First Month Selling P&C Insurance (Results are in)

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Since the day that we launched our agency, our goal has been to hire great new producers who can close one deal a day. And today, we're going to have two team members who just completed their first full month in our agency talk about their experience and how the first month went. Are you guys ready to go?

[00:00:16]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:00:16]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:00:17]>> In the first couple of years of us having an agency, we were figuring things out. And the goal has always been 40,000 in premium or more or a deal a day in [music] the first month. Not in the sixth month, not by the end of the first year, but as early as possible so that as a business sales producers don't end up costing us money. So that's why 40,000 is so important. And uh we have had a number of producers, really all producers that we hired in the last 18 months, [music] right? At least 40,000 in premium, but we never really documented their their experience right after the month was over until now.

[00:00:56]That's what Robbie and Ryan are going to help us do today. You guys look really good in these quarter zips, I got to say.

[00:01:05]>> Yeah. Thank you.

[00:01:06]>> Yeah, I'm glad.

[00:01:07]>> Robbie, let's have you go first. Tell the viewers [music] how your first month ended.

[00:01:13]>> Yeah, so my first month I ended with 59 new condos, 1.79 policies per household, and at 24% close rate, I ended with 40,000 in premium.

[00:01:23]>> 40,000 in premium. You did not have me sweat towards the end of the month because you you got to 40,000 not on the last day, but you had some days [music] to spare. Ryan, how did you finish your first full month?

[00:01:35]>> Absolutely, Vlad. I had 80 new combos.

[00:01:37]uh 1.95 policies per household, a 25% close rate, and just short of $60,000 in premium, about a few hundred short. Way to [snorts] go. You can call it 60,000.

[00:01:50][music] 60,000 40,000 in their first full month. Congratulations, gentlemen.

[00:01:55]Let's talk about how that first month went. Uh first question is, did you guys expect to do what you did? Did you expect to do 40,000 going into this first full month? I did. Yeah, if I'm being honest, um especially with uh my the the background that I was given, I started as an SDR. I did that for about six weeks. [music] Um and then everything that's in place here, you know, the script, we have uh direct access to the one call close master class. So, I felt pretty confident in it. Um and I was I was pretty happy with with what I had going into it.

[00:02:27]>> Prior to joining our agency as an SDR, Robbie, what did you do? Did you have any insurance experience?

[00:02:33]>> None. None at all. I sold cars for about a year. Um, but that was uh that was what I did right out of school. So, uh, not much. It was it was pretty much uh all fresh.

[00:02:43]>> Okay. And Ryan, did you expect to ride this much premium so quickly? And what did you do before joining us?

[00:02:48]>> Um, I can say uh I do not actually. Um, for the most part, you know, I didn't really know what to expect at first. Um, you know, 60,000 is quite the accomplishment. Um, and it it was just a surprise with just the processes in place and the team that, you know, in the agency has. um we were really able to you know knock it up exceed my current expectations and beforehand I was an e-com I was in e-commerce sales and prior to that I was in operations where you know I had basically no experience selling insurance and minimalist experience in sales. What did trading look like for you guys when you first started? [music] So Robbie, of course, for you, you start off as a SDR.

[00:03:28]You knew that for a few months and then Ryan came on board and now the goal was to have both of you guys start on the same day [music] and you both were working together during the first week and a half of training. Talk to me about the experience that you had with our training process. What did that look like?

[00:03:46]>> Absolutely. Yeah. So, of course, being an SDR was a lot of help. It got me really comfortable on the phones talking to clients and just knowing part of that process, but also with the the one call close master class, I got that out of the way as soon as possible. Made sure to retain all of that information. And then of course with the sales leads that we have, the team leads, they [music] did such a great job teaching me and walking me through the whole process, shadowed calls with me to give me any feedback that they had on how I did with clients, and it was just building off that.

[00:04:15]>> Well, thank you for that, Robbie. Ryan, how was it for you? So from day one I was in insurance sales lab watching videos right off the rip. It was 8 hours of videos each day for about a week and then just using all the materials, documents and training exercises they had within that program. Another week passed and I started shadowing different producers within the agency kind of learning the ropes, seeing what type of behaviors they took on and about 2 weeks after I actually started the you know training and everything [music] I was on the phone selling. So it was really quick turnaround from when I started and was exposed to insurance to when I actually started to sell.

