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Stop Renewing Accounts

Part three of our four-part podcast series focuses on retention. How do you retain ideal clients for your agency? Brent and Roger dive deep into the mindset needed, from policy delivery to continuing the relationship - not renewing the account - that will be very informative to insurance professionals.

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 this is part number three of a four part series that I have with Roger Sitkins, CEO and founder of The Sitkins Group. So Roger, a quick hello and welcome back again.

Roger Sitkins:

Thanks, Brent. I'm excited to talk about one of my favorite topics, and that's retaining ideal clients.

Brent Kelly:

Yeah, that will be the focus of today's discussion with Roger. And just to give a little perspective of what we've talked about so far on the first two parts of this four-part series, the first episode together was really just going DEEP, and we'll use that acronym, Roger, Delivering Excellence in Every Process. But understanding where agencies need to go deeper, and just an overall philosophy. The second session that we did together last week that we recorded was on selling more. And in fact, one of the principles that came out was that our decisions that we make will ultimately determine our destiny. And I think that was, in fact, I know that was a very, very impactful session. So if you haven't listened to those first two parts of the series, make sure you go back and do that. And again, today, we're going to be focusing on retention. How do you retain ideal clients for your agency? And I'm going to dive deep with Roger on a few questions that I know will be very informative to you as the podcast listener.

Brent Kelly:

I do want to make note of a couple things before we dive into our conversation today. As always, the mission of this podcast is to help you, the agency leader, gain clarity, build consistency, and make a commitment to becoming your best version possible. And this podcast series is really based all around the Sitkins' mission. Our mission at Sitkins Group is to help agencies like yours sell even more, retain even more, and earn even more than you ever thought possible. And again, this is going to be about retention today. Also, if you're interested in attending one of our upcoming programs, or more importantly, being part of our all-inclusive membership, where you have access to all of our training programs, all of our monthly coaching series, visit www.sitkins.com/aim for all inclusive memberships.

Brent Kelly:

So let's get to Mr. Roger Sitkins. Roger, again, welcome back. And again, this has been a really fun series to do with you and highlight these key areas. And as you mentioned and I just alluded to, we're going to be talking about retention today. One of the things that you say often, which is 100% true, is that this is a really, really great business. But just for our podcast listeners, Roger, why is this such a great business?

Roger Sitkins:

Well, number one, you're serving people at a very high level and you're protecting, whether it's the individual or the business. You're protecting their assets, so it's a great service. But being in the business, it's a great business because customers renew. I mean, what other selling jobs really have something that every single year, people are buying it? So it's a great business from that perspective. It's a great business because when done properly, you create literally clients for life, and you have great relationships with them. It's a great business to become semi-successful.

Roger Sitkins:

Now what does that mean? Well, and we've talked about this so many times, but you don't have to do much of what we talk about to be semi-successful. You can make more money than your peers and your siblings and other family members, and whoever you want to compare yourself to. Overall, you're doing pretty darn well. But you're semi-successful. You really haven't taken this and maximized it. You haven't become that best version possible. But even an average producer at an average agency makes pretty darn good money. But the coolest thing about it is when you really realize and appreciate, clients are buying every year. Why shouldn't they buy with you? Why wouldn't they just stay with you forever? And then how do you use those experiences you have and replicate them by developing the other additional future ideal clients?

Roger Sitkins:

And you get in there, and you get referred to them, and you get introduced to them. And it's a great business. So why not take advantage of it? One of the things that we hear so often with producers in our program is the producers that they were in some other business, and then they got into the insurance business. And I always hear something like this. "God, this is such a great business. I'm surprised I didn't know about it before." Or, "gee, I always just thought of it as kind of like a used car salesperson. But I'm protecting people's assets. I'm getting paid really well, and they buy every year." That's a great business.

