Chris Paradiso's Retention System Every Insurance Agency Needs

Chris [0:00:00]: Retention is the foundation of every single agency.

Chris [0:00:04]: You know what that solid foundation is built on, communication.

Chris [0:00:07]: Emails are for information, phone calls are for communication.

Callan [0:00:14]: Welcome to The Insurance Growth Lab, where we go deep on the growth campaigns and strategies driving real results in the insurance industry.

Callan [0:00:21]: I´m Callan Harrington, founder of Flashgrowth.

Callan [0:00:25]: And in each episode, I sit down with marketing and growth leaders from carriers and shirt tech and top brokers to break down one specific initiative.

Callan [0:00:33]: Whether it's how they marketed a product, scale to channel or solved a specific growth challenge.

Callan [0:00:39]: It's nope fluff just tactical insights you can apply in your own company.

Callan [0:00:43]: Chris, I finally got you on the show, which I'm excited about, and where would it kick this off is and I excited because I have no idea where this is gonna go.

Callan [0:00:57]: Tell me about last week.

Chris [0:01:00]: Well, last week was a very interesting week that I've waited for quite some time.

Chris [0:01:05]: Last week, I was at Paradiso island for four days of the educators workshop.

Chris [0:01:09]: And Anybody that knows and understands the military.

Chris [0:01:14]: Knows and understands that the marines are pretty tough.

Chris [0:01:17]: I don't wanna say the best because being a proud American.

Chris [0:01:20]: I love all branches?

Callan [0:01:22]: Yeah.

Callan [0:01:22]: Yeah Of course.

Chris [0:01:23]: I will say I have a whole new respect for my marine friends and my marine family because in four days, I got a real experience of what it feels like to go through what the marines go through, which yes, they are recruits until they finish and become marines, which is something called the crucible.

Chris [0:01:46]: And just being able to experience from being yelled at for sixteen hours a day to running in high lifts and, you know, the confidence course and all these other unbelievably challenging things.

Chris [0:02:03]: As a guy, who works out every single day and who's physically pretty fit for fifty three.

Chris [0:02:11]: Yeah.

Chris [0:02:11]: I was challenged physically, but I was extremely challenged mentally.

Chris [0:02:16]: And what the marine corps does to its cadet debts, Or to its recruits.

Chris [0:02:22]: Yeah.

Chris [0:02:22]: Until they become marines is absolutely amazing.

Chris [0:02:25]: And I never thought I would be able to experience a drill instructor.

Chris [0:02:30]: That could literally strip me of everything within three hours.

Chris [0:02:34]: And I say strip you of everything, everything, your marching, you're en chant, They own you and not in a bad with.

Chris [0:02:42]: They make you marines.

Chris [0:02:46]: When they say we make marines.

Chris [0:02:48]: Yeah.

Chris [0:02:48]: They make marines, and I will tell you by far one of the greatest and most difficult experiences I've ever went through.

Chris [0:02:58]: And when you come to very difficult situations and things that make you very uncomfortable, nothing but growth comes from it.

Chris [0:03:07]: It brings you to a beautiful destination.

Chris [0:03:09]: I will tell you.

Chris [0:03:10]: I couldn't wait for it to end.

Chris [0:03:12]: I not Ama macho man to tell you, you know, when they say embrace the suck.

Chris [0:03:19]: I know that's saying.

Chris [0:03:20]: Wow.

Chris [0:03:21]: That, you know, a lot of people say they have, the marines have.

Chris [0:03:26]: I can assure you their training is unlike anything I've ever experienced, and I only had four days and trust me.

Chris [0:03:35]: My wife asked me.

Chris [0:03:37]: So how does it feel?

Chris [0:03:38]: Feels like I visited Hell and I stayed there for a few days, and I'm happy to be back.

Callan [0:03:44]: Ask is, why did you do that?

Chris [0:03:46]: Because mentally, you know, there's certain things in life that I don't like.

Chris [0:03:50]: Like when people say, no fear.

Chris [0:03:52]: Remember those shirts no jerk.

Callan [0:03:54]: Of course.

Chris [0:03:54]: The biggest bunch of Bs you've ever heard off.

Chris [0:03:56]: Mh.

Chris [0:03:56]: No fear.

Chris [0:03:57]: Do you have no fear?

Chris [0:03:58]: We all have fear, but the crazy thing about fear to me is fear is made up and it's pretend.

Chris [0:04:05]: It's one hundred percent made up.

Chris [0:04:07]: Because there's people down there?

Chris [0:04:11]: I got to witness three hundred plus marines graduating.

Chris [0:04:16]: They became marines.

Chris [0:04:17]: They feared, but they conquered their fear.

Chris [0:04:21]: And I can assure you.

Chris [0:04:23]: Their fear was gone.

Chris [0:04:25]: So I don't like fearing things.

Chris [0:04:28]: I like to face my fears.

Chris [0:04:29]: I'm not gonna see her and tell you those was it was comfortable.

Chris [0:04:33]: It wasn't.

Chris [0:04:33]: It was I've never been bit by more sand fleas.

Chris [0:04:37]: And screamed at and had Pt because I touched my face because sand, please were diving at me everywhere.

Chris [0:04:45]: It was an experience and a half.

Chris [0:04:47]: And I'm not willing to let fear stop me.

Chris [0:04:52]: I will tell you, it looks like you're climbing down a mountain, which is this structure that you have to sit in a squat position and have your hands a certain way, and they lower you.

Chris [0:05:02]: It took me about two to three minutes to get the guts to go off that wall and allow one of the fellow marines and instructors to do that.

Chris [0:05:13]: At the end of the day when I got down there.

Chris [0:05:16]: I felt accomplished because I looked fear in the yachts.

Chris [0:05:18]: And I'm not gonna lie you.

Chris [0:05:20]: I didn't have to do it, but for me, I had to do it.

Chris [0:05:23]: It wasn't for the outside.

Chris [0:05:24]: That's why I did it.

Chris [0:05:25]: My very, very, very best friend Ray Fallon, who's a marine.

Chris [0:05:28]: When he called the office, he's a good client friend of mine?

Chris [0:05:31]: He asked Stephanie, why the hell would Chris ever put himself in that situation.

Chris [0:05:37]: Now, this is coming from a marine.

Chris [0:05:39]: Yeah.

Chris [0:05:40]: I wanted to say, well, ray, why wouldn't she tell me that before I went?

Chris [0:05:44]: Be said, I basically said you're you're in for a three and a half, and you should have figured that it was a very interesting tree.

Chris [0:05:52]: Unbelievable experience something I can say I accomplished for me, not for the outside world.

Chris [0:06:00]: Yeah.

Chris [0:06:00]: But I also feel now I'm driven to advise and hopefully everybody that's listening to this, realizes how tough the marines are.

Chris [0:06:08]: I promise you when they say the fu, they are the one percent of one percent.

Chris [0:06:16]: Trust me when I tell you what they go through.

Chris [0:06:18]: Very few people don't quit.

Callan [0:06:22]: Oh, I bet.

Chris [0:06:22]: Very few.

Callan [0:06:23]: That part does not surprise me whatsoever.