[00:04:53]>> Okay. So what we don't do in our agency is we don't just hire people, show them really quickly how to quote and then have them start [music] selling. There's about a week and a half period of dedicated training. [music] Every day there's something that you're doing to prepare yourself for the day that you get on the phone. Now you get on the phone. How many days went by for you, Ryan, before you closed your first sale?

[00:05:15]if you remember. And then Robbie, same question for you.

[00:05:18]>> Yeah, I think I think it was the second day. The first day, uh, I had a couple swings and misses on the phone. Still getting accustomed to, you know, the script obviously and, you know, different sales tactics and materials along those lines. But, uh, it was my second day. I actually closed my first sale. Uh, it was around 4,000 in premium, and I had a home and auto policy bundled together.

[00:05:42]>> Yeah. this first [music] sale. It's the sale that you'll always remember. And it's so important to have that happen as soon as you get on the phone. If you get on the phone and weeks go by or a week goes by and you don't close anything, you might start wondering, can I even do this? So, this is me speaking to agency owners who are watching this and team leads. It's really important to be with your [music] newer team members the entire first day that they're on the phone. The second day, don't leave until they close their first sale. Now, in many cases, they can do it on their own, but it just shortens that that cycle to where you can have them close a sale as quickly as possible. Robbie, I don't remember what it was like for you. How much time went by before you closed your first sale?

[00:06:29]>> I remember very well. I actually closed the first person that picked up the phone the day that I hit the sales floor. Yep. Yep. the first person that picked up and that it was a home auto umbrella and yeah, I remember it very well. Hit it. Hit it right away.

[00:06:42]>> Okay, let's test how well you remember it. How much premium was it?

[00:06:46]>> I remember that the home and auto were 2,700 and that the umbrella was was 350.

[00:06:53]So, just over 3,000 total.

[00:06:54]>> Wow, that's pretty good. I I didn't know you would say there.

[00:06:57]>> Yeah.

[00:06:58]>> Okay. So, how [music] much of what you did in the last four weeks just following instructions of we we asked you to do certain things, follow the script, quote this way, uh call your follow-ups first when you're when you have follow-ups, and then start calling new leads. How much of it was just following our instructions versus [music] you having to be creative and find ways to close deals? Ryan, let's have you go first and then Robbie.

[00:07:24]>> Absolutely, Vlad. the first uh you know four weeks on the job um the blueprint for how to sell and you know get comfortable on the phone was critical.

[00:07:34]Um following the script, right? Um learning about closing objections, uh shadowing other producers, seeing what they do, what type of behaviors and tonality they have. Um, as long as you know as well as every morning we would have uh huddles where we would go over certain tactics and ideas on how to improve. A lot of it was instructional and based and a lot of it is due to the script and what [music] you know was provided with insurance sales lab.

[00:08:02]>> How much impact did the role plays make truly in your ramp up having the ability to roleplay the same script over and over again every single day? Well, to be honest with you, Vlad, initially I thought the role plays were a little silly. Okay.

[00:08:17]>> Um I did I didn't think that uh I was like it's a little strange that I'm pretending to, you know, have a conversation with a coworker that I'm just going to have on the phone 2 minutes later. I really found the value in that role play was when I had a conversation with a client that [music] I didn't init I didn't have that conversation prior basically, right? I fumbled through the actual conversation a little bit. Whereas when I did do the role play, I felt a lot more comfortable and confident moving forward with that role that you know that customer.

[00:08:47][music] It might sound silly at first, but it is 100% critical to keeping the flow on the conversation and absolutely sounding confident on the phone as well.

[00:08:57]>> Do you have anything to add to that, Robbie?

