The Insurance Dudes: Craig Pretzinger & Jason Feltman
What is the biggest mistake agency owners might be making when it comes to hiring? Waiting for a vacancy to open up!
Welcome back to another candid and funny episode of the playbook, today our hosts get #VeryReal and #VeryHonest with their hiring strategies. Jason and Craig evaluate an article by Amy C and give their insights on the 5 strategies that Amy has written about.
With an in-depth analysis on each of the 5 points, Idudes start by discussing when an agency should be on a lookout for hiring. Moving on to the ABH strategy and the greener grass syndrome, they discuss it all.
📻 Tune in for a really fun episode with the Idudes to learn about their very candid hiring strategies and how you can apply these tried and tested strategies to excel your agency towards success!
The Insurance Dudes are on a mission to find the best insurance agentsaround the country to find out how they are creating some of the top agencies. But they do not stop there, they also bring professionals from other industries for insights that can help agents take their agencies to the next level.
The Insurance Dudes focus on your agency’s four pillars: Hiring, Training, Marketing and Motivation! We have to keep the sword sharp if we want our agencies to thrive.
Insurance Dudes are leaders in their home, at their office and in their community. This podcast will keep you on track with like minded high performing agents while keeping entertained!
About Jason and Craig:
Both agents themselves, they both have scaled to around $10 million in premium. After searching for years for a system to create predictability in their agencies, they developed the Telefunnel after their interviews with so many agents and business leaders.
Taking several years, tons of trial and error, and hundreds of thousands of dollars on lead spend, they’ve optimized their agencies and teams to write tons of premium, consistently, and nearly on autopilot!
What is the biggest mistake agency owners might be making when it comes to hiring? Waiting for a vacancy to open up!
Welcome back to another candid and funny episode of the playbook, today our hosts get #VeryReal and #VeryHonest with their hiring strategies. Jason and Craig evaluate an article by Amy C and give their insights on the 5 strategies that Amy has written about.
With an in-depth analysis on each of the 5 points, Idudes start by discussing when an agency should be on a lookout for hiring. Moving on to the ABH strategy and the greener grass syndrome, they discuss it all.
📻 Tune in for a really fun episode with the Idudes to learn about their very candid hiring strategies and how you can apply these tried and tested strategies to excel your agency towards success!
The Insurance Dudes are on a mission to find the best insurance agentsaround the country to find out how they are creating some of the top agencies. But they do not stop there, they also bring professionals from other industries for insights that can help agents take their agencies to the next level.
The Insurance Dudes focus on your agency’s four pillars: Hiring, Training, Marketing and Motivation! We have to keep the sword sharp if we want our agencies to thrive.
Insurance Dudes are leaders in their home, at their office and in their community. This podcast will keep you on track with like minded high performing agents while keeping entertained!
About Jason and Craig:
Both agents themselves, they both have scaled to around $10 million in premium. After searching for years for a system to create predictability in their agencies, they developed the Telefunnel after their interviews with so many agents and business leaders.
Taking several years, tons of trial and error, and hundreds of thousands of dollars on lead spend, they’ve optimized their agencies and teams to write tons of premium, consistently, and nearly on autopilot!
Welcome back to another enlightening episode of the Insurance Dudes. I'm your host, jason Feldman, and as always, I'm joined by my partner in crime, craig Pretzinger.
Speaker 2:
Thanks, mr Jason. And today we're going to dive into a topic that's been causing quite the stir over in the insurance world the so-called unexpected costs of turnover Insurance. Dudes are on a mission to escape being handcuffed by our agencies.
Speaker 1:
How? By uncovering the secrets to creating a predictable, consistent and profitable agency sales machine. I am Craig Prutzinger. I am Jason Feltman. We are agents. We are insurance dudes oh yeah, agents. We are insurance news. Oh yeah, you might have seen an article floating around by amy c wanninger, who seems to have more acronyms after her name than a bowl of alphabet soup oh my gosh, you're just freaking running it.
Speaker 2:
so yeah, she is very well credentialed. I think there's probably 15 different little CLUFs and all that stuff after name, which is great. Sure, a lot of studying. But here's the thing, folks a lot of what she's saying in the article doesn't really align with the kinds of things that we've been seeing in the real world. And it would make sense, because all those things come from the academic world.
Speaker 1:
Right, yeah, yeah, this is the insurance world. And it would make sense because all those things come from the academic world. Right, yeah, yeah, this is the insurance world. So we've been in the trenches building some of the most successful agencies out there and we know exactly what works when it comes to hiring top talent and growing your business.