Chris [0:06:26]: At the end of the first day, I told myself a thousand.

Chris [0:06:29]: Why am I doing this?

Chris [0:06:31]: Just walk away and you have nothing to prove to anybody, but I had to prove to myself.

Chris [0:06:35]: Yeah.

Chris [0:06:36]: It was terrible.

Chris [0:06:37]: Not gonna I sit her and tell you.

Chris [0:06:38]: It was lovely.

Chris [0:06:39]: It wasn't lovely.

Chris [0:06:40]: It was terror.

Callan [0:06:42]: Yeah.

Callan [0:06:42]: Well, when you say about the not prove to anybody.

Callan [0:06:45]: I mean, I think most of the people listening to the show, wolf have at least heard your name.

Callan [0:06:51]: If they haven't heard you talk specifically, you know, with Paradiso insurance.

Callan [0:06:55]: You guys have over fifty employees, you've won the Safe cohen and liberty a mutual national agent for the future award.

Callan [0:07:00]: You sit on the advisory boards of rough notes, one zero one Weston labs.

Callan [0:07:04]: And then I know, like, a couple that are, you know, deeply important to you, the Saint.

Callan [0:07:09]: Pod Po foundation of America and Ado brook.

Callan [0:07:13]: So there's no lack of accomplishments, both in the space and outside of the space.

Callan [0:07:18]: But an area today, I really wanna dive into, and I'll even share just in our conversation earlier, where you said, specifically, when we're talking about, you know, what do we wanna dive into today?

Callan [0:07:30]: And you said, real growth starts with retention.

Callan [0:07:34]: What does that mean?

Chris [0:07:37]: Well, it's probably got gonna be the most popular thing, but you need to lay a foundation.

Chris [0:07:42]: Your house is built on a foundation, anything good sits on a foundation.

Chris [0:07:47]: Your own life, your own health sits on a foundation.

Chris [0:07:51]: Mh.

Chris [0:07:51]: Right?

Chris [0:07:51]: Everything that has the solid foundation builds up.

Chris [0:07:55]: And why I say that is is because it's the most...

Chris [0:07:59]: Maybe it's the most un sexy topic everybody wants to talk about, hey what are you doing with Youtube?

Chris [0:08:04]: I hear you're driving a lot of leads.

Chris [0:08:05]: Yes.

Chris [0:08:05]: Are.

Chris [0:08:06]: Great.

Chris [0:08:07]: You people wanna hear about that.

Chris [0:08:08]: But, let's talk retention for a second here or maybe even a couple seconds.

Callan [0:08:14]: Sorry.

Chris [0:08:15]: Just stay with me.

Chris [0:08:15]: Retention is the foundation of every single agency, and let me tell you why.

Chris [0:08:22]: Because I had a friend who no longer is in the insurance space.

Chris [0:08:26]: He sold his agency he figured out he went about it, and he took a strategy and it didn't work out very well.

Chris [0:08:33]: So he was out in the Vegas area.

Chris [0:08:35]: He realized that Vegas is such a gl different.

Chris [0:08:40]: In the average agency out there.

Chris [0:08:41]: He said was pretty boring.

Chris [0:08:42]: I was like, okay.

Chris [0:08:43]: Boring to Vegas standard.

Chris [0:08:46]: So he ended up hiring chip dale and male performers and got him licensed and his agents.

Chris [0:08:55]: And I was like, that is weird.

Chris [0:08:59]: And he's like, no.

Chris [0:09:00]: There is a need for single women and divorced women to purchase insurance.

Chris [0:09:09]: I was like, that is interesting.

Chris [0:09:11]: I never thought about those demographics.

Chris [0:09:13]: Who it has.

Chris [0:09:14]: I've never talked to an agent that actually said then.

Chris [0:09:16]: I said, That's weird.

Chris [0:09:18]: But he's not wrong.

Chris [0:09:19]: He got up.

Chris [0:09:20]: He was running an agency.

Chris [0:09:22]: He was growing like banshee in the first year second year, but what he realized and what he fell back on is is the amazing thing that he was selling on is very good looking males selling to single females that the retention strategy didn't work out very well.

Chris [0:09:39]: And I'll never forget saying, his retention fell below fifty five percent.

Chris [0:09:46]: And was like, do you realize how much new business I have to be in an industry that is hyper focused on retention carriers come in?

Chris [0:09:55]: They always This is your retention numbers with us.

Chris [0:09:58]: Yeah.

Chris [0:09:58]: Absolutely.

Chris [0:09:59]: He struggled.

Chris [0:10:00]: And he's like, I'm not sure.

Chris [0:10:02]: I'm cut out for the...

Chris [0:10:04]: He ended up selling the agency for not very much money because there was no retention.

Callan [0:10:09]: Sure.

Chris [0:10:09]: But the retention strategy that we focus on is the start of our growth strategy.

Chris [0:10:16]: Why is that?

Chris [0:10:17]: Because what we realized, we were working with agency performance partners back in two thousand fifteen sixteen when she first opened and All the way up for about six years, up until Covid hit.

Chris [0:10:29]: And then once Covid kicked in for a few months, we decided, hey, we're gonna take a little rest.

Chris [0:10:35]: We're gonna...

Chris [0:10:35]: We got a little lax, let's just say.

Chris [0:10:38]: And that retention strategy went from being very proactive to being very reactive.

Chris [0:10:45]: We got lazy.

Chris [0:10:46]: We truthfully did.

Chris [0:10:48]: And you know what happened to our retention numbers, over the two and a half, almost three years that we stopped using agency performance partners.

Chris [0:10:56]: It drops.

Chris [0:10:57]: Almost ten percent.

Callan [0:11:00]: That's significant.

Chris [0:11:02]: Significant.

Chris [0:11:02]: It's not significant if you're a three hundred thousand revenue agency.

Chris [0:11:07]: It's not much.

Chris [0:11:08]: It's not bad.

Chris [0:11:08]: You can survive.

Chris [0:11:09]: But when you're in the millions of revenue,

Callan [0:11:13]: Sure.

Callan [0:11:13]: Absolutely.

Callan [0:11:13]: Percentage of a I agree.

Callan [0:11:16]: I think that that is significant.

Callan [0:11:18]: So Here's what the things I'm curious about is what does this actually look like?

Callan [0:11:23]: What is your process for retention like getting into the weeds a little bit.

Callan [0:11:28]: What does that look like?

Callan [0:11:28]: Like, when you made these changes.

Callan [0:11:30]: I'm assuming, like, you made

Chris [0:11:32]: rent back.

Chris [0:11:32]: We went back.

Chris [0:11:33]: We hired agency performance partners, Kelly.

Chris [0:11:35]: She didn't reinvent the wheel.

Chris [0:11:38]: She came back and was reinstall eighty percent of what she had.

Chris [0:11:43]: Now.

Chris [0:11:43]: Has there been changes?

Chris [0:11:44]: Yes, because I think buyers have changed.

Callan [0:11:46]: Yeah.

Chris [0:11:46]: She has made changes from eight years ago.

Chris [0:11:49]: But it's amazing to get back to that solid foundation.

