Agency Growth Machine

This episode is part of a series. If you missed the episode before this, start at Consultative Training Made Brandon Better. Revenue Still Didn't Move. 

Consultative selling says lead the conversation with a plan, so your producer opens the first meeting with a polished sales agenda, and every step on it leads to one place: come back with a proposal. In commercial insurance sales, that's not a plan to win the account. That's a plan to get a price, and there's a 90% chance the current agent gets last look, matches it and keeps the business. In rule t...

Your producer spends a whole weekend on a free coverage review for a commercial insurance prospect, and the owner snaps a few pictures and sends them to his current agent. That's what give before you get looks like in commercial insurance sales: your work goes to the agent already in the chair, and he delivers it at renewal like he was on top of it the whole time. 

In this episode, rule two of seven in Consultative Selling vs. the Incumbent, I break down why embracing authenticity by giving away your expertise turns you into your competitor's b...

Your producer finds a business interruption limit that hasn't been updated in five years, points it out, and walks out feeling sharp. One phone call later, the incumbent says "we've got it handled" and looks like a hero. In this episode, rule one of seven in Consultative Selling vs. the Incumbent, I break down why pointing out a coverage gap backfires: it makes the meeting about you, it's a one-call fix, and the owner hears that he picked a bad agent. Then we replay the meeting the Wedge way, asking about the service that would have found the gap...

You spent thousands on consultative sales training, and your producers came back better listeners who ask smarter questions, yet revenue didn't move. Every middle market account already has an agent, and consultative selling has nothing to say about firing that incumbent before you get hired. This episode opens the series with Brandon's cold call to quote to last look loop, the three reasons Psych 101 skills never create a switch, and the Wedge moves of Picture Perfect, Vision Box, white flag, and rehearsal. If they can't fire the incumbent, they can't hire you, so listen before you quote another account...

You're still grinding 100 dials for $5,000 and $7,000 accounts while your best clients already know the $25,000 and $50,000 prospects you actually want. Cold calling builds grit early. Past a point it becomes a time sink that keeps a solid book stuck in survival mode. This episode draws the hard line between a weak referral and a red hot introduction, then walks the five-step system for mining LinkedIn, asking with clarity, transferring your story, and following up like a pro. If dialing strangers still feels like the only path to growth, this is the case for turning trust you already earned into the...

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Most producers go years without winning a single Broker of Record letter. Chad Ginther had one BOR in his entire career, then wrote 14 of them in a single year while lifting new business revenue from about $40K to roughly $120K. He walks through the career goal setting that made call reluctance feel like a math problem, the pain-finding process that made BOR wi...

Trying to help every business type sounds safe. To the buyer you actually want, it sounds like you do not understand their world. 

This episode breaks down why generalists fight every producer in town on price while specialists become the category, then walks three pillars of niche domination: laser focus, deep industry expertise, and strategic positioning. 

You get a five-step plan to pick a niche from your existing book and rewrite your message so a tight vertical sees you as the go-to. If you are still saying you help all kinds of businesses, this is th...

Some producers hang up the second they hit voicemail. Others leave a message that is really about them: name, agency, "I'd love to help," call me back. Both keep you the biggest secret on your prospect list. This episode makes the case for treating voicemail as a short commercial that stacks buyer pain, not a pitch about your shop. You'll hear why self-oriented scripts get deleted, how an 8 to 10 second problem-first message works with a matching email, and how consistent touches help you go from unknown to known. If you're dialing and disappearing, those few seconds are how buyers...

Every producer hits the same wall: more accounts, more work, same ceiling. Randy Schwantz pulls the numbers from a survey of 168 producers and $92 million in commission and finds the fix hiding in plain sight: your top 20% of accounts average $17,774 each, your bottom 40% average $518, and one top account is worth 34 of the small ones. 

Randy lays out the exact system, over-serve your best clients, earn the right to introductions into who they know, and wedge out the incumbent, that took a $546,000 book to $1 million with fewer accounts, not more. Stop writing anything that breathes. Press play and find o...

You just told a buyer you have great market relationships, claims advocacy, and a team approach... so did the last three agents who called on that account. 

Randy Schwantz breaks down why 400+ sales workshops and over 10,000 insurance producers all give the exact same answer when asked what makes them different, and why that answer is costing them the deal. He walks through the ladder of abstraction: the exact process for turning a vague capability like "claims advocacy" into a specific, provable process a buyer can actually compare against the incumbent. If you've ever lost a piece of b...

Dawson Eastes had less than a year in the business, zero industry experience, and a bad case of cold call reluctance. Then his sales manager called him out in front of the whole team, he committed to memorizing 15 proactive service wedges, and he walked away with $70,000 in new business revenue, all without playing the quoting game. 

In this episode, Randy Schwantz breaks down how Dawson picked a niche using nothing but insider info from his own family, out-prepared a 15-year incumbent broker, and used role play to walk into every meeting already knowing what the prospect would s...

Your CRM might be the reason your producers aren't hitting quota, and it's not because they're lazy. 

Randy breaks down why enterprise systems like Salesforce turn commercial insurance producers into data entry clerks, and shares the story of one $50 million agency that spent two years and six figures customizing theirs without landing a single extra deal because of it. 

