Gaining middle market expertise: education paired with experience yields the expertise needed to keep up with today's middle market customers.

To attract and retain today's middle market customer, it simply is not possible to offer a one-size-fits-all solution. In order to win business, agents must have a clear understanding of their clients' risks and bring pertinent solutions to the table. An agent must be perceived as an authority in the customer's industry. To achieve this rare distinction requires education and experience--together forming expertise.

While many agents know their customers' businesses very well, technological advances and seemingly warp-speed changes in dynamics leave little time for catch-up in every industry. In those instances where more industry knowledge is sought, the best solution is to find a carrier that knows the value of learning about the business it chooses to cover, and can help give the agent that all-important edge. A carrier committed to a particular industry usually has a tailored product or program, based on careful research, and offers product-specific risk control and exceptional claims handling.

Here are some questions that agents should ask a potential carrier:

* Does the carrier understand the customer's industry? If the carrier has suites of products tailored to specific industries, the answer should be "yes." A customized package of coverages is the end-result of industry specialization. Does its industry knowledge come from research conducted with you, as well as with customers? If your carrier contacts you, as well as your customers, to find out how the business/industry is evolving, how it might be better served and listens carefully to the reply, you've found someone who's invested with you in that industry.

* Does the carrier offer the coverages the customer will need? The ability to furnish the insurance products a customer requires, avoiding the need to look to specialty carriers for certain coverages, prevents gaps as well as unnecessary overlaps in coverage. In addition, the carrier that has broad product offerings makes the agent or broker's charge easier.

* Is the carrier committed to being in synch with my customer's evolving business? Being ever alert to industry changes, ('already covered research above) the best carriers will not only respond to, but will anticipate emerging risks. Then they will make sure the appropriate and necessary coverage is available to address them.

* Is the claims-handling capability state-of-the-art? Claims experience is the ultimate test for the carrier, because superior service resonates with customers and leads to renewed and expanding books of business.

* Does its risk control expertise add real value to the customer? Insurer-based loss control departments should continue to expand and evolve services to reflect changing technologies and provide deep expertise that customers and their agents cannot build internally.

* Will its practices reflect favorably on an agent's own professionalism and expertise? Question the timeliness of the carrier's response, both in decision making and ongoing service. Efficiency from the carrier reflects well on an agent, enhancing a relationship with a customer.

Each and every one of your customers may not require a carrier that provides all of these components. But working with a quality carrier will be to an agent's advantage, short- and long-term.

Leveraging the expertise of a carrier that has up-to-date knowledge of a particular industry's evolving needs and makes available the resources necessary to secure the account will certainly give you an edge over your less informed competitors.

Bill Cunningham, a Best's Review contributor, is president and chief executive officer of Travelers Commercial Accounts. He can be reached at [e-mail].