As a highly successful insurance professional and someone for whom each new day reveals itself in myriad unexpected ways, Charlotte Potts has learned to roll with the punches and remain a calming force for clients whose lives have been turned upside down by storm, fire or auto accident.
If there is one thing that is sure to get her dander up, however, it is the thought of people in crisis having their situation made worse by poor customer service and slow action by their insurance agent. It is a mantra she preaches to her team until it is second nature to them, even as her business has grown and her office locations have doubled.
“The answer to everything in this business is a great team,” she said. “You have to have a great team surrounding you. I can’t answer 110 phone calls in a day all by myself. There’s no way to do that. I’m proud to say many of our team members have been here a long time, but the newer ones are just as important. That’s why we maintain a culture of education and open communication.
“We have team meetings every single morning at both offices, and I have a team lead at both places. If anything’s wonky or if anything needs to be discussed, they can talk about the day before and anything else that needs to be addressed at those meetings.”
Potts’ operational philosophy comes into sharper focus when one considers she started her professional life as a teacher, a job that immediately carried over into the insurance field.
“I use education every single day,” she said. “If you can teach someone how their insurance policy works or doesn’t work, right, then they walk away knowing at least what they’re paying for. If I asked 10 adults — professionals or just anybody in their mid-30s — who have been driving for 20 years, ‘How exactly does your insurance work?’ almost all of them really don’t know the answer, so we use education every day.”
Potts left education to pursue pharmaceutical sales and, along the way, picked up a master’s degree in corporate training. She made the switch to insurance because she saw it as more consistent.
“I moved to insurance because I felt like it was an insulated career field, meaning everybody has to have certain types of insurance by law,” she said. “Anybody with a driver’s license and an automobile is a potential client for us. Same goes for anybody who rents a place or owns a home or has a desire to have life insurance.
“I also saw it as an industry where I didn’t have to worry about my income if a national account manager lost an account in the pharmaceutical realm. I felt [insurance] gave me more control over my career.”
Potts proved a natural and steadily built up a large clientele, the secret to which comes down to how well the office performs after the sale, when people need help.
“At the end of the day, there’s not a tangible insurance product,” she said. “Every single time you buy an insurance product — life insurance, disability, homeowners, jewelry, auto — you buy a piece of paper that lays in a drawer, and it doesn’t do anything until somebody’s had a bad day. That’s exactly what insurance is. Then, on a really bad day, you go dust it off, and you’re like, ‘OK, what do I do here?’
“Sometimes in the event of a catastrophe like that, you don’t know what to do, and that’s where your agent comes in or the agent’s team. Many people have had lots of different claims, and they know exactly what to do, and they don’t need help, and they don’t want us calling and bugging them. For those who do need help, they’re looking for someone to call them back quickly. An agent’s office team should always be there to listen and to help.”
For as stressful at the job can be at times, such as in the wake of tornadoes and other destructive weather, Potts remains a strong advocate for the industry and promotes careers in insurance at every opportunity.
“It’s a best-kept secret, being an insurance agent, for anyone who has a servant’s heart and an ability to serve people well,” she said. “In addition to the financial service pieces, like life insurance, auto insurance and disability insurance, a lot of people don’t know that we actually do investments. I have my securities licenses, and I can write mutual funds and IRAs, I can start 401(k)s for companies. Nobody thinks about State Farm for that. As an industry, we have to do a better job of saying, ‘Hey, this is not just about writing auto insurance.’
“I can absolutely create legacies with what we do, and I love that. That’s my favorite part. I have a neon sign on my Little Rock office that says, ‘Be a difference maker,’ and with every interaction, we try to be that difference maker.”
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