[00:08:59]>> I really did get a lot of value out of the role plays, too. I kind of see it as as practice. You know, if uh if you play any sports, you know, you don't go straight to the game. You don't even go straight into practice. you warm up for a little bit first. Uh you you make sure that you have everything in place where it needs to be, that your mind's working the way that needs to work before you hop right in. So, I really like it and it's it's nice to uh just roll through the the objections that you hear most often. Um so, that starts to come out more naturally, like pattern recognition.

[00:09:28]>> Robbie, at what point did you realize that, okay, I can actually be really good at this and I can close a deal a day? What was that moment if you can recall in your first month?

[00:09:38]>> Yeah, good question. So, not exactly sure about a deal a day when that one hit me, but I knew that I could do it honestly before I even hit the sales floor. As an SDR, I I got a lot of experience just talking to to customers and handling a lot of those base objections and most of the the rough ones that you hear are right when they pick up the phone. So, it helped a lot to get over those main humps and know how to to fight towards that. So, [music] I knew even before I started selling that I was going to do pretty well.

[00:10:06]>> So, you had confidence. you were certain that you're going to do well and having that experience as an SDR helped you keep prospects on the phone.

[00:10:14]>> Absolutely. [music] >> In your first couple of weeks, you did a really good job of keeping prospects on the phone. But [music] your close rate, do you remember what your close rate was after about 2 weeks of being on the phone?

[00:10:25]>> I do. I do. After a couple weeks, my close rate was sitting at a whopping 11%.

[00:10:30]>> Big numbers.

[00:10:31]>> Big numbers.

[00:10:32]>> 11%. So, the target is 25%.

[00:10:35]And [music] going into your first month, you don't really know what to expect, but halfway through the month, you realize that, okay, my close rate needs to improve. What action did you take?

[00:10:46]And who helped you increase your close rates? And most importantly, how did you increase your close rate?

[00:10:52]>> Of course. Yeah. So, the biggest driver was definitely helpful from from my team lead. He would go through the calls with me that I'd had and give me some some great feedback throughout all of it. I was pretty confident in the the first section of the calls, but it was towards the end for the the cost presentation and the asking for the sale. That was where he helped me out a lot. So, he told me how to fix my verbiage, how to be more intentional with what I say.

[00:11:15]That really helped a lot from from the team lead. And I ended up with my my last week I was at 36% close rate.

[00:11:22]>> 36. So, that was your last week. What was your month overall close rate?

[00:11:26]>> Overall overall went from 11 to 24%.

[00:11:29]>> Okay. So you finished the month just shy just shy >> the 25% was really really incredible.

[00:11:34]Going back to the feedback that your team lead gave you, what was the substantive feedback that he gave you?

[00:11:39]He talked about being more intentional.

[00:11:41]What does that really mean?

[00:11:43]>> Of course. Yeah, just the the verbiage really. You got to look for those pain points. The customers will really tell you what what they need to be sold. So it's going into that for sure. And it's also really important that you realize that they're on the phone with you. You are there to help them out. You're there to write them a good policy. You have to be competent in what you do instead of just being on this phone and and looking as if you're just looking to close a deal. Um that's not going to help you.

[00:12:11]You have to realize that they're on the phone with you for a reason. [music] >> That was something you recently shared with me where you said there was someone in the office that told you to change your mindset on how you view every conversation. you want to speak to that?

[00:12:24]>> Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. It's just really important that you realize that [music] you're not just here to put money in your pocket. You know, you're here to help someone out and write a good solid policy for them that's going to make sure that they're well protected cuz that's what we're here to do. We're insurance professionals and that's how they look to us and you have to treat yourself the same way. [music] >> Yeah. And they are lucky to be on the phone with you.

[00:12:46]>> Absolutely.

[00:12:47]>> You're just there to help them. But if you start looking at every prospect that you're talking to as they are so privileged and so lucky to be talking to me right now and that's what you truly convince yourself of, then you no longer rush through the conversation. You're able to pace [music] it correctly. You get through all the information that you need to. That's a really important mindset to have.

[00:13:09]>> Of course.

[00:13:09]>> Uh [music] so for you, Ryan, at what point did you realize that I think [music] I can do this? Brand new to insurance, but I'm going to kill it.

