, among others, “we know risks in a very intimate way,” he said.
At the same time, Beecher Carlson runs its business as a single profit and loss center, which enables the broker to better deliver specialized services to clients, he said.
“Most brokers are run by geographic profit and loss centers,” so if a producer Boston needs to use resources in the firm's Atlanta office, there has to be a discussion around how expenses are shared, he said. With a single profit and loss center, “it's very fluid for us to have people from four or five offices” involved on a specific account.
“Our effort is to make that seamless to the customer, and the feedback we get is that it works,” he said of the firm, named co-winner as the best retail brokerage among firms with revenues of $50 million to $250 million in this year's Business Insurance Readers Choice Awards.
Another indicator that Beecher Carlson is getting it right is the fact that its corporate account unit—which makes up 60% of its revenues—has registered 15% organic growth in 2009, Mr. Golub said.
He noted that most of the broker's new business this year has come from referrals from existing clients.