Sam McClure joined Wells Insurance in early 2024. It didn't take him long to jump to the top of the producer leader board to earn himself the title of Producer of the Year. He currently lives in the triangle region of NC and handles many of our Employee Benefits clients. We sat him down to discuss his career and the past year. Learn a little bit more about about him below...
Where are you from and what's your background?
I'm originally from Washington, North Carolina, but my family lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I work in employee benefits from your blue collar to gray collar to your white collar. Just kind of handle them all.
How did you get started in the insurance industry?
Like a lot of people in the insurance business, it was not really my aspiration to go into it. I was getting out of the Navy and I had a cousin that was pretty high in a company called Jefferson Pilot. Saw him at a family reunion and he said, hey, I think you have a good temperament for the insurance business, whatever that meant at the time. I didn't really know what I was gonna do, but I knew I needed a job. That was 1994 and what got me into the business, kind of accidentally on purpose.
When and how did you get started at Wells Insurance?
I started on March the 5th, 2024. So a little bit over a year. I had been with a bank for many years. That particular bank had a great relationship with Wells Insurance. One of my really good bankers, locally in Wilmington, reached out to me and said, "Sam, I can't believe this has happened, but I think you'd be a great fit with Wells Insurance." So I met with Hal Wells, who is our CEO, and I knew 10 minutes into our conversation that this is a good fit right here.
What are some of the biggest challenges you've faced this year?
Learning what going to a new company looks like. A lot of the system stuff might be a little bit different. Some of the internal people might be a little bit different.
What's your insurance superpower?
Insurance is based on relationships and partnerships. I guess you would say my superpower is really being able to talk with clients, their CPA, their ARISA attorney, to their HR benefit manager. You've gotta kind of get into politics because as elections happen, things change in our world. So I think from that perspective, I think relationships and all of the non-insurance stuff really has helped me over the years.
How do you find success in an ever changing market/world?
Keeping in tune with the carriers and a lot of the vendors that we use. Just like with our world, change is constant. So I think being able to make sure that you stay in the know. We only have a small number of carriers, especially in health insurance, so just really being able to leverage those relationships that we have, knowing a lot of the carrier reps like I do, because a lot of the reps that I have now were the same that I had before.
Why do clients choose you over other agents?
I think the years of experience helps. I was on the insurance company side for the first 10 years of my career. The last 20 or so, I've been on the brokerage side. I've worked with a lot of different companies. I've worked with a lot of different size groups. From that perspective, we've had a lot of turnover in our industry as well. I've been at the places that I worked for many years in cases. The previous employer that I came from, I was there for 15 years. Before that for six or eight years. Again, I know the market very well and have been in the Carolina's market for a very long time, which I think helps.
Any final thoughts? Shout outs?
I really want to thank my clients that trusted me and followed me over here to Wells. Being able to have a good relationship with my customer base and a lot of the colleagues that I work with internally within Wells is really the reason that I'm sitting here today. They have really helped me get up to speed really quickly and bounce things off of. It's been great. So yeah, thank you again. It's been wonderful.
Congratulations Sam! We are proud to have you on our team!
You can watch the interview here as well!
If your business needs to discuss a new approach to modern benefits, he's your guy! You can always reach out to him by email smcclure@wellsins.com