Winston's Story: Rookie of the Year at 2 Years and The Daily Habit Behind the Win

 Most new insurance producers are working hard and going nowhere. Winston Welch was one of them... until he built a system. In just two years, Winston went from emailing quotes hoping prospects would bind to winning Rookie of the Year at Crest Insurance. In this episode, Randy breaks down exactly how Winston bridged the gap between effort and results using the Wedge sales process and Bignition. The math is staggering: organized, disciplined producers will out-earn disorganized producers by $8.5 million over a career. This episode shows you what it actually takes to get there. 

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Transcript

When you look at career earnings, I project it to be the difference between making $3.5 million as a producer over a 25-year career time and making $12 million. That's the biggest reason I got into [00:00:10] insurance was I had a kid. It's really expensive to survive right now. I just got into it, talked with my wife, and, like, failure is just not an option.

So for the second year going [00:00:20] into selling, I was just sending out quotes for this small business, and I would just email them and hope they'd bind, and I was just wasting a bunch of time. So my close ratio was terrible starting [00:00:30] out. I was pretty much calling, you know, trying to build a relationship, and then I was just selling on price and missing out on these opportunities.

And then the accounts that I did win, I was realizing after looking [00:00:40] back, it wasn't just price. That was not the reason that they moved forward. I was able to figure out, you know, there was some other pain somewhere. Instead of just spitting out, "Oh, we do this, this, and this, and this," and [00:00:50] sounding exactly what everyone else says, being able to differentiate, actually have some structure.

Call somebody. If they don't answer, you could leave a voicemail, send an email a couple of times. Then by the time you do get on the [00:01:00] phone with them, it becomes more of a friendly conversation. But I just think for anyone who doesn't have that, it's pretty difficult to be competitive. You got the Rookie of the Year for [00:01:10] 2025.

Is that right? Correct, yeah. That had to have felt pretty good. Yeah.

Welcome to the Agency Growth Machine podcast, where it's all about [00:01:20] transforming potential into profit. And now your host, Randy Schwantz.

Hey there, everybody. This is Randy Schwantz, and I want to welcome Winston [00:01:30] Welch, a relatively new producer.

How long you been producing now, Winston? Um, just over two years. So I s- I started with Crest, um, March 1st, two years [00:01:40] ago. So two years and one month into insurance. Yeah. And what'd you do before that? Before that, worked with a large, um, this, a [00:01:50] company called Trackman. It did, uh, golf simulators. They do baseball radar tracking as well.

So kind of a completely different field. But I was in [00:02:00] a, uh, kind of an account management role, support, not so much sales. But, um, I knew I was ready to take a leap and, [00:02:10] and get into doing something different. So it's been going pretty well so far. So, um, you were, you got the Rookie of the Year for 2025. Is that right?[00:02:20] 

Correct, yeah. That had to have felt pretty good. Yeah. It was, it was awesome. I, um, you know, when, when you're going through the year, just kind of going month to month. I [00:02:30] mean, I wrote a few good accounts. We were also getting introduced to the Wedge during this time, so I'm kind of just learning more as I'm going, and I missed out on a [00:02:40] lot of opportunities that I worked hard on and didn't feel like I was doing that well.

But then when you look back at the end of the year and what you did, what I did right, and it's like, okay, got [00:02:50] decent amount of revenue bound up. Um, so it's cool to look back and, and see what I did, but Going through the process, I just kinda had my head down working, keeping my [00:03:00] activities up, trying to get better and better, and find more business.

And, uh, yeah, it ended up going, going pretty well. Yeah. Here's something interesting, and most people don't know [00:03:10] about it, but, uh, we use a profile, pro- a pro- personality profile called Grit, and you score really high on intensity and drive. Yeah. Which means [00:03:20] you, you know, you're just gonna keep... You're just gonna keep plowing in.

You're gonna keep doing it. You're a never quit kinda guy, and you'll learn it as you learn it, [00:03:30] but that's the nice thing about you. So you, you kinda look in the rear view mirror and you go, "I worked my ass off- Right ... and I never stopped." And when I look back, it's like rookie of the year. That's pretty cool.

Yeah. [00:03:40] It was hard work. I wanna get a little more efficient, and I think after going through the Wedge training, that kind of is where that's gonna be really helpful. It's like, you know, you can [00:03:50] keep your activity high, you can do all these calls, but I was pretty much calling, you know, trying to build a relationship, and then I was just selling on price and missing out on these [00:04:00] opportunities.

