462. Want to Be a Top Producer? Do These 6 Things

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What's in this episode:

What separates the top producers in insurance sales from everyone else? In this solo episode, Michael Weaver draws on nearly two decades in the insurance industry to break down the six key characteristics that define elite sales professionals — and the specific daily habits that keep them consistently at the top month after month, year after year. This is not theory. This is what Michael Weaver has seen firsthand from the best agents and producers across the country, and it starts with one word: grit.

Michael Weaver covers the mindset and mechanics of top producers — from how they handle rejection without flinching to how they maximize every single customer conversation with multiple products. He shares how the most competitive, persuasive, and optimistic insurance professionals think differently, stay focused on needle-moving activities like quoting and prospecting, and bring a no-excuses mentality to every day. Whether you are a new producer or a seasoned agent looking to level up, this episode delivers a practical blueprint for becoming the absolute best in your agency, your territory, and your state.

00:00 What separates the best from the rest in insurance sales
01:00 Characteristic one: grit and the whatever it takes mentality
02:30 Big goals and why top producers want more out of life
03:30 Characteristic three: wildly competitive in every area of life
04:30 Persuasion vs. manipulation and why likability drives closes
06:30 Optimism as a daily competitive advantage in insurance sales
07:30 Clarity and needle movers: quotes, calls, and conversations
10:00 Maximizing households with auto, home, and life insurance
11:30 Leading with education and empowering customers to say yes
12:00 Not afraid of no: asking for exactly what you want
13:30 Michael Weaver personal story: early, late, and relentless
15:30 Stay coachable, adaptable, and always learning to stay elite

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I am about to break down exactly what I have seen over my almost two decades now of being in sales in the insurance industry. What makes the best? The absolute best. This is the insurance buzz, and we are your host, Michael and Courtney Weaver. We coach insurance professionals, business owners, and people just like you every day on how to live a life and have a business you are excited about.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Here on the insurance buzz, we share the wins, the losses, and everything in between that comes with being married business partners, training in the insurance space, and growing our business side by side. We also connect with other business owners and leaders making their mark in the world and hopefully inspire you to make yours.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Hey, welcome to the insurance buzz. I am your host, Michael Weaver, and I'm flying solo today without my partner, Courtney. And I'm going to be talking about what makes a great producer great. What makes the top producer you know the best, the elite? And they rem and they're consistently at the top. It's not like they're there and then they go to the bottom. No, they're consistently great, month after month after month, year after year after year. This was a question that was text in. Phil, my man. Thank you so much for texting this question. I am about to break down exactly what I have seen over my almost two decades now of being in sales in the insurance industry. What makes the best the absolute best? And the best part about this is it's gonna be pretty simple. Now, simple doesn't mean easy, but it will be simple. So first I'm gonna break down the characteristics that I see from top producers and top agents across the country, including myself. And these are in no specific order, by the way, but characteristic number one, grit, baby. Grit. You give them a job and they're going to get it done. They're gonna get it done. You could say it's they have a whatever it takes attitude.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

But grit.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

G-R-I-T grit. Whatever it takes, whatever the goal is, they are going to work as many hours as it takes. They're going to do whatever it takes to get it done. Doesn't matter if they have to work seven days a week. They are going to grit through it. That is characteristic number one. They have grit. They're going to do whatever it takes to finish the job. They're going to do whatever it takes to remain number one. They're going to do whatever it takes to be the best month after month after month. They typically have big, huge, huge big goals. They typically have big goals. Huge goals in life, is what I see from top producers. They like nice things. They want to have a big house. They want to have fancy cars. They want to provide their family a life of luxury. They want nice watches. I don't even wear a watch. They want nice watches. They like nice things. They have big goals. They want to make a lot of money. Show me the money, baby. They have big goals. That's it. That is a characteristic I see from the best of the best, the top of the top. They have big goals. Huge. How about competitive? Wildly competitive. Ultra competitive. The type of people that will flip over a table playing Monopoly. I may have done this as a kid. I may have done this before my emotional intelligence had developed. Luckily, I'm out of that stage of my life. My emotional intelligence has grown a lot. I believe I'm a wise 38-year-old man. That doesn't mean I'm not competitive. I've just developed the emotional intelligence to figure out what I should and should not be competitive in and at. What actually makes a difference in my life? Now, this just isn't me. This just isn't me. A lot of the top agents and sales professionals I see across the country. They are competitive. They are fit individuals. They have hobbies. They're always competing in a lot of different aspects of their life. A lot of them were former athletes, like collegiate athletes, some professional athletes. Wildly competitive. They have that internal competitive competitor in them that they just want to be great. They want to be the best at whatever they're doing.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

They are competitive. Persuasive. Persuasive.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

The top, the top producers, the top sales professionals I know, they are persuasive. Not in a bad way. I'm not talking, I'm not talking about being manipulative. I'm not talking about manipulating people. I'm talking about persuading people. There is a difference.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Getting people to do what you want them to do. Persuasion. And a lot of this falls under likability. Best of the best, the top, they are likable.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Extremely likable. This doesn't mean they have to be the life of the party. Don't get the two confused. They're the type of people that when they're around people, people genuinely like talking to them. Like it's easy to make friends. Very likable. Which is how they're so persuasive, because they're likable. It's easy to get people to do what you want when they like you.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Now there's a lot of other characteristics I could talk about.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

But without a doubt, these are the few that that came to my mind when I was preparing for this episode. So grit, whatever it takes, big goals, competitive, persuasive, likable.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

I might add another one. Optimistic. Without a doubt.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