Chris [0:11:53]: You know what that solid foundation is built on, communication.

Chris [0:11:56]: Emails are for information, phone calls are for communication.

Chris [0:12:01]: I tweet that at least once a week, I say it at least once a meeting inside of leadership meetings because emails are vitally important.

Chris [0:12:11]: But emails are for information.

Chris [0:12:14]: If we need to communicate with our clients and what our teammates needs to be by a phone call.

Chris [0:12:19]: Or by Zoom or by whatever video conference tool you use.

Chris [0:12:24]: And why I say communication is is we still use email.

Chris [0:12:29]: We still use a slide broadcast, which are drop calls We still use that.

Chris [0:12:33]: We installed in going back to one hundred percent.

Chris [0:12:37]: We are gonna place a phone call, pick up that phone and have that communication with that client.

Chris [0:12:42]: It is critical as some people say is keeping the client sticky.

Chris [0:12:48]: Sticky means we're gonna keep them around.

Callan [0:12:50]: If.

Chris [0:12:51]: Once they become not sticky, and I am telling you, phone calls play the biggest role when we stopped calling our clients.

Chris [0:13:00]: Our retention numbers dropped year after year after year.

Chris [0:13:05]: I can show it to you.

Chris [0:13:06]: They're in the numbers.

Chris [0:13:07]: I always say men lie, women lying numbers never lie.

Chris [0:13:10]: To meaning that unfortunately, we took the wrong path.

Chris [0:13:14]: We did the wrong strategy.

Chris [0:13:15]: I'm gonna see tight Chris Par has made a lot of business mistakes.

Chris [0:13:19]: And good agency owners are gonna pick up that phone and call me and ask.

Chris [0:13:24]: Hey, what mistakes did you make.

Chris [0:13:26]: You know why?

Chris [0:13:26]: If you wanna hear about all the good things My grandfather used to say, all the good things somebody tells you is to stroke your ego.

Chris [0:13:34]: You know where the real learning starts,

Callan [0:13:37]: a hundred percent.

Chris [0:13:38]: When people are honest and open with you to tell you what went wrong.

Chris [0:13:42]: What did you they at?

Chris [0:13:44]: What you think at?

Chris [0:13:45]: What did you do well?

Chris [0:13:46]: That's where real growth comes from.

Callan [0:13:48]: Here's what I'm curious about.

Callan [0:13:49]: So you mentioned the phone calls, breaking that down a little bit.

Callan [0:13:53]: So emails are for information, phone calls are for communication?

Callan [0:13:56]: Makes complete sense.

Callan [0:13:57]: You know, you are a big agency.

Callan [0:13:59]: You've got probably tens of thousands of clients, how just say households between households and businesses.

Callan [0:14:05]: All get a phone call?

Callan [0:14:07]: Do you segment that?

Callan [0:14:09]: If they're under a certain premium hold threshold Is this gonna be used with Ai, or what does this look like?

Chris [0:14:15]: We tried it always.

Chris [0:14:16]: You know Works best calling Arlo clients every single year.

Chris [0:14:20]: That's what works the best.

Chris [0:14:22]: It's not sugar coding.

Chris [0:14:23]: I know people say, but it's not weight bearing or it's not financially the right choice.

Chris [0:14:30]: You know, my largest clients have come from some of my smallest clients.

Chris [0:14:35]: Sounds strange.

Chris [0:14:37]: Right?

Chris [0:14:37]: We have a division that us we're the largest writer of Fedex parcel delivery in in the United States.

Chris [0:14:43]: And it's amazing when some of the agent are, like, yeah.

Chris [0:14:47]: I got this three hundred thousand dollar count.

Chris [0:14:49]: From a twenty five thousand dollar number.

Chris [0:14:51]: It was a referral.

Chris [0:14:52]: Yeah.

Chris [0:14:52]: It just...

Chris [0:14:53]: That's the way the ball bounces.

Chris [0:14:55]: Right?

Chris [0:14:56]: So we went back to calling everybody.

Chris [0:14:59]: We called Aaa and Aa.

Chris [0:15:00]: We didn't call Single a.

Chris [0:15:02]: We dropped call we were still losing.

Chris [0:15:04]: And, you know what?

Chris [0:15:05]: What we realized those single a clients?

Chris [0:15:08]: Have we called and then what is a single a client?

Chris [0:15:10]: We're not a big mono line agency.

Chris [0:15:12]: We feel that mono line actually hurts a client because they're losing discounts Yeah.

Chris [0:15:17]: If you have the home without the auto, you're losing a discount.

Chris [0:15:20]: Right?

Chris [0:15:20]: There's multiple discounts so you could end up losing.

Chris [0:15:22]: Right?

Chris [0:15:23]: So that model line business, and to think of it as just an A client is wrong.

Chris [0:15:28]: What are we doing to pick up that phone to say, hey.

Chris [0:15:32]: I wanna give you a call.

Chris [0:15:33]: Wanna hey, we got your auto?

Chris [0:15:34]: Hey, did you have to purchase in a house you were talking about?

Chris [0:15:37]: Yeah.

Chris [0:15:37]: Actually, I did purchase.

Chris [0:15:38]: Great.

Chris [0:15:39]: I would love to be able to add some discounts to your auto.

Chris [0:15:43]: And how we do that is this bundling the two together.

Chris [0:15:46]: Not only is it better for you pricing In a lot of cases, it could actually be better for you in making sure the liability doesn't get in a snag.

Chris [0:15:55]: And let me just tell you a quick story of a claim that we had.

Chris [0:15:57]: Between an auto and a homeowners.

Chris [0:16:00]: The daughter had, you know, was sat on the policy.

Chris [0:16:03]: They accidentally ran through the garage, dog ran in front, then there was a dispute between the carriers.

Chris [0:16:10]: Different home and auto and, you know, what actually took place?

Chris [0:16:14]: It's more complicated than we think that of why we bundle.

Chris [0:16:18]: The liability wise, what happens if you back up on somebody's property and here on I'm your home You got your auto with one carrier home with another and that neighbor ran in front of your, and you accidentally hit that neighbor in your driveway.

Chris [0:16:32]: What happens?

Chris [0:16:32]: Both fly the ladies could play a role.

Chris [0:16:35]: Right?

Chris [0:16:35]: Yeah.

Chris [0:16:35]: Imagine if it was one carrier and now they're not fighting, I just tell these stories because I've actually had these stories happen.

Chris [0:16:42]: The longer you stay in the business, the more you shake your head you're like, you can't imagine the claims that we get.

Callan [0:16:48]: Not bet.

Chris [0:16:48]: Money largest claim never, minus on personal lines.

Chris [0:16:52]: Was an uninsured that was walking up the road about a mile from here going to the high school to see his granddaughter perform in a musical, and he was struck by an uninsured motor who was under the influence of alcohol, narcotics did not have a driver's license it was suspended.

Chris [0:17:11]: The motorcycle was uninsured and un.

Chris [0:17:14]: Both were killed.

Chris [0:17:16]: Uninsured and under uninsured motorists, Even though he was walking, and because there is no sidewalk, they gave some claim to that person, thankfully, that gentleman purchased a couple million dollar umbrella and that state was sued and we did the right thing.