Brent Kelly:

That is a great business. And I think you're so right, Roger, when you say that. It just hits me that so often, the insurance word is kind of a stigma out there. Oftentimes, with young professionals, the young producers, or advisors, of any role in the agency, well, it's insurance and all that. And I get that to a point. But as you said, when you really understand what you do, what you provide, the financial security and the relationships that you build, and then you add I that little carrot of the fact that even if you don't do much, this is what you just talked about being semi-successful, even if you don't do a lot, about 90% of your clients will keep doing business with you.

Brent Kelly:

I always joke in our training programs like, "Listen, you don't do much, and 90% of people still continue to pay you money." I mean, that's a pretty good spot to be. But as we're going to talk about today, Roger: What if you take that to the next level? What if you up your game? What does that really mean, A, for the purpose behind what we do, true financial security and those relationships that you mentioned, but certainly for profitability? Right? Revenue for the agency.

Brent Kelly:

What I want to ask you, you mentioned, we talked about relationships. You mentioned the power of retention and what that means. One of the things that people always say, "Well, it's a great business, Roger, because of the renewals, the renewals, the renewals." And we love that word, renewal. And that's what most insurance agents, that's kind of the lingo that we speak. But here's what I see, and you can tell me what you think. I think that most agencies and producers and production teams, they get really hung up on the renewal date, or maybe those last 30, 60 days before the renewal date comes up and becomes kind of a little bit crazy. Why is that? I mean, why is the renewal date such a big deal for most agents?

Roger Sitkins:

Well, first of all, we have to understand that we're talking primarily the top accounts, the top 20%, 30%, 40% of the customers because the bottom ones now are pretty much automatically renewing. It's so digitized, all the technology runs it. But for the larger accounts, the top 20% that are 80% of the revenue, the top 30%, 40%, 50%, the 50% are 90% of the revenue. And so when you look at those, part of it is just history. Well, we have a renewal process, and everything's around the renewal process. And we're going to start it hopefully internally, at least 90 days in advance. We believe it needs to be 180 days in advance. But they start it, but it's just an ongoing process.

Roger Sitkins:

I was thinking about this morning, the way things used to be. And I started laughing. And this is going to age me, I appreciate and understand it. But I can actually remember seeing in agencies, a rubber stamp that it literally said, "Renew as is." And so they do a renewal review, and somebody hit with, renew as is, renew as is. And they wouldn't do anything. But yet, they still had maybe just 85%, but most were still above that 90, doing nothing. So now people get so hung up on the renewal process, but they don't really get ahead of it and realize that what you're doing is, you're not renewing accounts, you're continuing relationships. And once they start figuring that out, things change. But if it's just a renewal process, okay, let's take a look at this account. Who's it with now? Who should we shop it out to? What additional coverages? What information's needed in order to properly renew the account? And again, who's going to do what by when? See you later.

Roger Sitkins:

And from that point forward, it's just hysterical activity, and there's no real process. Now what a lot of our best agencies are saying, you either have that, which we kid about hysterical activity on the way to the grave, or you have a critical path you follow that's based upon continuing a relationship. And then doing even more than that, continuing it to the point that they become replicators. They become raving fans that send you additional people just like them. It's really, I would hope that most people listening are going, "Duh. That's the way it should be." But there's just not a process in place in most agencies.

Brent Kelly:

Yeah. And that I think part of it is the vernacular that's being used is, if I talk to an agency, maybe we're having an initial conversation. And I say, "Well, tell me about your renewal process," because they understand that. Well, in 90 days, we do this, and then the letter goes out, or we look at this. But really, it's typically some type of automated thing that really doesn't get a lot of true attention, if you're going to be honest, depending on the account. And so that's where you get to 30 days and 20 days and 10 days. And it's like, "Oh, my gosh. We need to get 5% more credit to make sure we keep this," because they've got competition. They haven't really defined expectations, so we're just playing a game. We don't really know if we're going to win.

