Close more policies, handle objections, and build a sales machine. Real scripts, real techniques, and real results from top-producing agents.
332 episodes from Craig Pretzinger & Jason Feltman, hosts of The Insurance Dudes Podcast
07/17/2026 · 8 min read
One bad hire costs a captive agency 50 to 200 percent of annual pay. Most owners skip the full math: job ads, lost new deals, dead team morale, and a rebuild cost no one ever puts in a real budget.
07/16/2026 · 11 min read
It is not the leads, it is the math. Cost per sale, not per lead, is what you need to know. Sort real from fake by intent, split dial from close, track your unit cost by source and by week.
07/15/2026 · 11 min read
Your close rate is not a script issue. Sales live or die in the first two min of a call, not in the line at the end. Most captive agents close in the 20s. Here is the fix that actually works.
07/14/2026 · 10 min read
Most P&C owners hire in a panic while sales churn runs 25 to 30 percent a year. The fix: run paid ads for a full pipe, screen with DISC, use group talk, then put new hires on a 30/60/90 plan.
07/07/2026 · 8 min read
Pre-renewal calls are the top ROI move an owner can build, yet most skip them. Call 45 days before the carrier mails the rate hike so you own the chat before they ever open a new quote on their phone.
06/16/2026 · 8 min read
Organic growth for independent agencies has fallen from 11.2% to 7.1% as rate tailwinds recede. The agencies that sustain growth in 2026 are leaning into tech-enabled production, cross-selling their existing book, specializing in commercial niches, and treating retention as a valuation multiplier, not an afterthought.
05/26/2026 · 9 min read
Best Practices independent agencies hit 10.7% organic growth and 26.1% EBITDA margins in 2025. Here is what those numbers mean for your agency, why the gap is operational rather than luck, and which specific benchmarks to measure against right now.
05/19/2026 · 8 min read
Independent agents now write 61.5% of all P&C premium and top agencies post 10.7% organic growth, while captive agents keep 5 to 10% commission on first-year premium and do not own their book. Here are the real numbers a captive P&C owner needs before making the jump.
04/29/2026 · 8 min read
Top insurance producers share four skills nobody formally teaches: communication, emotional intelligence, leadership, and execution. Licensing exams cover policy forms. Carrier training covers products. The skills that 10x commission are learned through deliberate practice, not coursework.
04/21/2026 · 8 min read
Kirk Chester scales GRIT Insurance by going deep on six blue-collar niches instead of writing everything that walks in. The playbook runs on three levers: pick a vertical identity, systematize the mundane, and deploy AI in real workflows now, not after another evaluation cycle.
03/13/2026 · 6 min read
Dean Bowen built Patriotic Insurance Group with no warm market, on three pillars: a data-sourced prospect list filtered by industry and size, cold email built on real research into each business, and automated follow-up over four to six weeks. The warm market has an expiration date. Specificity, not seniority, is what gives a young producer commercial credibility.
02/20/2026 · 6 min read
The five-step P&C agency hiring system: run paid traffic continuously so the pipeline is full before you need it, use assessments to see past interview polish, run group interviews to expose real behavior, use one-on-ones to choose between filtered finalists, then onboard with 30/60/90 success metrics and daily activity standards.
01/30/2026 · 6 min read
Teams perform sustainably when intrinsic motivation replaces prize-based contests, accountability cultures lead with clarity instead of pressure, and data helps people understand themselves instead of catching them failing. Track daily activity, not just monthly results, and reward consistency, not just peaks.
01/23/2026 · 6 min read
Sustainable insurance agency growth runs on four levers: daily activity consistency that compounds, structured lead generation that delivers predictable volume, retention tracked obsessively as the most ignored growth metric, and team motivation built as a system, not a personality problem. Boring fundamentals done reliably beat exotic tactics.
01/19/2026 · 6 min read
Insurance agents should bring marketing in-house because lead aggregator economics broke after iOS 14. Owning your own Facebook and YouTube ad accounts means every improvement in copy, targeting, and landing pages drops your cost per acquisition instead of paying a flat price for shared leads.
01/02/2026 · 6 min read
Accident reconstructionist Eric Brown has seen single accidents generate $600,000 in liability against state-minimum policies, with the excess landing on the at-fault driver. State minimums are a floor, not a recommendation. Agents must run coverage adequacy conversations at every renewal, especially for young, senior, and asset-rich clients.
11/21/2025 · 5 min read
After 25 years in insurance: follow up at least five times after first contact (most revenue lives there), document your sales process so the team can run without you, use AI to handle repetitive non-judgment tasks, and design systems flexible enough to survive disruptions.
11/14/2025 · 6 min read
Brian Greenberg's True Blue formula: AI handles the mechanical (scheduling, lead scoring, follow-up sequences) so agents focus on rapport. Add conversion-optimized landing pages, automated review collection, and multi-channel nurture (email, SMS, calls) until the buyer is ready. Persistence is a systems problem, not a character one.
11/07/2025 · 6 min read
Read attribution patterns in how candidates describe past jobs, study what they value outside work, test their planning capacity, trust early value-mismatch signals, and walk away before commitment locks you in. Casual conversation is more diagnostic than any structured interview.
10/31/2025 · 5 min read
Mark Flockhart built Valor Insurance Group on four reinforcing pillars: content that educates clients before they have a claim, carrier placement matched to risk profile, lead filtering for fit over volume, and documented training that makes the team's expertise transferable.