HOME

AGENCIES

SPEAKING

OUR STORY

UPDATES & EVENTS

CONTACT US

UPDATES

Make the Second Half of the Year Twice as Good as the First Half

Insurance professional rising up higher

 

Access the Agency Scorecard here

Brent Kelly:

Welcome to the Agent Leader podcast. My name is Brent Kelly, your host. Thanks so much for joining me on another episode. And today I have a very special guest. He's also a repeat guest we love having on this show. It is the Roger Sitkins, the CEO of Sitkins Group. Roger Sitkins, welcome back to the Agent Leader podcast.

Roger Sitkins:

Well, thanks, Brent. I don't know that I need to be the Roger Sitkins, but it certainly is a pleasure to be here, and look forward to sharing some information with the listeners.

Brent Kelly:

Well, it's always, you have a wealth of knowledge, Roger, and doing this agency leadership thing for a few years now. And so excited today to talk about a very important topic, very relevant to where we're at here as we're halfway through this year, 2021, hard to believe everybody says that, but hard to believe we're already halfway through this year. And I know the listeners today are going to get a lot of value from the topic that we're going to be talking about today. Before I get into content with Roger, just want to share a couple of things.

Brent Kelly:

First of all, what is the purpose of the Agent Leader Podcast? I always want to share that. Well, the purpose is for you as an agency leader, whatever your role or position is, to help you gain clarity, build consistency, and to make a commitment to become your best version possible.

Brent Kelly:

And also want to invite you as an agency leader to learn more about our all-inclusive membership. This is a chance for you as an agency leader to have your entire team participate in leadership and sales and account management development, through coaching, through mentoring, through peer conversations, just go to sitkins.com/aim, that's siskins.com/aim to learn more about it. See if your agency has a fit. And again, we would love to talk to you more about that. We know that our agencies that are currently part of that program are getting great results and we'd love for you to be another success story. So with that, let's get into today's content.

Brent Kelly:

Roger, it's always great to have you on the podcast. And this conversation today was brought up by a conversation that we had earlier this week. We just wrapped up the 4th of July weekend, and we're having some conversations after the fourth. And as you said to me, you know, a great question can never be ignored. And you would ask yourself a great question that I think is going to be a very relevant theme and topic today, I know. And so why don't you just share with the audience, Roger, the question that you were thinking about and we'll get into it?

Roger Sitkins:

Yeah, I was just thinking through the fact that, again, it's the first half of the year is done and I said, is it possible to make the second half of the year twice as good as the first half? And the first half has been really good slash it's actually been great considering everything we've gone through and had to go to the virtual format, which has really been a blessing for our members, our clients, because we can touch so many more members that way, so many more people, but again, I just said, is it possible that the second half could be twice as good as the first half? Well, the answer is yes. So then you look at it and say, well, what's a better question? And I think the question for the agency leaders and the producers is, how do we make, how do you make the second half twice as good as the first? Well, it's not exactly what everybody thinks. You just do twice as much. Do this, do that. No, not at all, but it's asking yourself that question start thinking about, okay, what's possible?

Brent Kelly:

Roger looks like someone's trying to make their second-half better right now. As we speak.

Roger Sitkins:

Well, my phone is absolutely muted. So that's called real world. It just comes back to, can your phone go off two times as many times as it did? But when we look at this and we get thinking, and as you know, one of our favorite authors is Keith Cunningham: The Road Less Stupid, and at the end of every one of his chapters he'll ask a bunch of questions and then he says, "Now go think, you'll thank me later." And I would hope at the end of this podcast that people are saying, "You know what? We really do have to think about this because it is possible that the second half can be twice as good as the first. Now, what do we have to do differently?"

Brent Kelly:

Yeah. And as you, well, we talked about this earlier this week, Roger, and you asked that question. My first response was much like probably many of the listeners. "Well, how Roger?" And of course, I have some ideas as well, as we work with so many agencies and we can see some agencies that are getting really, really good results. And then how do they continue on that trend. And I think a big part, and I know stuff that you'll want to dive in today is something that we have talked about ad nauseam on our coaching and training. But I think it's been very, very powerful. In fact, I know it's been very, very powerful and there's two words that we have expressed again and again and again to our members and our attendees of our programs. And I'll just let you take those two words that jump out, Roger. What are two words that have really been powerful with our member success over the last several months?

