Your Agency Doesn't Have a Growth Problem (It Has an Alignment Problem)

Welcome to the Agent Leader Podcast. This is the podcast for insurance agency leaders to challenge your thinking, to raise the status quo, to increase your team's performance, and ultimately become your best version possible. My name is Brent Kelly. I'm your host. And today I want to talk about a topic that's been on my mind a lot lately. It's something that I see over and over and over again in working with insurance agencies and brokerages across North America. These are agencies with different sizes, different locations, different specialties, different leadership teams and dynamics. And yet, despite all those differences, many agencies find themselves facing the same frustrations. Growth has slowed down or plateaued. The team is busy but doesn't seem to be making the progress that they truly hope for. Producers are up and down. They're very inconsistent. Service and service teams, they feel overwhelmed. And leaders, maybe you, spend most of their time putting out fires instead of building for the future. If any of those things, maybe all of those things sound familiar, guess what? I have good news. You're not alone. I've worked with agencies over the past many years, and I've become convinced that most agencies don't have a talent problem. They'll talk about talent. It's not the number one problem. They don't have an effort problem. There might be some areas that need more effort, but that's not their number one problem. And I don't believe, especially if you're listening to this podcast, that they have a desire problem. Agencies have an alignment problem. And today on this podcast, I want to explain why I believe, and I think I'll prove to you today, that alignment changes everything. You know, over the past several years, when we have spoken with leaders from our private client network, we continue to ask, hey, what's been the biggest impact item that's transforming your agency. Where are you winning? Where are you getting the most success? Is it more growth, greater profit, greater agency value? And quite frankly, although though they have expressed those answers, that has not been the number one thing. They may mention producer development, they may mention improved strategies and processes, or they may talk about, hey, having a defined selling process has been great. But one theme continues to stand out. Alignment. Now, have some fun with me here. I want you to picture for a minute your agency as a rowboat. The boat represents your agency, your business. The people in the boat represent your team. The destination represents your vision. Now, let me ask you a few questions. Is everyone rowing in the same direction? Is everyone rowing at the same cadence? Does everyone understand where you're trying to go? Or are people simply rowing as hard as they can, but maybe in different cadences and maybe even in different directions? Because effort without alignment creates friction, and friction slows progress. That's why today's conversation isn't about working harder. I'm a big believer in working hard, don't get me wrong, but this is about alignment. This is about working together. Now, over the years, I've noticed that when agencies hit a plateau or they stagnate, they're typically thinking about 4 things, 4 ways to improve their agency. Now, please understand me, this does not mean these are bad things, but they are traditional ways of thinking that doesn't necessarily propel an agency forward. And it's why they get stuck. I'll call these the 4 mores. Why? Because there are 4 things that all start with more. Here's often what agencies try to do. Hey, we're trying to improve. We're stuck. We're plateaued. We want to do better. Let's get more producers. Let's create more activity. Let's go find more clients. Let's have more accountability. And you might be thinking, those don't sound like bad things, Brent. Well, let's, let's walk through each one. And I'm going to start with this idea of getting more or better producers. We need more producers. Have you ever said that as an agency leader? Now, by the way, maybe you do. I'm not against getting more producers, but growth usually requires talented producers. But before you post another job opening, ask yourself a few questions. Right now in your current agency, do your producers have a clearly defined sales process? Today, do your producers know exactly what's expected of them every week? Are your producers coached consistently? Do they follow the same system? Are your producers' expectations crystal clear? Because if the answer is not really, adding another producer doesn't solve the problem. Hear me clearly, it doesn't solve the problem. It often multiplies it. I've seen agencies replace producers only to recreate the exact same results 6 months later. Eventually, what they realize is the producer wasn't the biggest problem. The system was. Listen, so many agencies, and I get it, they rely on a superstar or two, and if you're a large agency, maybe you've got several superstars. These are the producers that carry the bulk of the production. And again, don't get me wrong, having superstar producers is great, but they are extremely hard to replicate. And here's another thing, even superstars, although they will be great because they're superstars, will not perform at their elite level without strong agency culture and