SPEAKER_03 0:00

Here's another one deep inside the mailbag. Sounds dangerous. Here we go. Here's the question. How do we determine what traits are most valuable in a producer? All right. Here's another one deep inside the mailbag. Okay. Let me pull this out. Sounds dangerous. Here we go. Here's the question. How do we determine what traits are most valuable in a producer? And from the first and last mailbag episode, uh, we said that we were going to go into this a little bit. You started going into the different parts of the disc assessment and stuff. But I think because we got this question, I think. Yeah, you cut me off. Yeah, this is an episode right here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

A whole one. A whole one. So this is gonna be a three-hour talk about this.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Oh uh, you know what? Let's go seven and call it a day. Yeah. Little John Rogan style. So how do we determine what traits are most valuable? You have a lot of experience in this, and maybe you can give a little give a little background to that extent.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Well, you know, I had a little little uh little company doing that, and um we built it out. And so it was a lot of there was you get a little go a little deeper.

SPEAKER_03 1:14

Remember agency vault? That's right. And that is how we met uh initially. Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Yeah, you bought it from me, huh? I did. I did. I mean, it's not as excited of a win knowing that you buy everything if somebody tries to sell it to you. Well, you didn't know that at the time. That's true. I felt like I did a really good job. You did. You did.

SPEAKER_03 1:36

And we really hit it off. Uh that's right. But like you guys had um sales training, you guys had the assessment that we talked about. Uh and so you guys went a lot down the rabbit hole of assessing you guys actually built out that assessment. So that's why I think this would be so valuable coming from you, is that you've actually done this.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Like you wrote I mean, I still use it, it still lives in my agency, you know, and you use it, the old thing. And that's what eight years later? Maybe ten. I mean it might have been twenty sixteen when when we did that. You're so old. Right. So right now, if it's twenty forty and you're listening to this, then you know it's even older.

SPEAKER_03 2:18

Right. Chances are it is 2040.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Probably. Well, I mean, I don't know if Earth will be here in 2040 at this rate. Well, back to the topic though. Okay. Right. So um we had three different components, right? We had would we were using that, or we use it, but um when it was out there. And there's three different components that we look at is the disk, which is behavioral driven. And that thing is um, I mean, it's been around forever, the disk test. And that has the four categories that we talked about last time. We'll go a little bit deeper. It has the values index, which is really important too.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

Very important.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

Um, because you touch on it's like where the disc is more this is kind of how they operate, this is the way they think and how to communicate with them. Then the values is it shows there's seven, and it shows like little like things that they find really important and and values, you know, as we've gone down that rabbit hole of values for our agency, where you know, a lot of companies they have the values, but then nobody really whatever the company values, right? Right. I mean, but the values are really important, especially as you're getting older and and you're becoming more human and and more compassionate and all these things, um, the values are really significant drivers for people, right? Whether it's economic or whether it's you know all the different ones that there are.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

Well, it shapes the I mean, you and I have been through this too, where it's like somebody will be value like aesthetic, which means they want a very peaceful, like, you know, it could be a peaceful work environment where it's like if their job is getting too chaotic, they would rather have a peaceful, it doesn't matter about all the other things, right? It doesn't matter about like they would rather push themselves and be more dominant or less dominant or more influence or less influence to create that value because that value is like the foundation and yeah, it it kind of guides everything else for them.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Yeah, everything they all interact, and then um did the part that we designed, the sales strength identifier, which which really takes the 60 attributes that that people have and it you know, whatever it's it lengths them and stacks them, and the you have them categorizing a component of the sales process. So that is cool, um, and and important too.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Like I you know, just to know like, okay, where are the gaps? You know, if this person is a quote is a salesperson, where are those gaps? So it's not just oh, what's their disk look like? There's there's other drivers that are important, and so these are the things that you should be looking for. And it doesn't mean you need to necessarily well, you can't even use this one because it doesn't start out there, but um, you know, there's lots of companies and um understand.me, you said, right? Understand.me is awesome because it's like free.

SPEAKER_03 5:07

Yes, and you can send people to it and then tell them to give you the results from it.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

Yeah, yeah. If you know, you know, it and it works great. So you can get the disc from that. Um, and the disc gets you a lot of the way there too. I like the disc because it's a before and after, right? Okay, we brought them on, we know what things, and we'll get into what things are are important on the disc and what we found. You're also gonna use it afterwards because it helps you to talk to them. And you can run the agency any way you want, right? That's the great thing about being a business owner. If you want to run an effective agency, you want to talk to people the way they want to be talked to.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Because now you're creating a culture, right? It's fine, you can do it however you want. I don't care. But I'll tell you, but over my long time, what I've found, and I've done it every which way, is if if I could relate to them and speak to them the way they want to be heard so they feel seen, then yeah, there you go, right? You're gonna get a much better relationship with them, and they're gonna have a lot more caring about the agency, right?