Roger Sitkins:

Very, very sticky. The words are simplify and focus, simplify and focus. How do we simplify everything we're doing and then create a laser-focus to actually do what we said we're going to do and very powerful.

Brent Kelly:

Yeah. And we continue to use that and, okay, simplify and focus, but the truth of it is because I want to ask you, Roger, several questions of some specific things or things that you see. But the truth of it is that most agencies do make things too complex.

Brent Kelly:

And, you know, we've said many times and certainly in a lot of our training and coaching, that sometimes people say, "Oh, well, you know that Sitkins stuff, that's the real simple stuff." And as you, I say, "Well, let me know when you've got it mastered." Because the truth of it is, is that the simple stuff is, you always say, "It's easy to do, but it's really easy not to do." And most agencies choose, "Well, you know what? We'll go beyond that." But they've never, ever really mastered some of the simple things that actually get tangible results.

Brent Kelly:

And sometimes, if they begin to do some simple things to get tangible results, they then go away and find other things to do and go, "Oh yeah, I forgot about that stuff." And so these two words together, you think about as an agency leader right now, where in your agency do you need to simplify? I've got too many balls in the air, we've got too many things that we're looking at. We have all these things coming at us so that we can truly focus on what matters and what we can really, really do. And so I guess my question on simplify and focused is, why do you think? Because I know that the feedback that we get from our attendees and members is, "Hey, you know what? This has really been helpful because I see the clutter that's all around me or maybe I haven't noticed as much." but why have these two words simplify and focus, Roger been so powerful to agencies and agency professionals that we work with?

Roger Sitkins:

Well, first of all, when people are committed to getting better, there are always more great ideas than there is time or capacity to execute. And we've talked about that before. And those of us that are more of the A-type personalities, or if you understand the Colby profile, where quick starts, we love new ideas, it's almost an addiction. Oh, another new idea. And another idea, and what happens is the quick-start type of mentality, the A-personality, whatever. We wind up looking at things, and we say we could do this. We could do that. We could do this, we could do that. And we go very, very shallow on our execution. And we've talked before about the concept of going deep, that delivering excellence in every process. And so what we find is, if you're chasing too many things are going shallow, you don't really execute anything.

Roger Sitkins:

You have a lot of activities and of course confusing activity with results, but you don't really get down to getting that MBA that mastering the basic activities and creating a laser focus on, okay, these are the vital few strategies, not the trivial many. So that's a big start of it. And then when you look at this, you say, okay if I'm chasing too many things, the new, bright and shiny squirrels, there's a lot of complexity because we're starting, we're stopping, we're starting, we're stopping. And there's a new app out there. There's a new idea. And what I see is that people are throwing all this stuff against the wall, hoping something sticks. And the reality is when you look at agencies that have lost their focus. I'm at times really worried about them, because what they're really doing, I think, is they're aggressively waiting for the clicks, pings, rings, and dings, which we've talked about before, to give them an opportunity to chase somebody and maybe do some unpaid consulting and some practice quoting.

Roger Sitkins:

And when we look at this, we say, "That's just not the way to go." And the impact of chasing so many things is that they never really truly impact the top line and the bottom line of the agency or the producer at their own looking at their May Inc. Their top line and personal bottom line are not there because if all of these things worked, if it was great to chase everything, why is it that the industry is only at a five or 6% growth rate, the best practices agencies? When they should be 15%, by the way, would we settle for 10? Heck yes. But when you chase too many things, you're impacting your ability to focus on the most important things that, quite frankly, really have an immediate and a long-term impact.

Brent Kelly:

Yeah. Roger, as you said, that jumped out at me some of the things that we've talked about, too, in fact, you did a sales training last month on this is getting back to the MBA or getting your MBA. And it was mastering the basic activities. And, it's so true. I mean, this is the aspect of going deep, as you mentioned, and trying to reduce some of the complexity out there. And as you know, Roger, I love me some sports analogies all the time. I use them for everything. And I know not everybody's a sports fan. I'm aware of that, but they're easy to understand. And it just got me thinking, as you were saying, that it's like a football team who they know, who they are, they know the strengths of their team and what they do at the highest level.

