Empower opens new Houston Insurance Agent Support Office.
Empower Brokerage is excited to announce our new Houston Insurance Agent Support Office. The office is centrally located inside the 610 Loop with easy access to the Heights area. This recently renovated building offers our Houston area agents a professional office environment with plenty of room to host meetings and get face-to-face support from Empower product specialists.
2500 East TC Jester Blvd. Ste 272 Houston, TX 77008
Meet Karen deGeurin, Empower’s New Regional Sales Director in Houston, Texas.
New Houston Insurance Agent Support Office
Want to work with our Houston team to help build your business with our superior marketing and support? Contact Karen today to get contracted with Empower.
Karen deGeurin | kdegeurin@empowerbrokerage.com | (817) 410-5828
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
What do you want to achieve in your first few months here?
Karen: Well, what I’d like to achieve in my first few months here is I want to get all of the new agents that are new to selling Medicare really out there and engaged so that we can have a great AEP. It’s almost upon us and it takes a lot of intensive training right now in order to be ready for October because we’re at the end of August and in September we’ll intensely train and then we’ve got to hit the ground running. So, we’re going to help the agents with their business plans, their marketing strategies and do a lot of intense training.
How can your background help our agents and consumers?
Karen: I think that my background is a perfect fit. The reason being is that I am from the field. I was a broker agent myself when I started in the field years ago in 2008 and worked my way through selling various products. Besides Medicare I sold individual plans, long-term care, all sorts of life insurance, all of the indemnity plans, dental, vision, etc. And so, I have a really wide variety of knowledge that I can bring to the Houston market. Additionally, I grew a huge team in Houston at a former FMO. I had multiple sales leaders working for me and hundreds of agents. So ,I like the recruiting. I like the training. And mainly I like to help agents become successful in their careers and building their business. Then after I left my FMO, after a number of years, I went to work for United Healthcare. So, I know the carrier side as well. So, I think that I’m a well-rounded agent, and sales leader and a carrier representative and I can bring all of that experience to bear here at Empower. So, when you pull together the fantastic expertise and systems that we have at Empower, along with my background in the Houston market, I think it’ll be a wonderful fit.
What does this new Houston insurance agent support office mean for Empower’s continued growth?
Karen: I think this is huge for Houston and I’m so glad that Empower has decided to make the investment, not only in leadership, but we’re a physical office, because we have a lot of agents here in the Houston area, and they’ve been getting really excellent support from the corporate staff over the years, but investing in a physical office and other leadership for the office here in the Houston area is really, I think, going to take us to the next level. We’re doing a great job already. Houston has got a lot of agents and it’s got a lot of the ability to make sales and get support more and more. And I think bringing a physical presence is going to take us over the top. We’ll be able to reach higher grounds over and over.
Do you expect to see your Houston staff and agent base increase in size? Or do you want to focus on just the support side?
Karen: Actually, we’ve already brought up two agents from the sales center in Laredo and they are going to help me here. So we’ve already got support staff going and they’ll be with me in the offices. Empower has already said, “Here are the milestones we want you to meet. We’ll grow the office, we’ll grow the agent base, we’ll grow the carrier partners and we will grow our sales.” So, the answer to all of that is yes, we intend to grow support staff locally, the office locally, the agent base, our carrier partners and our portfolio of offerings. We want to remain on the cutting edge of sales nationally, like we are today. We want Houston which is a very large market to be the largest that Empower has.
What kind of events do you see us putting on in Houston to help our agents?
Karen: We’re going to want to put on a lot of events. Empower is very committed to doing the Senior Health Fairs and the Senior Health Expos but something that I’d like to bring to the table, besides regular training, regular sales meetings, and regular first look events, I’d like to bring some of the Medicare Made Clear type of events to Empower Brokerage and to the Houston market. Some of the national campaigns, you know, there’s Life Insurance month, there’s a Medicare Week. I think that we need to be putting on events for the Houston agents and for the Houston clients that support all of these initiatives.
What will agents be able to use the office for? Will the agents be able to use the office space to help grow their business?
Karen: Yes absolutely. The office is going to be utilized to make phone calls to call the alpha leads, to receive training, to get enrollment materials. Anything that they need. We’re going to be there for them. We’ve already got three people: myself, Dennis and Gina. We’re going to be there ready to take their phone calls, ready to help them face to face, get going and to support all of their needs. We actually have some amazing common areas. We have a big fifty-person conference room. It’s got free wifi. It’s got a projector and everything all there. We can reserve it anytime, free of charge. So, I’ll be holding plenty of office time in the large conference rooms. And then outside of the conference rooms, the fifty-person conference room we’ve got a very large common area with tables and four seats around each one of them and that probably supports another fifty to sixty people. So, people can go out start doing their certifications there if they’d like to take them there at the office. They can do their paperwork for contracting. They can get certified. They can make their phone calls for the alpha leads. They can meet clients there. So, we’re going to be utilizing that space for a number of reasons. I know the agents are very excited to get over there and see it. We’re also going to have a meet and greet so people can come in to see the office space meet the support staff and get to know one another.
You mentioned Medicare Training Week and Life Insurance Month, what kind of events do you plan? Will they be geared toward awareness or more training/education?
Karen: I’m going to say that they’ll be two-fold. Some will be client facing, like the Medicare Education Week. I’d like to do something at the Museum of Natural Science, which I’ve done before, where we bring in Medicare constituents from all over the Houston area where they can come in and speak to agents, hear our presentation, get to know us and ask the questions they need to get answered. And then others like Life Insurance Month are going to be more for the agents where we’re going to help train them in Life Insurance. Make sure they understand the various types of products that we have. Make sure that they understand who our experts are locally and nationally for Life Insurance. And then maybe do some things on social media, do some campaigns with our customized marketing materials to drum up business for the agents as well, for Life Insurance Month. So, it’ll be both client facing and agent training.
What future difficulties do you foresee with setting up the new office?
Karen: I do foresee some difficulties. We have a huge Houston agent base and a huge set of consumers. And I think we’re going to be drinking through a fire hose for the first few months as we get ready for AEP. But then I think it will all smooth out. I think that we’ll be receiving emails and phone calls night and day as we get things going. As we have agents visiting the office we’ve got to get all of our information disseminated but I know it’s not going to be horrible. We have such amazing corporate office staff that can help us spread the word, that can send the emails, that can make the phone calls to the agents. I think we’re going to be able to work together to make it much smoother but there’s a lot to get done in a very short period of time. And that’s ok. We’re ready.
In the future what would you like the Houston office to be recognized for when mentioned in conversation?
Karen: When mentioned in conversation I’d like our office to be known as extremely professional. Empower Brokerage is known as being cutting edge, extremely professional and having invested in the right types of tools, systems and processes that really make a difference for the agent. I want us to continue that face. I would like to hire very motivated and professional agents to help us continue that legacy. And of course I’d like for us to be known for, not only very high sales, but very compliant sales. So, I’m looking forward to a very professional, compliant and extremely gifted sales force as we move forward.
Is there anything else you’d like to add about our new Houston insurance agent support office?
Karen: Personally, I’d like to say that I feel like I have joined the best team. I’ve had a very warm welcome. The agents are very excited about Empower and about having local support. I’m just very glad to be here.
