Editor's note: Benefits Selling's Broker of the Year finalists will be revealed Monday-Friday this week. Meet our fifth and final finalist.
For Trey McLaughlin, principal of McLaughlin Smoak & Clarke Benefits in Mount Pleasant, S.C., the team approach his company practices has been instrumental in his success.
Principals Colin Smoak and Norman Clarke along with five other staff members work closely with McLaughlin to come up with innovative business solutions, which are critical in today's evolving world of benefits.
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"My partners and I have a real sense of teamwork," McLaughlin says. "Working together, we're able to come up with a lot of different ideas. The traditional role as an agent is now different, and a lot of agents were casualties to that. I could have been one of them had I not partnered with my team to create and grow our business."
To help clients stay on top of the industry, McLaughlin Smoak & Clarke Benefits offers many of the traditional educational outlets, such as email blasts and account manager updates, but it also hosts monthly seminars covering a range of topics beyond insurance products, McLaughlin says.
When these seminars first started, clients reported that they wanted to expand their education to include human resources and compliance issues. Benefits information is certainly still necessary, but employers are facing many challenges besides health care reform, and need the right knowledge to confront these obstacles. In fact, McLaughlin Smoak & Clarke Benefits' most recent seminar was on employee engagement.
"You really have to become a technician and understand all the moving parts of the industry," McLaughlin says. "It's not a nine-to-five job anymore; you have to become educated and be able to educate your clients because that's what they're looking for. It's not that it's necessarily a challenge, but it's a difference in how the industry has matured versus what the marketplace looked like 10 years ago."
Typically, these seminars average between 30 and 55 attendees, which include everyone from HR professionals to chief financial officers and business owners. Not only does this give attendees the chance to learn more about those critical business issues but it also creates a networking opportunity between all parties.
"We have a culture of clients that have become a community with us and each other," McLaughlin says. "They are loyal and seek to find ways to introduce us to other employers they know. We take care of them, and they take care of us. It's a valued-based relationship; it's not just about a commodity."
Despite marketplace changes, McLaughlin expects this to be McLaughlin Smoak & Clarke Benefits' best year to date because of the company's dedication to education. Many employers aren't receiving the help they need and are turning to brokers who can help guide them through this confusing environment, McLaughlin explains.
"There are a lot of regulations coming down the pipeline, and we know employers will ask for help to get up to speed," McLaughlin says. "A lot of employers not getting the guidance they need from their brokers, so we're looking at this year as a tremendous growth opportunity."
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