SPEAKER_03 6:09

They're gonna Yeah, and I would say side note if you really want to do this for your agency, if you're running Chat GPT, open a project, dump everybody's assessment in the files app, and then you can drop in scenarios. Why is it hard for Sally to talk to Tom? Yeah, like this is the situation, and it's like, oh, because Tom hears stuff this way, and Sally uh says stuff this way because of their personalities. So, like you can really decode stuff. And the reason why Craig and I found out about how valuable that can be was because uh we have wives, and uh we asked Chad, we we dumped in our own disc profiles and and our and our wives' disc profiles and little did they know that we took the old versions that we had them take a long time ago and screw it in there. But like the insights that Craig and I got on this, it's like you guys get in fights because of this, because of this, and like they hear stuff this way, and you hear you say stuff this way, but you're meaning it this way, but they hear it this way. And it's like Craig and I did that like once, like a while ago, and it was like all of a sudden that unlocked a whole new understanding about how to talk to you. So much shame.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, but it definitely provides some pretty interesting insights, you know. And if you could get your partner to to do that and you do it, you'll see. I mean, you'll you will see like where the issues are.

SPEAKER_03 7:30

I love partner because it reminds me of a cowboy.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

That's what everybody says now.

SPEAKER_03 7:35

Howdy partner.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

Yeah, howdy partner. I mean, that's what I say when I get home. I howdy partner. She loves like howdy, and then we shake hands. Spit on your hands and then shake, and then we do a real firm grip. So um, yeah, but okay, this is this is something I think that was really interesting and kind of a surprise to us. I alluded to it last time, but we assumed that salesperson, because we, I mean, we sold, we don't really do much selling anymore, right?

SPEAKER_03 8:05

But just sell two spouse on something, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Well, yeah, not very well, Mr. Greg, not very well, Mr. Jason. Uh so so you take we thought, oh well, that we were looking for people like us, right? High D, high I, low S, low C. Easy. Well, not so much, right? Those folks tend to be maybe the really, really good salesperson, but they're the prima donna salesperson. Yeah, that's right, Mr. Jason. I'm calling you a prima donna.

SPEAKER_03 8:34

It's true. And then they also want, like, if they have a good month, it's like they constantly want to one up, and then as soon as they don't see like they see a ceiling, they're like, screw this, I'm out.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

Gone. And they're troublemakers.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Case in point.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

Solo. So they're solo people too, not team players.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

You don't want the lone wolves, you want the team players. So so we're looking more now. What we look for within the disc component is sort of the uh a little bit above, well, for D, you don't want it too high. You want it probably in that 70%, maybe you could it depending on the the equalizers, you know, if you if you look at it like an equalizer, some things could be higher, which is gonna make it okay for something else to be a little bit different. But but typically, you know, between 50 and 75, right, at the top. If you start getting much higher, then they're gonna be a little hard-headed, and that could be challenging, right? This is it's like another thing you wanna you're gonna have to overcome, right? Yeah, they're great at the interview, but realize down the road you're probably gonna be button heads. And so if you're okay with that, great. If you're not, avoid, right? Don't you don't want them too high in that deep. The eye, you want you definitely want some eye in there because that's what makes somebody more dynamic and exciting and fun and energy and all that stuff, but too high, and you end up with some wackos like cray, like Jason and I. I I almost called him my name. And uh, and then you don't want it too low, or they're they can't tell a story and they're boring. So you want it somewhere kind of in the same band as as the D, but not as high as we initially thought it was supposed to be. And that's just based on the data. And then the S, this is where we thought, oh, well, this you want these low, right? But but actually think of the S as your stability, right? Your steadiness. And you want somebody who can handle that repetition, right? And if you have that mid to higher S, all of a sudden you have somebody who is okay with quoting 10 10 different leads a day, right? Every day, day after day. And they're the steady eddy, right? You have somebody that is a high I and a low S. I mean forget about it. It's ADHD time. You don't want the they don't want to do the same thing ever, right? So, I mean, and and I could tell you, going back to the early days where I was doing quotes, and it was so hard to stay consistent with quotes, right? Because it was like, ah, I mean, the the way I'd switch it up is just well, I know this person's gonna be different, so it's not gonna be the same call, but it still has the same structure, right? Right. And so it it got old, and this is why I think most folks who are agents don't quote forever or don't consistently quote, certainly not 10 households a day, which in today's world you gotta be doing each person.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

Um yeah, and what I think is interesting about just the disc profile in general is that if you ask somebody like what makes a good salesperson, it's going to give you somebody who isn't necessarily a great salesperson for the agency. Like all this was learned through the hard way, right? Yeah, like like they kept saying, like, this person's a good salesperson, then they'd come in and they wouldn't stay long for one reason or another. Like it just it's just the different sales environment. Um so if you're doing a lot of quotes and in a you know agency sales process, it's just it's just a little bit different. So those nuances make a big difference.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

Yeah, for sure. And I mean, and over time, right? Over time. Like, I mean, we used to have a less than year average retention of people, and now they stay forever. I mean, they're they're here because we we align the people we hire with the way that the role fits.