Speaker 2:
For sure, yeah. So today, what we want to do is take a closer look at five different points that she brings up in her article, and we're going to give you our hashtag no filter, no nonsense.
Speaker 1:
Take on each one of them Hashtag color me excited, you're so.
Speaker 2:
TikTok-y.
Speaker 1:
Hold on, Mr Craig, but before we dive in, let me ask you this, Craig what's the number one mistake you see with agency owners making when it comes to hiring?
Speaker 2:
Well, that's the easy one. They're going to wait until they have a vacancy, then they're going to look for the candidates. And that, my friends, is the recipe for disaster.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely so. The key to successful hiring is to always be on the lookout for top talent, right Even when you don't have an immediate opening. Ooh, that's a tough one, right? Yeah, but we'll come back to that in a bit. Let's start off with Amy's first point.
Speaker 2:
So empty seats don't deliver. This is what she says. Right, if we have empty seats, they don't deliver. Okay, so right. She's stating the obvious here. Of course, having an empty seat doesn't deliver, but she's also making a faulty assumption that the best way to hire is to do it when it's needed.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, exactly, in the agency space, hiring needs to be an ever present, consistent process. You can't just wait until someone leaves to start looking for a replacement.
Speaker 2:
Right, here's the reality, folks. If you want to make one great hire, you're typically going to need at least 60 candidates in your pipeline. 20 of those might show up to a call or a group thing or some kind of interview. Three of those 20 are going to actually be of the caliber that you're going to want in your one-on-one interviews and, if you're lucky, from that, one is going to be a good producer.
Speaker 1:
So if you're not constantly filling that pipeline, you're going to be in a world of hurt when turnover inevitably happens, right? Yeah, we know it's going to happen. It always happens. Amy's just not in the right ballpark on this one. What do you think, craig?
Speaker 2:
I agree, I think she's just not a baseball fan. Yeah, yeah, just not making it happen. And I think we've just not a baseball fan yeah, yeah, just not, just not making it happen. And I think we both been through that and the and I guess the natural way to do it, if it's if you're not thinking about it and being intentional and setting that process is to just kind of put it off and then when you have to do it, you do it, but it's extremely costly and it's just like you end up doing twice the work.
Speaker 1:
10 times and you get so mad at yourself when you do this right. Like every time, the self-talk gets very negative in my head when I get in this situation. It's like damn it, you know, oh yeah yeah, all right, let's get so.
Speaker 2:
So let's dive into number two, recruiting. Recruiting costs money and time. All right, so let's move on to Amy's second point. She goes on and on and on, all about the time and money needed to hire someone to replace the vacancy. Right?
Speaker 1:
But again she is missing the mark. I believe the solution isn't to begrudgingly invest in recruiting when you have an opening, it's always be hiring a, b, h and to outsource the bulk of the process right.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I don't say A-B-H, I say but same thing. I mean tomato, tomato, right? So you nailed it, right? She just keeps saying it. I'm curious if the next three after this are also going to be something along the same lines, right? So her concert she's talking about the hiring manager. She's talking about, uh, of of just of all these different things that that just seem to indicate that she's out of touch. Uh, your small, typical, small business owner is not going to have a hiring manager, right? But there's a lot of different ways to really, to really increase the efficiency of it. We spent years to optimize our own hiring funnel so that it's always going right, but, but again, without all the labor.
Speaker 1:
That's the beauty of a well-designed hiring system. It runs on autopilot, so you're not scrambling when turnover happens.
Speaker 2:
Amy's just not thinking strategically there, yeah you are just beating up Amy, aren't you, Mr Jason?
Speaker 1:
No, she's nice.
Speaker 2:
Why don't you introduce the next one?
Speaker 1:
All right, here we go. Point number three greener grass syndrome.
Speaker 2:
and it's contagious, ooh okay, okay, look at this. Amy pops in with something that actually may have something here. Okay, I'll give her a little credit. She's right, the greener grass syndrome is contagious. So if people and what does this mean? It means if people see their colleagues leaving, right, if they're at your agency, they leave to go somewhere else, and they are telling them oh man, they're paying more and they're doing this and that. Right, it does definitely plant a seed.
Speaker 1:
Right Now, you can apply the the greener grass syndrome to everything. Right, we all want the other thing. Yeah, but here's where she misses the mark. Oh, mr Jason, I'm sorry, amy. I'm sorry, amy, I'm sorry, but your agency should never be considered less of an opportunity than anywhere else. Right, if it is that's on you as the agency owner. Remember, this is an offer. Right, like it's almost like a product. You look at it like something that you're selling right To your team. If it's not attractive to your team, come on, what are you doing?