And then the accounts that I did win, I was realizing after looking back, it wasn't just price. That was not the reason that they moved forward. I was able to figure out, you know, there was some other [00:04:10] pain somewhere that I m- I was able to eventually find. Um, but I think going through the Wedge process, being able to point that out a little bit sooner by asking [00:04:20] the right questions is a lot helpful, a lot more helpful with pre-qualifying these prospects.

Yeah, and the, and the whole pre-qualifying thing is [00:04:30] the quicker you can either determine you can find an adequate amount of pain that would cause a reason to change or you can't, the quicker you can [00:04:40] find that out, uh, you can have a lot of confidence I'm gonna win this deal, or you can sit there and pull the chute, jump out of that plane, go find another plane you're gonna ride.

Exactly, yeah. Figuring out where to, where to spend your [00:04:50] time is, is extremely important I'm finding out with this, 'cause, um, if you're, you know, going in trying to quote something, just winning on price, you know, you could spend [00:05:00] that, that time talking with this one person and you're missing out on a ton of opportunities two, three, four months down the road that you could be cold calling or touching introductions [00:05:10] from there.

Yeah. And so, um, I'm, I'm curious if you feel there are deals that you were actually able to win [00:05:20] after you took the Wedge that before the Wedge might have slipped by. Yeah, I think so. I'm planning on going to get some of those [00:05:30] this year after missing out on them last year. That's been a lot of, um, kind of going through with Bignition and inputting all of my prospects that I have.

I was [00:05:40] able to develop a list of clients that I had talked with last year that I missed out on and didn't write, and a lot of those are in there now and I'm circling [00:05:50] back. Reaching out with them again this year, and now having kind of a whole new outlook on, on trying to close those. So I'm hoping that the percentage is a little bit better, [00:06:00] uh, this time around- Yeah

as well. Now your, your firm has got, uh, a, a fair amount of quote, unquote, [00:06:10] "Proactive services," potential wedges in the area of loss control, if you're working transportation with certain things you do, and if you're working contract- c- construction guys, things you do there. [00:06:20] So how have you been to... A- a- and a lot of your major competitors have the same stuff.

Yeah. What, what we've [00:06:30] seen a lot, you know, having trained almost 10,000 guys in the Wedge, a lot of that stuff is so conceptual. It's like throwing water balloons or marshmallows at people, and they- [00:06:40] Yeah ... kind of bounce off and laugh. And the goal is to turn them into, like, bricks, where you knock them out.

So talk to us a little bit about that experience of going from, "We're [00:06:50] big, we're awesome, we got great carriers, we got really good people, we got awesomeness all around us," but that's pretty abstract, down to anything that's concrete and [00:07:00] leverageable. What, what's that experience been like for you, and kind of where are you in that now?

Yeah. I think, um, the biggest thing from going through the Wedge training was instead of just [00:07:10] spitting out, "Oh, we do this, this, and this, and this," and sounding exactly like what everyone else says, being able to kind of differentiate and to stand out a little bit more. What you did with some of these [00:07:20] proactive services is make it more of like a...

something that's tangible, that you can actually show them, "This is what we're doing." Going over, like, um, one that's really [00:07:30] big is if I go after a prospect and they've been with the same carrier for six years, going over, like, the marketing strategy with them. A lot of times, if you bring that up, you know, they [00:07:40] don't know how they're being sold to different carriers or where they're going to, or even if they are being marketed.

So that one's been really helpful. And then, yeah, we've got, um, Chester, [00:07:50] former Navy SEAL, who does all the risk management, um, safety training, OSHA trainings, things like this. So- Yes ... um, utilizing him and, and, uh, [00:08:00] some of the other resources that we have is really helpful. But I think being able to clearly show them how it could help them out and what you could do, you know, kind of put [00:08:10] together a plan for the upcoming year, almost as if like, "Yeah, if you're already with me, this is what we'd do at this point throughout the year."

And they kind of understand [00:08:20] what they're paying for, for their insurance premium versus- Yeah ... "Yeah, give me a low price. That's cool you have all those, those things you can do. We might use it, but bring me the low [00:08:30] price," and then go from there. It's, it kind of makes it a little more, um, they understand what they're paying for at that point, and kind of see that they might be missing out on some things [00:08:40] that they don't have currently.

So that's what's been pretty helpful. And none of that is rocket science, super-duper secret- Unbelievable, [00:08:50] fantastic stuff. These are like basic things that the average competitor that you've got is being lazy and not doing for their clients. Is that more or less true? Absolutely, yeah. [00:09:00] And there's a lot of things behind the scenes that the insured doesn't know what we do.

