Insurance advisors Chris Bolling and Chris Byer merged their practices four years ago and generated $3.5 million in new revenue by dividing roles: Bolling handles details and operations, Byer hunts for new clients. They spent a year defining boundaries and learning to drop ego.
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First and foremost, if you are tuning in, listening, or watching, look at the names here. Chris Bolling, B-O-L-L-I-N-G, Chris Byer, B-A-Y-E-R. Go look these guys up on LinkedIn and model what they're doing. So, thanks, Andy. We first connected, guys, back in 2020. You joined one of the academies I was running, which we'll talk about just for a little bit. For a quick level set for the people listening, since you said in the last 3 or 4 years, You guys team sell, so you guys work together. How much business have you sold over the last 3 or 4 years?
Yeah, I mean, we started merging our book, yeah, probably 4 years ago now. This may be our 4.5-year mark to work together, but together we've been able to generate over $3.5 million in new revenue combined and have significantly increased our book compared to what we were doing prior to team selling.
That is one amazing— I want people to hear that again. Over the last 3 or 4 years, $3.5 million of new revenue. It is possible when you do the work and you do it the right way. So, Bowling, talk to me about the power of team selling. When you guys made that decision to merge and really come together, what, where do you think that has helped you guys, or how do you think that has helped you guys elevate kind of what you are doing from a sales perspective?
Yeah, and it, and it actually came from my mentor, uh, retired, um, in our agency, and we lost 80% of his clients in the first 6 months because not a single one of his clients were introduced to me or to Chris Byer. And as I started looking to the future, number one, Chris and I have been writing together, selling together since his first day, and I just realized that he has skill sets I don't. I think I have skill sets he does not. And I thought, yes, You know, I wonder if we could team sell together and truly team sell, get egos out of the way, just join our books together. So now we don't really care, that's my client, this is your client. We could probably accomplish two things. Number one, when I do step away, the hope is that all my clients know Chris no different than they know me, and we won't see that loss. But that was really how it started. What I didn't realize is once we joined our books of business, I think we were both fully engaged in how do we grow versus, yeah, let's write this account together or let's write that account together. But it took us a year to really figure out— the selling part was easy, Andy. The hard part was managing the book is literally a client would send an email, we're both responding. And it took us a year to figure out, okay, buyer, Your skill sets are here, stay here. My skill sets are here, I'm gonna stay here. Let us handle that day-to-day stuff. You just hunt. Get out and hunt, 'cause that's what he's so freaking good at. And yeah, it's just been, it's been fun. I mean, it's, you know, obviously growth has its challenges, but, you know, 99.5% of the day, it's fun. It's the 5% that we all deal with.
Would you agree with that, Bayer? Is it, did it help that you guys had different skill sets, one being more of a hunter, maybe one being more of a really technically sound— I hate to use the word manager, but at the same time, Bolling may like the details more than you do. You like the selling more than he does. Okay.
Yeah, I think that was the key. You know, when I started, you know, almost 10 years ago coming up in April, I just, I set appointments and said, Chris, drive with me because I don't know what we're selling. I have no idea what we're doing, but I know how to set appointments. And, you know, I'd come from voluntary benefits space, not, anything related to benefit consulting. I mean, very small sliver. And we started to realize even in those early days that Chris knew what a self-funded health plan did. He understood, you know, those questions to ask. And so I learned a lot from him. But yes, we've kind of gravitated to that point where I could certainly handle A to Z with a client, but I'd much rather find those employers that need help and then let us bring a solution. And then Chris and our team be there to fulfill that for them for years to come. It's been a great merger together.
Yeah. I see that a lot. We have several agencies we work with where there is team selling going on. And I always, I feel like the best team selling occurs when the people understand what their gift is, what their skillset is, but they have the ability to drop the ego and know they need the other person with the other skillset to help them out.