systems. Plus, building your agency off of a superstar or two, I've said this before, it's really hard to duplicate or replicate or build systems around. Now, please understand this. Traditional thinking relies on, we'll just go find more producers. And while hiring producers is not bad in itself, it's rarely the solution to the real problem. It's a symptom, not a cause. The real problem is often the system. One of the things that we talk about at the Sitkins Group is the world's greatest recruiter producing method. How do you go get great producers? Go find more producers. What do you do? Where do you find them? How do you get them? All these things. Here's the world's greatest producer recruiting method. You ready? It's about designing a system to get your current producers to do what they should be doing in the first place. Produce. We'll talk more about that on this podcast, I promise. All right, the second more where agencies get in trouble— if we just do more of this, then we'll fix the problem— it's more activity. More activity. Now, don't misunderstand me, activity matters. Prospecting matters. Appointments matter. Sales conversations matter. But activity does not equal accomplishment. And being busy is not a badge of honor. Let's go back to my rowboat. Imagine everyone in the rowboat is rowing as hard as they possibly can. But half are rowing north, the other half are rowing south. They're exhausted, they're working hard, but the boat's not moving much. That's exactly what happens inside many agencies. Everyone is busy, busy, busy. Just ask them, how's today? Busy. How's tomorrow? Busy. How was your week? Busy, but not everyone is focused on the same priorities. I could tell you I've learned this lesson personally through fitness. There have been seasons where I've worked incredibly hard in the gym, but hard work without the right plan doesn't necessarily produce better results. You could spend hours and hours in the gym doing a bunch of random stuff, or you could do a few things that matter, right? Progress comes when your training aligns with your goal. The same thing is certainly true inside of an insurance agency. The question isn't, how do we get everyone to do more? The better question is, how do we get everyone focused on what matters most? Here's the reality. Most agencies do not have a growth problem. I will say this again. Most agencies do not have a growth problem. They have a focus problem. When I initially speak with agency leaders and ask them about what they want to accomplish and all the things that they're doing to accomplish whatever that mission or desired outcome is, they often get overwhelmed just talking about it. Problem isn't activity. The problem is too much activity in too many things. Alright, the third area, the third more that I want to talk about is we need more clients. Now, this might sound counterintuitive. What do you mean? Of course, we need more clients. Maybe. But I think there's a better question. Do you, does your team, does your agency, does your brokerage actually need more clients? Or do you need more value from the right clients. One of the metrics that we've studied over many years, and it's really come to the top of the list again and again, is revenue per relationship. Now let me talk about this, and I've mentioned this on previous podcasts before, but last year we did a study, a really impactful study, on the 4 tiers of clients for an agency. So again, whatever amount of clients your agency has, you break them into 4 tiers, the equal amount of clients in each tier. Start with the top, go to the bottom. You have 1,000 clients, for example, 250 in tier 1, 250 in tier 2, tier 50 in tier 3, you get the idea, right? So the same tier. Here's what we've learned. The top tier generates 88% of the revenue. The next tier, tier 2, represents 8% of the revenue. And I'll just stop right there. That means the top half for most agencies and brokerage, the top 50% of your clients produces 96% of the revenue. Half of your clients in your agency today probably produce 4% or less of your revenue. Same number of relationships, completely different impact. Yet many agencies spend enormous time and energy serving clients that create complexity or pain or frustration, or certainly diminish time without creating much value. Sometimes growth isn't about adding more passengers, so to speak, to the boat. It's about making sure the passengers already in the boat are the right one. Now, here's the reality. You are going to replicate something in your agency. There's a lot of things we could talk about here, but in this case, let's talk about clients. You are going to replicate a certain aspect of clients in your agency. Who or what do you want to replicate? Tier 1 or Tier 4? This comes back to focus. Guess what? As an independent insurance agency, you get to choose. No, we don't. Yes, you do. And as the knight said to Indiana Jones, if you've ever watched the movie, if not, I'm sorry, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He said this, choose wisely. That's my advice or caution to you, the agency leader. When it comes to choosing clients you want to work on, choose wisely. All right. The fourth area, the traditional way of thinking, the fourth more is we need more accountability. This is a huge struggle with agencies and brokerage. We get it. Our accountability is weak or not as effective or efficient as it should