You know, we don't want, just wanna be the insurance guy that brings you a price every year. [00:09:10] Here you go, renew. There's a lot of, um, things going on in the market, and behind-the-scenes stuff that brokers have to do. I mean, just answering [00:09:20] questions for the insured to different carriers, and being able to sell them correctly is really important because, you know, if someone has a business that they've built [00:09:30] up, they wanna have a broker who understands what they're doing, and then it makes sense for them to know how they're being sold to the carrier that's giving them a quote for their [00:09:40] insurance.

They, they would, they should be able to know, um, you know, what they're, what they're looking at insuring. Yeah, so, so we call that a narrative wedge. Mm-hmm. [00:09:50] Yeah? And then you got the market strategy wedge. Some pretty basic stuff, but that's ... Both those have helped you win accounts. Is that right or wrong?

Yeah, those have helped, and then, um, any time [00:10:00] bringing up claim scenarios, um, it's just pretty rare. Sometimes you'll hear, "Oh, yeah, the claim was handled really quickly and everything went really [00:10:10] well. We're happy with it." But that, those are few and far between. A lot of times someone dropped the ball somewhere.

We've got our own internal claims team, [00:10:20] and- Yep ... um, that's just a good area where you can ask a lot of open-ended questions about the claim, and then c- start kind of pointing out different things that can happen [00:10:30] too. Um, kinda helps speed up the process, especially if there's, like, a work comp claim that was open for way too long.

You know, figuring out, you know, did you know [00:10:40] getting a return to work program, different things like this that, that sometimes they might not know exist. And so do you have any sense of what's happened to your close ratio? [00:10:50] The difference between pre-wedge and after wedge, has that changed much? Um, it ... Yeah, it's gotten better.

I was working... So when I started out with [00:11:00] Crest, I was in our small business unit, and so, um, getting into Crest, I was wanting to just get in and sell immediately. It, it seemed easier than it would [00:11:10] be, but there's a lot of different things I need to understand about insurance first. Um, so we have kind of a program where we're...

I was, basically inherited a bunch [00:11:20] of smaller accounts to work on and service, and so that got me brought up to speed really quickly. So my first year, um, was just doing [00:11:30] that, and then I was writing new accounts that were smaller referrals from our brokers. And then I was, kind of challenged myself to go out and try [00:11:40] to write big accounts while servicing all these.

So, um, all of these, like, tedious tasks I was going through Um, just to kinda understand [00:11:50] everything. But then during that 8:00 to 5:00 time, I was still trying to cold call, write new business just to kinda like, I guess, prove myself and make a little [00:12:00] extra money. Um, but that got me brought up to speed on everything really quickly.

And then for the second year going into selling, I was just sending out quotes for this small [00:12:10] business unit, and I would just email them and hope they'd bind, and I was just wasting a bunch of time. So my close ratio was terrible starting out. Um, [00:12:20] and then I was working on all these, you know, accounts that I was just wasting time on.

I was hoping I had a carrier or a market that would find a cheaper option, [00:12:30] and if I did, then I could maybe present it and maybe they would move. So yeah, it's definitely, definitely gone up. And then now with Bignition, I'm gonna track my close [00:12:40] ratio and actually hopefully see physically the, the number get bet- get better.

But yeah, the first year, I mean, it's, it is embarrassing to probably show you how many [00:12:50] quotes I just emailed over and I'm like, "All right, here we go. You're gonna bind," right? And so now I've, I've just from getting repetitions, just got a lot [00:13:00] better at, at figuring out, you know, that they're gonna close 'cause you'd see some of our more experienced producers, like when they're working on something, they're not-- there's like [00:13:10] no guessing if they're gonna move forward.

It's like, I'm gonna get them this option at this price, and then by the time you present it, it's just like, "All right, where do we [00:13:20] sign? We're moving forward." That was not happening with me initially. So yeah, hoping to track it and see, see some improvement. Yeah. And then what about [00:13:30] the-- So, so obviously when you're working in the small account department, small accounts, n-now over the last 12, you know, six to 12 months, now that you're focused on [00:13:40] commercial and you're not doing the small stuff much anymore.

