The 6-Step Keystone Process That Pushes Your Close Rate Past 80%

You ran a strong first meeting. You found pain. You built the vision. You got commitment.

And then… you lose the deal anyway.

It happens every day in commercial insurance. Not because your proposal was weak, but because the incumbent got a second chance.

In this episode, Randy breaks down the 6-step Keystone process—the exact system top producers use to lock in deals before the second meeting ever slips away.

You’ll learn:

•  Why deals are actually won before the proposal is presented 
•  The 3 positions you’re always in walking into a second meeting 
•  How to prevent the “let me talk to my current agent” stall 
•  The one step that took a producer’s close rate above 80% 
•  How to present service in a way the incumbent can’t match 

If you’ve ever walked out of a meeting thinking, “that was a layup”… and still lost, this is the fix.

If this episode was helpful, share it with a producer or agency leader who needs it. 

 Get more insights like this every week:
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Transcript

Hey, I want you to imagine a scenario. You just had a great first meeting. You ran the pre-call strategy.

You went in knowing exactly [00:00:10] who the incumbent is and where they're weak. You ran all five steps of the wedge. You found pain and got it confirmed. You did the vision box and got them clear on how they wanted [00:00:20] the proactive services delivered. You rehearsed them through telling the incumbent it was over and you got the commitment they could and would change when they get what they [00:00:30] want.

They are ready to make a change, but you don't represent the current insurance carrier. So no BOR on the [00:00:40] table. So you're gonna have to quote it. So you fill out the apps, you send it off to the markets. After a few negotiations, you have a solid proposal. You [00:00:50] also have a full proactive service timeline built out. Coverage looks good, price is competitive.

You're fired up. So you walk into the second [00:01:00] meeting and before you present your proposal, you walk your prospect through a process called Keystone. Look, you [00:01:10] want to hear that single sentence that has ended more promising deals than any objection you've ever heard at the end of your proposal. Sounds like this.

Well, [00:01:20] we'd like to talk to our current agent and give them a chance to respond. See, this is the last thing you want to have happen, but it happens [00:01:30] every single day in commercial insurance, but it doesn't have to happen to you. And today, i'm gonna show you how to stop it.[00:01:40] 

Look, there is one move at the end of your first sales call that makes it almost impossible for the incumbent to get last [00:01:50] look to match your price and keep the deal.

So stay with me.

Welcome to the Agency Growth Machine Podcast, where it's all [00:02:00] about transforming potential into profit. And now your host, Randy Schwants.

So welcome back to the Agency Growth Machine [00:02:10] Podcast. I'm Randy Schwantz. In episode one we talked about the zero sum truth. Episode two, we got into pre-call strategy, episode three, the [00:02:20] Five Steps of the Wedge. And if you haven't heard those yet, go back and listen. This episode builds directly on them.

Today we talk about [00:02:30] Keystone, the step that locks everything you built in place and makes your deal go close. Proof. So let's go. [00:02:40] See, 2000 years ago, Roman Stone Masons built arches. That are still standing today. Aqueducts, amphitheaters, bridges, structures that have outlasted every [00:02:50] civilization that built them.

And the reason those arches didn't collapse was one stone, the keystone. That [00:03:00] wedge shaped stone at the top of the arch. Every stone on either side leans into it. The keystone absorbs the pressure and holds the whole [00:03:10] structure together. Take it out and the arch falls, and this is exactly what the second sales meeting is when selling commercial [00:03:20] insurance.

See, you did the pre-call strategy. You identified which services the incumbent isn't doing. You've run the wedge sales call, you found pain, you [00:03:30] found out what they want, and you confirmed they could fire the other guy when they get what they want. Now, here's a question I want you to sit with. [00:03:40] When is the sale actually made?

Well see. Most people say it's made at the close when the check clears. [00:03:50] I disagree. My answer has always been this. The sale is made upfront. It's made when you get a red hot introduction and the prospect already trusts you before [00:04:00] you walk in. It's made when you run the five steps of the wedge sales call and the prospect discovers the incumbent is not

doing their job. It's made when you [00:04:10] rehearse your prospect through the pain and agony of telling the current guy that it's over. If you did all of that on the first call, you should have a [00:04:20] very high closing ratio. But don't be foolish. Things happen along the way to getting rich in this business. Ugly things pop their head [00:04:30] up, and most of the time it's the incumbent agent coming back and playing the guilt card.