Brent Kelly:

It doesn't mean they don't ever do some things to make sure that there's a game plan around a certain opponent, but they don't change who they are every single week, right. Based on what's new that week. And I think that happens a lot with agencies, is they get away from what really can make them great, it is making them great in some cases. And as you said, why do so many agencies have organic growth rate of 5% when really, if they got focused to be at 10, 12, 15 is very, very possible.

Brent Kelly:

On that note, I want to ask a question because this has been a few weeks now as we're recording this, but we had one of our Elite 50 programs and this is our mastery producer program. The average, in fact, the average producer book of business is around a million dollars in commission. So these are high-level producers. I can tell you that one of the things that we continue to hear and I heard, and you heard, was one of the biggest things that causes complexity is distractions. And you mentioned some of them with rings and dings and pings, but how do you see Roger, just overall? Because I mean, this is an industry-wide problem, so to speak, what distractions maybe is particular, do you see that really are affecting insurance professionals from being there their best version possible?

Roger Sitkins:

Well, again, this really was a hot topic at the Elite 50, to say the least. And I think the distractions come because of a lack of focus, allows the distractions to get in the way. They don't have a laser focus on what they want to do. Let's face it when the producers are at that level or agencies at an elite level, they start most days, most weeks, most months, most quarters, most years with really, really good intentions. Okay. And one of the things that we stress, and if you're not doing it, you should, is a Sunday evening review where you're going through your debrief last week, pre-brief this week, what worked last week? What didn't? What things do I have to get done this week? What are my great intentions? But they get to the office and they don't have a real plan.

Roger Sitkins:

The average producer, if you were to ask them on Monday morning, "Who are you going to see this week?" They might have a couple of appointments booked, but they don't really have their calendar full. So they get to the office or they get online virtually. And because the nature of if there’s a hole, there can't be a hole, it'll be filled with crap. And what they do is they get into the service trap. And pretty soon you hear them saying, "Boy, ITB," I'm just too busy to get out there and do those basic things I know I should do. And when they get in the service trap and they're allowing all this stuff to stick to them, what they're also doing is not identifying this is Sitkins 101, or maybe Sitkins one, but they're not identifying those things that earn pay. And those things that don't earn pay for them.

Roger Sitkins:

And the reality is, every day, everybody has that. You have some things you do that are pay-oriented. And some things you do that are non-pay oriented. And because they're not identifying them, they're doing no-pay activities during prime selling time. And when you look at this and you say, "Well, why is that?" Well, the average producer, every inbound arrow, as we call them, is an emergency. But the reality is, everything isn't an emergency. Most things can wait to get done. So they're not protecting their most important time of the day, prime selling time. And they're allowing themselves to get pulled into areas that, quite frankly, have nothing to do with their unique abilities. So we look at this and we say, "All right, we've got to get focused, laser-focused." And we've talked about this before. I love this. I heard it several, several years ago that, "The sun has more energy than a laser, but a laser can drill through a diamond because it's focused energy."

Roger Sitkins:

So FOCUS an acronym, what a surprise. This is not one of ours, but it's Follow One Course Until Successful, Follow One Course Until Successful. So if you come in and you know these behaviors and these strategies are things that I have to do, these are things that get me actual results. And when should I be doing them and how do I supercharge my high-performance team to take away the stuff that allows me, or I allow myself to get dragged into activities that have nothing to do with my unique abilities. So again, follow one course until successful. And of course, we have another one, Brent, forget other coaches use Sitkins-

Brent Kelly:

Oh, I like that one. Yeah. We have some fun with that. I mean, and I love both those acronyms, obviously, but it is true. I mean, of what you said anyway, I was writing down as you were saying that, I mean at the end of the day, the best of the best they talked about, how do you make the second half twice as good as the first? Well, focus on what matters and reduce or eliminate the rest and say, "Well, that's easy for you to say." Well, let me ask you this and I mean, stuff that we talk about is, if you were to ask, and, again, this could be an agency leader, or a sales leader, a producer, certainly. If you said if you could plan out your ideal week, right. To get you the best results possible for that week, what would it look like?

