DALLAS -

Along with discussing current industry trends and challenges and new product innovation, as well as sharing best practices, EFG Companies handed out a new award during its fifth biannual Agent Council at the Rancho De los Caballeros outside of Phoenix.

In EFG’s efforts to provide productive solutions in building agent profitability, the company created the EFG Top Agent Award, an honor determined by overall performance, effective training and comprehensive achievements throughout the year. This year’s award was given to Empire Dealer Services out of Boston during the Agent Council.

“This award underscores the collaborative relationship between EFG and Empire Dealer Services,” said John Kane, cofounder of Empire Dealer Services.

“By working with EFG to implement effective dealer solutions, and proactively train our people and the dealerships we work with, we’ve been able to generate a PRU increase of $200 to $250 with a VSC production increase of 10 percent and an appearance protection production increase of 25 percent,” Kane continued.

EFG senior vice president of agency services Eric Fifield added, “Our agent council underscores our core support of our agents’ long-term strategies.

“By stepping back to dissect market trends and map agent progress on hitting their goals, we can effectively evaluate how to better contribute to their success and build their business,” Fifield went on to say.

Hosted in the spring and fall of each year, this conference is to provide a collaborative environment where agents can formalize their strategies to better serve their dealer clients, improve F&I performance, and increase dealer profit.

“One of the main objectives with EFG’s Agent Council is to guide and direct our own efforts in the evolution of product development and process improvement,” EFG president and chief executive officer John Pappanastos said.

“At each conference, we identify key products and processes that need to be developed to support our agent’s initiatives,” Pappanastos continued.