Building a winning culture is a core value at Penn Mutual, which is why incentive travel makes sense when combined with educational components and a healthy dose of motivation.Sometime last fall, AIG became a household name, with the words "troubled insurer" usually appended. By now, most people who plan incentive travel are used to fielding questions about the current climate of financial scrutiny, or what has come to be called "the AIG effect."
Leanne Acton, assistant vice president of conference planning and travel services for Penn Mutual, based in Horsham, PA, handles the issue with ease. "I'm always budget-aware, and I'll continue to be budget-conscious. We are confident about what our conferences do and achieve, [which is] to educate, reward, and motivate." While other firms, cowed by the publicity about AIG's incentives, cancel meetings out of perception concerns, Penn Mutual believes in the way it has motivated its top producers for a generation or more.
In March 2008, the agents went to Hawaii, where they stayed at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa. This year they'll be at Lake Las Vegas, and in 2010 they'll throw swimsuits in their bags again and head to Cancun. Amid the promised relaxation, they also expect two days of meetings and plenty of time to share a golf cart or a chat with a Penn Mutual executive. "It's an important investment in our producers and in the ongoing success of Penn Mutual," says Acton. These trips have a strong educational component and are also motivational in that the people who sell Penn Mutual products have a goal they must meet or exceed, and the conferences provide recognition for their achievements.
"In these times it's more important to do motivational projects," says Patrick Sullivan, president of PRA Destination Management in New York and president of Site, an organization that promotes the use of incentives. "In a down economy you need to be doing that, so that when business improves they're still with you ... These are people who are bringing in the revenue."
Setting Itself ApartThere are many differences between AIG and Penn Mutual, despite the fact that both are in the insurance business. AIG is a publicly held company. Penn Mutual is a private company, essentially owned by its policyholders.
The somewhat old-fashioned structure (Penn Mutual is the second-oldest mutual insurance company in the nation, having been founded in 1847) means its top managers are able to think long-term, instead of focusing on the current quarter, as stockholders would demand. This has served Penn Mutual well. In July 2008, with the financial industry already in crisis, Best's Review named Penn Mutual among its list of 15 life/health insurers who had maintained an "A" rating for at least 75 years. Penn Mutual, rated "A+" (Superior), continues steadfastly on its course.
Throughout the fall, the dominoes tumbled, but in a January 25, 2009, message, Robert Chappell, chairman, president, and CEO, reassured policyholders and the network of people who sell the policies: "Penn Mutual has largely avoided investments that have troubled many companies, particularly those tied to subprime real estate ... "
Executive AppointmentsLike most others, the insurance industry has rituals. The incentive conference that sellers of insurance products vie with one another to attend is "industry-wide ... part of our culture. That's the culture we live in," says Acton.
The Penn Mutual Leaders Conference is where top producers are feted. This year producers and spouses will number somewhere near 500; last year, in Hawaii, they totaled over 600, but 2008's conference was a little different. For the first time, the National Sales Leadership Conference (NSLC), attended by field leaders, managing partners, and regional directors who manage Penn Mutual's sales offices nationwide, was held in conjunction with the top producers conference. So the first two days were dedicated to the NSLC, and then these execs stayed to host the producers and their spouses and families for four nights and three days.
Chris Gaia, vice president of marketing for Maritz Travel, in St. Louis, the company that partners with Acton to produce seven conferences each year, says, "It's interesting to us that a lot has been made in the press lately about senior executives showing up on incentive travel programs. We've done some research, and there's a real meaningful role for senior leadership [being at those meetings] in terms of creating the whole experience." The research shows that the opportunity to network with senior executives is "a very important part of how the salespeople view the whole experience ... That's where a lot of the connections are made."
Particularly in times of stress, the people who sell your productswhether they are employees or independent producersneed to understand the company's vision and values, says Gaia. "They're asking themselves, 'Do I have confidence in the state of the company, and do I have sufficient confidence and faith in the organization to go out and sell?'"
Penn Mutual's conferences deliver training on such topics as annuity sales and building an insurance practice. They also are an important link in the company's distribution chain. "We believe in the face-to-face value of relationship-building with our producers," says Acton.