Brent Kelly:

And they'd say, well, it would be this and this and this. And typically, Roger, as you mentioned, it's doing stuff that's results-based right versus activity-based. And I said, "Okay, well, then write that in, do that." "Well, I don't know what's going to happen this week. I got to leave some openings." As you say, if you have an open in your calendar, I promise you it'll be filled with junk. And so a lot of it is just saying, what are the things if I were to design my perfect week? And we know there's no perfect week, it's fine to use the word ideal, but what would it look like? What would be in there? What would your time blocks look like? How would you be focused? And are you willing and committed and disciplined to stay in those blocks? And that really, honestly, is one of the biggest, if not the biggest difference between the best of the best, and everybody else.

Brent Kelly:

And I love that you said that Sunday evening review plan your week in advance was so, so powerful. So hopefully you're all listening, taking some notes what Roger's saying there, because it's important, powerful stuff. All right. So my guess, Roger, there's probably some agency leaders who were saying, "Okay, you mentioned a few things, but if you were to tell me Roger, with all your years of experience and working with agencies across the country, if there are just a few areas that I should get laser-focused in, what would those be?" So I'll just throw that question to you, Roger, I'm an agency leader, help me, Roger, get focused in the right areas. What are some things that jump out to you?

Roger Sitkins:

Well, a couple things you said right away, the time-blocking, this is something that so many people miss because they haven't created that perfect week, that ideal week. They don't have time blocks set aside. Okay. And so if they're not doing that, they're just missing a tremendous opportunity because, again, they'll have holes in the calendar and they'll fill it with junk. And the second part is the whole concept of unique abilities that I mentioned. You've got to do what you do best and delegate the rest. And all too often receive that producers are doing things that they're not highly qualified to do. And that's the service-related stuff. So those are just two basic things. One of the things that we talked about at the Elite 50, and I've also talked about with several of our private client members recently is this whole concept that your current business model is perfectly designed for you to achieve the results you're currently achieving.

Roger Sitkins:

And it's really funny, even at the Elite 50 level. And we talked about this, it's like a three-comp, 1001, 1,002, 1,003 people go, "Oh, I get it." In fact, we did the producer transformation scorecard. We also have an agency transformation scorecard, and we know transformation is going from where you are today to where you want to go and going through these scorecards with people, it's been really interesting because we have them rate themselves on a scale of one to 10, where are you today? Where do you want to go? Pretty basic scenario and every time we've done it at the end of it, I say, "Now look at your ratings in these 10 or 15 items," depending on which one we're doing. Look at your average ratings. I said, "Those ratings right there, what you've just done is you have identified your current business model."

Roger Sitkins:

So there's your current business model says, "Well, the producers are spending more time in service than sales." Current business model says, "Well, we don't really have a unique message." "We don't have that 30-second commercial." A current business model says, "We have pipelines that are dripping versus future ideal pipelines that are overflowing with more opportunities and time." So that's a starting point is to understand what is your current business model? Because the results you're getting today are perfectly coming from your current business model because it's designed to do to get you what you're currently getting. So the starting point is understanding where you really are today and don't lie to yourself. Don't lie to yourself, which we've talked about before. The next things has to come back to the use of time. Time is, I think everybody would know, is our only diminishing asset. So something we talk about a lot is TSS, time spent selling.

Roger Sitkins:

So as an individual producer, just ask yourself to face reality. Okay, how much time are you really spending in sales and sales-related activities each week? This should be part of your Sunday review and something we've talked about here. And we talked about, in all of our training now, very, very sticky green zone versus red zone. That when you're in the green zone as a producer, green as in, making money, there are four things you do. You make sales, you manage relationships, you have a continuation process, and you build your pipeline. So when I look at time spent selling and time in the green zone, then I look at my producer's perfect schedule. How many appointments should I have? And it's amazing to me that when we did this, even at the Elite 50, some of the producers admitted that they were only having four or five or six appointments a week.

