478. Why Insurance Agency Owners Must Become CEOs (Carriers Are Forcing It)

You are losing sales every time a customer says it is too expensive, they need to talk to their spouse, or they want to check with another agent first. On August 20th at noon CST, Michael is teaching a free live training on exactly how to overcome objections in the auto conversation.

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Watch the full episode on YouTube: HERE

What's in this episode:
Most insurance agency owners are stuck seeing every dollar they spend as an expense instead of an investment. In this episode, Michael Weaver breaks down the mindset shift required to build an agency that can actually scale, why hiring, coaching, training, and technology are investments in growth rather than costs to control, and why carriers are pushing agency owners to operate like true CEOs instead of top producers.

Michael shares a real conversation with an Agency Coach AI customer who almost canceled her account the same week she hired an office manager, and walks through the exact math that changed her mind. He breaks down what it actually costs to build a real training and coaching system inside an agency, and why the agencies that invest now are the ones that will still be standing when the industry shifts.

[00:00] Why you cannot save your way to profitability
[01:00] The mindset shift between an expense and an investment
[02:00] Why bringing on 3 new hires next month is an investment, not an expense
[03:00] The Agency Coach AI customer who almost canceled her account
[04:00] Doing the math on what 2% of your revenue actually buys you
[05:00] Why the coach you just hired needs the tools to actually coach
[06:00] What training providers charge versus what Agency Coach AI costs
[07:00] Why your CRM and your phone are investments too
[08:00] The reminder every agency owner needs to hear right now
[09:00] Becoming an agency of the future instead of an agency of today
[10:00] Why carriers are forcing you to become a true CEO
[11:00] The swamp period every growing agency has to survive
[12:00] The fast track to buying back your time