Some 30 percent of producers are in the company's career system and work in-house; others sell a variety of financial products, including Penn Mutual's. For purposes of the conference, the sellers are all the same. On January 1, 2007, they learned the destination and threshold they would have to meet in order to qualify for the 2008 event. Each office got a promotional poster, tent cards, and brochures so they could do a kickoff. Tropical photos helped to hype the conference on the "Producers Place" section of the company's Web site. Periodically "e-targets" and postcards went out, adding more fuel to fire up producers. On December 31, 2007, the qualification period ended.
On March 5, 2008, a reception welcomed them to Kauai and gave everyoneproducers and company leadershipa chance to reconnect. "We call it the Penn Mutual family," says Acton. "We have so many repeat attendees."
Education was the order of day two. Along with addresses by Chairman Chappell and other company executives was a motivational speech by a woman with firsthand knowledge of the value of having life insurance. Her husband, an insurance salesperson, had been killed in a car accident.
After a full day of education, day three gave everyone a chance to enjoy whatever activities they wanted to pursue. There was a golf tournament, of course, but there were other options for active attendees, as well as spa time.
Special TouchesThe cap of that third day was the gala evening celebration, with separate events for the career agents and the independents. Producers can get gold, silver, bronze, and product-specific awards (for selling annuities, for example). But the biggest prize, and the only surprise, was Financial Professional of the Year. For that, a producer has to have designations and show that he or she gives back to the insurance industry.
"My biggest challenge," says Acton, "and a personal goal, is to always make our conferences a unique experience. We open a door that you couldn't on your own if you were here on vacation." In Kauai, she arranged that special experience at Kilohana Plantation, where torchbearers escorted the lead producers at the awards ceremony.
The final day included a general session and workshops. Many producers brought their families, so Acton made sure there were activities for kids too.
Acton relies heavily on Maritz and its staff to help her find viable locations that are safe and can handle a large group. Maritz also prescreens destination management companies, which is important when planning three years out for a group as large as the 500 to 600 producers plus family members. "We've been working with Maritz for 13 years," she says. "They have taken away all the detail work ... [so] I can really focus on the strategy."
It's hardly necessary to figure ROI on a conference that requires sellers to meet a threshold in order to attend, and Acton nicely brushes such questions aside. The annual conferences, she says, "are not meant to react to a particular set of circumstances. In all our incentive conferences, our three main objectives are recognition, motivation, and education. And we believe that our conferences accomplish those goals." At the Grand Hyatt Kauai, she says, "a beautiful setting in the resort on the unspoiled island, combined with the service of the staff, gave our producers that extra special feeling that we try to achieve."
Maritz's Gaia says that in the incentive industry, "we know that travel is one of the most powerful motivators for giving people an experience that money can't buy." There's an emotional component to travel that you don't get from other incentive rewards, he points out. So an incentive conference motivates because "it's more than the location and activities. It's the ability to be rewarded and recognized in front of your peers. To be among the best of the best."
Trying Something NewIn many ways, the conference schedule at Penn Mutual seems as unchanging as the goals and principles that guide this company. But a major change was made in 2008, when the NSLC was combined with the Penn Mutual Leaders Conference in Kauai. The primary reason was cost savings. Another consideration was to reduce the amount of time Penn Mutual executives had to be out of the office. According to Acton, the format will be considered for future conferences, but the savings in both areas were less than anticipated.
The cost savings "wasn't a complete windfall when you really got down into it. You have to have additional resources on site to handle it," says Acton. "Also, it was a top-end destination." Producers usually rate that, but not the NSLC, which this year met in Austinan appealing destination, but not an exotic one.
Much as the company tried a new format for the NSLC, it also made changes to its in-house broker/dealer conference, which was incorporated into the Penn Mutual Leaders Conference for three years.
In 2009, the separate conference will be reinstated. "We got a lot of pushback from securities dealers that they didn't get as much out of it because the educational component was so diluted," says Acton. Clarifying that, she adds, "It's not just us lecturing them, but it's also networking. They felt they lost that when they were rolled into the larger conference."
Whether the seismic changes rumbling through the economy in 2009 will produce other modulations for Acton and the conferences she plans remains to be seen. She gives no hint of worry that such may be the case.
"We really rely on our conferences to do so much," she says. "It's not just that we network with [top producers], we educate them. It's not only recognizing them for what they've done in the past, but preparing them for the future."
Originally published June 1, 2009For more ideas, tips, and tools for better meetings and events,
get Successful Meetings' weekly e-newsletter delivered to your inbox.