April 22, 2008 11:35 am
—
Editor’s note: This is part of a series on the 2008 BKD Small Business of the Year finalists. Winners will be named during the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce annual banquet Thursday at the John Q. Hammons Convention and Trade Center.
By Melissa Dunson
mdunson@joplinglobe.com
It was the tearful eyes of his youngest son that told Kyle Hickam that coming back to the Joplin area after more than 20 years away was the right thing.
After years as a private investigator and a State Farm Insurance claims adjuster all over the United States, Hickam said, his family was tired of starting life over in a new city every few years.
“My son just looked at me and said, ‘Dad, when are you going to stop doing this?’” Hickam said. “I told him it was the last time. This is the best move I’ve ever made.”
Hickam took over agent Glen Wheeler’s Joplin territory after Wheeler retired a little more than six years ago, and he said he has never looked back. His office at 2606 E. 32nd St. now has five licensed employees, one each to sell fire, auto, life and health insurance, and one to handle financial services.
His business has grown every year he has been an agent in Joplin, and he said his business is 25 percent to 30 percent larger now that it was when he started.
But it’s his philosophy on how to sell insurance and run his company that drew the attention of at least one client who nominated him for the BKD Small Business of the Year Award, as well as the committee that named him a finalist for it.
“I take a different approach — we’re not pushy,” Hickam said. “I don’t like pushy salespeople. People need to buy insurance because they need it.”
Hickam said his office educates people on the coverage they already have and uncovers areas where coverage is needed. In the end, he said, the decision is up to the clients, who have to believe in what they are buying.
That open and relaxed relationship is eventually the most important thing to his customers, Hickam said, because all clients walk out of his office with a promise that when something goes wrong, Hickam and his staff will be there.
“I got a call last Thanksgiving at 10 p.m., and it was a client whose house had burned down,” Hickam said. “I drove over there and brought him a check. At least he knew he had somebody to call.”
In the end, Hickam said, he’s really selling his office and his staff’s compassion. He is there when his clients are going through their worst moments, and he said he wouldn’t give up that feeling for the excitement of his former jobs.
“You can give somebody going through a terrible situation some peace,” he said. “They still have worries, but now they don’t have that worry of where the money is going to come from, or where they are going to sleep that night.
“It’s kind of refreshing to get to be that person. You have to deliver on that promise of what you sell.”
His goal when he opened his office was to have 10 agents in his office in 10 years. He’s halfway there. In the future, he wants to tear down his existing building for a larger office on the same property.
Hickam and his office are licensed in Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas, and he said he has clients from as far away as Springfield, Kansas City and even the state of California.
He said he feels fortunate and surprised to be recognized as a finalist for the Small Business of the Year Award, especially because he frequents several of the other businesses nominated and acknowledges the caliber of the company with which he is listed.
“I wonder, ‘Why me?’ I was just so humbled and honored,” he said. “It takes all these businesses to make this town click.”
Melissa Dunson is the business writer for The Joplin Globe.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.