Is that correct? Yeah. I'm focused on l-large only now. Yeah. So, so, so what's happened to your average size of account and the [00:13:50] confidence to be able to go after that? Yeah. The average size I'm trying to get, um, as big as I can. A lot of, a lot of what I do [00:14:00] has been cold calling for my prospecting. So, um, you know, utilizing that 5-Layer, you know, cold call, following up with a voicemail, [00:14:10] sending email, doing everything I can to, to just make myself not be a stranger on the other end of the phone and they're kind of- Yeah

able to understand, "Oh yeah, I remember talking with [00:14:20] you," and I'm reaching out way further in advance. Before I was cold calling and it was like a month before, "Hey, send everything over. We're like scrambling to get a [00:14:30] quote." Now I'm trying to like actually, you know, touch base with them throughout the year, come up with a plan on, on getting the information and then, [00:14:40] um, getting everything done then.

So what is, w- so what is the ... You, you mentioned the five-layer email, voicemail stuff that's built into Bignition. [00:14:50] Mm-hmm. H- how has that helped, if at all? Before Bignition, I basically was on Excel, and I just had my list of people I'd talk with. I put some notes in there. [00:15:00] Um, I didn't track the date that I called them, um, you know, how things went.

So I'm, like, looking back. When I'm, when I'm going back and putting my prospects into [00:15:10] Bignition, I, I've seen these opportunities. I'm like, oh, man, I had a good conversation with this person, got the decision-maker's name. I think I sent them an email hoping to get some stuff back, and then I never [00:15:20] even followed up.

So being able to actually have some structure, you know, call somebody. If they don't answer, you could leave a voicemail, send an [00:15:30] email a couple of times, then by the time you do get on the phone with them, it becomes more of a, a friendly conversation. They're like, "Oh yeah, I saw your ... You reached out a couple [00:15:40] times."

Um, be a little bit easier to set a meeting versus scrambling for a last-minute quote, have them send everything over. Yeah. And so now are you, [00:15:50] are you using the feature where you can create a queue of, say, 20 or 30 or 50 prospects and pull them up and start just clicking through and making your dials and all sort of stuff?

Have you, have you done that- Yeah ... [00:16:00] very much? Yeah. I've been using that, and wanting to, uh, get better because, I mean, before I was pretty much just calling anything and [00:16:10] everything that I, I could think of, hoping that, you know, the first time I call them it works out well. Maybe try a couple more times and then kind of- Right

forget about it. So now, [00:16:20] um, you know, it took a little bit of time putting my, my prospects together that I wanted to reach out to, and really targeting them and getting those into Bignition. Um, but for the [00:16:30] ones that are in there, I mean, there's a lot of good information that I already have on these accounts that could've been going to waste if I just had it sitting in an Excel document somewhere.

Like renewal date, [00:16:40] you know, who answered the phone, who the decision maker is, where their premium's at now. There's a lot of different things that you can plug into Bignition, and then I'll just [00:16:50] normally try to sort it from the renewal date and then go after those and, and then, um, putting notes in, and then having the follow-ups has been [00:17:00] helpful also.

And so it's my contention that, you know, using Excel spreadsheet, you might get, I don't know, 20 dials in an hour. [00:17:10] Maybe more, maybe less, I don't know. With Bignition, the way it's structured, you could easily do 50 or more. Isn't that ... Do you believe that to be true or not? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. [00:17:20] Eas- it, it's easier to, uh, put in notes and everything and save it as well, and then you just move on to the next person.

So yeah, you can, you can fly through them pretty quickly. [00:17:30] Yeah. And so then theory, theoretically, I mean, this is all, you know, we do, um, I play a lot of theory stuff. Yeah. But, you know, you sit there and think of, like, like in your case, [00:17:40] you know, if you made- Say 15 dials a day, you got 20 days a week that you're doing, that's 300 dials.

At one and a half percent, that's four, [00:17:50] five, six quality appointments. You disqualify a few out, you work on the others, you close them. You know, I think about it not just what that means [00:18:00] today or this month or this year, but when you sit there thinking about a guy li- your age that's new in the business, you got a young family, you're wanting to grow, grow.

