marketing arm for many top marketing agencies, The

Rough Notes, Aug 2002 by Pillsbury, Dennis

DCM provides a unique "pay for performance" approach to its clients

In 1995, when Darren Clevenger started DCM, Inc., in his garage, he wanted to create a company that operated as a true marketing partner for the insurance agents and carriers that became its clients. The company soon moved out of the garage into a "real office" and has moved twice more to accommodate rapid growth. "It's an exciting ride and it keeps getting better. I really feel lucky to be surrounded by such great people and all of our success is due to their efforts. I'm just lucky enough to get to watch it all," says Darren, who serves as president of DCM.

"We start out by consulting with an agent or carrier to help them develop a marketing program that will succeed," says Darren. "We believe that helps to differentiate us from others in this business. Well tell an agency or company if a marketing plan doesn't make sense and offers little opportunity for profit. If the program doesn't show a positive ROI for our clients, we won't take the contract."

Darren continues that his team of consultants, headed by Vice President of Sales Dion Gutierrez, will help agents and companies revise a marketing plan and develop a new one if necessary. "We sit down with them and go through their current book of business to try and determine if they should go after more of a market they've already penetrated to a certain degree or if they should look to different markets altogether.

"It's really an interesting exercise. Many agencies often don't know just how their total book breaks down by industry. If you ask the producers, you'll invariably get a different answer from each one."

Once the marketing program is agreed upon, DCM will take the agency or company step-by-step through the process and actually develop profit projections. "We try to be conservative with our clients so they can be comfortable with the projections. We really want and need them to succeed because we depend on repeat business. We have no advertising budget and do very little marketing. We depend on word-ofmouth, and for that to work, we have to help our clients be successful."

And DCM backs that up by actually having a contract that is based on "Pay for Performance." Under the agreement, DCM guarantees their projections if they are doing a complete marketing program. If they are involved only in appointment setting for an agency, DCM gets paid only if appointments are set.

The latter is what Bill Houseal of Houseal Insurance & Bonding, Birmingham, Alabama, uses them for. "I'm a one-man shop," Bill says, "and what I do is prospect to keep new business flowing. But cold-calling will just kill you. The money I spend with DCM is a bargain. They get me six to eight good appointments a month. Seventy-five percent of the problem is getting in the door and DCM does that for me with pre-qualified appointments."

Bill explains that he started working with DCM about three years ago after getting out of a "bad partnership deal. I needed to do something to grow the business by myself. There are a lot of good people in the insurance business who could be helped by this," he concludes.

DCM works with agencies of every size, ranging from the one-man shop to some of the largest agencies in the country. In fact, in the six years in which it has been operating, DCM has worked with 16 agencies that were recognized as Marketing Agencies of the Month by Rough Notes. "These all are agencies that are among the most successful marketers in the country," Darren points out. "I think it is a tribute to our company that they have chosen to work with DCM to help them grow."

Innovative programs

DCM is much more than a telemarketing firm. In fact, the "T" word is discouraged. "We're not those people who are interrupting your dinner," he points out. "Our people are responsible for talking with chief financial officers and other people at commercial firms who have responsibility for the firm's risk transfer needs. To succeed, they must be able to speak knowledgeably about insurance with these people and convince them that our client has something to offer. Every year, each one of our people goes through

60 hours of training and education to keep well versed and up to date on what is happening in the insurance industry. They also have to have good people skills."

DCM also has introduced MPower, a new online lead, appointment and report system that allows all clients to view current project results on a 24/7 basis. According to Darren, "I had the idea to offer clients online access to all information necessary when keeping tabs on an outsource firm, but

Internet technology wasn't quite up to snuff. When the technology finally caught up, I was lucky enough to have Sean Fipps, our vice president of operations, to nurture and guide the project. We're the only insurance prospecting company offering this kind of access to sales lead data 24/7. The idea came easily to me but it never would have happened without Sean's tenacity."

But the quality of the people and its technology are not the only things that make DCM different. The company also uses its vast array of marketing data to design innovative programs for its clients.