Roger Sitkins:

What were our best ones having? 10. 10 appointments a week or more. And they've really jumped, in fact, the largest producer in the Elite 50, that's four million of revenue. He jumped all over and he's going to laugh and say, "Oh, I can color code my calendar, my outlook calendar." So now he's looking at his calendar blocking times, he has green zone, red zone, and now he's also identified yellow zone, which is prep time. Okay. Red zone is crap. Okay. But he's looking at it and just think about this. If we wanted to double our results, what if our average producer was having four appointments a week and we just got them to eight and these are junk appointments. These are being purposeful about saying, okay, my clients, my future ideal clients, and my centers of influence. How many appointments should I have?

Roger Sitkins:

And then keep in mind that every hole in the calendar there's a lost opportunity. So it starts with the reality of your current business model and then saying, okay, I've just... I remember one time about four or five years ago, I was doing a private producer camp for a large agency.

Roger Sitkins:

And one of the leaders, like the number two guy I think in the whole agency, came in and he said, "Look, if you don't do anything else, Roger talks about just get more appointments, double your number of appointments. You're going to have a 30 or 40% increase just right there." Now, that's not something we condone just have appointments, because there are enough fake appointments that have, in our industry, but quality appointments, if you'll just get in the green zone, 80% of the time because the average producer, Brent, what do you think they're in their 20%?

Brent Kelly:

Maybe. Yeah, yeah.

Roger Sitkins:

And just saying, duh, and I love your analogy. You talk about, say, look, if it's a four-quarter game, whether it's basketball or football, whatever it may be. And you're only playing two quarters, there's a real good chance you're not going to score any points. You're not going to win the game. So it's just clearly getting back to that basic. And then, Brent, have we ever talked about pipeline?

Brent Kelly:

No, never. I don't think pipelines are important at all.

Roger Sitkins:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, pipelines, pipelines, and then pipeline some more. And it's perhaps the biggest frustration we see. People say our pipelines are empty, our pipelines are empty. What are you going to do about it? Aggressively waiting for clicks, pings, rings, and dings? Or are you going to be very, very purposeful about using current relationships, whether they're clients or centers of influence, about specializing in what you do, getting more opportunities. In fact, Brent, I know you've talked about this before, but why don't you remind your listeners about, I think we call it the $750,000, corkboard.

Brent Kelly:

Yeah. It's a great example of focus. I mean, at a very simplistic level. In fact, when I tell the story, whether it's in training and coaching or wherever it is, I'm speaking and people are always like, "That's it?" And I go, "Yeah, but the difference is they actually executed." And so the story is, one of our private client members of the Sitkins network, obviously, one of their focus and we went deep in this for a while is pipelines. Let's not just talk about pipelines. Let's actually make something happen in this area. And a very simplistic level without a bunch of technology, they actually created a corkboard where they put three-by-five index cards. So yeah, just imagine this really big corkboard with a hundred, they came up with a hundred. So each producer came up with a few and gave a pretty big agency.

Brent Kelly:

And so they all had these cards. So you see this big corkboard with 103-by-five cards on it and these are our future ideal clients. So if we could get 100 clients in this agency, who would they be? And within it, of course, we'd go deep with them on a target account strategy plan and give them some ideas of better ways of doing that. But we actually had a four-star system that they would put, I mean like you're in kindergarten. It was like, if you did the first one, you got a star, the second one, the third one, the star. And of course, it's your first appointment, next appointment. Did you propose? And did you write it? I mean, that was kind of it. And as they wrote it, they moved it from one side to the other. And at the end of this project, they wrote, everyone knew this is not premium.

Brent Kelly:

This is revenue, commission revenue. They wrote $751,000 of new business revenue by having a focused intensity on pipelines, in particular this corkboard. And it became something that their entire team rallied around. It was something they always talked about. In fact, you said this, Roger, and this is true. They would have people come to the office that were like, "Hey, wait a second. I know someone there." Right? So the entire team got involved, but that just the level of people talk about pipelines but if you actually focus, results happen. So pretty cool story, to say the least.

Watch the $750K success story video here

Roger Sitkins:

Well, what's interesting to me, it's not like this is something new and shiny, but here's what's new and shiny about it. When you do the basics at that depth when you actually do what you said you were going to do. And we've seen some agencies that all the producers got their top 20 prospects up on a chalkboard or a whiteboard or now on a screen. And then nobody talked about them again in this agency every week what's happening on this? Where are we, where are we at? Where are we? And that wasn't all the new revenue they wrote, by any means. But just by going deep on, sorry, real basic Sitkins thing. They MBA, they master a basic activity. They did $751,000 of revenue. And so the reality is that when you do the basics at a very deep level, the results are predictable.

