Agency Nation Radio

It's not easy and it'll probably involve someone doing something they're not ready for. That's always the trickiest part for any agency to pass the business on to the next generation. However, the faster both sides realize the reality of the situation, the better the chances get. Perpetuation plans need to be happening sooner with more intention and commitment behind them. That's what I talk with...

It should only take a few clicks for them to show up on your schedule. That's the crazy advantage of using an online scheduling tool like Calendly, people are always willing and able to talk insurance. But the easier you make it, the more people start to take specific action. Not only that, when you combine that contact empowerment with email automation, appointments schedule themselves. That's wh...

It's challenging to break out of traditional agency dynamics and create an insurance rockstar mindset. There are very few agencies that feel like they are the cool kids of the industries and can aggressively do things differently. However, embracing the power and freedom that's possible when you face your creative fear is staggering. That creativity allows you to start relationships in the place p...

When the solution probably should have happened 10 years ago. You’d think that with all the advances we’ve experienced in technology, that we’d at least be able to pull a client email list together. But that’s not the case for our industry. The dreaded thought of exporting and importing updated client lists, and then scrubbing them for accuracy just to send a simple marketing email out, makes us a...

The next generation of insurance is going to have a crazy headstart on the industry. With formal higher education programs popping up all around the country, a new agents day one knowledge could be off the charts. Because up until now, one of our best training tactics involved writing names of family and friends on a piece of paper and hoped it equaled 100. Now up and coming agents have the possib...

Is never easy to handle but always exciting to see what happens on the other side. As you probably already heard, Ryan Hanley is moving on from Agency Nation to pursue other opportunities. So we did one of the things we do best here at Agency Nation and turned the microphones on to talk about it. Today I was joined by Sydney Roe and Chip Bacciocco to discuss the future of Agency Nation as Sydney a...

That's generally the level of appreciation you receive when the relationship starts in the right place. Every insurance agent has started a conversation with "I know you're busy, but I just need a moment of your time." What if you could completely turn the tables and have a prospect say to you, "Thank you, I know you're busy, but could I have a minute of your time? I need your help with my insuran...

Or maybe the better question is, do you have enough content to cluster? This might be one of the easiest marketing tactics to follow that can ultimately dictate your strategy. If you focus on topic clusters, it makes it really easy to understand how deep you can go on a topic to let Google know you're an expert. If you don't have enough content to fill your clusters, that's a good indication your...

There's a good chance they're not if their still doing basic service work. With back office support companies becoming more reliable and relevant traditional service roles can do non traditional tasks. If you crunch the numbers, you'll almost always be able to walk away with a chance to make more money. That's the leap that most agents find so frustrating, is the ability to find more time to do hi...

The answers is probably already sitting in your agency, you're just not paying enough attention to it. Not to mention it might take a lot longer than you want or need it to. Regardless of what you might think, there's not much difference between an average high-net-worth account and a plain old personal lines account. The only difference is your mindset you have about which one you can get. That's...

It's not easy changing the perception of what people think it's like being an insurance agent. It might be one of the greatest challenges we will have to overcome recruiting top level young talent. Right now, one of the only things surviving several decades worth of negative perception is convincing that talent to give it a try. That's just one of the interesting parts I learned about Evan Jackson...

If not, you could be spending a lot of time on something you're trying not to do. Maybe that's important. Maybe it builds character. Maybe that's why we're still doing it. Or maybe we don't need to waste that much time and there might be a more focused way to do it? It's possible the "liberal arts" insurance education may have run it's course. If all it does is produced "Insurance Generalist" we m...

Sometimes it's good to know if you're keeping up with the best of the best. But, just because you are now doesn't mean it's going to stay that way forever. Because there comes a time during every agency's growth where the potential is challenged. It's how that potential is handled and transitioned that has a good chance to separate you from the pack. That's what I talk to Landon Bentham, of Callah...

It's certainly one of the easiest ways to kill two birds with one stone. No one wants to tell someone they're not doing a good job, that's why accountability can be a tricky thing. Even worse, no one really wants to not pay someone because of that lack of effort. However, if your agency adopted a compensation model that both punished and reward for that behavior, you might start experiencing compl...

It's not the easiest thing to do for the people buying it or the agents selling it. There's a good chance it might all come down to communication and how much may or may not be happening. It's always the person who has something to say that's responsible for the action after they say it. Which certainly includes no action at all. That's where we find ourselves more often then we should across the...

It's real easy to talk yourself into thinking you talk too much about insurance. The truth is, it's what you do best and it's really hard to give people too many facts about it. However, one thing that usually goes dramatically overlooked is your ability to tell an emotional story all the way to the sale. It's always dangerous to play with emotions, but highly rewarding if executed properly. That'...

You really have to set the right expectations before you can find out. Because if you haven't taken the time to figure it out, there's a good chance you'll never know. Once that question has been answered you can figure out where the help should come from. That help should be properly positioned to grow the agency where the expectations are currently sitting. That's what I talked to Bogus Handzel,...

Because if they do, they're not really sure what they'll get. That uncertainty is what needs eliminated for any progress to be made. More work has to be done, language changed and expectations elevated (get it). Once they are it becomes a lot more exciting to see what happens next. In order to get there, a detailed process needs to be established from the beginning. They only question is if you're...

It's pretty easy to say there are few experience that compare to what happen in Cleveland a few weeks ago. We've all been dealing with the aftermath in our own way, however after a couple of days as legendary as that, we had to get together and talk about them. By now you've seen not one , but two accounts of the conference, it only seems fitting to add a fireside chat to record. This is the first...

Can be excruciating or possibly the greatest thing you've ever done. Honestly, the choice is yours initially. However, as you start to see what's involved it should become painfully obvious. When you rise to the Insurance Mindset Challenge, you're requiring that business goes where it goes, you're able to extensively "speak the language" of the industry you're trying to serve and finally have to t...

If you're going to do something dramatic, you minds well go all in. It doesn't matter if it means moving office locations, encouraging people not to show up there or deciding once and for all who your best client is. Taking that decision to the the next level is something that has a ridiculously good chance of helping. Once you decide who and what are involved it because a lot easier to support th...

It should mean we've finally made it to a place where it's not even close to the first thing we think about. It would actually cease to be a topic of discussion and occupy a level of normality never seen before. It's something that some of us have to remember to take a step back on, in the best way possible. It's in this realization that possibly exposes how big of a gap we need to close. I've rec...

It seems like everyone has the answers to your agency's problems. The only catch is you have to follow them down their rabbit hole to find out if it's worth your time. Even then it could be months, maybe even years, before you realize the full scope of what's possible (and what's not). Instead of diving head first into a line of business that might allow you to engage with people you enjoy doing b...

Not many agencies are brave enough to fix what isn't broken to build something better. It's during that construction process that you'll truly be tested on the strength of your structure. But that's exactly what will happen if you want to try and reach your creative potential. One of the only ways to do it is to have the proper support around. That's what I talk to Woody Brown, of The Rhodes Group...

Companies spend a lot of money to make sure people know who they are. The only thing you have to do is tell them what they want to know. That's the hard part and only something a valued "objective" third party can do. You're that third party, some might even call you an advisor. That's a resposability you take very seriously, however there's a good chance your getting serious about way too late. T...