Chris [0:17:33]: We had him properly insured, but somebody would say did that really...

Chris [0:17:37]: It really happened.

Chris [0:17:37]: Yeah.

Chris [0:17:38]: And thank God.

Chris [0:17:39]: We covered that state the way we covered it, both his wife and daughter couldn't thank me enough.

Chris [0:17:46]: Because we did the right thing.

Callan [0:17:48]: That makes sense.

Callan [0:17:49]: And what I'm hearing you say is whether it makes financial sense or not, you believe that it ultimately does because the A's could become Double a's or triple as.

Callan [0:18:00]: Yeah.

Callan [0:18:00]: And down that whether it's from referrals or they just grow their business, doesn't really matter they can get there.

Callan [0:18:06]: So, yeah, maybe it looks on paper that it doesn't make us much financial sense, but that's not what it looks like over the long term.

Callan [0:18:13]: You know what

Chris [0:18:14]: not the standard of care.

Chris [0:18:15]: Let's just say that.

Chris [0:18:17]: Calling every client it's not standard of care.

Chris [0:18:20]: I might be rare.

Chris [0:18:21]: Do we find very many agencies doing it?

Chris [0:18:24]: No.

Chris [0:18:24]: Mh.

Chris [0:18:25]: But I would also say to some people is So if you go into Mcdonald's, and you just wanna get a kid's happy meal, and it's really not profitable because I don't even know what kids happy north.

Chris [0:18:37]: Maybe it's four dollars five dollar cheap.

Chris [0:18:39]: Versus a a regular meal that might be fifteen dollars should they not sell it to you.

Chris [0:18:43]: Just because one's less than enough...

Chris [0:18:46]: So I changed my philosophy over the years and the sense of, hey.

Chris [0:18:50]: If you're not making money with something, I understand there's certain agencies that it's just not in our wheelhouse.

Chris [0:18:57]: It's like a heart surgeon, hey, you know, I'm a little slow now.

Chris [0:19:00]: I'm gonna do your knee.

Chris [0:19:01]: That's not really the person you want doing your knee.

Chris [0:19:03]: You want a heart surgeon sticking to, you know, fixing hearts.

Chris [0:19:06]: But I think it's critical.

Chris [0:19:08]: You know, the only way you're gonna communicate is by picking that phone up.

Chris [0:19:12]: Yes, email still plays a role you drip on them, and we're sending questionnaires as anything changed.

Chris [0:19:17]: Have you added a dog?

Chris [0:19:18]: Have you added any pets?

Chris [0:19:19]: That's for information, but the communication aspect is, hey.

Chris [0:19:23]: I got your questionnaire back from the email?

Chris [0:19:26]: Yep.

Chris [0:19:26]: I noticed that you added a dock.

Chris [0:19:28]: Let's just talk about this.

Chris [0:19:30]: Well, let's just look at your home liability.

Chris [0:19:32]: You don't have an umbrella right now.

Chris [0:19:34]: You have three hundred thousand of liability.

Chris [0:19:36]: I highly recommend you moved that to five hundred thousand and if...

Chris [0:19:39]: The carrier we have would go to a million and we go to a million and we I highly recommend you to have an umbrella.

Chris [0:19:44]: And let me tell you dog bikes are the most common home claim there is that we see inside of our agency, and the average payout is north of a hundred thousand dollars.

Chris [0:19:54]: In god for event.

Chris [0:19:55]: It's a small child that's injured.

Chris [0:19:58]: So it's all about education and you can only educate people through good communication.

Chris [0:20:04]: Does that make sense?

Chris [0:20:05]: Or am I

Callan [0:20:06]: telling It makes total sense?

Callan [0:20:07]: I get exactly what saying.

Callan [0:20:08]: I mean, I do think one of the big things that's going to happen with Ais.

Callan [0:20:11]: Is it is gonna push people more in person and relationships are going to be more important.

Callan [0:20:15]: Whatever that might be.

Callan [0:20:16]: But I I like what you're saying as far as what you have found, objectively speaking in your agency is that going back to making phone calls is had a material impact on your increasing your retention.

Callan [0:20:27]: Now what I'm curious about Remember,

Chris [0:20:30]: You said growth.

Chris [0:20:30]: Right?

Chris [0:20:31]: We talk about growth.

Callan [0:20:32]: Yep.

Callan [0:20:32]: Sorry.

Chris [0:20:33]: If I retain ninety five percent, and I grow by fifteen percent I'm up ten percent.

Chris [0:20:38]: Yep.

Chris [0:20:39]: If I'm back at eighty five percent retention, and I grow by fifteen percent, I'm even.

Callan [0:20:45]: Yep.

Chris [0:20:46]: There's a huge.

Chris [0:20:46]: Girl starts with the foundation, the foundation is retention.

Chris [0:20:49]: But let me just say one thing in this type of market.

Chris [0:20:53]: It's vitally important that every agent here is this, especially the newer agency owners.

Chris [0:20:58]: First of all, we're in an unprecedented time.

Chris [0:21:00]: Right?

Chris [0:21:01]: We're seeing personal lines and commercial lines.

Chris [0:21:03]: We've seen commercial lines stay flat.

Chris [0:21:05]: I have never been in the industry where I've actually seen decreases both in personal lines and commercial.

Chris [0:21:11]: Mh.

Chris [0:21:11]: As much as I've seen so far this issue.

Chris [0:21:13]: Actual policies going down.

Chris [0:21:15]: Why I bring that up is if you focus on retention, What happens if I keep you and your wife and your policies and your policies were thirty six hundred last year another thirty two hundred issue.

Chris [0:21:30]: My retention is gonna say, oh, I'm retaining ninety five percent.

Chris [0:21:33]: Every agency owner must be focused on retention premium.

Chris [0:21:38]: When you have a soft market as soft as it is this year.

Chris [0:21:42]: Retention premium is just as important as retention numbers.

Chris [0:21:47]: Because If you don't lose a client, but premiums are going down, how do you make that up.

Chris [0:21:53]: First, you have to know that it's happening.

Chris [0:21:55]: And the only way you're gonna know that's happening is by monitoring every single month, monitor your retention premium.

Chris [0:22:03]: I wouldn't have told you that during Covid because what happened during Covid.

Chris [0:22:06]: Yeah.

Chris [0:22:07]: In the last two years, this is what they did.

Chris [0:22:09]: So the last two years, especially going back the last twenty four months.

Chris [0:22:13]: Most all, I made there money they I ever made before.

Chris [0:22:17]: Did you grow?

Chris [0:22:17]: Yeah.

Chris [0:22:18]: I made I made I Too took on two hundred thousand more than they took on the year before.

Chris [0:22:22]: That does not mean you grew.

Callan [0:22:24]: Right.

Callan [0:22:24]: Agreed.

Chris [0:22:25]: It's false.

Chris [0:22:25]: When premiums in a hard market grew up by thirty percent, and you made more money that's not growth.

Callan [0:22:33]: Yeah.

Callan [0:22:33]: You're not growing your policies force.

Callan [0:22:34]: You're just growing the premium in a hard market.