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. We've designed it in our agencies and tested it right To make sure that it worked and it does. We've designed the hiring uh and built our sales structure in such a way that it actually attracts the people right. So they see what we're doing in the agency and they're like, oh damn, this, this is really good here. Right, there isn't a greener pasture.
Speaker 1:
A hundred percent. It's not about trying to suppress people's desires for something better. It's about making sure your agency is the best opportunity around. Remember this is an offer, right? You want them to want to be there. You want to retain them. It's so expensive turnover Amy's just not thinking big enough here.
Speaker 2:
It's wild to think that you would not put them in the position where they want to be at your place, right? So yeah, it just has to be the greenest pasture I like. Point four, craig, give it to me. You want me to give it to you? I'll give it to you. Yeah, slap it over. The burden falls on the team that remains, okay. So point four she's talking about how the burden falls on the remaining team when someone leaves. So that means more work for everybody left.
Speaker 1:
Sure that can happen, yeah, but here's the thing I do it when you have the right systems in place, the burden doesn't have to change per producer. We use a telefunnel that maximizes each agent's potential by giving them the tools, the support, the leads everything they need to be successful.
Speaker 2:
Right, exactly so. If someone leaves and you're not ready, that's again, that's on you, and both Jason and I learned that ourselves the hard way and that's why we're sharing it. If you have a hiring resource, whether it's a recruiter on call or you have your own hiring funnel, you're ready to go at all times. So there has to be this constant flow.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and the burden falls on you to maintain a steady pipeline of talent. Remember, you're the agency owner. It's not about scrambling to fill a void. It's about being proactive and strategic. This is where you really put on your agency owner hat.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and a lot of folks, or even myself, I used to get scared thinking of investing that money. And it's very short-sighted to be doing that, because what happens is it's like, oh, I'm focused on this couple thousand here and holding on white knuckling when really in reality, by doing that I'm costing myself a ton because now I'm not getting the leverage of having more people. I'm stuck doing all this stuff. And I mean I was costing myself a ton because now I'm not getting the leverage of having more people. I'm stuck doing all this stuff. And I mean I was. You were too. We're here, dark to dark, right Yep, Answering the phone, doing all that stuff. And that's not business ownership.
Speaker 1:
Nope, that is acting self-employed right there yeah.
Speaker 2:
Point number five.
Speaker 1:
Hit me with it Reputation among job seekers.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so can we just take a moment to address the ridiculousness of Amy's final point. I'm glad you're starting. I mean I've done. She's trying to argue that job seekers are out there obsessively tracking your job postings and making judgments about your company.
Speaker 1:
Right, like they don't have anything better to do. Look, if you're consistently putting out quality opportunities and building a stronger employer brand remember it's a brand that you're putting out there You'll attract top talent. Period the end.
Speaker 2:
Thank you, bye-bye's. It's so funny she's arguing for the opposite of what works, using a point that makes no sense right.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, amy's just grasping at straws on this one, I think it's.
Speaker 2:
It's a non-issue if you're doing everything else, right and it shows what happens when you use ai to write your stuff for you. Yeah, it does so. All right, folks, we covered a lot of ground today. I hope it's clear that while Amy raises some points, her perspective is just a little bit too academic and I think it's kind of out of touch with what we all are experiencing, like we're experiencing this.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's right. Building a successful agency requires a strategic, proactive approach to hiring and talent management. Right, it's not about reacting to turnover, it's about creating a system that consistently attracts and retains top talent.
Speaker 2:
So if you're an agency owner and you must be, because I can't imagine that you would be listening If you're not, take your business to the next level, If you don't get caught up in the doom and gloom of articles like this. So you find these things all over the place. Everybody's screaming about it's the end of times. Run away from that stuff. It's not doing any good.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, any good, yeah. And if you want to learn more about how to do that, well, you'll just have to tune into the next episode of the insurance dudes. Right? We've got some game changing strategies, and if it doesn't change the game, it's okay. Maybe it just adds to the game, or maybe it's a better game to share with you that you definitely don't want to miss. So you got to stay tuned.
Speaker 2:
That's right, mr Jason, and I know that one of your favorite terms is game changer, so I'm glad that you said that. It's just amazing You've made so much growth. So, yeah, hit that subscribe button, join us next time, and we're going to continue exploring the ins and outs of building your thriving insurance agency Until then this is Jason and Craig signing off and reminding you to always be hiring and always be a guru, bye-bye.