The wealthiest people I know, the top sales professionals in the world that I hang around. That we've had on the insurance buzz. They are optimistic individuals. They are glass half full. They see the bright side in any situation.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

And even if they don't, they act like they do.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Optimistic can do positive attitude.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

It's not happening to me, it's happening for me mentality.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Optimism will take you a long way in life and in business and in your career. The top of the top, they are very positive, optimistic individuals. Alright, now let's get into some of the actual details of what the top elite great producers and sales professionals are doing across the country. They have clarity within their day. What I mean by this is they are focused on needle movers. What are needle movers in your career? Quotes. If you can spend your day quoting all day long, you will never have to worry about ever sucking or getting fired a day in your life. If all you're doing is prospecting and quoting and having conversations, you are going to be just fine as a sales professional. You see, what the top of the top do, best of the best. They have clarity in their day. They know exactly what they need to do to win their day, and they go out and they do it. They don't make excuses, they make it happen. Every single day. They know exactly what has to be done. They know exactly what they have to accomplish. Whether they accomplish it in two hours or whether they accomplish it in 15, the job is getting done. The quotes are getting done. There is a certain amount of quotes they have to do every single day to hit their quota, hit their benchmark, hit their production, make the money that they need to make. They're going to do it. They have a no excuses mentality, remember? They have grit, whatever it takes, but they have to know what they have to accomplish. That is what the best of the best do. They know exactly what they need to do, and then they go out and do it. And they know exactly how that moves the needle in their career. That leads me to the next thing I've noticed with the top producers, the great, the greatest of the great. I'm talking just straight up producers here. I'm not talking agents here, I'm talking producers. The ones doing the work, having the conversations every single day. Phil, this is for you. They maximize conversations. What I mean by maximizing conversation is they maximize households. They're not quoting just single-line auto. They're quoting multiple cars, they're quoting multiple products. Auto fire, minimum, probably life insurance as well. They are maximizing every conversation. They're giving people so much value that the people can't tell them no, that the customer feels dumb if they get off the phone and they haven't started their insurance. Multiple products per conversation. Leading with education, empowering customers. That is what the best of the best do. They do not sound like your every other day Tom, Dick, and Harry insurance agent or insurance producer. They sound different because they are different. They are unique, and people will pay for unique.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

People will pay for different.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

The best of the best, the best sales professionals, your peers that just constantly knock it out of the park every single month. They're not afraid of no. They ask for exactly what they want. They ask for it. Because if you don't ask, the answer is always no. They ask for exactly what they want. What they want out of their career, what they want out of their customer, what they want out of their life. They ask for it and they're not afraid of no. Because if they get told no, they just go on to the next person. They get told no again, they just go on to the next person. They get told no again, they go on to the next person. Guess what? The next person tells them yes. They understand that no is just part of the game. That if you get enough no's, you'll eventually get a yes. And when you start getting yeses, the yeses will add up because you learn from the no's and you also learn from the yeses. But without a doubt, the best of the best, they ask for what they want. They are not afraid of no. They look at no as a challenge. I dare you to tell me no. I dare you to tell me no. I'm going to turn it into a yes. Remember that optimistic mindset I was telling you about? I dare you to tell me no. They're not afraid of it. They ask for what they want. So if you want to be a top producer, you want to be the best of the best. Again, I know this is nothing earth-shattering, but this is what I see. That's the best part, is you're in total control of this. I don't know about you, but growing up as an athlete, I was never the strongest. I was never the fastest. I was never the most athletic. I never had the best hand-eye coordination.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Mm-mm.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

I don't know if I said this, but I wasn't the tallest.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

But what I did is I showed up early, I stayed late, I did my best, I tried freaking hard, I competed.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

I had a goal. There was nothing going to get in the way of me accomplishing that goal. And the same thing that when I was an athlete, I brought into my career, and this has been with every business we've ran. Even before I owned businesses, working as a sales producer, I showed up before everybody else. I stayed later than everybody else. I wasn't the most gifted. I wasn't the I was not the most natural. I was not the the most likable.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

I was not the smoothest. But I was willing to put in the work.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

I was willing to learn from my failures. I was willing to watch and learn from others and what was working and what wasn't.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

I was I was willing to keep a positive can-do attitude.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

I had huge goals in my life. And I knew I wanted to be the best, and I knew when I got beat, it bothered the shit out of me. I knew my numbers. I knew what I needed to do every single day when I came in. And I did it. And I did it, and I did it, and I did it. It's like the Energizer buddy. Just keep going and going and going and going and going and going. And if you can do that, you are capable of anything in your life. Including being the absolute best sales professional and producer in your agent, agency, in your territory, in your state. Have grit, do whatever it takes, stay positive, know how to win, what it takes to win. Always be learning. I didn't I didn't throw that one out there, but you always have to be learning, you have to be coachable, you have to be adaptable. Move and shake, baby. Because there's always going to be people out there that will be just more talented than you. Period. But hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. You're in control of your own future, you're in control of your destiny, you're in control of how great of a sales professional you can be. You just have to own that shit. With that being said, I appreciate you, Phil. This was a great question. I hope this spoke to you today. I hope it helped you today. Now it's up to you. As always, time and attention are by far our most important assets. I appreciate you spending time with me today on The Buzz. Go out, make it great. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Insurance Buzz. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, and leave a rating and review. If you want to take your insurance agency to the next level and join our community, simply check out Weaver Sales Academy at www.weaversa.com. Again, that's www.weaversa.com or visit the show notes on our new and current programs we have available exclusively for you. As always, time is the most valuable and important asset that we all have, and I appreciate you spending it with me. See you on the next episode.