Roger Sitkins:

And quite frankly, they're guaranteed. So when we look at this, we say, okay, what can we do to really take it deeper? And something that we stress with our all-inclusive members now is that you've got to take the deep dives that we've mentioned three or four times here today. You've got to say, "Look, what are the few basic things?" The most important things, the vital few versus trivial many that we've got to go deeper. And then we've got to create laser focus around that. And to me, the thing that's working the best is when people go through the first part of what we're talking about, let's get clarity and where do we really want to go? Where are we, where do we want to go? How do we get there? What are the core training programs we have to do? Because if you had a professional sports team or an orchestra, or you had a Broadway show, guess what?

Roger Sitkins:

You're going to do training around it. I've mentioned this to you all the time. I love America's Got Talent and Shark Tank, and I was watching it last night and it was amazing. And I kept saying to my wife, "Do you think they practiced? Do you think they practiced?" "Do you think they practice it?" "Did they have any training?" The answer is yes. Okay. And so the key here is get through the core training and then say, all right for 90 days, let's say they do the corkboard project for 90 days that's our main thing. We're going to do business as usual. We're going to follow up on the core training. We're going to start changing behaviors and strategies, but let's pick one area. And for 90 days, have a laser focus on that. And Brent, you've seen what happens in those areas.

Brent Kelly:

Oh, it's extremely powerful. And I want to offer something to the listeners. I mean, because you had mentioned going back to some of those basic few things that they could do is about the business model. And I think to give the listeners if you're an agency, that's obviously say, "Hey, look, listen, where are we at?" Right. I mean, that was the first question, is the awareness of where are we at? Of course, where do we want to go? We're going to give a giveaway for any agency leader that wants to take a look at our transformational scorecard, where you can see some of the basic few behaviors that we look at.

Brent Kelly:

We know that work for agencies and just give yourself a rating of where you're at and where you want to go. So to do that, you just go to sitkins.com/scorecard. So just go to sitkins.com/scorecard, and you can get a free download of that scorecard and keep us posted what jumped out at you. We'd love to hear from you as well on that. So, Roger, I know you didn't know that was coming, but I want to make sure that the agencies have an opportunity to take a look at it as well.

Roger Sitkins:

Yeah. I'd love for them to look at it. It really opens the eyes. And what's cool about the scorecard again is when you look at it and say, "Oh, that's our current business model."

Brent Kelly:

Last thing that I have for you is because the end of the day, right. We always use the acronym, W-I-I-F-M, everyone has that radio station tuned in because it's what's in it for me? And so my last question is pretty simple, but I think is powerful is that when agencies do get intense focus, Hey, we're going to take an area, maybe two, but just let's just talk about one area and really, really explore it, really focus on it, really make some transformation in that area. What type of impact does that have on their results? Because that's what they really want. Right. I want results. So what does that look like to you, Roger?

Roger Sitkins:

Well, yeah. The last thing they need is more activities or more things to do. Always more great ideas than there is time or capacity to execute them. So the key here is to get down to the vital few things and what are we saying? Well, with the agencies that truly stay focused, the ones that understand taking deep dives, the ones that understand let's just do a 90-day sprint on this one thing, because we've got all this other stuff going on anyway. I mean, we've got... Somebody said to us one time, "If it weren't for all of our clients and all of our employees, we could do everything you talk about." No, you've got to get focused and get the core strategies in place. Okay. But what we see with the best ones is that, whatever their current growth rate is, they wind up 3X-ing it now because of death.

Roger Sitkins:

And next thing that happens is on their retention. They're increasing at two to 3% because agencies we work with have pretty darn good retention anyway. And then finally, we take a look at grow-fit. And grow-fit is a combination of the organic growth rate of percentage plus operating profit percentage and adding those two together, the stated goal and the ones that are best agencies are hitting this 40. So if I had a 20% organic growth rate and 20% profit, that's 40, or what if I had 15 and 25? And when we look at it, those are the numbers that really tell us two things. Number one, it tells us the health of the organization. And number two, it tells us the direction they're on and something we talk about so much is your current trends, the current direction of your agency, does it match your desired destination? And if it does, great. And if it doesn't, your current business model is not getting you the results you really want. Time to take a look at.