He lays out what a CRM built for middle market insurance actually needs: goal setting tied to a real career plan, tools that turn your knowledge into differentiation, and a system that helps producers earn introductions fr...

Your producers hit their new business number every year and still have no idea if they can retire, pay for their kids' weddings, or send them to college. That's not a motivation problem, it's a math problem, and most agency owners never do the math with them. 

Randy Schwantz breaks down the 3-tier goal-setting process that turns a vague commission target into a real savings number, then reverse-engineers it into the exact activity a producer needs every week to hit it. He'll tell you about the $65,000 wake-up call that almost cost him his family's future, plus the r...

Stuck in voicemail hell, stonewalled by gatekeepers, and losing deals to the incumbent agent who always gets last look? 

This episode breaks down two systems that flip the game: Bold Statement Appointment Setting, which rebuilds the first five seconds of every cold call, and the Seven-Layer Voicemail and Email Strategy that positions you as the problem-solver buyers actually call back. 

Randy Schwantz shares the exact opening line that stops prospects from hanging up, plus the story that busts the incumbent relationship before you ever set the appointment. Producers running this went from one appointment per 100 di...

You did everything right and still closed the year at $20,000 in revenue. That was Jasmine Singh two years ago. Then one uncomfortable question from her agency owner ("Do you want to be the minimum wage agent?") flipped a switch, and she went on to hit six figures in new business for the first time in her career, grow new business by 250%, and get named 2026 Young Insurance Agent of the Year. In this episode she breaks down the exact question she now asks every prospect that gets them to sign on the line, why she fired her bottom 40%, and how...

You're running sales meetings every week, and your pipeline still can't predict what will close. 

Randy Schwantz breaks down why the three formats most agencies default to (the town hall, the pipeline review, the book club) produce exactly zero revenue, and walks through the hot seat model: 45 minutes, one producer, one target account, where they define, defend, and develop specific wedges against the incumbent holding that account. 

One Cincinnati agency ran this process for six months and their producers started winning accounts they'd been circling for years. If your producers walk into prospect meetings without kn...

You've got clients who'd take your call on a Saturday, and you haven't asked them for a thing. 

In this episode, Randy Schwantz breaks down the exact conversation that gets your best clients telling your story before you ever pick up the phone, including the one question most producers skip that's the difference between a lukewarm name and a red-hot introduction. One producer ran this system for three years and 43% of his new accounts came straight from introductions. Cold calling is the hard way. This is the smart way. 

Want us to tackle a real ch...

Your busiest producer might be your most lost. He's on the phone all day, calendar packed, servicing renewals and putting out fires... and he hasn't set a new first appointment in nine weeks. From the outside he looks like your best. On paper he's drifting straight off course, and nobody can see it. 

In this episode, Randy Schwantz breaks down the Flight Plan system: a specific number for every producer, the activity math behind it, and a six-week flight review built around the one question that surfaces the ceilings your people have been hiding for years. One a...

You keep going back to your old self. You win an account, then drift right back to transactional, price-only selling... and you feel the time, energy, and margin bleeding out of every deal. Brandon Spivey lived it. He came out of State Farm personal lines, got rolled on a deal at a Braves game, and decided he was done playing in the minor leagues. Five years later he's sitting on a $1.35 million book using the Wedge, a locked-in ideal client profile, and a set of named proactive services he can actually monetize. The number that should stop you: when...

Your best client just said they want to go out for bid. No complaints, no service problems, no price issue.... they just want to know if there's something better out there. Here's the brutal truth: your value is real, but it's invisible, and a client who can't see your value can't defend you when a competitor shows up with a document. In this episode, Randy Schwantz breaks down the proactive service model, an account-level service calendar that turns everything you already do into something clients can see, expect, and miss if it's gone. One Charlotte agency built it and...

Most agency owners say they want to grow. Ask any of them, and every single one will say yes. But wanting to grow and actually deciding to grow are two completely different things, and that gap is where most agencies stall. In this episode, Randy Schwantz breaks down what real commitment looks like: a specific number, a deadline, and an honest answer to the question most owners avoid. One agency owner took this seriously, made his commitment public to his team, and grew 31% in two years. If you're sitting on a plan that hasn't moved, this episode tells you...

Most producers in the middle of your agency have never been asked what they actually want from their career. Not once. And it's costing you more than you think. 

In a 10-producer agency, your middle six already generate more revenue than your top performers combined. Randy Schwantz breaks down the math: if those six producers each grow their books by just 20%, that's close to a million dollars in organic growth without a single new hire. 

One agency owner proved it. Four of six middle producers hit that target, the agency added over $2 million in revenue, an...

You've spent real money on producers and they're still not winning. 

Here's the uncomfortable truth: it's not them. 

A Cincinnati agency owner kept the same twelve producers she'd been struggling with, built a system, and went from eight million to nearly eleven million in written premium in eighteen months. 

Randy breaks down exactly what she built and why the single biggest misdiagnosis in this industry is treating a system problem like a people problem.

 Fix this before you post that next job listing. 

Want us to tackle a real chall...