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You have to invest in your business to get your business to grow and scale and make the money and live the dream life that you want one day. You cannot save your way to profitability. You just can't. Hey, welcome to the insurance buzz. I am your host, Michael Weaver, and I'm flying solo today. Courtney is headed out to a conference. Uh, and and I wanted to talk to you today, just real quick, about your mindset and the mindset it will take to ensure success in the future and talking about investments versus expenses. And this is look, this is hitting close to home. This is something that I've talked to a few agents about here recently. It's something that Courtney and I just talked about this weekend because we're making some heavy investments into our business at Agency Coach AI. And uh I can look, as many of you can relate, when you start to make a lot of investments, they can also seem like heavy expenses. And so I wanted to just share a thought process here. Um, because it doesn't matter in your business what you are, what you're spending money on, whether it's people, whether it's marketing, whether it's systems, whether it's AI, whether it's training and coaching, um it there's always going to be something that you are doing in your business to help drive results. And this is a friendly reminder and honestly a reminder to myself as I'm speaking out loud right now and talking to you that hey, while sometimes when you start to make these heavy investments, uh like for example, next month we are bringing on and onboarding three people. That is an investment. That is not an expense, even though it can feel like a heavy expense at times by bringing on that much payroll at one point in time. That is an investment. Because without a doubt, one of the best ways to grow your business is with great people, in my opinion. Uh, people is what makes the business go round. You have a lot of great people that surround you, you're gonna have a great business, they're going to attract great customers, you're gonna have a great culture. Well, great people cost money. Uh, so you got to pay people well. And so that's what that's what me and Courtney were going through going through this weekend of just like looking at looking at payroll, looking at what we're about to add, reminding ourselves that this is an investment into the business, not an expense. And we also started talking about I had a I had a really great agent last week that I was talking to. Um, and she's an agency coach AI customer. And uh she's she's gonna she's canceling our account. I'm like, well, hey, what's I'm gonna leave her name out of this? I'm like, hey, what's what's going on? Like you literally love the product, it's benefited you tremendously. She's like, well, Michael, I had to make, I had to make the a decision. I either had to bring in an office manager and coach, which I believe my team needs, so I don't have to do it anymore. Um, and by bringing on that expense, expense, uh, I have to get rid of agency coach AI because I just can't afford it anymore. And I'm like, well, hey, I totally understand bringing on somebody. I actually would encourage you to bring on a coach and manager in your office. That's exactly why Agency Coach AI was built, like to help your team get better, to give your coach more specific information to be a better coach versus just a general coach. Now you're a performance coach. You're coaching on real data, you're coaching on the things that your team is actually doing in calls or that they're struggling with in the role play. Um, literally, this is like you are the perfect example of why agency coach AI is working for so many agents across the country and why it's been she's been a customer for six months now. Um, she's one of our very first customers. I'm like, so this is this was perfect. So tell me your thought process here. She's like, Michael, I I it's awesome, and I'll be back. I just that the thousand dollars, because she has nine, nine team members plus herself. So that's a thousand dollars a month. And she's like, it's just it's gonna be, it's gonna strap me right now. I'm like, okay, well, let's actually let's actually do the math on this. Remind me how big a book you have. And she's like, I have a five million dollar book. All right, and we're growing, and and they're growing rapidly this year. Um, I'm like, okay, so how much money do you think you'll grow? So she's like, Well, last year I gross 750. I'm like, okay, well, let's just base it off that. I'm like, your projections are more than that this year, right? She's like, absolutely. She's like, I'm actually going to probably grow somewhere around a million this year. Okay, fantastic. But not for sure yet. So let's just take the numbers off of last year. So $750,000. So 1% of $750,000 would be $7,500 a year, 2% would be $15,000 a year. So what you're telling me is that you can't take roughly a percent and a half to two percent of your annual revenue that your agency is producing to invest back into your team for training, coaching, instant feedback, a coach at their fingertips, an AI software system that is proven that you love, that's going to help your coach that you just invested a ton of money into, literally a ton of money into, around $75,000 is what she told me. You can't you can't take 2% of your annual revenue to help your team be better at what they do and help your new coach be the absolute best at what they can do. Is that what I'm hearing? And she sits back for a second and she's like, Michael, that's a really great point. That's a valid point. And that's the point I want to get across to you all today, or you right now, listening to this. Investments versus expenses. What is an actual expense and what is an actual investment? And there's multiple ways to look at an investment. Is it buying back your time? Is it streamlining processes? Is it increasing production? Is it increasing retention? Those are just a few off the top of my head. And that's specifically what agency coach AI does, a lot of those. So, but anything, think about the training you're invested in. Most training most training providers, like traditional training providers, are three to six thousand dollars a year for your entire agency. What is that? Like an additional two households a month written from your office? If they're doing the training, they're going to increase production. How about marketing? That's an investment. Driving leads to the office for your team to close. People is an investment. But how about time that you're saving? How about making your life easier as an owner? How about making your team's lives easier? How about helping managers better at what they do? A CRM, that's an investment. A phone is an investment. Yes, it's an expense, for sure. But how else are you closing business if you don't have a phone? How else are you managing what's going on in your office if you don't have a CRM? These are all investments to help your business run more efficiently, run more effectively, make more money, thrive into the future. Agents, producers, listen up. Are you ready to double your close rate in auto sales conversations in the next 30 days? If yes, make sure you attend the training I'm having on the 20th of this month. I'm going to be teaching you how to overcome objections in the auto sales conversation, but not just how to overcome objections, how to eliminate objections before they even happen so that you can get more deals done on initial calls and eliminate follow-ups. In this training, what you can expect is the types of questions to ask throughout a conversation to eliminate objections before they happen. Get the customer bought into the conversation you're having with them. And of course, yes, prepare you to overcome objections like, hey, I'm gonna need to think about it. I need to talk to my spouse. Yo, dog, that's too expensive. Hey, I need to go talk to my agent real fast to see if he can meet or beat your coverage and price. All of those and more, you're going to learn how to overcome those with the exact word tracks, the exact thing to say, so that you have confidence the next time you hear that. So if you are ready to double your close rate, if you are ready to get more deals done, eliminate follow-ups, if you are ready to increase your production and start to make the money that you want to and that you deserve and crush your goals, make sure you click the link below, register for this training. Again, it's on the 20th of this month at noon central time. Click the link below, and I will see you there. And so this is a reminder to you and to myself as a fellow business owner, a fellow entrepreneur, that you have to invest in your business to get your business to grow and scale and make the money and live the dream life that you want one day. You cannot save your way to profitability. You just can't. You cannot penny pinch your way to being a top performer and writing a ton of production. You have to make the mindset shift as a business owner and entrepreneur that I'm going to do everything in my power to invest everything I can and more into my business to make sure that I am setting it up for success, make sure I'm setting my team up for success, make sure I'm setting my marketing dollars I'm spending up for success, to where my business can thrive into the future. And I'm going to be an agency of the future, not an agency of today and now, because times are changing. You are going to be asked to do more than you've ever done. You're going to ask to produce more. You're going to be asked to have bigger teams. You're going to be asked to be a true CEO of your business and have a correct organizational chart underneath of you. Where you have a business, operations manager, for example, that reports directly to you and they have team leads underneath them, and then the team leads have people that they are managing and driving performance. That is what is going to be asked of you. And the only way you are going to have success is if you have the right mindset, if you have the right vision, if you are willing to make the investments necessary to get your business to that next level, because that is what it's going to take. You may have to take a step back financially to take a step forward financially in the future. Let me repeat that. You are more than likely in a position right now, I call this the swamp. I call this the nasty period of business where you know what it's going to take to get to that next level, you know the amount of money, but you're going to have to actually take that from your pocketbook, from your investments, from the money you've saved. And you're going to have to take that money on a calculated risk that, hey, if I dump this money into this or these investments, this is how it's going to pay me in 12, 18, 24, 36 months. You're going to have to do that. It's tough. I get it. Courtney and I, as you all know, agency coach AI, we're what, 11 months into the business now? And we've grown exponentially. Thank you. Thank you to you and your support. But now, what does it take to get to that next level? Well, it takes taking more money from our pocket and investing into the business to get it to where we need it to go. That's just not magically going to happen. And quite frankly, we're looking for a fast track. Same thing as you, many of you. You're looking for the fast track to get your agencies as big as possible, operating efficiently, streamlining processes, requiring less of you in the day-to-day operations, buying back your time. So this is a reminder that some of the things that you're currently counting as expenses are more than likely investments in your business, and you have to have a mindset shift to ensure success in the future. I hope this hits. I hope this helps. As always, time and attention are by far our most important assets. I appreciate you spending just a few minutes with me today. Now go out and make it great.