Brent Kelly:

And then I think going back to what we said earlier, Roger, is that fact that if it's 85% or 90% retention, well, that's still pretty good. But here's the point, if you want to grow 10% and you're at 90%, now you've got to grow it 20%. So I mean, there's just part of that understanding just some of the math behind it too. And I think the thing that you said that hopefully the audience caught is that the mentality that you should all have to be at the highest level of success is, hey, we're going to stop renewing accounts. And I know when you say that Roger, when I say that, people are like, "Stop renewing accounts, what are you talking about, Brent?" And the idea is we've got to stop renewing accounts. We need to start continuing relationships. And as we teach in depth in our programs, that starts a policy delivery. Right? What is going to be that defined process that we're going to have, as you said, Roger, that our top 20% accounts say, "Wow"?

Brent Kelly:

And they can be very, very easy replicated because we're doing the things that have been agreed upon. So I think that's just really important to understand. When it comes to the, and again, I'll use the word renewal process for the audience, but as we say, the continuation process, what are a couple things that an agency should keep in mind? What are some things that maybe they could begin to think about to start at maybe a basic level, start to implement, Roger?

Roger Sitkins:

The first is what you just said, think about, which is the mindset. Again, culturally, the culture is defined as the language and behaviors that are normal in an agency. So within your agency or within your own book of business, does everybody talk about renewals, renewals, renewals? Or is the mindset that, look, our agency is based upon relationships? You can be commodity based if you want to, that's fine. Most are, unfortunately. But if you truly understand that it's a relationship based business at the level you want to play, then the mindset is: What do we have to do to continue this relationship?

Roger Sitkins:

You said something a few minutes ago about where all of a sudden, agencies realize they have competition on an account. I'm thinking, "Why do you have competition? Why have you allowed yourself to get in that situation where you have competition?" Well, it's because you're playing a commodity game, rather than saying no, we want that professional relationship, the mindset is we're a trusted advisor to that, now let's just say the top 50% to make it easy for people because it's 90% of the revenue. We're trusted advisors to them, just like their CPA, attorney, wealth manager, banker. They don't shop those people every year because they have a trusted advisor relationship.

Roger Sitkins:

But if all you're doing is sending out emails and give us this information, fill out this supplemental app, we're going to shop it for you, well, it's like buying any commodity. You might as well go to the futures market, buy grain and corn or something. It's crazy. So it's just mindset belief, and by the way, all your customers won't want to play that way because they've been educated for years. They can shop it. But finding those ideal clients, getting in front of them, showing them something truly unique to the point where they're saying, "Wow. We've never had anything like this before. This is different." And now it's just the mindset drives a very unique process that differentiates the agency. But if they still just went, "We've got to get out there and quote with everybody," you're going to lose.

Brent Kelly:

Yeah. As you were saying that, Roger, this is something that is every aspect of stuff that we see and teach and talk about. But it's just the very basic aspect of, if you do some of the harder things now, it'll become much easier later. Or you can do the easy stuff now, and all of a sudden, it becomes hard later. And you said the competition, that's what happens. Right? Well, we made it easy. We just send a couple emails without really having to do much. And all of a sudden, the 60 days or 30 days, you're like, "We've got competition."

Brent Kelly:

Well, now it's really hard because you've got to go, "Well, what can we do?" And it becomes a price game and it becomes a, we can do this too game. And that's not a place you want to be. That's not a place you want to be at all. The other thing that, Roger, if you could just maybe introduce is just a topic that we go in much depth in this in our programs, but if you could give just an overall idea of term that we use called exit barriers and what that really means for agencies and in the real process.

Roger Sitkins:

It's just like going down the highway. If there's an exit you want to go off and there's a barrier, you've got to go around it. And what we see is most agencies really don't get focused on the fact that, look, one of the ways you keep things is you put exit barriers in place. You make it tougher for them to leave, and I don't mean that in a bad way. I'm just saying that you've got certain things in place where they would never even think about leaving you, and that's what gets me. Too many times it's like, "Well, they're thinking about leaving." Why would they think about leaving? What is it that would even get them to consider that?