Callan [0:22:36]: The...

Callan [0:22:37]: And then on the flip side at that, that makes sense.

Callan [0:22:39]: Your net retention is going to be lower because your debt premium retention if you will is going to be lower.

Callan [0:22:45]: Given that everyone's going down.

Callan [0:22:46]: And that's gonna hurt.

Callan [0:22:47]: You're are gonna feel that on the actual bottom line.

Chris [0:22:49]: But if you're not paying attention to it.

Chris [0:22:50]: I...

Chris [0:22:51]: Fortunate and I work with a couple agencies, you know, five, six years in the business, and, you know, I said, nobody's talking about this because I certainly never seen anything like it.

Chris [0:23:01]: In most agency friends of mine that are forty years in the business that I've never seen a renewal go down.

Chris [0:23:06]: Obviously, I've seen renewal go down when you take off your twins that are no longer, Yep.

Chris [0:23:11]: You know, kids anymore.

Chris [0:23:12]: They now or off the policy the policy drops.

Chris [0:23:15]: But not when everything stays the same and the policy actually decreases, we have to pay attention to the retention premium this year, it's going to play a role in your bottom line in the health of the agency.

Callan [0:23:29]: So here's a question then.

Callan [0:23:30]: I mean, I'm assuming that the way that you're going to counteract that is you're going to put in a process to round out those accounts.

Callan [0:23:38]: Like exactly you just said.

Callan [0:23:39]: I love that idea.

Callan [0:23:39]: As far as you've got questionnaires going out, and then you're following up with a phone call.

Callan [0:23:44]: What I was curious about is, when else do you make phone calls is that different by tier of client?

Callan [0:23:52]: And what does that look like?

Chris [0:23:55]: Well, the number one thing we need to do is stop talking price.

Chris [0:23:59]: And start talking coverage first.

Chris [0:24:03]: And I reiterate this when we talk with our even when I sit with clients, it's common.

Chris [0:24:09]: Nobody ever asks me about premium at the time of a claim.

Chris [0:24:13]: They only ask more what's covered, how much is it covered for.

Chris [0:24:17]: So only at the time of a sale, does price really matter.

Chris [0:24:21]: And I'm not saying that it doesn't matter at all?

Chris [0:24:24]: I'm just saying is why are we treating this like Mcdonald's where can we move that to a large?

Chris [0:24:30]: I mean, at Mcdonald's are trying to upsell us?

Chris [0:24:33]: Mh.

Chris [0:24:33]: We are so focused on cost.

Chris [0:24:36]: We need to be one hundred percent focused on coverage first.

Chris [0:24:40]: Let's figure out what gaps there are.

Chris [0:24:43]: And a lot of people realize the more we communicate the more gaps there.

Chris [0:24:48]: For example, we sell a gun liability policy.

Chris [0:24:50]: How many people have guns that are our clients?

Chris [0:24:54]: A large amount.

Chris [0:24:55]: Do they have liability for that?

Chris [0:24:58]: You realize that you can't purchase gun liability almost nowhere in the United States?

Chris [0:25:03]: It's so so small where you can go?

Chris [0:25:06]: We had that.

Chris [0:25:07]: What do we do?

Chris [0:25:08]: Gotta ask the right questions so that we can discover the right coverage juice or what should be offered.

Chris [0:25:14]: So the number one thing we need to do is really ask a lot of questions.

Chris [0:25:18]: We don't get a question back.

Chris [0:25:20]: We gotta drill on questions.

Chris [0:25:21]: Did you add a dog, did you add a pool Pools are another huge liability risk.

Chris [0:25:25]: Why?

Chris [0:25:26]: Kids get injured.

Chris [0:25:27]: What's even a bigger liability risk.

Chris [0:25:30]: Tram.

Chris [0:25:31]: Huge liability risk.

Chris [0:25:33]: Why?

Chris [0:25:33]: What happens?

Chris [0:25:34]: Kids jump on those.

Chris [0:25:36]: Kids fall off, broken arms, Broken ribs, it's the most common injuries that come from those.

Chris [0:25:42]: We have to ask the questions in order to understand where we're doing a good job and where we should be recommending coverage.

Chris [0:25:50]: Because we are a licensed professional, we should treat this like we are a doctor in the sense as, we get professional advice.

Chris [0:25:57]: We need to stay focused that we're professionals.

Callan [0:26:02]: How do you make sure that it gets executed at the producer level.

Chris [0:26:06]: So producer level, and there's two different aspects of a producer level.

Chris [0:26:10]: All of our phone calls are recorded and all of our phone calls are dropped in the management system.

Chris [0:26:16]: So that's easy to manage.

Chris [0:26:18]: We actually listen to every single phone call.

Chris [0:26:21]: We need to make sure every phone calls placed where it needs to be placed inside the management system.

Chris [0:26:26]: So we have an auditing system.

Chris [0:26:29]: So when somebody asks me about data, I can go on for hours because we rinse and repeat data all the time.

Chris [0:26:35]: We're auditing data every single that data is being audited.

Chris [0:26:40]: So monitoring a producer is easy when a cell phone or an office phone is being used.

Chris [0:26:46]: It's much more difficult when it's in person in their off site.

Chris [0:26:52]: If they're inside the agency, a lot of times we will have a second person sit in, and then we document the heck out of the account.

Chris [0:26:59]: But it's much harder when a producer is out and about.

Chris [0:27:03]: We had in house producers that do nothing but sell.

Chris [0:27:06]: We audit that by every single phone call.

Chris [0:27:08]: Yeah.

Chris [0:27:08]: And then what we do, we don't look to punish people.

Chris [0:27:12]: We look to educate our team.

Chris [0:27:14]: We're not looking to get people in trouble.

Chris [0:27:16]: We're looking on helping them.

Chris [0:27:17]: It's why you mentioned Ai.

Chris [0:27:18]: Ai is helping our team become better at what they do.

Chris [0:27:23]: It's not removing them of their jobs.

Chris [0:27:25]: It's helping them do a better job.

Chris [0:27:27]: We do a great Ai tool that we utilize in every aspect of our agency called the intelligent agent, and it just is game changing.

Chris [0:27:36]: We even upload our policies.

Chris [0:27:38]: What weaknesses are in this policy.

Chris [0:27:41]: Within thirty seconds, it's telling us, we're reviewing our own work, which is instrumental.

Chris [0:27:46]: If you wanna compete against me, and I have that policy, I can upload your policy you know, that you might have versus what we're proposing, it's gonna dissect the difference and what policy is better and what.

Chris [0:27:59]: That's Ai.

Chris [0:28:00]: Ai is not replacing me.

Chris [0:28:02]: It's helping me do a better job without me spending an hour reading both policies.

Callan [0:28:08]: So pulling back and and I tend to agree right now.

Callan [0:28:11]: At least in its current state that it is enabler and it could super charge people that are using it, where it's gonna go, who knows, could come for all our jobs.

Callan [0:28:19]: But I'm hoping not, but we have no idea.

Callan [0:28:22]: Of course, where it's gonna go.

Callan [0:28:23]: That said, You'll pulling this back, you mentioned these different segments?

