KeaneTel Reopens Sales Partner Program Enrollment

KeaneTel has announced that enrollment in its Sales Partner Program, which closed in January 2007, is open again this month. The family-owned master agent says it chose, for the benefit of its sales partners, to grow its distribution channel at a manageable rate and therefore closed enrollment last year to evaluate and analyze the program and redefine its processes. KeaneTel said it has been inundated with requests throughout 2007 to allow new sales partners and it is opening the program now to new candidates, and offering more features, services and better earnings capabilities.

“The reason that we closed enrollment last year was because we had grown so fast and the program was so successful, we actually had to catch our breath a little bit and allow ourselves to continue to provide a high level of service and support,” explained Pete Keane, senior partner at KeaneTel.

KeaneTel is different from most master agents in that in addition to its traditional Agent Partner Program, the Sales Partner Program operates on a fixed fee paid by the partner instead of a split of commissions. Sales partners received 100 percent commissions on most carriers, with just a few exceptions paying only 80 percent due to training, travel and so on. This fee also provides partners with KeaneTel’s Annual Training Triathalon and several back-office services, including MasterStream for quoting and RPM for commissioning. KeaneTel also offers a CRM capability using CRM ASP, in addition to e-mail services and Web hosting.

The master agent admited that the Sales Partner Program is not for everyone. Some agents can’t fathom paying their master agent in order to be able to make sales for them. However, KeaneTel said the program is for people who have substantial enough volume, specifically $3,000 per month in total monthly recurring revenue. If someone can bring in that amount of revenue, they are at the break-even point. After that, 100 percent of every dollar from every sale belongs to the agent.

During the past year, KeaneTel evaluated whether the profit and loss of the Agent Partner Program was comparable or better than the Sales Partner Program. The company found that even though the agent program attracted a high number of agents, the amount of resources consumed compared with the revenue it generated was too far out of proportion to be profitable for the company.

“We’re searching for quality, not so much quantity,” said Jeff Keane, president of KeaneTel. “That’s what we’re finding is a draw for the Sales Partner Program as opposed to the Agent Partner Program.”

“Ultimately what it came down to is this,” said Pete Keane. “The average sales partner who’s paying us the monthly fee is making substantially higher percentages of the revenue than any agent partner on a split. And since they are higher volume, more hands-on themselves, it puts us in a position where we benefit by driving our volumes up with the carriers.”

KeaneTel said it’s on track to do approximately $22 million in carrier revenue for 2008. This is up from $3 million or $4 million four years ago when this program started.

KeaneTel agents in the traditional Agent Partner Program will be asked to convert to the Sales Partner Program or see their commissions drop to a 60/40 split from 75/25. Pete Keane said although the agents will be incented to move to the Sales Partner Program, all current contracts will be honored and paid. Any new agent partners choosing to enlist in the Agent Partner Program would do so at the 60/40 level.

KeaneTel has more than 100 agents and sales partners. They have almost two dozen sales partners and expect about a half-dozen agents will migrate to the Sales Partner Program because of this announcement. KeaneTel expects to have more than 50 sales partners by then end of the first quarter.

“I believe this will make us one of the top three agencies in America in very short order,” said Jeff Keane.

KeaneTel www.keanetel.com