My question for you today is do you produce or you just practice? That’s the topic of today’s post.
I hear it all the time from agency owners and sales leaders across the country, how do I get my people to produce? Well, the fact of the matter is you’ve got to teach them how to sell value and sell a relationship. Right now, we’ve got agents running rampant, doing their best to compete on price, and I hate to tell you, that’s like building your house on a foundation full of sinking sand. People want value. They may not realize it at the beginning of a meeting, but that’s your job to show them precisely what you can do that they’re currently not getting. People who sell on price will also lose on price, and people who sell on value will take that business every time.
We have equations that we’ve used over the years. Call 100 people, get 50 people to answer the phone, get 20 people to meet with you, ten will let you quote, and two will end up being your client. That’s insane. Work so much smarter than that. You have to know who your audience is. You have to know the motivating factors behind what drives them to give you the order, and then you have the leverage that every time you meet with them. We don’t need people to be in our organizations that only quote, “trying to earn business.” There’s no value in that at all.
Figure out a way to differentiate yourself. Create a unique process and approach and brand that, with its brand separate from your agency’s. Then go out and define your ideal prospects, put those people in your pipeline, and call on those people and nobody else. Those couple of steps will be one of the things that help you keep from practicing more than producing. If you fill your pipeline with the right people, if you remain relevant by staying in front of them, if you have a value proposition instead of a quoting machine, that is exactly what’s going to allow you to kill it in commercial insurance.
In the ever-evolving world of commercial insurance, marketing has become a critical lever for growth. Yet most agencies still struggle to understand what’s actually working. From websites that generate leads with no attribution to CRM systems that silo vital data, insurance agencies are often flying blind.
If you’re a commercial insurance producer trying to grow in the middle market, you’re probably aware that the old-school prospecting methods—cold calling hundreds of businesses, dropping off trinkets, hoping someone is “coming up on renewal”—are no longer enough. In today’s competitive environment, success isn’t about how many people you reach. It’s about reaching the right people at the right time with the right message.
Too many agents stop learning once they’ve earned their license. The bare minimum—meeting continuing education requirements—is not enough in today’s climate. Producers often resort to online forums, asking where they can complete CE hours “as quickly as possible.” This mindset directly impacts their ability to communicate complex subjects like reinsurance or risk modeling to clients in an understandable way. As a result, they struggle to retain accounts and close new business in an increasingly competitive market.
The problem? Too many producers are pitching too soon, to the wrong people, with nothing more than a quote to offer. This article walks through how to close more business by positioning yourself as a trusted advisor, selling Total Cost of Risk (TCOR) outcomes, and using a structured approach to differentiate at every stage of the sales process.
In the modern commercial insurance landscape, trust is no longer built solely through in-person meetings, networking events, or polished brochures. It’s earned digitally—often before a prospect ever takes your call. As sales dynamics shift and competition tightens, the producers who will thrive are those who understand one thing: educational content is the new handshake.
Most commercial insurance producers think of referral networks as an afterthought—something that might generate a lead or two if they attend enough events, shake enough hands, or stay active in their BNI chapter. But the producers who consistently dominate the middle market think differently. They treat referral networks like revenue engines, built with the same discipline as a sales pipeline, and they use those relationships not only to generate appointments but to recruit the next generation of elite producers.
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