[00:13:17]Yeah, absolutely. Uh, you know, I'm very similar to Robbie. I think my first week close rate was even lower. I think it was at 5%. Um, so 5% of all clients I talked or prospects I talked to that week, um, I only closed 5% of them, which is extremely low. By the end of it all, you know, I was up to that 36% mark on that close rate uh, for that last week. And [music] realistically, the it took me a little while. Um, the first week or two I was a little worried that I didn't know if insurance was for me.

[00:13:47]Um, it took me a little bit to get around to, you know, memorizing the script, implementing tonality, um, taking what we're doing in the morning huddles and actually applying it to applying it on the phone with the client. Um, but what really stuck out to me as a point that, hey, this is, you know, doable and really almost anyone can do it is, um, when I really started to, you know, memorize a script, got that close rate up and, you know, [music] sold about $25,000 in a week. um from going almost to 5,000 in that first week or a little bit less than that to 25,000 in the last. [music] I carried that momentum with me and I realized that I was going to be able to do it. In our agency, [music] we have expectations of what good looks like and we want our team members to win from the very beginning. There's no ramp up of 90 days of get comfortable and then you're going to start closing a deal. We want you to start closing business in your first full [music] month. Because why wouldn't you? If you're having four conversations a day consistently and you're using the sixstep script to the one call close and you're following the closing objections workflow and if somebody doesn't buy from you and they ask you to follow up with them, you do a good job of following up with them for at least 5 days. Following those three fundamentals will immediately result in you closing a deal a day. [music] So these expectations of performance are in there. Did you guys feel at any point especially in the early first couple weeks that our expectations were too high that you almost as if it's a a bad thing or do you guys always look at it as a good thing to have expectations to be this high in a sales organization?

[00:15:30]>> I'll go here. I think it was a really good thing to have pressure and I absolutely did feel pressure, you know, removing that mental barrier of that you set upon yourself really with anything, but especially in sales. Maybe the bar was at $30,000 for the month and it's just the hey, I want to hit this goal.

[00:15:47][music] Removing those mental barriers and having a little bit more pressure from the outside team for you to succeed and perform is absolutely critical in your success in insurance sales. Absolutely.

[00:15:58]I felt that pressure, but is absolutely a good thing. is one of the absolute biggest drivers for why I was able to hit 60,000 in premium for the my first full month.

[00:16:07]>> And Robbie, same question for you. Do you feel pressure to perform here? Is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing?

[00:16:13]>> Absolutely I do. I feel a lot of pressure honestly. [music] And not in the sense where you have to hit these numbers or your jobs on the line, but in the [music] sense that we are surrounded by such a high amount of elite level people that you just you you feel the need to build off of each other. [music] and some friendly competition. You know, it's not like I need to beat this person, but it's like, wow, they're doing great. I want to do great with them. And we help each other to do that, too. You know, you're never really just doing stuff on your own. So, there's pressure, but it's it's friendly and it's from each other. And I think that helps a lot.

[00:16:46]>> So, what happens if somebody does not live up to the the the standards that we have and they don't they're not doing as well as they should? What happens then?

[00:16:55]And what kind of support do we provide?

[00:16:57]What does that look like? I know you guys have been here for only one month as a sales agent, but with what you've observed, what happens when somebody's falling behind?

[00:17:04]>> Yeah. Well, for me personally, I have definitely struggled in certain moments during my first full month. We have team leads on our team that will help support, provide aid. Really, they're available even after hours uh if need be. The amount of just knowledge from shadowing other producers to having support from the team leads and the resources and documents available have been absolutely crucial for you know my support when I was struggling because you know in my first month I absolutely did struggle a little bit. You need to get accustomed to [music] you know selling insurance. You might not know as much about the industry as you know especially what type of background you might be coming from. Having those team leads, having support from other producers on the team, and having the resources available was absolutely critical to overcome those struggles, though.

[00:17:53]>> I mean, you know that they're never going to be left into dust, especially here. It's it's when someone starts falling behind, and we do. A lot of people do. Not even just being new, but in general, you know, stuff happens.

