Agency Growth Machine

Your busiest producer might be your most lost. He's on the phone all day, calendar packed, servicing renewals and putting out fires... and he hasn't set a new first appointment in nine weeks. From the outside he looks like your best. On paper he's drifting straight off course, and nobody can see it.  In this episode, Randy Schwantz breaks down the Flight Plan system: a specific numb...

You keep going back to your old self. You win an account, then drift right back to transactional, price-only selling... and you feel the time, energy, and margin bleeding out of every deal. Brandon Spivey lived it. He came out of State Farm personal lines, got rolled on a deal at a Braves game, and decided he was done playing in the minor leagues. Five years later he's sitting on a $1.35 mill...

Your best client just said they want to go out for bid. No complaints, no service problems, no price issue.... they just want to know if there's something better out there. Here's the brutal truth: your value is real, but it's invisible, and a client who can't see your value can't defend you when a competitor shows up with a document. In this episode, Randy Schwantz breaks...

Most agency owners say they want to grow. Ask any of them, and every single one will say yes. But wanting to grow and actually deciding to grow are two completely different things, and that gap is where most agencies stall. In this episode, Randy Schwantz breaks down what real commitment looks like: a specific number, a deadline, and an honest answer to the question most owners avoid. One agency o...

Most producers in the middle of your agency have never been asked what they actually want from their career. Not once. And it's costing you more than you think.  In a 10-producer agency, your middle six already generate more revenue than your top performers combined. Randy Schwantz breaks down the math: if those six producers each grow their books by just 20%, that's close to a million d...

You've spent real money on producers and they're still not winning.  Here's the uncomfortable truth: it's not them.  A Cincinnati agency owner kept the same twelve producers she'd been struggling with, built a system, and went from eight million to nearly eleven million in written premium in eighteen months.  Randy breaks down exactly what she built and why the single bigg...

 Most new insurance producers are working hard and going nowhere. Winston Welch was one of them... until he built a system. In just two years, Winston went from emailing quotes hoping prospects would bind to winning Rookie of the Year at Crest Insurance. In this episode, Randy breaks down exactly how Winston bridged the gap between effort and results using the Wedge sales process and Bignition. Th...

 Eight months. Zero new revenue. And a nice guy who checked every box. If that story sounds familiar, you have a hiring problem, not a training problem. In this episode, Randy reveals the MCOP framework: four pillars that separate hunters from book sitters before you ever sign an offer. He also walks through the retirement math that reveals whether a new hire is truly motivated to grow. The all-in...

 Most producers think they lose on price. Greg's story proves otherwise. He kept an account where both competitors beat him by $15,000 and $20,000 — and they never knew why. In this episode, Randy Schwantz delivers the complete six-step Flight Plan, from red-hot introductions to cross-selling and wedge-proofing. Incumbents in commercial lines hold a 92% retention rate. Not because they are be...

You know that producer who has worked hard for 20 years and still has a $300,000 book? That is not a career. That is a sentence. In this episode, Randy Schwantz breaks down the exact system separating million dollar producers from everyone else. Spoiler: the answer is not more accounts. It is fewer, better ones. Randy walks through the Me Inc. mindset, the 20-20 game plan, and the math that shows...

Your sales meetings are backward-looking theater, and your close rate proves it. CRISP is the 4-part weekly framework one agency used to go from a 25% close rate to 81% and nearly double their new business per producer.  Randy Schwantz breaks down every phase and shows you exactly what's different about a meeting designed to win. If your Monday morning meeting teaches producers nothing, this...

Your clients will give you a referral reluctantly. They'll give you an introduction enthusiastically — but only if you give them the right story to tell.  Most producers are sitting on their single greatest pipeline asset and never touching it: their existing book of business.  In this episode, Randy Schwantz breaks down SODAR — a five-letter system that transforms your best client from &quot...

If you've spent four episodes learning how to wedge out other agents' accounts... congratulations. Someone in your market is now running those exact plays on you. This episode is Randy's defensive playbook: the ABC account management system, the written service timeline that turns your service commitments into signed contracts, and the cross-sell strategy that makes your best accoun...