Roger Sitkins:

So a couple of the key ones, there are actually five that we talk about, but a couple of the key ones, and this is so basic and people are going to go, "Oh, yeah. We've heard it before." You probably haven't done it though. Are they a full-time clients? Do you write every single line of business for them? Do you have the commercial account, the VIP personal line, and all the decision makers? Do you have the benefits? Do you have life insurance? If you're into financial services, are you doing that also? But you literally become that, and I hate to use the term, but it's true, it's a one stop shop. Where's the one place people can go to have all of their insurance and risk management needs met? Well, it's with your agency if you'll do it right. So it's full-time clients only.

Roger Sitkins:

The next is just having this whole continuation process in place that makes the renewal a nonevent. So if your attitude is, we don't renew accounts, we continue relationships, that means that you must have then multiyear strategies in place. It's one of the things, especially the producers in our mastery program, success leaves clues, well, so does super success. And I can say it's not 100%, but boy, it's close. And you know this, in our Elite 50 programs, that the best producers always have multiyear strategies in place. This year, here's what we're going to accomplish over the next two to three years. Here are the things we'll be focused on. So it's the multiyear strategies, and it's about having this whole process that makes the renewal a nonevent. You mentioned it starts at policy delivery. Now that's an old term. Okay, electronic delivery of policies.

Roger Sitkins:

But sitting down and going and sitting with the client, whether it's a new client or a continuation client, and going through their risk management plan or their benefits management plan, looking at the services calendar, and just having an agreement on exactly what's going to happen. And then one of the most important things, which we've talked about before, it's knowing what the client expectations are. And it's pretty easy to find out, you just ask them, "What do you expect from us this year?" And we always like the litmus test. Well, the litmus test on this one's pretty simple. If they say, "What I expect from you this year is to do exactly what you said you were going to do," guess what, they've bought into your plan. Granted, if you do everything in this calendar, this service calendar here, man, we are in great shape.

Roger Sitkins:

Studies have proven that business owners don't like the renewal process. They don't like going through the bidding process. No. If they’re a commodity in their own mind and insurance is nothing more than that, I can save a few bucks, that's different. But the clients you really want to build your book of business on, the clients you really want to build your agency on, don't want to shop it every year. They don't like it. They want a long-term relationship. But no one's ever put it together. So again, just find out. What do you expect from us this year? I expect you to do what you said you were going to do. Great.

Roger Sitkins:

And then everything that's on the service calendar, might not be an account, it might just be a couple of things, on an account, it might be five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 things. But it's laid out, and then it includes a six month meeting. So at the six month anniversary, you're sitting down and you do what a lot of people call stewardship report, we call promise report because again, it comes down to promise making, promise keeping. So here's what we said we were going to do, here's what we did. How has that impacted you? What's the one thing we could do to provide even better service? And then at the six month meeting, you're also talking marketplace strategies.

Roger Sitkins:

You let them know that, hey, I've got you with the Travelers now, great company, they're doing a great job on your account. They love your account. They want to stay with you. However, we have noticed that Cincinnati Financial, this is an insurance company, also likes these type of accounts now, and we've already started discussions with them to just have a few options for you. So we will be coming to you at about the 90 to 120 day timeframe and giving you the options you have for which carrier you should stay with. Well, you know what, that puts it to bed. But most people just won't even do those two things.

Brent Kelly:

Yeah, it's the MBA, Roger, Mastering the Basic Activities. We've shared that before. I love when you said that. It's like, "Well, you've heard this before. But how many of you have really done it?" And I can tell you, agencies that we begin to work with and are working with realize We still have some holes in there, even for full-time clients. I had to comment on a couple things that you said. I think one of the things that stood out to me that I jotted down is that you're right, if we don't educate clients and we don't explain how we and our process is different, and what that means for them, the impact, well, they're probably going to continue to think in many cases that you are a vendor or a commodity. So it really is our job to, as professionals, to educate, and to add that word, professional.