[00:18:04]There's always someone to pick you back up. There's always someone to look at, okay, this is why this is happening.

[00:18:09]Let's fix this. Let's work on it and let's move past it. that's always there.

[00:18:14]Not just from the team leads, definitely the team leads, but not just from them.

[00:18:17]You can really go to anyone for for any sort of help or any sort of support and you know they'll be there.

[00:18:22]>> Both of you have repeatedly commented on the culture that we have in our agency [music] and those who have visited our agency often say the same thing. They describe that the culture is very different and unique. And for the producers who are [music] watching this, team members who are watching this, agency owners who are watching this, you can recreate this culture if everybody buys in and your team to be [music] a certain way. So, I'd like to hear from you both. How would you describe our culture and how can agency owners, team members have that same culture in their agency?

[00:18:54]>> Yeah, absolutely. I think culture is extremely important because obviously you come to work to work. That's what it's for. But it's much harder to do so when you're in a not so friendly environment. Everyone here has a great head on their shoulders. It's really easy to between calls, you know, have a good time. Yeah. [music] You're obviously coming here to to work, but it's not just an all day grind, you know, uh between between phone calls, you can still uh talk to talk to the people that are sitting around you, talk about about life and what you do. you can still have a life outside of work that you take pride in while still making sure you hit your numbers. So, I think culture is very important.

[00:19:37]>> Yeah. And you're a grinder, Robbie. You come in early there. I don't remember the first month of you leaving before 5:00. You're always staying after because you have goals that you set for yourself and you don't leave the office until you leave. And and uh that is not just exclusive to you. when you see others around you doing the same thing, that creates that culture of we don't end at five, we end when the work is done. And I think for sales producers specifically, that's an important trait to have. Ryan, um, how would you respond to to that question of the the culture that we have here, how would you describe it? And most importantly, how can agents, team members create that with their own agency? [music] >> Absolutely.

[00:20:17]>> Coming to work with people that you genuinely care about. um you know, you're interested in their personal lives. Um because realistically, if you have a negative work environment, that's going to reflect reflect poorly on the phones. And it reflect if that reflects poorly on the phones, that's going to reflect poorly [music] on the premium for the month as well. Um, ultimately, right, if we have a positive culture where everyone is friendly with each other, they they care about their kids or uh maybe they have common interest, you're going to immediately have a positive reaction with someone on, you know, they pick up on the phone that you're going to be in a much better mood and that's going to reflect in the conversation. That's going to lead to more deals closed as well as higher premium. So, when when we had our interview, both of you guys separately, you had some sort of expectation of what this would look like. What is something that surprised you once you started here and you were here for a week or two, whatever period of time, what was the surprising elements that you did not see coming?

[00:21:14]>> Um, yeah, I it really surprised me to see that everyone is kind of on the same page as far as that work hard, play hard mindset goes. Uh, you know, you'll typically see um some people come in here just to to get what they to do what they need to do um then take off when they can. everyone is very very driven to hit the goals that uh they set for themselves but also stuff that um they just see going around the agency to keep up with everyone else. Uh so I was surprised to see that it's it's [music] very consistent up uh for everyone across the board.

[00:21:49]>> Yeah. Work hard, play hard. Ryan, [music] what about you?

[00:21:52]>> Absolutely. Um you know, I I think one of the biggest surprises was the amount of talent and camaraderie that we have here at the agency. It's a much different work environment than your typical um job uh that you would normally have. It it's it's truly special and it's a little bit more than just a co-orker. You know, you you find some friends and a deeper relationship with a lot of these, you know, a lot of these people. And that was one of the things that surprised me the most.

[00:22:19]Imagine that there's a team member who's starting off in a agency that is smaller. They have maybe three, four people [music] on their team. They're just getting started building out their sales team and this producer is watching this conversation and they're thinking, "What can I get out of this conversation that would help me in [music] my first month?" What advice would you give them to ensure that they're set up for success and they could close a deal a day and not just [music] have a good first full month, but beyond that be very successful in the industry? Ryan, why don't you go first and Robbie will close.

