4 Steps to Take When Securing an Agent of Record Letter

People ask me all the time, “David, how do I set myself up to get agent of record letters?” And you know what? The process itself is not that difficult. It does require some practice, but you can’t practice what you don’t know, right? So today, we’re going to talk about four things you need to do to get yourself set up for an agent of record letter.

Understand How to Sell a Value Proposition

The very first thing that you have to do is you have to understand how to sell a value proposition. If you don’t know how to sell a value proposition, it may be because you don’t have one. If your value proposition is: I’m going to go to 50 carriers to get quotes for you, it’s not a value proposition, folks. That’s a price play, and it’s not going to work. So take some time, develop a value proposition.

Here’s another thing, this isn’t one of the main four, but it’s a little bonus I’m going to give you today. Put an elevator pitch around that. Anytime you walk in to meet with a prospect, the decision-maker is not going to want to hear the 50,000-minute version of everything you can do. But if you have a concise elevator pitch, that may lead your prospect to ask you probing questions and allow you to expand on what you can do for them. So, develop your value proposition, know it, and be able to deliver it succinctly.

Create Doubt

The next thing you have to be able to do is you have to be able to create doubt. And you don’t need to go in and create uncertainty by trashing your competition. That doesn’t do anything except make you look back. But what you can do is you can ask questions that you already know the answers to that are going to demonstrate that perhaps your firm would have handled the situation differently than the current representation.

Demonstrate Solutions

Once you create that doubt, you have to be able to do number three, and that is show solutions. It’s one thing to create a doubt. It’s another thing to very fluidly explain to your prospect that you can fix the problem that they may not even have known existed when you walk in the room. And it’s not a matter of you going deep-diving into all of the ways that you can solve their problems. It’s a matter of you just very, again, fluidly explaining to them something that your firm typically would do.

The answer that I use a lot of the time when I talk about this is the experience mod because, for workers’ compensation, it’s effortless to predict that. So a way that I create doubt is to say something like this. “So when your agent came out to talk to you around the time your preliminary mod came out and did a midyear claims review, what advice did they give you to help you get the open claims closed from the prior policy year to be sure that your mod is accurate as a result?”

Now, I know that most of the time, there’s never a midyear claims review, and there’s not a consultation about the preliminary experience mod. So my followup to that would be, “When my firm comes out and handles this with our clients, we typically spend time talking to them about the top loss drivers and the contributing factors to what caused their mod to go up this year. Many times, it’s a result of claims that are still open or perhaps have closed but have closed lower than what the initial reserves are that the carrier reported on the unit stat cards to NCCI. Because the claims are total incurred when reported, the mod is inflated. We typically identify this, negotiate to get the correct values reported, and file the proper paperwork with NCCI to bring the mod down, resulting in current cash recovery many times, but also future savings because the mod is now accurate.”

See what we did? We created doubt by asking about something that we would have done, that they now feel like, “Hey, I never get that. I should have that.” And then, we gave them a solution and showed them tangible results for what happens if they comply with that.

Ask for the Order

The number four thing that you have to do is the most important. It’s the most common sense, and it’s the one nobody ever wants to do, right? People, you got to ask for the order. You got to throw the hammer down and say, “I’d love to do business with you.” Now, listen, this doesn’t need to be abrasive, right? You can lead them into making that decision, and that’s always the best thing to do. I like to get two to three yeses before I get their buy in to hire me as their agent and give me the agent of record letter.

Typically, I’ll say something like this. “Can you agree that maybe you haven’t necessarily been getting good advice when it comes to getting claims closed out, and that’s contributed to your mod factor being higher than it should? Can you agree that the steps that we’ve talked about today are something that you would benefit from that would help you control those costs going forward? Can you agree that I’ve demonstrated that this is something that my firm has specific expertise in and would be able to help your company? Then, can you agree that it would be a good next step for you to allow my firm to represent you in the insurance transaction going forward so that you can have the benefit of the value proposition that we’ve laid out today?”

People, if you don’t ask for the order, you’re not going to get it. Put that coffee down and ask for the order, or you’re never going to kill it in commercial insurance. And keep in mind, coffee’s for closers. Closers ask for the order.

Until next time: Kill or get killed!

