Nixon & Lindstrom Insurance, 2005 Small Business of the Year Finalist

Now, Luke Nixon is at the helm of the company, which is reaping the benefits of a decision he made nine years ago to remove himself from sales to focus on training new producers.

Roger Lindstrom, who joined the company in 1985 and now works in production and consultation, was skeptical at first but has admitted that the switch paid off for the company.

Nixon said he misses sales, but he doesn’t regret stepping into the role of training new team members.

“I’ve learned to accept the idea that now I’m in the business of selling something else,” Nixon said. “Instead of selling insurance, I’m selling people on the idea of a career and a good standard of living and quality of life for their family and helping them accomplish that.”

The result, he said, is a family-like corporate culture for the company’s 16 agents and 16 support staff.

“We’re really trying to build a culture here that’s very different from anything else for a company our size, especially in our industry,” Nixon said. “You cannot have happy customers with unhappy employees servicing them. It’s an impossibility, so I want to keep my people as happy as they can possibly be in their work environment,” Nixon said.

His efforts seem to be successful: Nixon & Lindstrom reports a 97 percent employee retention rate over the last eight years.

“The only people we’ve had leave have had a spouse that has been transferred. We had one other that I asked to leave. They don’t leave because they want to,” Nixon said.

New employees don’t have to have experience in insurance, and Nixon said he actually prefers that they haven’t worked in insurance.

Also, Nixon said, he bucks industry norms and works to hire additional staff members before growth occurs.

“Our industry’s philosophy is basically you red-line the engine and rev it up as hard as you can until it breaks, and then, and only then, do you add personnel,” Nixon said. “That just puts a tremendous amount of stress on the employees and the organization.”

Anticipating growth and preparing for it makes for a better environment in which to work and to train new team members, Nixon said.

Growth is evident in the company’s

revenues.

Nixon & Lindstrom reported $11.9 million in revenues for 2001 and $23.6 million in 2003 – garnering the company the No. 3 spot among Springfield Business Journal’s 2004 Dynamic Dozen. In 2004, revenues were $27.5 million, and Nixon said 2005 revenues are up 19 percent year-to-date.

The bulk of Nixon & Lindstrom’s business is in commercial property and casualty lines, and the company focuses on small businesses.

In February, the company added disaster planning and consulting services, which often are reserved for larger companies with more resources. However, the company felt that small businesses are equally vulnerable to catastrophic events that can disrupt operations.

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