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09/19/2022 · 5 min read
Miguel built a top-producing agency by testing the standard playbook instead of inheriting it. He ran lead-source experiments, invested in underwriter relationships, treated prospect education as a moat, and captured referrals at peak-satisfaction moments instead of renewal.
09/14/2022 · 5 min read
Three qualities separate high-performance agencies from ones that plateau: a documented accountability culture with daily leading indicators, a consistent training system (not one-time onboarding events), and alignment between marketing, sales, and service. Score your agency on each. Fix the lowest first.
09/12/2022 · 5 min read
Four internet lead mistakes destroy insurance agency ROI: no cost-per-issued-policy tracking by source, slow response times beyond 5 minutes, abandoning leads before 6 to 8 contact attempts, and treating all lead types as interchangeable. Fix these before spending another dollar on leads.
09/07/2022 · 5 min read
Steve Hovland's top producers share five habits: protected morning routines, personal financial goals tied to specific life outcomes, energy-based scheduling that puts top prospects on morning calls, genuine coachability with self-recorded calls, and a full life outside the agency. Frame habits as performance inputs, not wellness.
09/05/2022 · 5 min read
Steve Hovland built a high-producing agency by treating sleep, morning movement, daily gratitude, deliberate relationships, and real disconnection as performance inputs, not lifestyle luxuries. Protecting the inputs that produce his best days made his best days repeatable and his production durable.
08/31/2022 · 5 min read
Leads contacted within 5 minutes convert up to 100 times higher than leads called 30 minutes later. Most agencies run 30-plus minute response times and pay for fresh leads they're working stale. Fix it with real-time mobile notifications, defined coverage windows, and 2-minute escalation.
08/29/2022 · 4 min read
Build real insurance agency leverage with four levers: documented systems, producers trained to a written standard, a lead system that runs without you, and automation that reclaims hours every week. Owner-dependent agencies have a job. Leveraged agencies have a business.
08/24/2022 · 5 min read
Break the P&C growth ceiling by hiring a dedicated account manager before the retention math says you can, segmenting service by book type (commercial separate from personal), paying producer overrides on renewals so they protect retention, and running quarterly business reviews on commercial accounts. Service first, growth second.
08/22/2022 · 5 min read
Scale a P&C agency from scratch by building service capacity before the book demands it, going deep with fewer carriers instead of writing every appointment, measuring issued policies and average premium instead of quote count, and niching aggressively. Sheppard Bowen's first hire set the standard for every later hire.
08/17/2022 · 4 min read
Lead mistake #1 is buying leads on cost-per-lead instead of cost-per-issued-policy. A $12 lead converting at 8% costs $150 a policy. A $40 lead at 30% costs $133. Track source, contact rate, conversion rate, and average premium per policy by source. Most agents fly blind on this number.
08/15/2022 · 5 min read
The most effective client retention strategy for insurance agencies is the pre-renewal touchpoint: a five-minute check-in 30 to 45 days before renewal asking what has changed in the client's life. Agencies that run it systematically typically gain 10 to 15 percentage points of retention inside a year.
08/10/2022 · 5 min read
Manage team energy through rejection by normalizing the call ratio up front, celebrating activity not just outcomes, building mid-day recovery rituals between calling blocks, naming hard days out loud, and using peer accountability. Resilience is environment design, not willpower.
08/08/2022 · 4 min read
Pamela De La Cruz grew her agency by treating personal energy as a business asset. She tracked her morning energy against team production, locked in a non-negotiable morning protocol, removed depleting tasks from her plate, and built energy awareness into her one-on-ones with producers.
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.
07/27/2022 · 4 min read
When the numbers go hard, Bryan Taylor protects culture by separating market conditions from performance failures, handling underperformer conversations quickly and privately ("here's what I'm seeing in your activity data"), keeping the win-of-the-week ritual alive, and narrating his own resilience out loud so the team learns the move.
07/25/2022 · 4 min read
Bryan Taylor runs deliberate positivity as agency infrastructure, not personality. He audits meeting tone, runs specific recognition (Sarah handled X exactly right) instead of generic praise, and refuses fear-based management. Result: lower producer turnover, higher engagement, and a client experience that produces referrals organically.
07/20/2022 · 5 min read
Marketing-first insurance agencies beat sales-first ones because consistent content, local search presence, email to the book, and a referral ask in every service call produce warmer leads at lower cost-per-acquisition. The compounding starts in 6 to 12 months and never reverses.
07/18/2022 · 5 min read
Sell more policies every week with five tactics: lead with the prospect's risk before the product, present two or three quote options instead of five, name the real cost of waiting, ask for the sale in plain language, and book the next callback before you hang up.
07/13/2022 · 5 min read
Eric Mangano's follow-up system: first-touch within 5 minutes of lead, touches 2-3 spaced 24-48 hours apart with different mediums, scarcity-and-specificity scripts by touch 5-6, mandatory CRM logging, weekly role-play, live call listening as a manager KPI, and team recognition for breakthrough calls.