The loyalty card, the shame card, and [00:04:40] too often the prospect folds like a cheap suit. See, the keystone process helps you nail down the commitment and deal with the hiccups [00:04:50] that can happen between meeting one and meeting two. Why? Because Murphy's Law is real. Murphy said Anything that can go wrong [00:05:00] probably will.

And in commercial insurance, the thing that goes wrong most often between meetings one and two has a name. It's called the incumbent agent, [00:05:10] who has just been told by your prospect that they might be making a change. And so who is now on the phone fighting to keep their [00:05:20] money? See, after your first meeting, the incumbent got put on notice.

Hey, we're talking to other agencies this year. Just wanna be fair and let you know. So now the [00:05:30] incumbent's working well, really hard. They're calling in favors, they're getting the underwriter on the phone. They're reminding the prospect of every nice thing they've ever done for them, [00:05:40] and your proposal hasn't even hit the table yet.

So keystone is how you deal with that proactively before it ever [00:05:50] happens.

There's a producer I got to know that always felt good coming outta the first sales call. Ah, this is gonna be a lay down, but he was wrong. [00:06:00] He got laid down by the incumbent more than he cares to remember, but he wasn't too proud to admit it wasn't working, and so he [00:06:10] learned the dual threat. And when he did, his close ratio became greater than 80%.

And later, a little while, I'm gonna tell you what changed. So [00:06:20] before I walk you through the six keystone steps, I need you to understand the battlefield. When you walk into your second meeting with your proposal, [00:06:30] you are always, always in one of three positions relative to the incumbent. Know which one you're in before you walk in the door.[00:06:40] 

Option number one, you have the best price and better service. Now this sounds like a layup and usually it [00:06:50] is, but even here, some prospects will stall. Hey, let me show this to my current agent first, if you don't mind, and see if you haven't done the keystone process, you're [00:07:00] handing the incumbent your numbers as a negotiating tool, you need to be ready for it.

Option two. You have the same price [00:07:10] and better service, and this is where it gets real. The prospect can't justify switching purely on cost because the cost is the [00:07:20] same, and now the entire deal hinges on whether the value of your proactive to service outweighs the friction of changing. See, if you didn't quantify [00:07:30] that service with named actionable items, not fluff.

And you didn't help your prospect monetize the impact and dollars during your first meeting, [00:07:40] man, you're in trouble. And then option three, you have a higher price and better service. [00:07:50] So this is not a dead end, not if you've done your job. The question becomes how much is better service in the form of [00:08:00] named proactive services.

Those things that eliminate the chaos and the guessing, what's that worth to this prospect in both time saved and [00:08:10] reduced cost. And if so, you can get the deal done by BOR with the existing carrier. So the price issue goes away entirely. And here's the thing, [00:08:20] everyone says that they have great service, but if you can't name them off like your kids and your cousins one by one, you don't have it.

You have [00:08:30] fluff. And that is what makes selling commercial insurance so hard. 'cause how is the buyer supposed to discern between your fluff and the [00:08:40] incumbent fluff. But when you have named proactive services, now your buyer can see, understand, and compare. [00:08:50] So if you don't have at least 12 to 18 named services to offer, you don't need this chapter.

Go back to episode three and do the work. [00:09:00] But if you've run the wedge, if you've got a real proactive service advantage, if you and your prospect built a vision of what they actually want, [00:09:10] then keystone is how you cash in on it. Regardless of which of these three scenarios you're in, here are the six steps.[00:09:20] 

So step number one, the greeting. You kind of settle in, you set the room, and this sounds really basic, but it's not. See, the energy you walk [00:09:30] into the room with is the energy the meeting will take on. If you walk in nervous, apologetic, or overeager, man, the prospect feels it. [00:09:40] The incumbent shadow is already in the room, even if you're not there.

So walk in like someone who has done this a hundred times and already [00:09:50] knows how it ends, because if you've followed the system, you do know how it ends. So you greet them, you ask a genuine question [00:10:00] about something personal you learned in the first meeting. You know, you'd be human for a couple of minutes and then you go to work.

Step number two, future pace. Tell them what's [00:10:10] about to happen. So before you open the proposal, before you show them a single number, you future pace the meeting. You take them mentally into the future and describe what they're about to [00:10:20] see, what they're going to think when they do see it. It sounds something like this.