Brent Kelly:

You mentioned multiyear strategy, Roger. I was just trying to sit here thinking about going to have a meeting with a financial planner, and he goes, "Well, here's what we're going to do this year. And after that, I have no idea what's going to happen with you." I'm like, "Wait a second, this is my future." And again, maybe it's not to that level, but you're right. I mean, as businesses and individual risks evolve, we're going to be with you along this process. And here's some things that we want to start thinking ahead, and here's that multiyear approach. That is such a differentiator when producers do that and have those conversations, so thanks for sharing that.

Brent Kelly:

Now some of these things we're talking, it may seem more benefits or commercial lines related. But how would this look maybe for personal lines? I mean, you reference personal lines and small commercial a little bit. But would the continuation process look much different between commercial and benefits and personal line to small commercial, Roger?

Roger Sitkins:

For the right accounts, absolutely. Let's face it. There's a lot of accounts that will just continue with you forever. And maybe they'll shop you, and they'll kind of do some of the clicks, pings, rings and dings, and move around. But what we find in personal lines and small commercial when we look at 80/20, it's not the same. We find that in personal lines, the top 20% of the customers are 50% of the revenue. And it's the same thing in small commercial. So getting focused on this and saying, "Which customers would even appreciate what we could do for them?" So in personal lines, we believe that you still should at the six month anniversary, do a reach out, have a discussion with them. Talk about any claims experiences they've had. Just make sure that there are any changes in their lifestyle, anything they're doing differently. And by the way, asking for a referral.

Roger Sitkins:

So at the six month anniversary, there should definitely be a phone call or reach out. Now most people are going to say they can't afford to do it. And I'm saying, "Why do you even have the account?" Because we're talking about the top 50% of the revenue in personal lines. Just reach out to 20%. And it's the same thing in small commercial. It's amazing to me how so many small commercial accounts, in my opinion, are grossly under-serviced. And again, let's just look at the top 20%. And maybe the bottom 80% are happy just renewing online and just basic protection, and they feel good about it. And maybe they've saved some money. But again, Brent, it just comes back to: Do you want to be a commodity based agency? And guess what, there are a lot of people that are very successful at that. Right? A lot of people are struggling there and don't know it. And I know that most agencies lose money doing business with commodity. But we can certainly argue that later.

Roger Sitkins:

But at the end of the day, if it's an account you're going to keep in house, meaning you haven't sent it to a service center, and services centers are not an option for everybody, but I just feel this way. If you're going to keep it in house, what do you owe them? What do you owe them?

Roger Sitkins:

And so if it's not in a service center, if it's not just a commodity, what do you owe them? Because the reality is, we have a tremendous fiduciary responsibility to protect their assets. And if we're just renewing as is and not knowing anything else they've done, guess what, there are probably some gaps. And it can come back to hurt you, and it could have a devastating effect on your clients. Maybe they didn't have to sue you for E and O, but they could still be devastated for several years. So I just think we have to get a better handle on: What do we owe the client? And what would we really expect as a client? We need to start asking that question. I would challenge all the agency leaders here or producers, that on your next team meeting or your next agency meeting, just even ask those questions. What do we owe our clients? What do we owe them? And why do we owe it to them? Boy, that'd be a great discussion.

Brent Kelly:

That would be a very powerful discussion. I'm so glad you brought that up because that's just ... If you didn't write that down, write it down, and just take it back to your team and go, "Hey, what do we owe our clients?" I mean, it's such a powerful question because I think sometimes we can take it for granted. Well, we have good intentions, Brent, but we just got caught up, and we're busy. And we're planning to, as you say, Roger, in the South, we're fixing to. Right? We're going to get to that later, but we haven't yet.

Brent Kelly:

I'll just tell you just a couple of examples. A couple of our private client members that I personally coach, they’re a pretty large agency in the Midwest and an agency that's focused on personal lines, small commercial in the South. And both of them have really taken the approach of we are going to understand certainly our top 20% at a minimum, of our clients that we're on. And we're going to make sure, at a minimum, that they get an annual risk review. I mean, they're getting an actual risk review. And part of it is they ask themself the question. Well, don't we owe that to those clients? Of course we do. And it's just interesting that most agencies like, "Well, yeah. Maybe." And so it just comes back that professional approach, so thanks for sharing that, Roger.