Brent Kelly:

Yeah. Well, one of the things, Roger, thanks for sharing that. And again, I know we're already at a half-hour, time goes fast when you're having fun and having a great conversation. Just want to mention, too, for all the agency leaders. Again, obviously, if you want to get a free download of the transformational scorecard that we have for agencies again, just go to www.sitkins.com/scorecard. So sitkins.com/scorecard, but also just wanted to share a little bit is we continue to evolve and adapt and improve like every other organization. One of the things, Roger, and chime in on this as need be. One of the things we've talked about is how do we do a better job in our coaching and consulting and our peer network of helping agencies really stay focused in going deep. And as we continue to evolve and expand our programs, the all-inclusive model that I've already mentioned, we've now taken that program to where, as an agency, for 90 days, you have access.

Brent Kelly:

And of course, you can repeat these programs as much as you want, but for the first phase of it, we really want the agency to be able to explore and listen and be part of all of our training programs. So leadership, sales leadership, sales, service, take a listen and look at all of these. So we can begin to have a common language and culture. And then from there, let's take one area and through masterminds, through online training, through our learning modules, through our tools and resources, through ongoing focus, let's take one area, whether it be high-performance teams or getting sales and service on the same page, whether it be let's really go deep in pipeline, like I just talked about and really do it and make that happen for 90 days, maybe it's about differentiation or understand our unique selling process. Maybe it's on client retention.

Brent Kelly:

Maybe it's about one of the things that we love to teach the ultimate marketing strategy round out, retain, and replicate your best clients, but whatever it is to get agencies laser-focused and help them walk them through it, not only through our training and coaching but also the other agencies that are going through the same process. And I know you're excited. I'm excited to be able to really just take the next step and what we're doing with our members. So anything that you want to add there, Roger? I wanted to share that to the audience because as you can tell, I'm excited about it.

Roger Sitkins:

Well, we're excited because we see the results agencies are getting, it just comes down to if you're committed to being great. If you start asking yourself the question, can the second half of the year be twice as good as the first half? Absolutely. But it takes work. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it. And at the end of the day, it's the committed leaders, the type of agencies we work with, and say, "You know what? There is a best version possible sitting out there waiting for us to arrive." But I think it was Jim Rowan said, "Nothing changes if nothing changes."

Brent Kelly:

Right.

Roger Sitkins:

Well, there's things that have got to change. And the word change is negative. I would rather say, you know what? The end of the day, what we have to do is improve our behaviors and strategies because when we do that, the results are, I used the term earlier but it's so true. The results are predictable. And, in fact, guaranteed, that's the bottom line.

Brent Kelly:

Well, Roger, thank you again for taking time with the audience and just sharing your insights, it's always helpful. And again, hopefully, as agency leaders, if you weren't driving, you took some notes and can take this and add value to the agency. Again, for one last reminder, you can go to sitkins.com/scorecard to get your free download on the scorecard. So with that again, Roger, thanks to you for being part of this. Thanks to you as a leader for being a listener. We appreciate you. If this podcast has added value to you and your agency certainly will love a review or rating on iTunes or Stitcher wherever you listen. Always looking to help you and want to keep producing great content for agencies across the country and beyond. So, Roger, thanks again. And with that, I wish you all the best in your success. Thanks for listening.

 

Stay connected with news and updates!

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.

Don't worry, your information will not be shared.

Helping independent insurance agencies achieve their dreams for over 40 years.

BOOK A CALL

QUICK LINKS

MEMBERSHIP | SPEAKING | BOOK
SALES | SERVICE | LEADERSHIP
AGENT LEADER PODCAST
ASSOCIATIONS | CARRIERS
CONTACT US

CONTACT

5237 Summerlin Commons Blvd
Suite 107
Fort Myers, FL 33907
239.337.2555 | 877.SIT.KINS