Callan [0:28:28]: A triple.

Callan [0:28:29]: How do you...

Callan [0:28:31]: From a renewal in a retention perspective.

Callan [0:28:34]: Do you treat them differently?

Callan [0:28:36]: Do you have additional touch points?

Callan [0:28:38]: Do you have more in person touch points versus a's versus aaa a's or not all the same.

Chris [0:28:44]: No.

Chris [0:28:44]: No.

Chris [0:28:45]: It's not all the same.

Chris [0:28:46]: There's touch points in all aspects aaa a double single.

Chris [0:28:50]: But with aaa, our goal is to make sure we communicate with that client and communicate what I mean by that is at least give three attempts on a phone call to get them.

Chris [0:29:02]: And in some cases, they don't call back.

Chris [0:29:05]: But you might say, well, why are you spending so much energy?

Chris [0:29:09]: Because I know if we can communicate, which means talk to that triple client?

Chris [0:29:14]: There's a good chance that there's something there.

Chris [0:29:17]: They added jewelry They added a classic car They're looking at a classic car.

Chris [0:29:22]: They're looking for a second home, third home, there are always additional opportunity there if we just maintain a good relationship.

Chris [0:29:33]: And the only way we can maintain a good relationship in my personal opinion is with communication and communication is talking with that client?

Callan [0:29:41]: Yeah.

Callan [0:29:41]: Hundred percent.

Callan [0:29:41]: You mentioned three attempts.

Chris [0:29:43]: So we we spend more time than trying.

Chris [0:29:46]: So we call a aaa client.

Chris [0:29:48]: They don't call us back.

Chris [0:29:49]: We still feel we did our job.

Chris [0:29:51]: It's not what we want.

Chris [0:29:53]: We would love for them to call us back.

Chris [0:29:55]: We want the return phone calls.

Chris [0:29:57]: We get return phone calls.

Chris [0:29:59]: Yeah.

Chris [0:29:59]: But we're gonna spend a little extra effort going after those aaa a's because we truthfully wanna make sure we can talk with them.

Callan [0:30:08]: So getting into the total weeds, you mentioned three attempts.

Callan [0:30:10]: Is that three attempts within?

Callan [0:30:12]: I'm just gonna say a random.

Callan [0:30:13]: A couple weeks and then I'd say they don't pick up on them.

Callan [0:30:17]: Are you aging that a couple months before you're reaching back out?

Chris [0:30:21]: Or we're starting sixty days prior.

Chris [0:30:23]: You start with an email stating that letting them know that their renewal coming up in the next sixty days.

Chris [0:30:28]: We actually, it might be sixty two that we actually start.

Chris [0:30:32]: Yep.

Chris [0:30:32]: The goal is that we wanna hit him with an email.

Chris [0:30:34]: We wanna hit him with a dropped call.

Chris [0:30:36]: Hey, just let me know.

Chris [0:30:38]: We sent you an email.

Chris [0:30:39]: We're hoping that you get a chance to fill out the questionnaire here.

Chris [0:30:42]: If you have any questions, please give me a call.

Chris [0:30:44]: It drops right into their cell phone.

Callan [0:30:47]: Meaning, a drop call is in this isn't gonna ring their cell phone.

Callan [0:30:49]: This is just gonna be a voice mail?

Chris [0:30:51]: Yes.

Chris [0:30:51]: Some call it a re, some call it a drop call, same thing.

Callan [0:30:55]: Voice same drop.

Chris [0:30:56]: Yeah.

Chris [0:30:56]: I gotcha you.

Chris [0:30:56]: Yep The the goal is this before we even started calling, can we get them to call us?

Chris [0:31:00]: Fill out the questionnaire aaron and call us.

Callan [0:31:02]: Yep.

Callan [0:31:02]: Makes complete sense.

Chris [0:31:05]: Then we start with picking up the phone.

Callan [0:31:08]: So this all start sixty days before.

Callan [0:31:09]: Yeah.

Callan [0:31:10]: So everything is anchored to the renewal day.

Chris [0:31:13]: Yes, It is.

Callan [0:31:14]: Okay.

Callan [0:31:14]: That makes total sense.

Callan [0:31:15]: So once the renewal dates passed, is it just...

Callan [0:31:18]: Do you have things that are built in that trigger a phone call?

Callan [0:31:24]: Or is it just...

Callan [0:31:24]: We're anchoring toward We've got a ton of clients to make this honestly financially feasible.

Callan [0:31:28]: We've got anchor to work our process that to anchor to the renewal date.

Chris [0:31:35]: Correct.

Chris [0:31:35]: I mean, okay.

Chris [0:31:36]: You know, one of the goals we...

Chris [0:31:37]: Have worked with is basically a six month checking call.

Chris [0:31:42]: It gets a little difficult, especially with moving targets and as we continue to grow, it's more clients for adding more staff, makes it a little bit more difficult, but the goal is is between a net promoter score, Mh.

Chris [0:31:55]: Which we utilize, which if they respond with a seven or an eight or a nine.

Chris [0:31:59]: We pick up the phone if it's not a ten and call you, We really appreciate you giving us the feedback, I'd love to hear more behind the feedback and how we can earn a ten in the future.

Chris [0:32:09]: So our leaders of each department.

Chris [0:32:12]: That's their responsibility.

Chris [0:32:14]: So Net promoter score plays a huge role.

Chris [0:32:17]: Once again, it's also a touch point Yes.

Chris [0:32:19]: It might be an email touch point, but in most cases, it's a phone call touch point, because we're picking up that phone if we got a nine and or eight.

Chris [0:32:27]: Hey.

Chris [0:32:27]: Most people would say in h great.

Chris [0:32:29]: They're not going anywhere.

Chris [0:32:30]: Not good enough.

Chris [0:32:31]: It's not a ten.

Chris [0:32:32]: It's like saying I almost want.

Chris [0:32:33]: Winning does it ten to pair insurance.

Chris [0:32:36]: And if we get a nine what we can do to earn a nine?

Chris [0:32:39]: What can we do to earn a tent?

Chris [0:32:41]: Right?

Chris [0:32:41]: If we got a seven how do we earn a tent?

Chris [0:32:43]: How do we get up to eight?

Chris [0:32:45]: How do we get up and We gotta ask questions, communication, I keep saying communication communication is picking up their phone and talking to people, and then shutting up and listening to them.

Chris [0:32:53]: Mh.

Chris [0:32:53]: You gotta hear what they said.

Chris [0:32:55]: Most importantly, after you listen to them, put into action what they tell you, They get very valuable feedback.

Chris [0:33:03]: When you think most people are willing to tell you why you stun.

Chris [0:33:07]: Listen to all, implement and fix what caused you to think to begin with.

Callan [0:33:13]: So on that do you call the d deflect as well?

Callan [0:33:15]: Do you call the ones and two?

Chris [0:33:17]: Every they're one of them?

Chris [0:33:18]: Yeah.

Chris [0:33:18]: Every single one of them.

Chris [0:33:20]: If you wanna sit in, we're on the Eos?

Chris [0:33:22]: We are our L ten meetings or every Wednesday?