Roger Sitkins:

I want to jump in on that when you said, "What do we owe them?" Here's the thing. What a lot of people, when we've asked that question in the top of the personal lines and small commercial, and I hear this, "Well, they've never asked us about it. They've never asked us for that." Well, guess what, it's because they don't know. They don't know there's a better way. And just being the producer or being the agency, just being able to say, "There's a better way for you to handle your insurance." By the way, if you're happy with clicks, pings, rings and dings, that's great. And even with our best clients, we're still going to do as many day to day transactions as we can digitized. It's going to be digitized. It's going to be just I'm going to handle it on my smartphone and on my tablets and everything for day to day transactions.

Roger Sitkins:

But when you start thinking about it and say, "Wait a minute." It comes back to: What do we owe them? And are we the ones telling them a different story to the point where they go, "Oh, I didn't even know people could do that for us." That's pretty cool. You mentioned earlier, and I made a note on this. Are you going to a financial advisor or a wealth manager? It's kind of the same thing here. If you're just going to your bank and talking to maybe a banker that'll help you, or maybe you've got an account with LPL or whoever, but that's different than having a wealth manager that sits down with you on a quarterly basis. And I would just challenge you as a producer, listen, even agency owners. If you don't have a wealth manager, does that mean you don't have enough wealth yet? Think about it.

Brent Kelly:

Well, that's a great point there. And also, we always talk about: Well, who's harder to fire? Right? Well, the person that's giving you quarterly, having quarterly conversations that really is there for your best interest and wellbeing. That's a pretty hard person to get rid of for a lot of different reasons.

Roger Sitkins:

Professional advisors are really tough to fire. And I'd like everybody to write that down. And if you're not a professional advisor, a trusted advisor, you get fired. But it's tough to fire your CPA, your attorney, your banker, your wealth manager. They've got to really screw up. So just get, again, it comes back to mindset. We are going to be trusted advisors to the top 50% of our customers. Period.

Brent Kelly:

Absolutely. I want to ask you one more question and maybe get some final thoughts from you, Roger. But we've talked so much about: What do you owe clients in the relationship part? And being that risk advisor and being the professional. But there is a pretty sizable money aspect to this for agencies in their revenue, and certainly for profitability. Most people know. Is it easier or harder, is it easier to find a new client or to retain one? We know it's easier to retain one. So just overall perspective here, Roger, it depends by agency. But what would two, three, four, five points in retention percentage really mean for an agency financially?

Roger Sitkins:

It's life changing, and most people don't realize it. Let's just take a million dollars of revenue, and do your multiples on that. But let's do million dollars of revenue. Let's do a 3% net increase in retention. Well, that's $30,000. But the reality is, the vast majority of that's profit. And let's go to 4%, let's go to 5%, whatever the number becomes. But for every million, excuse me, for every 2%, 3%, 4%, 5% increase in retention on a million dollars of revenue, that can be somewhere between $400,000 to $500,000 of increased agency value because the valuations are so high now. Some of our private clients that we've coached to the highest level that then did a liquidity event, they're getting 12, 13, 14, 15 points. It's crazy.

Roger Sitkins:

And so if you're an agency that says, "Hey, you know what, three years from now, five years from now, maybe it's time for us to do liquidity." So let's just say you're a $5 million income agency. Just doing a few things here, easy to say, tougher to do, but could you increase your value by $3 million, $4 million, $5 million just doing the right stuff? And maybe it's only two, but one of my favorite sayings, look, if you're going to put the time in anyway, you might as well be great at it. So the retention factor just increasing it drives profitability up several points, and it's just ... You've got all the stuff there. Just do what you know you need to do. Easy to say.