Maximizing Revenue with Surety Bonds and Niche Contractor Insurance Strategies

August 5, 2025 No Comments

The middle market commercial insurance landscape is evolving at a rapid pace. Agencies that once relied solely on traditional property and casualty products are now discovering untapped revenue streams by embracing surety bonds and specialty coverages. By understanding how to position niche products—such as drone insurance for contractors—alongside licensing and permit bonds, agencies can capture high-intent leads, accelerate earned premium, and foster deeper client relationships.

In this post, we’ll explore a comprehensive bonding-first growth strategy: from the fundamentals of surety bonds to advanced marketing funnels, partner ecosystems, and actionable implementation checklists. Whether you’re a seasoned producer or a rising agency principal, you’ll walk away with a playbook to maximize revenue, differentiate your brand, and become the go-to resource for contractor clients.

Reclaiming Time and Building Efficiency: How Technology is Reshaping Insurance Servicing and Agencies Growth – A Conversation with Colby Tunick

August 5, 2025 No Comments

In the world of independent insurance agencies, servicing existing policies often overshadows the pursuit of new business. It’s estimated that 80% of agency time is spent servicing renewals rather than generating new opportunities. With the average cost of servicing a policy renewal totaling around $135 per policy, agencies are dedicating significant resources simply to maintain the status quo.

This servicing burden presents a major scalability problem. For every thousand policies on the books, agencies are effectively employing two full-time account executives just to keep up. The result is a “tyranny of insurance” where agency growth becomes harder as success increases. This challenge is even more pronounced for agencies focused on the middle market or attempting to backfill their books with small commercial insurance and personal lines.

Scaling a book of business while trapped in administrative quicksand isn’t just inefficient; it’s unsustainable. Agencies need a way to break free if they hope to thrive in today’s competitive and evolving market.

Maximizing Middle-Market Workers’ Compensation Success: Data-Driven Prospecting, Compliance Wedges, and Claims Excellence

July 31, 2025 No Comments

Middle-mazrket businesses face unique challenges when it comes to managing their workers’ compensation programs. Unlike large enterprises, they often lack dedicated in-house resources for safety, compliance, and claims oversight; yet unlike small businesses, their scale subjects them to more sophisticated regulatory scrutiny and larger potential losses. In this environment, commercial insurance producers who master an integrated approach—combining precise prospecting data, impactful compliance applications, and exceptional claims handling—can both win new accounts and build lasting client relationships.

Strategic Market Access for Independent Agencies: Unlocking Growth, Stability, and Profitability

July 31, 2025 No Comments

In the most challenging insurance market many of us have ever seen, independent agencies are grappling with a familiar foe: limited carrier access. Whether you’re a former captive agent trying to break into the independent space or a small agency trying to grow your commercial book, the obstacles are real. Direct appointments are hard to come by, especially for shops under $5 million in revenue, and wholesale markets can feel intimidating or like a last resort.

But they don’t have to be. With the right partner, wholesale and brokerage relationships can become a strategic advantage, not just a stopgap. This post explores how agencies can leverage smart market access to grow confidently, preserve profitability, and position themselves for long-term success.

Building High-Performing Remote Insurance Teams: Core Values, Hiring, Onboarding & KPI Strategies

July 30, 2025 No Comments

The insurance industry is undergoing a profound transformation as middle-market agencies recognize the benefits and challenges of embracing a fully remote workforce. No longer viewed as a temporary workaround, remote models offer the potential to tap into nationwide and offshore talent pools, reduce overhead, and increase flexibility in an increasingly digital world. Yet, flipping the switch to virtual operations can expose gaps in documentation, dilute corporate culture, and strain traditional oversight mechanisms. In this post, we’ll explore the four pillars essential to building a high-performing remote insurance team—core values, hiring practices, onboarding processes, and KPI strategies—while also delving into best practices for managing domestic versus offshore employees, ensuring data security, leveraging productivity tools, and fostering trust and autonomy.

Captive Insurance Strategies for Middle Market Success: Empowering Independent Agents with Risk Control and Profitability

July 28, 2025 No Comments

In today’s hard commercial insurance market, middle market business owners are more open than ever to solutions that give them greater control over their insurance costs. While guaranteed cost programs remain the default option, they often lack the flexibility and long-term savings that high-performing businesses crave. That’s where captive insurance comes in—a powerful but often misunderstood tool that enables clients to turn insurance from a sunk cost into a strategic asset.