Hey, I wanna take about 60 seconds before we dive in and tell you what we put together. [00:10:30] Think of this proposal, almost like a car. One section has all the standard equipment you expect, wheels, engine, chassis, so that's the coverage, same or better [00:10:40] than what you already have. The second section is the custom package, the sound system, the navigation, the upgraded features.

That's the proactive service timeline we [00:10:50] built based upon everything you described the last time we were together. And by the time we're all done walking through this, I think you're gonna feel really good and say, that's [00:11:00] exactly what I want. So why does this work? Well, because you put the prospect in a forward leaning posture before the proposal's ever [00:11:10] even open.

They're already imagining liking it. And you've also framed what matters most, the proactive services as the custom [00:11:20] upgrade, not the commodity piece. It's the thing they designed themselves and then step three, the rehearsal, confirm they can still pull [00:11:30] the trigger. This is a really important step that almost no producer does. See,

a lot can change between your first meeting and your [00:11:40] second. The incumbent may have called. The CFO may have pushed back. The buyer may have had some second thoughts about disrupting a long relationship. [00:11:50] So before you go any further, you need to know if the prospect is still able and willing to make a change.

And you find out by reconfirming the palace coup [00:12:00] question from the first meeting. You're not re-asking it from scratch. You're reminding them of the commitment they already made sounds something like this. Hey, you [00:12:10] know when we talked last time you said that when you get what you want, telling them the other guy that it's over wasn't gonna be a problem.

Has anything [00:12:20] changed? And so if the answer is no, nothing has changed, proceed with confidence. If they hesitate, you need to stop [00:12:30] because something has changed. Don't present the proposal yet. Find out what happened, because presenting to a prospect who is no longer committed to change, [00:12:40] it's just handing your numbers to the incumbent.

So now we're at step four. You present the services first. When you open the proposal, you present the service first, not [00:12:50] coverage, not price. Service. Why? Because the proactive services timeline is the thing the incumbent can't just [00:13:00] match overnight. It's the thing that was built from the prospect's own words In the vision box, it belongs to them.

Walk through it [00:13:10] line by line. And for every item, confirm that it matches what they asked for. Sounds something like this. Hey, you told me you wanted a [00:13:20] quarterly claims review starting 90 days after renewal with your risk manager room. There it is, April 15th. First one on the calendar. Is that right?[00:13:30] 

So you get micro agreements throughout. Nod after each one, you're rebuilding their vision with every confirmation. And by [00:13:40] the time you get to coverage and price, the prospect's already emotionally invested in what working with you Looks like the numbers are almost secondary. [00:13:50] And then step five, present the coverage, confirm parity or better.

Keep it clean, compare what they have to what you're proposing, [00:14:00] and then identify any improvements. Don't get lost in the weeds of endorsements and exclusions. Unless something is materially different. And the goal [00:14:10] here is simple. Remove any doubt that you've matched or improved their protection.

You are not trying to dazzle them with technical knowledge. You're just checking a [00:14:20] box. The coverage is solid, the service is better. Now let's talk about what they wanna do. So step number six, determine action. Get a [00:14:30] decision, not a deferral. And this is where the poop hits the fan. As they say, and where most producers go, passive, right when they need to be [00:14:40] decisive.

See, after you've presented everything you asked directly, sounds like this. Hey, based on everything we've covered, the service timeline, the coverage, the pricing, [00:14:50] what do you want to do? Now, three things can happen and you need to know how to handle each one. They can say, this is [00:15:00] perfect. Let's get started.

And you go, great, and you can get a BOR signed. Rehearse 'em through what the incumbent is going to say. So you don't have to worry about the BOR getting rescinded [00:15:10] and you walk 'em through the next 90 days before you leave the room so they got a clear picture.

Second is they wanna wait. [00:15:20] So then you gotta find out why. Is it the incumbent relationship? Is it the price, is it the timing? Each one has a specific response and don't accept. Well, I just need to [00:15:30] think about it. Without understanding what they need to think about, they wanna give the incumbent another look.

This is the move. You have to be ready [00:15:40] for your response. I'd say something like this. Well, absolutely, because you want to be fair and since [00:15:50] you're a fair person, wouldn't it be fair after they get another look that you let me have another look? I mean, you do want to be fair, don't you? And you can [00:16:00] run down the cycle a couple more steps, and it comes to conclusion like, why, am I wasting my time?

That's where you want you to get your prospect to. And with that, you've just ended the endless quote cycle. [00:16:10] You've established equity and you've signaled that you're not gonna get used as a price check tool. And if the service differentiator is strong enough and the price gap is [00:16:20] small, you can also ask them to quantify the value.