Brent Kelly:

Well, as you said that, I would ask you as an agency listener to really ask yourself. What would a few more points mean? And as we talked earlier, some of the very basic things that become non-optional, or become a priority, become a focus to the agency. Certainly, Roger, as you know, we see this all the time, whether it's the 80/20 reports, whether it's: Do you really have a pipeline with future ideal clients and to have that visual of future ideal clients? Or in this case, really understanding the numbers behind retention. When you see it, you really believe it. And so I would ask all agencies to take a look at that and go, "How much money are we really leaving on the table here?"

Brent Kelly:

Roger, I know we're coming up on time. Any final thoughts from you? And again, I know the retention piece, and we could probably spend seven, eight, 10 hours, four days, I don't know, talking about this. But with the audience here, any final thoughts that you want to share with the audience?

Roger Sitkins:

I can tell you from past experience at giving hundreds and hundreds of speeches and running hundreds and hundreds of programs now, a lot of times when you talk to people, and they say, "Yeah. But 90% is really good." It is. It is. And it's good news and bad news, and here's what I mean by that. It's good news that 90% renewed. But one of my best blinding flashes of the obvious ever, and we've talked about this before, is that 90% renew. But what percent refer? Less than 10%. And we all know that the best account we can work on is a referred account from a currently highly satisfied client. Why aren't we getting referrals? A big part of it is we're not putting exit barriers in place. We don't have this unique process that drives an exceptional client experience that easily generates referrals. So I would just ask yourself a question, as a producer and as an agency leader.

Roger Sitkins:

If we're renewing 90%, but less than 10% refer, how do we need to change our processes and our mindset to not only increase retention, but dramatically increase referrals? We talked about it on our last one about selling more. And we threw out a challenge to our mastery level program producers, and even the ones in the virtual programs now. We're saying, "You know what, if 10% of your customers refer, that'd be pretty good. What if 25% referred? You couldn't handle it. What if 50% referred? You couldn't handle it." That would be a good problem to have. But right now, so many of them are saying, "Well, our pipelines are empty." Maybe your pipelines are empty because you're still just renewing accounts, not continuing relationships. I'd say that's a factor.

Brent Kelly:

Well, I think it's a good lead in too, Roger, great reminder, but a great lead in to our fourth session together. It's going to be about earning more. And I think there's going to be some more of this discussion because I was just sitting here as you're saying that, even for me, I've heard this so many times with agencies. But you're like, "Wow, if 20% of our clients produce 80% of revenue, what would that look like if we just increased our retention points a few? What would it be like if we increased our referral off those 20%?" I mean, it's significant. It adds up. But why do most agencies not do it? Lack of focus. Right? Or they're distracted, or maybe they just haven't taken the time to really go through it and begin to get serious about it. And I think the biggest thing, Roger, just goes back to our podcast last week, is: Why do some agencies do it and some agencies don't? Because some agencies made a decision. And I think that was so powerful last week. Thanks, again, Roger for being part of this podcast. And again, we've got one more session next week that we're going to be doing again on earning more, about profitability for the agency.

Brent Kelly:

Just a few final things that I want to throw out. One of the challenges certainly that we see with agencies, whether it's selling more, whether it's retaining more, whether it's earning more, is getting the entire team to understand the philosophy and the message. And at the end of the day, getting buy in, so that everyone's more accountable. And as we announced last year and started, was our all inclusive membership, where every member of your agency team has an opportunity to access to the philosophy, to the strategy, to the training, to the coaching, to the ongoing process to get greater buy in. And we're just getting such great results from agencies, excitement. We just wrapped up our CEO bootcamp for agency leaders.

And so many of the comments were, “thank you, my team's finally getting it. I've been preaching this message for a while. I've been wanting to do this, but now they see it too. And we're all part of something together.” So if that feeling, and that idea of: How can I get people to understand? We know there's so much more for me as an agency and an agency leader, and my professionals, and my clients. Well, take a look at our all inclusive membership because I can tell you're we're getting such great results and feedback from it. We'd love for you to be a part of it and see if it's a fit for your agency. Just go to www.sitkins.com/aim. And with that, I wish you and your agency all the best in your success. Thanks for listening.