It is highly advisable to give the agents pricing guidance on what you would deem to be acceptable premium levels and be reasonable about it and here’s why: If you refuse to provide any guidance, you might very well get a high number, or no number at all. If you don’t give target pricing, the underwriters will be afraid of leaving “money on the table” and therefore they are likely to quote high to allow for some room to negotiate. And if you provide an unreasonably low number as your pricing goal with the object of getting something close – but higher than the stated goal, you may discourage a strong competitor from quoting at all because your artificially low target is below the underwriter’s authority. Try to find the balance between being aggressive and yet realistic. Remember, you don’t tell the Doctor to “guess where it hurts.

You wish to be treated with dignity and respect. So do your vendors. You will get your best results in the insurance buying process if you have a professional agent, approaching a strong slate of insurance companies and all the players involved feel like they have a reasonable shot at writing your business. We all compete every single day. And we know we must “sing for our supper”. And everybody understands the competitive process has winners and losers. But as a vendor, if you feel like the buyer isn’t giving you a fair chance it's only human nature to look around for a better opportunity to get a win.

Something else to consider: many highly successful fleet owners view the insurance program as different from tires or fuel or any other commodity that can simply be put out to bid. If you think about it the industry knowledge and professional expertise that a top insurance agent brings to your desk is more similar to the specialized skill set of your accountant or attorney. You count on these individuals to give you valuable counsel over time to help you run your operation successfully. You typically don’t put these types of professional services out to the lowest bidder. There are strong arguments for treating insurance the same way.