be. Now, this one always kind of makes me smile a bit because not that accountability isn't important, it absolutely is. But accountability has gotten a very bad reputation. People think of accountability as pressure, more meetings, more reports, more uncomfortable conversations. That is not accountability. I say this with love, but that's poor leadership. Real accountability is simply helping people stay on course. Think about the navigation system in your car. Maybe it's on your phone or it's built in, but when you miss a turn, does it yell at you? Does it criticize you? Does it shame you? Hey, stupid, turn the car around. Now, maybe it should. All right? Maybe you have someone in your car that helps you with that part of it. I don't know. Right? But your navigation system says this, recalculating. That's accountability, helping someone get back on course. So what if accountability, now just hear me out for a second. What if accountability isn't actually the key problem? What if clarity is the problem? And here's why I say this. When expectations aren't clear, accountability feels like punishment. Think about it. I wasn't clear on what my role was. I wasn't clear on what the expectation was. I wasn't clear on who I was working with. I wasn't clear on the out— whatever it is. When expectations are not clear, well, you should have done that. It feels like punishment. Wait a second, what did I do? But when expectations are clear, Accountability feels like coaching. Now, here's one more caveat I want to add to this, and I'm going to add some personal flavor here. Accountability is also a two-way street. Yes, teams need to be accountable to leaders, but leaders lead, and they should go first. Now, one of the caveats we teach in our program and in our network is a two way promise, a two-way promise, an agreement that is not one-sided. It has expectations and agreements for leaders and for their team members, both, right? Because here's the deal, this idea, and I'm not going to get the specifics of it, but if we have key areas as a leader, here are my expectations and obligations to you, and this could be for sales to service and vice versa. And for the team members, here what the expectations are for you. Because if you're not documenting things, what are you accountable to or for? And most importantly, how do you course correct? It's really hard to fix something you don't know is broken or try to course correct to something that doesn't exist. I mean, think about that. And here's the idea behind accountability. The best agencies seek and desire accountability. Not because they have nothing better to do, believe me, but because if you truly care and want the best for others, we need to be honest and effective in our accountability. None of us are perfect. The best performers seek progress, and progress comes through accountability. Alright, so I just shared here 4 old ideas, and not that they're bad, but they're traditional, right? More producers, more activity, more clients, more accountability. But if the 4 mores aren't the answer, what is? Now, over time, I found that high-performing agencies tend to believe 3 things. I think about like overall, there's a lot of things that the top-level agencies do. And again, no agency is perfect. But if I had to sit like, what are 3 core things that we see again and again and again, these are the 3 that jump out at me. Number 1 is growth is built on fundamentals. I'm going to start with number 1. Growth is built on fundamentals. Everyone wants the newest strategy. I just spoke at an event last week. Hey, what's the new thing we need to know? And I just kind of smile. They want to know about the newest technology. Of course, the newest AI tool, they're everywhere. In fact, the first person that came in, it was a great conversation. Hey, what are you going to talk about AI? I'm like, not much. Now, by the way, I use AI. I love AI. I think there's some great things you can do with it, but let's not lose focus. Let's talk about the newest marketing tactic, right? Whatever it is, it's the new shiny object. But the agencies that continue to grow year after year after year rarely do so because they found some magic bullet. They simply execute the fundamentals with remarkable consistency. Consistent prospecting, consistent coaching, consistent communication, consistent leadership. Here's the problem. The fundamentals are not flashy. They are not sexy. That's boring. You know what? Maybe, but they win championships. I'll never forget talking to a high-level producer who expressed this so well. He goes, you know, sometimes my week to week is really boring. But you know what's not boring? My lifestyle. You get to choose, right? So whether you're coaching athletes, building a business, or improving your own life, the basics matter. The agencies that grow year after year are not doing extraordinary flashy things. They're doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. They do them again and again and again. And here's the principle. Consistency beats intensity every time. One of the things that I've been more convinced of more than ever over the last several years is that traditional training by itself does not create lasting change. Probably sounds weird coming from someone who does consulting and coaching and training. Now, don't get me wrong, I love training. It's what I dedicated much of my career to. I believe