As a professional insurance agent with State Farm for more than 13 years and 24 years in total with the company, Kevin Sevier understands what insurance means to you. And for most of us, insurance is what we see on TV: talking reptiles, Dr. Rick showing us how not to be our parents, and yes, even Jake giving out the Aaron Rodgers discount.
Our first impression is a non-stop parade of insurance commercials, and Sevier gets that. But more importantly, he understands that those commercials are just a way to get someone in the door. The rest is up to the agent.
“I’ve always been big on meeting clients face to face. If I’m doing business with a customer, I want that interaction,” he said. “If I can look you in eyes and you can look in mine, it builds that trust and that relationship.”
Your needs come first
That face-to-face time isn’t just about building trust, however. One key difference between what Sevier does and what you’ll generally find from the more impersonal insurance firms (the ones with those wacky commercials) is that Sevier is decidedly not just there to sell you insurance. Here’s there to sell you the right insurance.
“I want to advise my customers. If you call up some company you saw in a commercial and ask for the cheapest coverage, that’s what they’re going to give you,” he said. “But are they going to ask you what your needs are? No. And they really should do that.”
The consequences can be deadly. Let’s just say, as an example, that you spring for the cheapest insurance for your car just to meet the bare state minimums. And then let’s say you get into an accident. God forbid, let’s even say for the sake of argument there is a fatality involved. It’s a worst-case scenario, but then what is insurance if not planning for a worst-case scenario?
“In the state of South Carolina, in a situation like that, you could be sued for everything except for your pension, disability income and in some cases social security income,” Sevier said. Everything else would be fair game: the equity from your house, the money in your retirement account, even future earnings from your job, social security and tax returns. In short, it could mean financial ruin. And all because the funny commercial folks sold you the bare minimum.
“I want that relationship so we can have that conversation about what your needs might actually be,” Sevier said. “My job is easy if I’m the cheapest price. And a lot of times we are. But I hope it was a sale based on your needs and not just us being the cheapest price.”
Old school
That personable approach is one Sevier has honed over a long and distinguished career with State Farm. As he puts it, he graduated from the Citadel on a Saturday and started with State Farm on Monday. Starting off as a claims adjuster, he was given a unique opportunity to see the entire process from a different perspective.
“I think that maybe sets me apart because I handled it from other side. And on the rare occasion their premiums wouldn’t cover what they needed, I would have to sit down and work with them to explain why,” he said.
He followed his tenure as a claims adjuster working for State Farm agent Troy Herndon in Charleston. Besides being Sevier’s father-in-law, Herndon had an outsized impact on the way he did business.
“What I noticed about him early on—we could go anywhere in the U.S., whether some small town or New York City, and someone would walk up and say, ‘Hey, Troy.’ We bumped into someone he knew anywhere and everywhere we went,” Sevier said. “I tried to develop based on watching him. He was the guy who shook a man’s hand. That’s how he did business and still does business that way today.”
That personalized approach informs Sevier’s hands-on style when it comes to serving his customers. And his next venture within State Farm, interning at Summerville-based agent Tony Pope’s office, set the stage for what was to come. Pope owns two successful agencies, which is a rarity in the world of State Farm, but he accomplished it by maintaining the mindset of a CEO.
“I never thought of being CEO of a business. I’m not a CEO. I’m an insurance agent,” Sevier said. “But I see these guys thinking bigger picture above what their office can do. That’s changed my view of what an insurance agent can do.”
These two mentors instilled in Sevier an old-school approach and a thirst to try something new. These two philosophies inform a leap forward that Sevier’s State Farm office is preparing to take.
Christine Cook, Jennifer Smith, Maria Olvera, Sandy Graves, Rodney Mack, Kevin Sevier, Spencer Grimes. Not Pictured: Shannon Crim
New school
On the second floor of Kevin Sevier’s Buckwalter Place office, you’ll find a large room framed by raw timbers and insulation, electrical, phone and ethernet cables snaking down from the ceiling. It may not look like much now, but it holds the key to the office’s future.
Someday soon, this room will hold a call center, bringing Sevier’s old-school approach in a decidedly new-school direction. “I think it’s something we learned from COVID,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how big your office is; it doesn’t matter where your office is if people are restricted from going anywhere. We had to move toward doing business in the virtual world.” When it’s up and running, the call center will provide immediate support for Sevier’s clients and customers, letting them handle minor insurance needs with ease.
“I learned that I needed to do better on the technology side. What my competitor has that I don’t is that virtual capability,” Sevier said. “I needed to have that next step to develop in the direction that other insurance companies are moving in: selling in a virtual atmosphere. I think we’ve been leaving customers out because we weren’t doing business the way they wanted.”
It’s a new-school approach that gives Sevier’s office equal footing with any insurance company in the country. And of course, when you need something beyond what a call center can give you, like a good neighbor, Kevin Sevier is there.
Kevin Sevier’s office is located at 301 Buckwalter Place Blvd., Bluffton. For more information, visit kevinsevier.com or call (843) 837-2886 for an appointment.