SPEAKER_03 12:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Not like cater to who the person is. I mean, we're gonna cater within the the zone that fits in this culture, right? But like I mean, we've had the same three folks in the seats for a very long time, and the fourth one is the one that turns, and now that one's kind of sticking. So that's good news, you know. But everybody here is over a year, which is crazy. And I don't know if I told you this, but one of them won top salesperson in Arizona.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

Craig's a so funny because you know, you and I were rocking uh pretty high sales before, and then you you and I have kind of gone more the direction of like cruising a little bit more, less aggressive. Um Us ourselves, but not the agency. Well, I mean, even in the agency, it's like it's more of like uh, you know, we had the pedal to the metal. Oh, yeah. I mean with 10 people or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, dude, your sales for how many salespeople you have is incredible. We're close to 200k with four people. 200k with four people. I mean, it's insane. I I that's so good, dude.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

I think it's like we've gotten the numbers, we've gotten the numbers down just right. We know. I I know like okay, I I'm heavy on telemarketers. So so I mean, it's the best situation that that an agent could have, right? A sales sales agent.

SPEAKER_03 13:35

And your sales people just love it.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

Yeah, they just they could sit back and wait. It's so good. It's so they can't really sit back and wait because I mean quotes are constantly coming in.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

But uh I remember when you were down to three people at one point and your sales were like pretty close to 200,000, and I was like, what in the world's going on over there?

SPEAKER_02 13:53

I mean, it's just because they're willing to do the activity, you know. So I mean, but that got to a point when it's when it's too few and you and you demand a really high number, they can burn out too because it's like you know, 15, 16, 18 quotes a day is tough.

SPEAKER_03 14:10

Well, and I think with all this that we're talking about, I mean, well, I've been doing this for less than you, but I mean at 10 years now, I can't believe it's been 10 years. I still feel but like you've been doing it for a while, and you just want to be comfortable. Like you you want to be able to grow and be comfortable, and um there's nothing crappier than having that agency turnover. So it when you're when we were going before, we're pushing, pushing, pushing, dude. We had some turnover because it was like we're pushing them hard. They were expecting a lot. And I mean, there's something to be said for like keeping people longer and and not having like turnover is such a pain. So, like doing these things and like finding out with the disc profile, how people interact with each other and making this really great environment that's like it seems effortless, yeah. Especially for you, it seems effortless.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

And um, I mean, there's cost, like I just I throw money at it, right? Right, it's like I could either put a bunch of time or I could just throw money at it. And is it the most efficient? We were talking about this the other day, right? I'm sure in fact, I'm certain that I could be more efficient, right? Like that that there's probably some loss there, but at the same time, I'd rather give up that that little bit of extra loss and not have to deal with it.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

You don't have to deal with all that stuff. You were you rented out the the house here in California last year for six months. It's pretty funny how different you know things are now than when I like first met you and you were so swamped and like just the the operation level is just totally different.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

Yeah, I was definitely the operator at that point, and then you know my dude came along and he helps I he basically runs it.

SPEAKER_03 16:07

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

I didn't want to throw jazz, yeah. But yeah, hopefully it's stand forever. Well, good stuff, dude. High high as high C, right? Or not not high C. Lower, not so low that they're gonna break the rules, but but low enough where it doesn't prohibit them, right? Right. From from being aggressive. So I mean that's the thing that we push really hard is like, hey, look, if it if you break the rules here, you're gone. That that's it's it's it's non-negotiable. So there's no cheating. And what's great is like it's very difficult, I think, now compared to back in the old days, for them to try to pull a fast one. Right? You can't put in fake card numbers, you can't do all of this stuff that they used to do. Thank goodness.

SPEAKER_03 16:56

Yeah. Well, that's a good one from the mailbag. Yeah. I'm I'm liking this.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

I hope they're liking it. If you are liking it, definitely subscribe if you haven't. But also send us a question.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

So we're getting these questions from all the different places. What are all the different places? We actually have a lot of places if they want some free content or be a part of the group. We have uh last year we came out with the the million-dollar agency book. Dude, and we wrote that before AI. It was actually a lot of work. It's a couple hundred pages. It took a lot of effort, and then by the time it came out, there was AI, it would have made it ten times easier. But we came out that it's the entire playbook. I read that whole thing so many times and kept kept fiddling with it. Uh it's the entire playbook on on how we sell in our agencies and how we grew our agencies. Then there's a school group, S-K-O-O-L, called the Agent Elite. That has a bunch of free training materials. It's a community of insurance dudes. We're in there. We got that place. And then we have the insurance dudes newsletter comes out once a week with a bunch of insights, tips, and all the other stuff. So go to the ID the don't go to without the the the iDudes.com. And if you go there, you can see all these different things. And uh, dude, join us and ask questions.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

We can uh there's probably an eye doctor, like a group of eye doctors that have the eye dudes, but with a you know EY EY that would be great. I mean, that's how I'd do it if I was an eye doctor. Yeah, we should uh I don't think anybody would trust us with their eyeballs. Speaking of mailbag.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

And that's a mailbag.