Page 2 of 5 · 82 total
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.
10/04/2023 · 6 min read
Keep millennial producers by closing the gap between the recruiting pitch and the daily reality. Provide a visible career path, continuous specific feedback, real channels for team input, and transparent compensation tied to clear performance criteria.
10/02/2023 · 6 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.
04/10/2023 · 5 min read
The zero-cost marketing strategy that out-performs ad campaigns is gratitude: handwritten notes after binding, anniversary calls, and post-claim check-ins with no pitch attached. It produces unincentivized referrals, sticky retention, and word-of-mouth growth that no paid channel can replicate.
01/30/2023 · 5 min read
Replacing a sales agent costs $15K to $25K once you stack recruiting, licensing, 2-to-4-month ramp, and lost sales. Most attrition is a lead-supply problem, not a hiring problem. Feeding your existing team a steady flow of quality leads is cheaper than another hire, every time.
08/03/2022 · 5 min read
Find and hire producers who close by writing a specific ideal producer profile, running a five-minute phone screen on coachability and persistence, presenting the role honestly (including the hard parts), moving fast on offers, and setting a written 30/60/90 day ramp plan before day one.
08/01/2022 · 4 min read
Align an insurance agency's marketing, hiring, and sales systems by scoring each on a 1 to 10 scale, fixing the weakest one first, and treating leads, producers, and process as one interdependent engine. A gap in any one caps the other two.