great ideas matter. I'm talking about content right now to you on this podcast. New strategies matter. Learning matters. But I've also had to be honest with myself. I've watched people leave conferences energized. I've watched teams fill notebooks, pages of ideas. I've delivered sessions where people gave ovations. That's exactly what I needed to hear. That was amazing. What a great day. And then 90 days later, very little had changed. Not because the training wasn't valuable, not because the people didn't care, because traditional training tends to create intensity while real growth requires consistency. In fact, research— latest research suggests that a significant percentage of what people learn in traditional training is forgotten. It's gone within a few months. One of the common cited figures that I've seen is that 84% of training is lost within 90 days without follow-up and application. Now think about that. Organizations spend thousands of dollars sending people to conferences and workshops and seminars. Again, not that they're bad things. People leave inspired, they're motivated, they're full of ideas. But what happens? We know inspiration fades, motivation fades. What lasts are the systems, the habits, the coaching, the accountability that help people consistently execute long after the event is over. That's why I've come to believe that growth is not built on moments of intensity. It's built on rhythms of consistency. Our second area I want to talk about: growth is a team sport. Too many agencies believe growth belongs to producers. That's partially true. But growth doesn't just belong to producers, it belongs to everyone. Leadership, sales, service, operations, marketing, finance. Every person that influenced the client experience, every person influences growth. One of the greatest privileges of my career has been sitting in the rooms. This is awesome. You sit in rooms with agency leaders, producers, account managers, and leadership teams. From all over the country. And I continue to be amazed by something. The collective genius in this industry is incredible. I've watched groups of producers spend years competing inside their own organization. And when they sit down at a table with producers from either their own agency or certainly other agencies, within minutes, they're openly sharing ideas to help everyone sell more effectively. I've seen service teams do the exact same thing. Someone asks a simple question like, how are you handling renewals? What's your process for onboarding? And suddenly everyone's talking. One idea sparks another. One agency shares a process, another improves it. Before long, everyone leaves with pages of ideas they can implement immediately. One of the reasons I love our mastermind group so much and our roundtables during our programs is that every single time someone walks into the room, whether it's in person or virtual, and they're wondering what they're going to learn. And every time they walk out, again, virtual or in person, they say, I had no idea how much we could learn from each other. We share a lot of really important, impactful ideas during our programs. People want more interaction. Why? It's part of alignment. It's also part of understanding that teams grow, right? Teams win championships. It's that kind of collaboration that creates breakthroughs between different agencies. Now, I say that with all agencies. Imagine what's possible when it happens inside your own agency. When leadership shares openly with producers, when producers collaborate with service, when operations help remove friction, when marketing doesn't fight sales but support sales, when finance help everyone understand the numbers. Now, again, the size of your agency may differ in how these apartments are set up, but the idea is this. Momentum builds because growth doesn't happen when talented individuals work in isolation. Growth happens when talented people align around a common vision, learn from each other, and move in the same direction. Alignment isn't just about communication. It's about shared ownership. It's about believing that every person has something valuable to contribute. Because when people stop protecting ideas, my idea, mine, mine, mine, and start sharing them, everyone gets better. Now, here's the third area I want to talk about, right? I talked about understanding that it's about the fundamentals, that it really is about creating a team sport and team atmosphere. Here's the one that moves everything. Alignment creates leverage. Alignment creates leverage. Here's the biggest lesson I've learned after spending years working with agencies across North America. Alignment creates leverage. Now think about it for a minute. Leverage isn't about working harder. It's about getting a greater return from the effort you're already putting in. You're already doing the work. All right, we've all seen someone use a long pry bar to move something they could never lift with their brute strength alone. Was it their strength? No, it was smart of strength. They used leverage because the effort doesn't change nearly as much as the result, right? It doesn't. Like, you're putting the same effort in but getting a huge result. The same thing happens inside of an agency. Most agencies— and I said this earlier— they do not have an effort problem. The people are working really hard. The challenge is that effort isn't always aligned. Not