[00:22:55]>> Yeah, absolutely. My advice would be it's sometimes it takes time. Don't give up too early, right? You want to get on the phone and make a sale as soon as possible, but you might not be at the number you want that first day or that first week. It does take time. It does take practice. You know, utilizing the tools available through insurance sales lab is one of the biggest ways to get to the point where you really do want to be though. You know, for me, using the script, memorizing the script every single day, being able to be quick on the phone, quick with the systems is really what led to my first month's success of 60,000 in premium. Give it a little bit of time, utilize the tools available to you, and you'll be successful.

[00:23:37]>> Yeah, like I said earlier, it's really [music] important to make sure that you you realize the person that you're talking to on the phone is talking to you for a reason. They're expecting to get a great policy written [music] at a great rate and they're waiting for that.

[00:23:51]That's that's what they're there for.

[00:23:53]Another really big thing is to have patience and slow down a little bit. I try to make up for what I don't know by just speeding through things to try to hit as many numbers as possible. And I I'd skip steps on the phone. I uh do things incorrectly for a little bit. You know, it's it's important to slow down, ask the right questions. Don't speed through anything. Take your time with it and make sure that it's a great policy that's being written and not [music] just something that you're trying to sell based on price. That's right.

[00:24:21]>> Yeah. Everybody who's watching this is likely an insurance sales lab member and you have so many resources in the pre-recorded library where you have the one call close master class that teaches you how to [music] sell. Watch that not just once. Watch it again after you start selling. Go back and watch it again [music] because now you're going to have more context of how these calls actually go. The first time you watch it when you first get into insurance, it just seems so foreign. It seems helpful, but you don't really have context to how these calls [music] go. But for you both, now that you've sold for a month, this would be a perfect time to go back and rewatch the one called close calls master class.

[00:25:03]But in addition to that, every Wednesday we do our Wednesday workshops where we listen to call recordings and we pick apart what went well, what could have gone better. And those are videos that we uploaded to the platform in the Wednesday workshop section. Go there and watch those videos instead of coming home in the evening and just watching movies. [music] When you're starting a new career, you want to be obsessed with knowing every little detail, every getting every little advantage that you can get [music] to uh to better equip yourself. And one way to do that is by watching these videos. So if you're new, if you're seasoned, [music] we want to reassure you that this is a fantastic career if you can if you make it that. [music] There's a lot of people who are in the business for 5 10 years and they never get to 40,000 in premium because [music] they don't commit to having a high target. And for for you, Robbie, something that you said before we went live uh earlier today. You said, "Gosh, [music] I'm kind of kicking myself because 40,000 was not my goal. I wanted to do even more than that." And that kind of thinking you need to always have when you hit a certain goal, then set a bigger goal. So for you, Ryan, what is your goal going into next month?

[00:26:14]>> Pass 60,000 in premium. Uh that is going to be the new baseline. my next month I'm shooting for at least 70,000 in premium. Um I'm already off to a really great start and like I said, right, this stuff takes time. Um I went from a 5% close rate my first week to, you know, well above 30 almost 40% in that last week of my first folio. And now I'm already off to the races. Um so that's a goal that I'm going to have. And each month you be one or each month you be a little bit better, 1% better each and every day. And uh that's the idea, right? you just to keep on improving.

[00:26:51]>> Robbie, what's your goal for this month?

[00:26:53]>> My goal for this month with just something I control is making sure to hit my 80 combos and get my 30% close rate and then I believe the premium will come. Obviously, I'd like to hit 60K ideally. Um, but whatever I get as uh as a result of that 80 combos and that 30% is what I'll be happy with. That's a perfect answer because [music] setting premium goals is important, but you don't have direct control over how much premium you write, but you do have direct control over how many conversations you have and your close rate as well. Well, thank you both. I appreciate it. [music] And if you guys have any questions, u those who are watching about our training process, feel free to reach out to us. We're going to be happy to support you. With that, take care. Bye-bye. If you found this to be helpful and you want more training like this, Rob, where should they go?

[00:27:40]>> Two places. One, follow us on social media. And two, if you want to learn how to work with us, go to insurance salesaleslab.com.