Chris [0:33:24]: Yep.

Chris [0:33:24]: Do you know why card?

Chris [0:33:25]: Is all...

Chris [0:33:26]: How many d?

Chris [0:33:27]: How many do we communicate and what's the feedback?

Chris [0:33:29]: Every single week.

Chris [0:33:31]: People say Chris you're obsessed with that.

Chris [0:33:33]: I am.

Chris [0:33:34]: You know Why?

Chris [0:33:35]: Because a bad client that's not communicated with.

Chris [0:33:38]: It's gonna tell ten people you stink.

Chris [0:33:40]: A good client who gives you a ten is gonna tell one person.

Chris [0:33:43]: I wanna fix ten.

Callan [0:33:46]: It's so true.

Callan [0:33:46]: Here's what I'm curious about, and I agree with you.

Callan [0:33:49]: It's like, if you get feedback, you need to take action on it.

Callan [0:33:52]: You know, I'm assuming you're getting pretty significant amount of responses back, just given how I'm hearing how here.

Chris [0:33:58]: Yeah.

Chris [0:33:58]: Because group gets something uniquely different.

Chris [0:34:01]: A lot of people say, we can't, you know, maybe one out of ten that go out.

Chris [0:34:05]: So what we do is we have a handwritten note card, and we give them a three dollar dunkin donuts next couple of coffees on me.

Chris [0:34:13]: So we have been doing it for years where It has gotten them to respond to us.

Chris [0:34:19]: Even if we get tens, I don't care it.

Chris [0:34:21]: But you know most importantly, that gift card is gonna get people to speak up.

Chris [0:34:26]: And when we're not performing well, I can't fix We can't fix what we don't know isn't working well.

Chris [0:34:32]: Once again, everything we're discussing right now is all about retention.

Chris [0:34:37]: Retention is the foundation of growth.

Chris [0:34:39]: I'll rinse and repeat that a thousand times.

Chris [0:34:41]: You wanna talk about what we're utilizing for technology to drag new leads, that's great, but it's not as great as retaining.

Chris [0:34:48]: If you can retain more business, growth is easier in order to grow higher, you need to grow less because you don't have to make up.

Chris [0:34:56]: Everything we focus on a Paradiso insurance is net.

Chris [0:34:59]: Net new.

Chris [0:35:00]: So if a producer, writes a million dollars, but loses six hundred thousand net new is four hundred thousand.

Chris [0:35:07]: We don't care that they wrote a million.

Chris [0:35:08]: We only care about net new.

Chris [0:35:10]: That's what we focus on.

Callan [0:35:13]: So you mentioned Eos, and part of that L ten meeting is the issues list.

Callan [0:35:17]: And I'm assuming that issues listed primarily comprised of the feedback that you're getting or at least probably a decent.

Chris [0:35:24]: But the feedback goes on our report card.

Callan [0:35:26]: Okay.

Chris [0:35:26]: So we're we have a report card of how many new quotes we took in, how many referrals we got, how much new business we wrote?

Chris [0:35:32]: How much business we lost, also, met d tractors, how many how many downloads of the app that we have?

Chris [0:35:39]: Because we feel that the app is it a very, very critical part of the customer experience?

Chris [0:35:45]: Yep.

Chris [0:35:45]: So those are all things that are on our report card?

Callan [0:35:49]: So with all this feedback, how do you prioritize?

Callan [0:35:54]: How do you decide because you can't work on everything because you're getting tons of feet feedback but don't don't me wrong.

Callan [0:35:59]: I'm sure this is eighty twenty, and a lot of this is probably hitting on similar things.

Callan [0:36:03]: But how do you decide and prioritize?

Chris [0:36:06]: There's a few things.

Chris [0:36:07]: Okay.

Chris [0:36:08]: There's only five things.

Chris [0:36:09]: One thing was, hey, You weren't open on Saturday.

Chris [0:36:11]: Well, we opened years ago on Saturdays because we heard that we wanna pick up our car on Saturday.

Callan [0:36:18]: Yeah.

Chris [0:36:18]: We have hours now unless if it's a holiday weekend.

Chris [0:36:20]: We're open on Saturdays.

Chris [0:36:22]: It has played a vital role.

Chris [0:36:24]: You know, the biggest thing the last twenty four months is you know, I love your service and everything's great, but the premium keeps going up.

Chris [0:36:31]: Some things are just out of our control.

Chris [0:36:34]: And we can still have in explain and talk about the industry and what's taken place and why rates are going up.

Chris [0:36:41]: It doesn't fix everybody, it doesn't sell, but at least we can address that.

Chris [0:36:45]: There's not much we can do.

Chris [0:36:46]: Yeah.

Chris [0:36:47]: During that twenty four months, if we res out somebody, we could only move them less than eleven percent of the time, which meant ninety nine percent of the time, we were wasting our time because the rates were the rates and, you know, it was just a hard market.

Chris [0:37:03]: But we could still communicate with the client and still talk about some of the rate increases and why they were taking rate increases and talk about why the market was hard.

Chris [0:37:12]: It doesn't solve everybody, but we are having those hard conversations.

Chris [0:37:17]: And without the net promoter score, you're not gonna know why people are upset with you.

Chris [0:37:22]: You know what?

Chris [0:37:23]: The third thing is I would love the turnaround time to be less than a half hour.

Chris [0:37:28]: We hear that or less than an hour.

Chris [0:37:29]: People want instant gratification.

Chris [0:37:31]: So now what we've gone to this year is it's called the same call resolution.

Chris [0:37:36]: While the person is on, we don't take notes.

Chris [0:37:39]: We take notes in the in the management system, while the clients on and we solve it while the clients on the phone.

Chris [0:37:45]: We don't say, hey, I'm gonna pick up the phone.

Chris [0:37:47]: I'm gonna call the carrier and I'm gonna get back to you.

Chris [0:37:49]: It's not what we're doing.

Chris [0:37:50]: We're gonna keep that client on the phone.

Chris [0:37:52]: We're gonna call that carrier in and bring that carrier on while the client is on the phone, and we're gonna walk through and resolve it right now.

Chris [0:37:58]: It's called the same call resolution.

Chris [0:38:01]: It works.

Chris [0:38:02]: It's hard, but it works.

Callan [0:38:04]: Does that impact the carriers you'll ultimately decide to work with?

Chris [0:38:09]: Absolutely.

Chris [0:38:09]: Why is that?

Chris [0:38:10]: Because if you're on hold for forty five minutes, it's tough.

Chris [0:38:13]: It's tough on the client.

Chris [0:38:15]: And it's important to educate them.

Chris [0:38:18]: Hey, The reason why it takes sometime time in two, three hours for us to get back to you is, we're on hold for fifty minutes.

Chris [0:38:23]: You see we've been...

Chris [0:38:24]: And I just listened to it call couple weeks ago.

Chris [0:38:27]: They were on hold for fifty three minutes.

Chris [0:38:29]: Yeah.

Chris [0:38:30]: So the client says, jeez.

Chris [0:38:32]: Your jobs a lot tougher than I expected.

Chris [0:38:35]: I would have never expected.