every activity creates equal value. Not every meeting deserves to be on the calendar. Not every initiative should become a priority. Not every opportunity should become a yes. It's okay to say no. One of the biggest mistakes I see is that agencies try to improve 10, 15, 20 things all at once. A new sales initiative, a new marketing campaign, a new technology platform, a new service process, a new compensation plan, a new hiring strategy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And individually, none of those are bad. Collectively, they create noise. And when everything is important, you got it, nothing's important. The highest performing agencies I've worked with are incredibly disciplined. They're not necessarily doing more. In most cases, they're doing less, but they're doing the right things with extraordinary consistency. They're aligned around a clear vision, a handful at most of priorities. They have very clear expectations. They share standards. Their systems are simple. It's about consistent execution. That's leverage. Now, one of the things I've talked about on this podcast before is probably been on this podcast many times is the 80/20 principle. I can't talk about it enough. A small percentage of your activities create the majority of your results. A small percentage of your clients create the majority of your revenue. A small percentage of your leadership behaviors shape the culture of your organization. The challenge is not understanding 80/20. Most people get it. The right input of the 20% gets me 80% of the output. That's leverage. Here's the challenge. The challenge is getting your entire agency aligned around the right 20%. This is the problem we see, maybe even by individual or department. I got my 20%. I got my 20%. I got my 20%, but they're not the same. Imagine if every person in your agency woke up tomorrow and knew exactly what mattered most. Not 10 priorities, 3. Imagine if every department understood their role and how it contributed to the agency's vision. Imagine if every meeting ended with clarity instead of confusion. Imagine if producers, service, leadership, and operations all measured success the same way. Would people just start working harder? Not necessarily. They're already working hard. Would the agency perform dramatically better? Oh yeah. Because alignment doesn't necessarily increase effort. It multiplies the impact, the impact of effort. That's leverage. Alignment doesn't necessarily increase effort. Please hear me. It multiplies the impact of effort. And that's leverage. It's why two agencies with equally talented people can produce completely different results. I see this all the time. One is busy. One is aligned. One is reacting. One is executing. One is paying the performance tax. I'll talk about that in a minute. The other is benefiting from the alignment advantage. And that's why I believe alignment is one of the greatest competitive advantage an agency can create. It doesn't require hiring more people. It doesn't require buying another piece of technology. It doesn't require another motivational speech or more content. It requires leaders who are willing to create clarity. Establish priorities, reinforce standards, and help everyone row in the same direction. That is the power and the leverage of alignment. Now I want to take this one step further. Talk about the positives of alignment. It creates and builds incredible leverage. And if alignment creates leverage, what does misalignment create? Well, in my words, it creates a tax, a performance tax, and every agency pays it. The question isn't whether you're paying it. Everybody's paying some form of it. And I know how much everybody loves taxes, right? The question is, how much is it costing you? Now, you're not going to find performance tax on your next income statement or your P&L. There's no line item called misalignment, but it's there. It's in the opportunities that never became clients. It's in the producers who stay busy but aren't consistently producing. It's the account managers who spend their day reacting all day instead of proactively finding ways to create value. It's in the leadership team that spends more time putting out fires than building the future and the culture of your agency. It's in the meetings that create discussions but not decisions. It's in the frustration that slowly drains the energy from your culture. It's in the talented people who eventually leave because they feel like they're working hard, but they're not making meaningful progress. Every day, your agency is either creating leverage, or you're paying the performance tax. And at Sitkins, we've learned that goals are important. Of course, Goals are good. Goals are important. Right? But standards, standards are transformational. Goals give you something to pursue. Standards define what great looks like. Now, over the years, we've established 3 performance standards for every one of our partner agencies, not because we expect every agency to be there today or right away, but they provide clarity on what's possible to become their best version, their performance standards. And by the way, agencies can absolutely obtain this. It doesn't happen overnight, but it is absolutely possible because we see it all the time. What are the standards, the performance standards that we talk about? 