We recently had the opportunity to chat with Paul Clark, President & CEO of Clark & Lavey Benefit Solutions in Merrimack, NH.  If you’ve never had the opportunity to speak with Paul, we can confirm that the passion he has for the industry he serves is contagious.  

Clark & Lavey, founded by Paul in 1997, is a mid-sized consultant brokerage firm specializing in the employee benefits space.  As business matured and they went through the trials and tribulations of establishing the firm, Paul decided to become a member of Benefit Advisors Network (BAN) in 2004.  As Paul puts it, “it’s the best decision I’ve made as a business owner”.

Partnerships

One of the main advantages for BAN members is the ability to network closely with industry colleagues that often lead to partnerships with other firms and partners.  Since Clark & Lavey’s focus is on employee benefits, they can remain dedicated to that concentration while partnering with a fellow BAN member in Massachusetts for clients in need of property and casualty lines.

BAN membership has enabled Paul to put together numerous elements they otherwise would not have had resources for.  Early on during a BAN conference he learned about captives, something all the larger corporations were doing successfully.  Paul wanted to begin providing this service so InCap was created by Clark & Lavey, offering a self-funding solution product which has been flourishing, despite the pandemic over past year.  The networking enabled to Paul to bounce ideas off his peers and get different perspectives on moving forward, which has truly helped with growth of the agency.

Marketing

Clark & Lavey did not utilize social media advertising until a couple of years ago.  Way behind on technology, Paul admits he had trouble even turning on his droid. 

BAN membership includes access to vetted partners, providing members with the most valuable, reputable partners through a well-thought-out screening process.  One of these partners that Paul reached out to was World Synergy, an integrated business services model based out of the greater Cleveland area.

World Synergy worked very closely with Clark & Lavey to create a strong marketing presence and a social media game plan.  As Paul got to know some of the World Synergy team members, he became very impressed with the opportunities they saw for growth in the web world. Eventually, they outsourced their marketing to World Synergy, taking advantage of their guidance and starting with sharing short videos that are now all over LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook.

The Benefits of Social Marketing

Each year Clark & Lavey selects 2-3 non-profit organizations to raise money for.  Shortly after World Synergy’s partnership, Clark & Lavey selected Veterans Count as a recipient, and they have been supporting them ever since, with the first year providing a $20k donation.   

In early 2021, Veterans Count approached Paul to let him know about a specific issue they were seeing with needs for veterans during non-veteran holidays.  With service people returning, along with their service animals, they saw a need to get food to vets, in addition to their pets.

With World Synergy’s partnership, the Vets and Pets marketing campaign lasted 6 weeks.  This included soliciting gift cards from local merchants and pet stores, all to help vets and their service animals.  The goal was $10k, and on the last day of campaigning with $9k raised, Paul received a phone call.  A friend called from out of the blue, unsolicited, who had just seen a video from Clark & Lavey team member Alex Sinclair on Linked in about the campaign. 

“How much do you need?”  his friend asked.  Paul explained their situation, and by the end of that day he had a check in-hand to reach their $10k goal.  By spending a few minutes doing what World Synergy trained them to do and posting it on LinkedIn, they had accomplished their goal. 

Clark & Lavey has also obtained new clients directly from their postings and campaigns to support non-profits.  In addition, World Synergy helped them to utilize more technology to help streamline and simplify their work.

We’re thrilled to see such effective collaboration between our Members and Partners!  How are you networking to benefit the greater good these days? 

Let us know!