You got... You are married, aren't you? Yeah. Don't, [00:18:10] don't recall that you're married. Yeah. Yeah. Married and have- Don't you have a little one? Two and a half year old boy, yeah. Yeah. So that when you start to think about, man, if I could, if I could easily [00:18:20] make $10 a day or $15 a day, be so organized, it's efficient, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

I know this sounds really weird, but you project that over [00:18:30] 10 or 15 years, it's the difference of probably three, four, maybe $5 million in your pocket. Mm-hmm. [00:18:40] Think about that. Yeah. And so when you don't have that kind of organization, and it's real clunky, and it's hard to do, it's so much easier to avoid it.[00:18:50] 

And you don't make the dials, you don't set the appointments, you don't get the sales, you don't grow the book as fast. All that income, instead of being compounding the way it could be, is just kind of [00:19:00] slowly just mediocre-izing. Um, I, I did an analysis just a while ago. Um, when you look at career earnings, I, I project it to be the [00:19:10] difference between making $3.5 million as a producer over a 25 year time and making $12 million- Yeah

total earning. Well, even- That's incredible ... after you pay tax and have [00:19:20] living expenses, you make a lot, you save a lot, you can build a lot of wealth over time, and that's the beauty. I think that's also the beauty of Bignition. Do you... [00:19:30] What do you think about that as a- Yeah ... kind of a premise on my part? I mean, that was, that's the biggest reason I got into insurance was I had a kid.[00:19:40] 

You know, it's really expensive to survive right now. So, um, um, talking with my wife, we wanted to come back to Tucson where we're from. Um, so, so [00:19:50] lucky enough, I, I, uh, kinda knew Cody, our CEO before that, reached out to him, got an interview. Um, and then I'm just kinda hearing about the type of [00:20:00] numbers that some of the top producers are making in the industry, and my eyes light up and I start doing some research.

Yeah. And like, man, this is a really difficult career to get [00:20:10] into. A lot of people fail. Um, but I'm like, if some guys are doing the type of numbers they are, I could do worse than that and make great money as well. I mean, [00:20:20] I'm, I just got into it, talked with my wife, and like failure is just not an option.

So, you know, getting in, it was really difficult and I'm just calling, trying to write [00:20:30] big accounts, have a book the size of every- of, you know, some of these, some of these top producers. But once you get with Bignition, you can actually- Put [00:20:40] in and, and track, you know, what you need to do for your activity each day, and actually set the goals.

Yes. Went over those with my wife and we're like, "Yeah, [00:20:50] this is, this is the money I need to make. This is what I need to do. I need to follow a process and actually have it happen." Yes. Um, so being able to put that and document it [00:21:00] versus, "I'm gonna call all these big accounts and write them, make a bunch of money," is really helpful.

And being able to trust the process, 'cause some days you're gonna have a ton of [00:21:10] motivation and I can make 80 phone calls. But if you do that and then nothing happens for the weeks, days that you're not as motivated, then it doesn't happen. So I've [00:21:20] got, um, like a call block that I put in my calendar every day where that's almost like me setting a meeting, and if something intervenes with that, it's gotta be really [00:21:30] important to move it around, 'cause that's basically the, the money-making time that I set for myself.

And so, um, instead of just being really motivated, I [00:21:40] try to be disciplined, make the calls- Yeah ... and then actually see- Yeah ... in Bignition, like, hey, if I'm closing at this percentage and I make 40 phone calls a [00:21:50] day, then I'm gonna make that money as long as I just keep the activity high. So it's good to be able to track it.

Now, I really [00:22:00] appreciate that you got your wife involved in this. You know, I've recommended that to a lot of people. Pull up Bignition. You put down how old you are, you put down the kids, you put down the car, the [00:22:10] university. I don't know if you got a son or a daughter. Son, yeah. Son, okay. You don't have to pay for a wedding like I did, so you just saved a lot of money there.

Yeah. And then you put down [00:22:20] how big you want your retirement account to, to be, and then you reverse engineer it. It tells you how much money you need to save every year. When you did that with her, kinda like, what was that experience like for her? Do you have any [00:22:30] idea? No, it was great. It was great for her to see, 'cause before that it was me just telling her, "Hey, we've got guys making this, this, and this much money."

"Oh, that's great." She's like... [00:22:40] I mean, she's really supportive. We're, met each other in high school. Did long distance through college. I played, played baseball in college in Arkansas and she went to school in Arizona. So [00:22:50] we've always been, you know, really open with communication with each other, push each other to go after anything we wanna do.

Right after college, she got a job in Austin, [00:23:00] so I just moved with her with no job. Started working at Dick's Sporting Goods selling, uh- Yeah ... treadmill warranties. So, like, we've just gone, gone through everything together [00:23:10] and, you know, once we had a kid, we're like, all right, you know, I wanna find, find something where I can really like, you know, figure something out, [00:23:20] make a lot of money.