15% organic growth. I know the mark goes up and down, but consistent 15% organic growth, 30% operating profit. That's excluding contingency. And the third one is $300,000 revenue per employee. Is that a magic number? No, it's not a magic number, but it's a very clear indication of agency culture, health, and of course capacity. All right, these aren't just financial metrics, they're performance indicators. They tell us if an agency is creating alignment alignment around priorities, alignment around expectations, alignment around execution, alignment around leadership. Now, let me ask you a few questions. If your agency is growing at 7% instead of 15%, what's that gap costing you? If your operating profit is 18% instead of 30%, what's that gap costing you? If you're generating $225,000 of revenue per employee instead of $300,000, What's that gap costing you? Not just this year, but over the next 3 years, 5 years, 10 years. How many millions of dollars never make it to your bottom line because your agency never reaches its potential? How much unnecessary stress has your team carried? How much capacity have you lost? How many opportunities have slipped through the cracks? How many evenings do you come home exhausted wondering, why are we working so darn hard yet we're not quite getting to where we want and need to go? That's the performance tax. And here's what concerns me the most. Too many agencies have simply never accepted it. They've made average or good enough normal. They've normalized producer inconsistency. They've normalized service overload. They've normalized constant firefighting. They've normalized average growth. But here's something I want you to remember. Average isn't harmless. Average is expensive. The agencies that break through aren't necessarily filled with smarter people. They don't work dramatically harder. They simply refuse to keep paying the performance tax. Instead, they pursue alignment. Because when people align around the right vision, the right priorities, the right standards, the right actions, growth accelerates, profitability improves, capacity expands, momentum builds. And that's when agencies begin to experience what we believe every agency is capable of: becoming their best version possible. In fact, just a little highlight here, Roger Sitkins, myself, we co-authored a book called Best Version Possible. And my question to you is this: if today's conversation has you thinking, I wonder what we're paying in performance tax? I wonder how aligned our agency really is? I wonder how close we are to those performance standards? We've created a very simple assessment. And this isn't designed to give you a great overview of your agency that's going to tell you how bad you are, how amazing you are. But it's designed to give you clarity, to help you identify your strengths, uncover your greatest opportunities, and measure where you are today. Most importantly, is to help you identify the steps to become your best version possible. If you'd like to see where you are, this is a very simple but powerful score, a quiz, an assessment, whatever you want to call it. Just go to sitkins.com/getmyscore. sitkins.com/getmyscore. It only takes a few minutes to complete, and you'll immediately gain insight into where you're strong and where the gaps exist. And of course, where you have the greatest opportunities to improve. All right? As we wrap up today's episode, I wanna leave you with 4 questions. All right? 4 questions going back to the boat, all right? To think about this area of alignment. Number 1, is everyone on your team rowing towards the same destination? Does everyone understand what success looks like? Are your priorities truly your priorities? And where, if you're being honest, are you paying the performance tax? Because after years of working with agencies and brokerages all over North America, here's what I believe: the biggest constraint to growth— it's not talent, it's not effort, it's not activity— it's— you got it— alignment. Tomorrow morning, before your team starts working, ask yourself, one more simple question. If everyone on my team executes exactly what they believe is most important, will we accomplish our vision? If the answer is no, you don't have an effort problem, you have an alignment problem. And that's why alignment changes everything. Again, I'd encourage you to go to sitkins.com/getmyscore, complete your simple assessment. Again, only takes a few minutes. Understand your gaps, help you begin to create a plan. Most importantly, give you clarity. You want to take the best action, you need the greatest awareness. Appreciate you being here and listening in, watching if you're watching. If this episode, other episodes are providing value to you, hey, a rating and review would be awesome. A follow, subscribe, whatever podcast platform you're on. We appreciate it. I wish you and your agency all the best in your success. Thanks for listening. Hey there, agent leader, Brent Kelly here. Want to take just a few seconds to remind you that now is the time to create your true best version possible agency. If you go to sitkins.com/bookacall, sitkins.com/bookacall, we'll get to know more about your agency, conduct an agency assessment, and provide your agency with a customized plan to help you avoid some of the pitfalls, frustrations, challenges, and roadblocks to get your agency to true ultimate freedom and become its best version possible. It all starts by going to sitkins.com/bookacall.