 Most new insurance producers are working hard and going nowhere. Winston Welch was one of them... until he built a system. In just two years, Winston went from emailing quotes hoping prospects would bind to winning Rookie of the Year at Crest Insurance. In this episode, Randy breaks down exactly how Winston bridged the gap between effort and results using the Wedge sales process and Bignition. The math is staggering: organized, disciplined producers will out-earn disorganized producers by $8.5 million over a career. This episode shows you what it actually takes to get there. 

Want us to tackle a...

 Eight months. Zero new revenue. And a nice guy who checked every box. If that story sounds familiar, you have a hiring problem, not a training problem. In this episode, Randy reveals the MCOP framework: four pillars that separate hunters from book sitters before you ever sign an offer. He also walks through the retirement math that reveals whether a new hire is truly motivated to grow. The all-in cost of a failed producer hire runs to $150,000. The fix starts before the offer is ever made. 

Want us to tackle a real challenge you're dealing with? Submit yo...

 Most producers think they lose on price. Greg's story proves otherwise. He kept an account where both competitors beat him by $15,000 and $20,000 — and they never knew why. In this episode, Randy Schwantz delivers the complete six-step Flight Plan, from red-hot introductions to cross-selling and wedge-proofing. Incumbents in commercial lines hold a 92% retention rate. Not because they are better. Because they get the last look. This is how you break it. 

Want us to tackle a real challenge you're dealing with? Submit your question using the link below. We read every question. We don’t respond to all of the...

You know that producer who has worked hard for 20 years and still has a $300,000 book? That is not a career. That is a sentence. In this episode, Randy Schwantz breaks down the exact system separating million dollar producers from everyone else. Spoiler: the answer is not more accounts. It is fewer, better ones. Randy walks through the Me Inc. mindset, the 20-20 game plan, and the math that shows how to double your book in three years with half the accounts. One producer went from $300K with 300 accounts to $1.3 million with 30. The arithmetic works. The question is whether you...

Your sales meetings are backward-looking theater, and your close rate proves it. CRISP is the 4-part weekly framework one agency used to go from a 25% close rate to 81% and nearly double their new business per producer. 

Randy Schwantz breaks down every phase and shows you exactly what's different about a meeting designed to win. If your Monday morning meeting teaches producers nothing, this episode is the fix. 

Want us to tackle a real challenge you're dealing with? Submit your question using the link below. We read every question. We don’t respond to all of them...

Your clients will give you a referral reluctantly. They'll give you an introduction enthusiastically — but only if you give them the right story to tell. 

Most producers are sitting on their single greatest pipeline asset and never touching it: their existing book of business. 

In this episode, Randy Schwantz breaks down SODAR — a five-letter system that transforms your best client from "sure, I'll mention your name" into a champion who pre-sells you before you walk in the door. Introductions built this way close at seven times the rate of a cold call. If your pipeline still...

If you've spent four episodes learning how to wedge out other agents' accounts... congratulations. Someone in your market is now running those exact plays on you. This episode is Randy's defensive playbook: the ABC account management system, the written service timeline that turns your service commitments into signed contracts, and the cross-sell strategy that makes your best accounts nearly impossible to crack. One producer went from losing 6 accounts in 18 months to growing his book 28% in 24 months using exactly this system.

IN THIS EPISODE

•       The ABC system: why your A accounts (top 20%, 80% of reve...

You ran a strong first meeting. You found pain. You built the vision. You got commitment.

And then… you lose the deal anyway.

It happens every day in commercial insurance. Not because your proposal was weak, but because the incumbent got a second chance.

In this episode, Randy breaks down the 6-step Keystone process—the exact system top producers use to lock in deals before the second meeting ever slips away.

You’ll learn:

Most producers lose before they even realize it.

They think they got beat on price…
 but in reality, they were just used to give the incumbent leverage.

In this episode, The Wedge creator Randy Schwantz breaks down the exact 5-step system that flips that dynamic completely.

This is a field-tested process that’s been used for 30+ years to:

You’ll learn:

Most producers don’t lose deals because of price. They lose because they walk into meetings unprepared.

In this episode, Randy breaks down the exact 7-question pre-call framework top commercial insurance producers use to dramatically increase their close rate—often in just 20 minutes of preparation.

You’ll learn:

In commercial insurance sales, there is no such thing as a “win-win.” If you want to grow your book of business, someone else has to lose.

In this episode of the Agency Growth Machine Podcast, Randy Schwantz breaks down the hard truth most insurance producers avoid: every prospect already has an incumbent agent. If you want the account, you must create a reason for the buyer to fire their current broker.

Instead of competing on price or hoping relationships win deals, Randy explains the real strategy top commercial insurance producers use to take acco...

After several years away from the mic, Agency Growth Machine is back.

But the silence didn’t mean the work stopped.

During that time, Randy Schwantz was deep inside agencies, working with owners and producers trying to grow in a market that has shifted dramatically. Private equity consolidation, new technology, changing expectations from buyers — and yet many producers are still struggling to win deals they should be winning.

So Randy went looking for answers.

In this episode, he explains what he discovered in the trenches and lays out the co...