Sounds like something like this. Hey, the services outlined here, the claims review, the X mod analysis, the written service timeline, you said [00:16:30] they have real dollar value to your business. If you had to put a number on that, what's that worth annually? What would you say? And let them name the number [00:16:40] and then show 'em the math.

If the service is worth more than the price differentiator, the deal is done. So that producer, I mentioned, [00:16:50] the one losing half his second meetings, the one thing he changed, he started doing the rehearsal in step three. Every time [00:17:00] before he opened the proposal, he stopped presenting to prospects who had already been talked out of changing. His close rate

didn't just improve. His pipeline got cleaner [00:17:10] because he stopped wasting time on deals that were never going to close.

Vince Lombardi said it better than I can. He goes, winning is not a sometime thing. It's an all [00:17:20] time thing. You don't win once in a while. You don't do things right once in a while. You do them right all the time. Winning [00:17:30] is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. So keystone is the discipline of winning consistently.

At the second meeting, not hoping the proposal speaks [00:17:40] for itself, not leaving the door open for the incumbent to fight back without a plan to deal with it. Six steps every time. [00:17:50] So the one move that stops the incumbent from stealing the deal back. It is the rehearsal. It was step three. It's done before you open your [00:18:00] proposal, before you show a single number. Confirm

they're still committed to change. If they are, proceed with everything you've got. If they've wavered, find out [00:18:10] why before you hand over your pricing. That's it. That's the move. Look, the deals you lose at the second meeting, [00:18:20] most of 'em aren't lost to a better proposal. They're lost to an incumbent who called first.

A prospect who got uncomfortable. A producer presented anyway because they [00:18:30] didn't know what else to do. Now you know what else to do. So next week we're gonna get into wedge proofing. You just won a great account. [00:18:40] Now, how do you make sure no one does to you what you just did to the previous agent? How do you build a wall around your book of business so thick [00:18:50] that no competitor

it can get a foothold. That's episode five. And if you think losing deals is painful, wait until we talk about what it costs to lose an account [00:19:00] you've already won. So subscribe, share this with your sales manager, but before you leave, think about this. Commercial insurance selling has gone [00:19:10] through three eras, and right now today, you and your agency are living in one of them.

Era one. I call it selling 1.0. [00:19:20] And this is how your daddy did it, or your granddaddy did it. Three by five cards, yellow pages, a metal box on a wooden desk. The strategy, quote it, price it. Hope you [00:19:30] win it. No system, no process, no differentiation just Whoever had the lowest number on the renewal day.

Error two is selling 2.0. [00:19:40] And that's when Salesforce and HubSpot and Pipedrive all had big promises, big beautiful dashboards, enterprise grade, everything. [00:19:50] But do you know what it actually produced a pipeline report your manager could pull on Friday? That's it. The training lived in a [00:20:00] binder. The technology lived on a browser and they never talked to each other.

Meanwhile, the incumbent already had the relationship, already knew the account, and always [00:20:10] got last look. Selling 2.0 was about relationship building, about consultative selling. Along with generic technology that slowed things down more than they [00:20:20] sped things up. What it never gave producers was a system to win and grow, a huge book of business.

And then [00:20:30] era three, selling 3.0. And this is Bignition, it's one integrated sales operating system where the methodology is the technology. And the [00:20:40] technology is the methodology. Seven steps, one platform goals tied to real life. Differentiation, you can prove. [00:20:50] Appointment setting that's systematic, not random pre-call strategy that's built to displace an incumbent, not just have a nice conversation, a selling process [00:21:00] anchored on one brutal truth

nobody else will say. The incumbent has to lose for you to win. And retention backed by documented [00:21:10] deliverables, not vague, abstract promises. And results, measured at every level. Three eras, three [00:21:20] tools, three completely different games. 1.0. Beat the price. 2.0, build the relationship. [00:21:30] 3.0. Listen to this.

Engineer the displacement. Run the system. Win the account. The agency [00:21:40] stuck in 1.0 are being commoditized. The agency stuck in 2.0 are working harder and wondering why nothing sticks. And the agency's running [00:21:50] 3.0. They're compounding. Every year, every producer, every account that's selling 3.0 that's Bignition [00:22:00] come find us.

And if you like this, leave a review. I'm Randy Schwantz. Go lock your deals in place and I'll [00:22:10] see you next week.