And then being able to put it on, put it on paper, show her what is possible, go over the goals together is really helpful. And then when I am working- [00:23:30] Those, those late nights and, you know, we'd put our kid to sleep and I'd be working and while she's wanting to watch a movie and things like this, just because she knows that's what I have to [00:23:40] do to be able to, to make it in this, especially in the first few years with how difficult it is.

So having her on, on track with what I'm doing is really helpful. [00:23:50] And then she got to go to Maui too, so she understood. It kind of paid off a little bit for her in that first year- Yeah ... which was nice. That's the beauty of winning Rookie of the Year. You take your [00:24:00] wife to Maui along with everybody else and she gets to, she gets to meet and see what it's really like- Yeah

which is really cool. That, yeah, that was awesome. Yeah. Well, that's neat. Man, my hat's off to you in, in that regard because I [00:24:10] think, I mean, I had the same benefit of mapping things out with my wife, put it all down there. Here's what I wanna do for the family. Is- was this what you want? And it's like, [00:24:20] well, yeah.

And then when I go do it, she never complained. Never complained. Yeah. In fact, she kind of kicked me out of the house, if you know what I'm saying. Yeah. [00:24:30] And I don't mean that literally. Absolutely. But, you know, it's so hard for guys or gals that don't have the spouse's support and, and one way to get it is to do mutual planning with them.[00:24:40] 

They won't all jump into that, but, and those who do, all of a sudden makes your life easier. You come home and you kind of tell the story. Have you done any reviews with her and let her see kind of the progress you're making? [00:24:50] Um, yeah. Yeah, somewhat. I'll tell her when I'm ... once I write a big account and things like this, and she'll even ask me about it.

I'm like, "Oh, I've got a, a meeting I'm gonna present to this person." She'll, [00:25:00] she'll check in on me. And she works, she's got a full-time job also, um, so we're both really supportive and push each other. Like, she just had to travel to Austin last week, so [00:25:10] I, I'm at home with the kid, taking him to daycare, and then I'm going and working too.

So, um, I mean, we're both, both pushing each other to excel [00:25:20] in, in each of our careers. But it would be nice to- Yeah ... be able to have her just stay at home and, you know, make, make them, uh- Yeah, absolutely ... you know. Which [00:25:30] again, you know, um, this is about you, but some of my experiences was, you know, when I first started this business my, you know

In fact, Lori was four months pregnant with our [00:25:40] first child when I started this. And, uh, so then I'm sitting there just, you know, 'cause I knew I had to make more money. So I'm cranking up, stuff like that. Baby's born. She's [00:25:50] still working, doing daycare, and my first objective was making enough money to where she wouldn't have to go to work.

She could be a mom. Uh-huh. Some, some women don't want that. [00:26:00] Some spouses don't want that. But, uh, if they do and you got the ability to do that, then that also makes your life easier and better. And then, and then you just, you just start [00:26:10] compounding from there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, um, you know, for, you know, there's agencies and there's producers out there that will watch this [00:26:20] and, and they're, they're kind of wondering- Yeah, 'cause, 'cause it...

Everybody's got a lot of options. Just like when you fly airline, American Airlines, Delta, you know, Southwest, all [00:26:30] those kinds of things. Mm-hmm. When you sit there and think about a sales process for insurance and a technology that matches up with it, my feeling is there's nothing else like [00:26:40] it, 'cause th- this was hand and glove built based upon all my experiences for guys like you, rather than a sellsource.com, which I think of as a bucket.

You put [00:26:50] names in, you take names out, and it's great for giving- Yeah ... it's great for giving owners reports, but that's about it. So what would you say about Bignition to somebody that's, like, considering this? [00:27:00] It's, uh, like just from when you spoke at our sales meeting, I remember thinking in the back of my head that I hope someone who's using Bignition and doing this doesn't [00:27:10] call on any of my accounts, 'cause, uh, they're...

I mean, being able to, uh... I think helping to retain business is helpful as well. By putting a service [00:27:20] timeline together, that wasn't anything I was doing. I was more so, "Hey, um, we're friendly. You can call me anytime. [00:27:30] I'll be responsive within the same day." Everyone is like that now. Like, it- Yeah ... th- that's not standing aside from anything.

So being able to reach out, I'll try to do, like, [00:27:40] renewal strategy meetings, and then you can actually set, um, you know, a service timeline for your accounts in Bignition, which is helpful as well. Um, [00:27:50] but I just think for, for anyone who doesn't have that, it's pretty difficult to be competitive with- without it, if that makes [00:28:00] sense.

