5 Tools Every Producer Must Possess

Do you have the right behaviors to succeed in the commercial insurance game? I don’t know. You’re the one that’s going to have to answer that question, but today I’m going to give you five behaviors every successful producer should have, and then you can let me know the answer.

Know Your Ideal Prospect

If you’re going to be a successful producer, there are five things that you have got to do. It’s imperative. Otherwise, you’re going to lose to your competition, which is exhibiting these five behaviors. The first thing you need to do to be a successful producer in the middle market is to identify your ideal prospect. How much time is wasted in our industry just going out and competing for quotes on business, selling hard price, whatever comes in, we’re going to quote it, throw it against the wall and see what sticks?

While that may give you some level of temporary gratification for the long haul, it’s a horrible strategy for you to perpetuate your book, focus on what you want to write, and stay in your lane. Don’t write anything else. Is it difficult to say no? It is tough to say no. But what I do know is that after looking back five years and staying in my lane, I’m far ahead of where I would have been if I would’ve just written whoever asked me to quote their business and compete on price.

Prospect Aggressively

The second thing you have to do is you have to prospect aggressively. There are all kinds of things we can do for marketing these days. We can have inbound leads come in. We can do direct mail. We can have people call and market on the telephone. It never ends. But we have to prospect aggressively. If we’re the ones who are determining who our ideal prospects are, we should be the ones to prospect those people and do the research necessary to decide whether or not we’re going to put them in our pipeline.

As we’ve talked about before, I’m not a big fan of a sales funnel. I want a sales cylinder. So prospecting and researching correctly only puts the good stuff at the top, which means the good stuff comes out of the bottom, and you don’t have to worry about weeding things out and losing time because time is money.

Have Channel Partnerships

Networking is huge. Channel partnerships are one of the top ways that you can get business in the middle market. The problem is you’re not going to do it in a month. You’re probably not even going to do it in a year. After two to three years of being in this business, if you’ve taken the right steps to build a channel partnership with several people, attorneys, accountants, bankers, other business to business, salespeople focus on that.

Many times as producers, we’re so worried about marketing and prospecting directly to the person that we want to get in front of that we completely neglect the importance of a good network. I have said all along. I would rather make one phone call to get ten appointments than ten phone calls to get one appointment. You can do that when you have an effective network of professionals that refers business back and forth to each other.

Understand Marketing

Marketing is number four. You have to understand marketing as a producer. You can’t just rely on the agency to do all the work for you. A personal brand is every bit as important as an agency’s brand. And I know that I’m not going to get a lot of traction with agency owners out there who want you to build a brand for them, but at the end of the day, people are buying you. If the agency’s taken care of your compensation the right way, and they’ve given you a path to equity, there’s no reason for you to leave and hang your shingle, and your brand is going to help them as much as it’s going to help you.

Build Your Personal Brand by Branding Your Process

So focus on marketing and building your personal brand, develop and market your process. Don’t always rely on the agency’s name. Some of you are from main street agencies that would never get an opportunity in the middle market, based on name discrimination. I hate to use a term like that, but let’s say you’re John Q. Smith Insurance. You’re going to go in and compete against Willis, Marsh, and USI. You’re not going to get a seat at that table because people don’t know who John Q. Smith Insurance is. John Q. Smith Insurance does not sound like it belongs in the peer group with those as mentioned earlier. Brand yourself brand your process in don’t rely on the agency brand.

Also, don’t exclude it. If you’re going to brand yourself a brand new process, you need to do it the right way, and you need to make sure you do give kudos to the agency that’s giving you the platform and the value proposition. So I always recommend that you say powered by your agency. So, for example, you could have excellent risk solutions powered by John Q. Smith Insurance.

That’s a hokey name, but it’s an example to get the point across. The last thing, the number five behavior that a producer needs to have, they got to get on the phones. They’ve got to beat on those phones every single day. And I’m not telling you you need to work like you’re a telemarketer in a call center, but what you do need to do is make an effort. Everybody hates the phones. I’m not too fond of the phones, but I beat the phones when I need to beat the bushes for business because it’s an easy way, especially in COVID, to make that first contact or make follow-up.

Here’s a bonus tip, listen to the recordings of you on the phone. If you have a system that allows you to record your calls, listen to them, what could you have done better? What did you do good? What opportunities did you miss based on contextual clues in that conversation? Simply picking up the phones and making a hundred calls is worthless if you’re not going to learn from the experience. Learn from when you lose, and learn from when you win. You can learn from both, but if you can do these five things, if you could put these behaviors into the mix as a producer in 2021, you’re going to absolutely kill it in commercial insurance.

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.