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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.
07/11/2022 · 4 min read
Build a high-volume phone sales operation that converts by treating dial volume as the controllable variable and follow-up as the place deals actually close. Eric Mangano sets daily dial targets above 80 per producer, manages energy, and runs visible scoreboards so phone work feels like winning.
07/06/2022 · 5 min read
The commission structure that actually motivates insurance producers uses tiered accelerators (not flat percentages), persistency bonuses tied to 13-month retention, split-commission incentives for collaboration, a draw-plus-floor ramp for new agents, and multi-line household bonuses. Comp design is psychology, not math.
07/04/2022 · 5 min read
Your insurance leads aren't the problem, your activity level is. 100 leads need 6 to 8 touches each, which means 36 contact attempts a day across a 22-day selling month. Most agents make 10 to 15. The leads aren't dead, they're untouched. Set a daily activity floor.
06/29/2022 · 5 min read
Agents who see market shifts coming get advance notice from carrier field reps they have real relationships with, track macro and catastrophe events that predict appetite changes, and watch their own claims data for clusters. Agents who can also solve hard placements become the resource other agents refer business to.
06/27/2022 · 5 min read
Carriers segment agents into three tiers: sporadic submitters, reliable producers, and top-tier partners who get early product access and underwriter relationships. Getting to the top tier requires excellent loss ratios, accurate applications, and carrier conversations that go beyond submission questions.
06/22/2022 · 5 min read
The insurance agency KPIs that actually matter are dial-to-conversation, conversation-to-quote, quote-to-close, average premium per policy, retention rate, and referrals per client. Track these on daily, weekly, and monthly cadences. Ignore vanity totals and aggregate close rates that hide individual performance.
06/20/2022 · 5 min read
The #1 skill every insurance agency owner must master to scale is leadership: developing others instead of directing them, running regular accountability conversations, continuous recruiting, and creating clarity around roles, standards, and direction. Sales skill builds the agency. Leadership scales it past $2M.