Yeah. And b- by the way, how long does it... Uh, uh, you built some service timelines. How long, how long does it take to you to build one? If you already have the services in there, you just drop it in throughout the year, [00:28:10] and then have, have kind of a reminder. Um, and I'm still working on perfecting it, so I'm, I'm trying to just get better each day with [00:28:20] this too, because managing a book, even m- though mine's not even close to the size that I want it, want to get it to, it's a ton of work.

And trying not to get bogged down [00:28:30] by just servicing these accounts, 'cause I've seen that with some of our bigger producers with big books. Anybody else, you can get almost trapped [00:28:40] with some of the servicing stuff, versus being able to go after and get new business. So being able to drop it in a calendar, have a reminder come up, reach out to it.

[00:28:50] Some of the accounts are really responsive and, and happy to do some of that stuff, and then some of the other ones, you know, you offer it and if it's not something that's really important to them, then you [00:29:00] just kinda keep touching them throughout the year and, and trying to help them out. But, um, doesn't take up too much time, which is nice.

Yeah. I mean, I, [00:29:10] I think I've, I've got some people who can build that service timeline, drag or drop, in probably about five minutes, print it out, send it off to the client, review it with them- Yeah Now, it [00:29:20] wedge proofs, like you said, it wedge proofs that account, so when people come in and try to take away, the buyer goes, "No, they do that.

No, they do that. All that's already been done." Yeah. And then now people have a hard time [00:29:30] penetrating, and then you get to keep it. And then the, kinda the, the next evolution, which, I mean, it's like so much of this stuff is get good at one, then you can move to the next and to the next is, [00:29:40] and that really opens up the door to leveraging those clients for more introductions, and they have a better story to tell about you.

Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. Getting, uh ... [00:29:50] It's a lot easier to ask for an introduction when you know you're doing a really good job on an account. Think that was- Right ... an issue with some of the newer accounts. I'm like, I hope I'm, I hope I'm doing everything [00:30:00] that, that they're needing me to do. They're not calling me too often with any issues, so I think it's okay.

But when you're actually being proactive, doing a good job, then it makes it a little bit [00:30:10] easier to ask for some of those, and that's, that's an area that, um, I'm wanting to improve on as well is the, the red hot introductions. Yeah. And then here's the [00:30:20] last thing. Um, as a general rule, and this, you know, this plays out differently in different agencies, but because now there's a, a system for setting goals, there's [00:30:30] black and white differentiation, there's ways to prospect, you got the database, you know the relationship between dials, appointments, I mean, dials, appoi- uh, conversations and appointments.[00:30:40] 

You know the difference, you know, that ratio between when you work on a deal, whether you close it. That then the ability to, to coach, like you played baseball at Arkansas. [00:30:50] Had your coach never coached you, even though you've been playing baseball your whole life, that's when you went to college, but there's als- there's always another level, isn't there?

Oh, yeah. If the coach hadn't had coached [00:31:00] you, it'd been hard to, to advance from my freshman year to my senior year. So how do you see the, this enabling coaching so that you can continue to [00:31:10] grow and that stuff? Yeah, I'm de- I mean, I'm still, I still ... Time's gone by really quick since I started with insurance, which I think is pretty common, but I still [00:31:20] feel so new to this.

But I am constantly trying to learn every day. There's AI coming out. I think we're doing something with you on some of the AI initiatives that are happening. [00:31:30] Yep. Um, there's so many different things that are coming up where, you know, I'm gonna have to continuously learn to be competitive. And [00:31:40] there's a older generation of insurance brokers, and everyone in the insurance industry knows that there's a huge age gap of knowledge and experience that's there.

So [00:31:50] I'm wanting to be one of the top percentage of the, the younger producers. I'm gonna have to continue learning and figuring out ways to stand out, so [00:32:00] there's still, there's still a lot of, a lot of work to go for sure. And, and here, I mean, you just said something that's kinda, you know, a lot of people ought to pay attention to this.

[00:32:10] As a young producer, if you can show you can build a book of business, write a lot of stuff, then as those- Guys retire on the back end. [00:32:20] Those books have to go somewhere, and they want to get to somebody they absolutely, they trust, that work hard. I, I've got a friend that, I think he built [00:32:30] two, $2.5 million book just doing what he did.

And there was a, a guy, uh, you know, they'd bought a firm that had a, a big old book of chicken farms- [00:32:40] Mm-hmm ... throughout the southeast. And, uh, for whatever reason, that guy left or they wrote him off or something. Anyway, they handed this $2 million book of chicken farms to this dude, so now his [00:32:50] book doubled overnight, and then he even grew that thing.

