Very few agents sell it and a lot of the right people need it.
Even if you want nothing to do with selling a flood policy, there are plenty of other specializations you can find.
It's leaning in, not pushing away the specific knowledge required to be at the top of your game.
Sydney Roe sat down with Chris Greene, of Flood Insurance Guru, to figure out what he was doing to keep flood business flowing.
P.S. The Agency Nation newsletter has value no one else does.
This is actually one of the easiest things you can do to help drive change and results in your agency.
If you are constantly surrounded by people who hold you accountable and push ideas forward, you'll have no choice but to keep up.
The biggest challenge is consistently finding time to connect with these people because there's a good chance they won't be in your agency.
That's what I talk to Avery Moore, of ECI Insurance, about as she tries to find more of those people.
That's the danger of assuming any sale is in the bag because that's exactly the time it isn't.
However, the good news is there's a lot that can be done with this assumption to make people think differently.
The challenge is upping your game for the people that see it every day.
That's what I talked to Bogus Handzel, of Handzel & Associates, about exactly how hard he thinks they should work.
In a producer-driven world, most of the time they are forced to carry a heavy load in the agency.
That load can sometimes include everything from start to finish involved with a policy.
Of course, there are plenty of producers that have dominated their market doing everything.
However, in a more specialized world, that producers might be better off being one of four people involved in the process.
That's what I sat down with Toni Jones, of Palomar Insurance, to count how many people they have in on the action.
P.S. The Agency Nation newsletter is waiting to help you sell more policies.
It's a feeling a majority of us in the industry have never had to worry about.
However, it's foreign feelings like that standing in the way of long overdue progress.
That progress shouldn't be nearly as hard to come by as it is and
That's why I assembled some of the best leaders in the industry who are trying to make that happen as fast as it can.
I talked with Alex Dopazo, Quincy Branch, and Whitnee Dillard about how fast we can make everyone feel comfortable.
P.S. Stick around here if you want to be part of the conversation moving forward.
That's really the hard part of discovering information that drives change.
Allowing it to fully take hold and be implemented instead of falling in love with learning.
Because once you do it sometimes creates a false reality of the adoption level certain ideas have in the industry.
That's what I talk to Ryan Anderson, of Alliance Insurance, about as he shares his learning epiphany.
It doesn't matter if it's a classic car, boat, motorcycle or BOP policy, the bigger the package you offer the harder it is to move.
We're all chasing that high-quality client that has a need for multiple lines of business and has a strong retention rate.
It's very possible the reason you're not finding as many as you want is that you're not offering every (special) thing they need.
That's what Sydney Roe talks with Brook McGuire, of Safeco Insurance, about her experience helping agents be more special.
There are no guarantees you will rank for keywords that drive business.
However, there are a few key pillars to lean on when getting started to ensure the most success possible.
Those pillars, however, might look and feel different to each agent depending on your current position.
That's what I talk with Alex Dopazo, of Dopazo & Associates, about as he talks himself into the work he's doing.
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 Chris Cline or Westfield Insurance, about the challenges they see agencies facing.
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 what I called up Ryan McGrew, of RightWay Insurance, to talk about and discovered a whole bunch of extra awesomeness.
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 people are looking for them the most.
That's what I talk to Woody Brown, of The Rhoads Group, about how his agency approaches their opportunity.
P.S. Unlock your creative potential by joining the Agency Nation newsletter.
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 avoid the task altogether.
Agency Management Systems struggle to find the motivation to change. And it’s preventing us from achieving our true insurance potential.
That’s what I talk to Kim Woods, of Tobey Merrill Insurance about what she said to do to try to solve her problems.
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 possibility of four years worth of insurance education even before stepping foot in an agency.
That's what I talked to Dr. Jill Bisco, of The University of Akron and one of her recent students, about the impact proper insurance education makes.
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 and I prepare to take this amazing community in an exciting new direction.
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 insurance problem."
What a magical insurance world that would be to live in to be appreciated that much for who you are and what you do.
That's exactly what can happen if you #DoTheWork and allow everyone on-demand access to your insurance brain.
This is the first 20 minutes of a recent presentation I gave to the Alabama Young Agents to help them hear thank you more often.
P.S. There's plenty more amazing nuggets like this inside the Agency Nation newsletter, subscribe here.
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 topic isn't big enough or you need to write more.
That's what I talk to Sean Halpin, of MJH Insurance, about as he tries to make sense of what he needs in his clusters.
P.S. A lot of topics get clustered inside the newsletter, you should come see for yourself.
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 high value tasks.
That's what I talked with Nick Thalhammer, of Cincinnatus Insurance, about as he starts to seriously consider getting more value out of his people.
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 what I talked to Kurt Thoennessen, of Ericson Insurance Advisors, about how he does and the cool new tool he developed to make life easier.
Connect with Kurt Here:
P.S. The Agency Nation newsletter is the place to be, but you already knew that.
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's story and how he landed a job at his agency, Randy Jones & Associates.
P.S. Wanting to be an insurance agent is pretty much the only thing we talk about here.
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 might find ourselves in trouble.
That's what I talk to Jared Bellmund, of Carolina Living Insurance, about as he tries to make sure his feel are planted in the right place.
P.S. Joining the Agency Nation Newsletter is a good way to avoid it.