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04/23/2024 · 6 min read
Let someone go without destroying agency culture by making sure it isn't a surprise (clear expectations long before), preparing the exact words in advance, handling pay and references quickly, and showing calm forward-looking leadership to the remaining team in the days after.
03/28/2024 · 6 min read
Waiting for a vacancy is the most expensive hiring mistake an insurance agency makes. Build a continuous pipeline through proactive recruiting, warm candidate relationships, team referrals, structured internships, and a written ideal-candidate profile.
02/26/2024 · 5 min read
The biggest hidden cost in your agency is a retained underperformer, not leads or rent. Cultural erosion, opportunity cost, and a quietly lowered hiring standard. Fix it with proactive hiring (warm pipeline always running), structured behavioral interviews, and 90-day ramp-up pay.
01/31/2024 · 6 min read
Build core values by examining your agency's actual decisions, not what sounds good. Write a mission specific enough to guide a real hiring choice. Set a vision with a number and a timeline. When all three are real and repeated across team interactions, they become a decision-making system.
12/27/2023 · 6 min read
Build accountability into a flexible insurance agency by managing outcomes, not hours: clear production and service metrics, a predictable meeting cadence, written decision logs, explicit recognition rituals, and a quarterly in-person team gathering. The accountability is what makes the flexibility work.
12/20/2023 · 6 min read
Rigid insurance agency workplaces lose the talent war because mandatory office hours read as distrust to professionals who proved during 2020-2022 they could produce remotely. Eric Yaverbaum says flexibility paired with real outcome accountability beats compensation as a recruiting differentiator.
12/04/2023 · 6 min read
A remote insurance agency only works when the management model changes, not just the location. Kathleen Quinn Votaw lays out the meeting cadence, documented role expectations, outcome-based performance management, and tool stack that have to be in place before you flip to distributed work.
11/29/2023 · 6 min read
Agency owners think their retention problem is pay, but Kathleen Quinn Votaw says it is culture and onboarding. Real turnover costs run 150 to 200 percent of annual comp, and the first 90 days are where most new hires quietly decide to leave.
10/11/2023 · 5 min read
Replace vague goals with documented metrics like 120 dials, 8 quotes, 3 binds daily. Enforce consequences consistently when benchmarks are missed, run a two-way feedback loop, and put expectations in writing every new hire sees on day one. Your standard equals your team's output, and the owner sets it.
10/02/2023 · 11 min read
Insurance agencies fail at recruiting millennials because they pitch commissions instead of three things young professionals want: a defined career path, work with visible impact, and modern technology. Fix the offering, not the job posting.
09/27/2023 · 6 min read
Five hiring failures that show up predictably in P&C agencies: hiring from desperation instead of strategy, overweighting interview performance over job-relevant skills, skipping reference checks, ignoring red flag behavior, and sending new hires into ad hoc onboarding. Each one is structural and fixable.
09/25/2023 · 5 min read
Five hiring practices that reduce the randomness of agency staffing: define the role's success profile before posting, use structured behavior-based interview questions, screen for values alignment before competence, activate your team's referral network, and move fast on strong candidates. Agencies that do all five stop cycling through bad hires.
08/21/2023 · 5 min read
Seven specific leaks that bleed P&C agency revenue every month: hiring for activity not values, rushing past human connection, accountability without diagnosis, treating clients as transactions, presenting generic coverage, follow-up that quits at touch two, and producers who do not actually care about the people on the call.
08/14/2023 · 6 min read
Solve the insurance agency people problem by filtering candidates on values alignment first and competence second, running behavior-based interviews, training for culture in the first 30 days, and separating clearly when performance gaps persist. Waiting to fire is the most expensive decision owners make.
07/10/2023 · 5 min read
A P&C sales team sustains high performance when five culture decisions are made deliberately: visible metrics, culture-fit hiring, consequences for culture violations, recognition rituals, and owner behavior that matches the standard. Without those five, every training initiative reverts within six weeks.
05/10/2023 · 6 min read
Most insurance salespeople don't fail because they lack talent : they fail because nobody fixed the specific, fixable habits that kill deals before they start. Here are 10 reasons and 9 real solutions.
05/03/2023 · 5 min read
Build a winning P&C team by separating sales from service as soon as you can afford it, quantifying producer output (calls, quotes, premium, close rate) instead of vague job descriptions, drawing a visible career ladder, running a daily 20-minute huddle (scoreboard, win, one focus), and enforcing consistent non-punitive accountability.
04/26/2023 · 5 min read
Three leadership traits separate the best insurance agency owners from average ones: radical ownership of outcomes (no externalizing blame), coaching instead of directing (ask more than you tell), and relentless transparency about strategy and vision. None are personality, all are practiced behaviors.
04/19/2023 · 5 min read
Build agency culture that attracts top producers by holding standards when you are not in the room, measuring producers against clear weekly metrics, structuring a real 30-day onboarding, and tying renewal retention to producer compensation.
04/17/2023 · 5 min read
Build a winning agency culture by standardizing team communication on Slack, recruiting continuously instead of when a seat opens, holding pricing discipline that filters out price-only shoppers, and articulating value at every client touchpoint.