Dynamic Dozen No. 3: Nixon |amp| Lindstrom

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Luke Nixon had a vision about the future of Nixon & Lindstrom Insurance. It wasn't conventional, at least by industry standards, and drew skepticism from partner Roger Lindstrom.|ret||ret||tab|

But the young Nixon then 31 put his plan in place in 1996, and four years later that plan began paying dividends.|ret||ret||tab|

"In 1996, we embarked on a very ambitious salesperson training program in which we started hiring and training within," said the 38-year-old Nixon, who is company president. "That sounds like a fairly simple thing. In our industry though, it's highly, highly unusual. In our industry, typically, one or two salespeople out of 10 actually make it through the training process and stay in the industry. We've done that with 10 to 12 people, and they're all still here.|ret||ret||tab|

"It's been an expensive gamble, yet it has worked out."|ret||ret||tab|

It certainly has worked out for the all-lines independent insurance agency, founded in 1955. The company has grown to a stable of 15 commissioned agents, plus 15 office staff. Nixon & Lindstrom's gross revenues have jumped from $11.9 million in 2001 to $23.6 million in 2003, a 98 percent growth.|ret||ret||tab|

"I couldn't stress enough the vision (Nixon) has had in making this thing come together," said Lindstrom, a principal in the company. "As much as anybody would like to take credit for this, he has been the one with the vision and he saw to it that it happened. He's a remarkable young guy. |ret||ret||tab|

"He was clearly a record-setting sales producer early on in his career. I'll never forget when he came into my office years ago and announced that he was going to take himself out of production and try to hire young producers. I thought, God, Luke, what are you talking about? You know, you're lucky to get one out of 10 and the rest of your time you're wasting your money, time and effort.' I thought he had lost his mind."|ret||ret||tab|

But Nixon's plan looked beyond the immediate future.|ret||ret||tab|

"It became apparent the agency was going to become somewhat stifled from a growth standpoint unless we brought some other talent on board," Nixon said. "The norm in our industry is to buy other agencies or pirate salespeople from another agency. I didn't want to do either."|ret||ret||tab|

It was about four years ago that "everything finally started firing on all cylinders," he said.|ret||ret||tab|

Nixon & Lindstrom has 10 agents in commercial property and casualty, three in group health and employee benefits, one in personal insurance (home, auto, boats) and one in long-term care and Medicare supplement sales. |ret||ret||tab|

About 75 percent of Nixon & Lindstrom's sales come from commercial property and casualty, Lindstrom said. "Five years ago it would have been 100 percent. In that period, roughly 20 percent to 25 percent is now from the group health/employee benefit department."|ret||ret||tab|

The growth at Nixon & Lindstrom has been carefully scripted, with additional office staff, computers and office space in place for support. But those extras and the training program all had a healthy price tag.|ret||ret||tab|

"You have to have the infrastructure to service the business that's eventually going to come in," Nixon said. " There's the (cost of) taking away myself from personal production in order to train them; you have the education, which is a pretty expensive part in the way we do it; and then basically you have the salary to support them while they're being trained for a period of two years. It's basically a four-year project before the agency sees any return on its investment, and you don't know if they're going to be around to contribute then."|ret||ret||tab|

But Nixon put his company's future in the hands of a select group of young trainees.|ret||ret||tab|

"I like hiring people from the hospitality industry restaurant and hotel management," Nixon said. "They're used to working holidays, weekends, nights, you name it. And they're not afraid to work. They're also not paid awfully well. When I get them, I get somebody who just decided they want to control their own destiny. It's somebody with a little bit of vision and enough confidence to take a chance on themselves."|ret||ret||tab|

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