2011 Broker of the Year

Many brokerage firms see employee benefits as just that – employee benefits. But Lacher, the 2011 Broker of the Year and partner at Lacher & Associates in Souderton, Penn., approaches benefits with his clients’ overall strategic goals in mind. Whether reducing the bottom line or increasing employee productivity is the client’s ultimate goal, benefits play a key role.

Along with using benefits to achieve strategic goals, Lacher offers business development services as well, and this differentiates his business from others in the industry, he says. Sales training and developing a social media plan, for instance, are two ways Lacher helps further his clients’ ambitions. Sure, benefits are a large part of reaching organizational objectives on many levels, but it doesn’t stop there. Benefits are ultimately a way to mitigate risks, and providing business training is just an extension of that.

“We might be engaged with a client who is not only working with us on the employee benefits side but while we’re going through our process with them, we found out they had some real needs in sales, for example,” Lacher says. “We’re actually able to help use some of the things we’ve done at our firm and actually sell our intellectual capital around sales.” Lacher also finds success in this competitive industry because he focuses on client fit.