And so what I'm saying is, there's a lot of producers out there that they're going to be... They're gonna retire, and that book of [00:33:00] business has gotta go somewhere. They're either gonna hand it to account manager or they're gonna hand it to somebody like you. Yeah. And so they're, they're generally gonna find people that are assertive, ambitious, aggressive, growing, and they [00:33:10] go...

And, and they might go, "Well, if I, if I give it to him, he'll could be an assertive, aggressive, and growing," or they might say, "If I give it to him, then he's gonna take this thing and even make it better." [00:33:20] That's the plan. So that's the plan. If you know of any of those guys, send them my way too when they retire.

Yeah. Well, well you got a whole farm full of them that, you [00:33:30] know, I mean, they're, they're coming, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean- We'll see. Yeah. I mean, you think five and 10 years from now that it'll be a different flavor. I mean, just- Oh, yeah. No doubt ... that's the way it's gonna be. I've been- There'll [00:33:40] be guys that retire

I've been fortunate enough to inherit a few accounts also, which is nice, but those are... The relationship's a little bit different once you get those, and so you kind of have to prove yourself. Um, [00:33:50] so there's, those have been a good amount of work too, and a good learning experience as well. 'Cause just going through a quoting process with a new prospect, you build a good relationship.

You understand their business really well. [00:34:00] So, um, that's a good point you bring that up. Once, once you do get an account, it's like a whole new relationship you have to build, introduce- Yeah ... yourself to them. But- And part of [00:34:10] that is that when you've got that service timeline and those features, you just gotta, "Let, let's talk about what you wanna have happen over the next 12, 24, 36 months."

Mm-hmm. And then you take that list [00:34:20] of services that you've already defined and go, "Let's talk about these. Figure out what you want, when you want them. Let's draw them out on a timeline. Make sure this is, is, is, is it." And then it, [00:34:30] it changes the conversation from, "Hey, man, I'm here to help you. Hope it works out," to, "Let, let's create a plan of action of what you want," and you can make it black and white, and now you got [00:34:40] something much more credible and documented to talk about to be able to- Absolutely, yeah

lock that dude up. That's a big one if, you know, some of these larger agencies that are [00:34:50] purchasing smaller agencies, if you call on one of those, and they get moved around to somebody else, that's, that's one of the most easiest ways to get an account. "Oh, I don't know. I think our [00:35:00] broker's in this state now.

I'm not even sure who we're dealing with. I have a- Right ... lady IE now." So that's, that's good to get in front of those and make sure [00:35:10] they know who they're working with. Yeah. So, so let- let's wrap this up with, with this thought, that, you know- If you're a relatively new guy like Winston in this business, [00:35:20] the opportunity today is as amazing as it ever was.

There's a lot of, I mean, the, the stat I saw, 400,000 people are gonna be retiring out of the insurance [00:35:30] industry. I'm not saying 400,000 producers, but there's gonna be a lot of producers. You just see them. I mean, they're getting old. They're, they're opting out. Mm. A lot of the... And so either, either [00:35:40] you, if it's in your firm, you can, you can take that book.

If it's somebody else's firm, you know that when that gets transferred down, in most cases it's going to [00:35:50] somebody that is a price coverage reactive service dude, that if you can get it at the same time, you can expose that guy's weakness and y- 'cause it's in play. [00:36:00] Absolutely. And, and s- so, so the ability to grow fast, build a million doc- dollar book of business as your base, and then sit there and go, "Now that I got that and making a lot of money, now I get to think about where I really wanna [00:36:10] go."

And then you start building out the two, two and a half, and then you figure out where to go from there. Absolutely. That's the future, isn't it, bud? That's it. Yeah. I've got a long way to go, but it's, it's gonna be a long [00:36:20] process, but I'm excited. Yeah, I think, um, just keeping the activity high and then, you know, if things aren't working, always being able to make changes and, [00:36:30] and figure out where my weak points are so then I can just continue learning and growing throughout the process.

Yep. Awesome, man. I appreciate you [00:36:40] doing it with us today. Absolutely. And I wish you all the best in the world with you and your wife and your little one. Yeah. I appreciate it. It was great meeting with you, and I'm grateful to, uh, have been able to sign up with you guys, [00:36:50] and I know a lot of the, the other young producers are with Crest also, so thanks for everything you're doing.

Awesome, man. Thank you