Chris [0:38:36]: I figured everything was online and it was instantaneous, and it just worked.

Callan [0:38:42]: So, Chris, one of the questions I'd love to ask is and you mentioned that you've at won, this is excellent.

Callan [0:38:48]: You gave real examples, I've still got like, a million more questions.

Callan [0:38:51]: But, you know, you mentioned that you...

Callan [0:38:53]: And I've heard this...

Callan [0:38:54]: I can't tell you from how many different agencies said that They flown out to Connecticut, they've met with you in person, you give back a ton to the industry, which I've got a ton of respect for.

Callan [0:39:02]: When you're coaching somebody on this.

Callan [0:39:05]: They're coming to you, let's just say this is one of those newer agencies, and they're asking How do I make sure I am crushing my renewal.

Callan [0:39:13]: What is the first piece of advice that you give them?

Chris [0:39:17]: The first piece of advice is number one, you have to set up a strategy.

Chris [0:39:21]: And when you set up a strategy, you can't set that strategy up until you know and understand your clientele.

Chris [0:39:28]: What's your retention premium, what's your retention rate.

Chris [0:39:31]: And you're probably gonna say to me, well, that's basic.

Chris [0:39:34]: Most people don't know.

Chris [0:39:35]: Yeah.

Chris [0:39:36]: When you ask them by everybody tells you oh, I retain ninety nine percent.

Chris [0:39:40]: It's not true.

Chris [0:39:41]: It's impossible.

Chris [0:39:41]: Take ninety nine percent You know why?

Chris [0:39:43]: People move out of saying people die, and that's about four to five percent of everybody's book.

Callan [0:39:49]: Oh, that's interesting.

Callan [0:39:49]: I've never heard that's stat.

Callan [0:39:51]: That's interesting.

Chris [0:39:53]: That's why we write in forty four states and continue to write more and more states because we hate losing that client we built a great relationship with.

Chris [0:40:01]: That's moving from Connecticut to New York, or Connecticut to Tennessee or Connecticut to South Carolina, North Carolina Florida.

Chris [0:40:09]: So understand what your numbers are.

Chris [0:40:14]: I said it before Men lie women numbers never lie.

Chris [0:40:17]: Yep.

Chris [0:40:17]: Understand your numbers.

Chris [0:40:18]: Understand your audience.

Chris [0:40:20]: Understand your clientele, then build your strategy.

Chris [0:40:23]: Strategy is vitally important.

Chris [0:40:25]: A lot of people say they can do it on their own.

Chris [0:40:27]: I challenge people.

Chris [0:40:29]: There's a reason why we go to a professional heart surgeon because you want the best I've hired, and I've spent money and a lot of people like, you're a I'm not afraid...

Chris [0:40:37]: I'm not afraid to spend money.

Chris [0:40:38]: I'll spend money hiring the best.

Chris [0:40:40]: I mean, Kelly, at agency performance farmers has been the best.

Chris [0:40:43]: I mean, she's proven it to me.

Chris [0:40:45]: My numbers have prune it because she has worked with my team.

Chris [0:40:48]: So don't be afraid to spend that money in higher help.

Chris [0:40:52]: I'm good at a lot of things, but I'm not good at a lot of things too.

Chris [0:40:55]: I'm not afraid to doing, but why would I would not wanna work with that person.

Chris [0:41:00]: And I...

Chris [0:41:00]: If I could hire the best.

Chris [0:41:01]: Hire the best.

Callan [0:41:03]: Whole wholeheartedly agree.

Chris [0:41:05]: Maybe roger dickens with for with your producers.

Chris [0:41:07]: Maybe it's...

Chris [0:41:08]: You know, we use Peggy Cor within Hawk sauce.

Chris [0:41:10]: Whoever it might be.

Chris [0:41:12]: Yeah.

Chris [0:41:12]: We hire people who are the best in what they do when we bring them in.

Chris [0:41:16]: We have multiple people we work with.

Chris [0:41:19]: People say, you're spending money.

Chris [0:41:21]: I'm spending money because I want the best.

Chris [0:41:23]: I want the best training for my team.

Chris [0:41:24]: I can demand the best if I give them the best training.

Chris [0:41:27]: Too many people demand the best and they don't spend any money or any time or energy investing in training.

Chris [0:41:34]: How can you do that?

Chris [0:41:35]: You can't blame your teammates.

Chris [0:41:37]: You need to invest in that.

Callan [0:41:40]: That's probably one of the biggest recurring themes that we have on this show is not being afraid to hire and bring in experts within their particular areas.

Callan [0:41:49]: Chris, last question I got for you.

Chris [0:41:52]: And we just stop for one second for you.

Chris [0:41:54]: Yeah.

Chris [0:41:54]: I'm not a consultant.

Chris [0:41:55]: I don't get paid agents that reach out to me.

Chris [0:41:57]: I don't ask for any money.

Chris [0:41:59]: I'm not a consultant and I'm not looking to make money.

Chris [0:42:01]: I love the industry.

Chris [0:42:03]: I love agency owners.

Chris [0:42:04]: I love producers.

Chris [0:42:05]: Anything I can do to give back to the industry.

Chris [0:42:07]: I got Jackson Role coming out who is...

Chris [0:42:09]: You're not following him.

Chris [0:42:10]: He is the future of independent ages.

Callan [0:42:13]: He'll be on the show in a couple weeks.

Chris [0:42:15]: So Jackson role is the real deal.

Chris [0:42:17]: Brett Mer out of Florida.

Chris [0:42:19]: He's the real deal.

Chris [0:42:20]: Those people you should have on your show.

Chris [0:42:23]: They're doing things differently, and they're investing in their team.

Chris [0:42:27]: They believe in leadership.

Chris [0:42:29]: They believe in growth, but they're investing in growth.

Chris [0:42:32]: And that's the difference.

Chris [0:42:33]: There's some special special people out there and I challenge people, hey.

Chris [0:42:37]: Come spend a couple days.

Chris [0:42:38]: Come spend one day with me.

Chris [0:42:39]: We're not looking for anything other than, hey, can we open your mind to challenge you to become a better leader, challenge the way you're thinking.

Chris [0:42:46]: I was fortunate and I a mentor in the industry that invested in me and that's my way and given back.

Chris [0:42:51]: He said, the best thing you can do is share with other agents.

Chris [0:42:53]: We're in this together or not competitors.

Callan [0:42:56]: Yeah.

Callan [0:42:56]: And that's probably a perfect place to wrap this up because I can one hundred percent of test.

Callan [0:43:01]: I I've heard this from multiple agency.

Callan [0:43:04]: So I'd highly encourage our agents.

Callan [0:43:05]: Any of the agencies out there listening to take you up on that.

Callan [0:43:09]: You might be surprised.

Callan [0:43:10]: In the stories when London's episode, Bleep coming out next.

Callan [0:43:14]: Week, and he tells the story of him coming and staying on your couch and it's fantastic.

Callan [0:43:18]: So, Chris, thank you for taking the time to come out today, man.

Callan [0:43:22]: This was excellent.

Chris [0:43:23]: My honor.

Callan [0:43:24]: I very much appreciate it.