You ran a strong first meeting. You found pain. You built the vision. You got commitment. And then… you lose the deal anyway. It happens every day in commercial insurance. Not because your proposal was weak, but because the incumbent got a second chance. In this episode, Randy breaks down the 6-step Keystone process —the exact system top producers use to lock in deals before the second meeting eve...

Most producers lose before they even realize it. They think they got beat on price…  but in reality, they were just used to give the incumbent leverage. In this episode, The Wedge creator Randy Schwantz breaks down the exact 5-step system that flips that dynamic completely. This is a field-tested process that’s been used for 30+ years to:  Eliminate price competition   Create real differentiation...

Most producers don’t lose deals because of price. They lose because they walk into meetings unprepared. In this episode, Randy breaks down the exact 7-question pre-call framework top commercial insurance producers use to dramatically increase their close rate—often in just 20 minutes of preparation . You’ll learn: Why every sales meeting actually has a “third person” in the room—and how to beat th...

In commercial insurance sales, there is no such thing as a “win-win.” If you want to grow your book of business, someone else has to lose. In this episode of the Agency Growth Machine Podcast , Randy Schwantz breaks down the hard truth most insurance producers avoid: every prospect already has an incumbent agent. If you want the account, you must create a reason for the buyer to fire their current...

After several years away from the mic, Agency Growth Machine is back. But the silence didn’t mean the work stopped. During that time, Randy Schwantz was deep inside agencies, working with owners and producers trying to grow in a market that has shifted dramatically. Private equity consolidation, new technology, changing expectations from buyers — and yet many producers are still struggling to win...

 Why Most Commercial Insurance Producers Fail — And What Actually Fixes It  Six out of ten new commercial insurance producers fail within their first two years. And it’s not because they’re lazy. It’s not because they lack talent. It’s not because they “just didn’t want it bad enough.” It’s because they were handed a license… a list… and a draw — and told to “go figure it out.” In this episode of...

Most producers don’t lose deals because they lack effort. They lose because they lack differentiation. In this episode, Randy walks through the exact scenario playing out in agencies every week: • Producers quoting blind  • Prospects saying “we’ll consider it”  • Incumbents matching price  • And the deal quietly disappearing If your team walks into appointments promising to “save 10%,” you’re trai...

Meet Adrienne. After working in education as a training coordinator for over a decade, she recently made the jump to run operations at an employee benefits firm. It wasn't easy and she admits that she made some rookie hiring mistakes at first. But since then, she's been promoted to CEO of Benefit Advisors. Because in just 2 years after taking over the insurance agency -- Adrienne's...

Meet Ryan. He's the father figure of a blended family living off the coast of New Jersey. Ryan's also the Sales Director at JGS Insurance, who joined Bignition a few years ago. Since then, he's helped their team to achieve a few BIG squad goals like ... - 3X their sales revenue - Increase to a 97% retention rate The best part? They're still growing. ---- *P.S. -- Are you an ind...

Meet Justin.  He went from being a college football coach to selling insurance for a living ... Now he coaches Producers in his agency on how to do it too.  Justin told us, "There's really no difference between the two jobs ... You've just got to be disciplined to a system."  His secret training system? Bignition.  Because with Bignition, there is no room for excuses anymore. ...

Imagine you’re a 28 to 32 year-old commercial insurance agent going after accounts anywhere from $7500, up to $30,000 in revenue. How do you position yourself to set more appointments with these types of prospects? The answer: BETTER MARKETING! Join Randy Schwantz and insurance marketing LEGEND, Michael Jans, as they take a deep dive into becoming a better marketer to set more appointments. Want u...

One of the biggest questions agency owners face when making a new decision for their business is, "When will we see a return on investment?" This wasn't any different for agency owner, Jared Pitts, from GIA-TX. He admitted that he was extremely skeptical of the program at first. But with Bignition, there is no secret formula here. If you want to grow your agency, it's VERY simp...