Agency leaders make a fatal assumption: that their million-dollar producers are self-sufficient. The reality is, these all-stars drive 80% of your revenue, and they’re often the most neglected. They’re a massive flight risk, not because they’re unhappy, but because they’re stuck.

The strategies that got your top producers to their first million won’t get them to the next level—they’ve hit a new plateau and need a new set of tools. In this episode, I’m giving you the new framework for supporting your best people.

We get into why building their personal brand is the only strategy that matters for scaling, how to use platforms like LinkedIn to build their credibility, and why the agencies that “rent the brands of their producers” are the only ones who will win the future.

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Video Transcript:

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This is the problem you have to solve for your top producers, because if you don’t, eventually they are going to go seek another opportunity where somebody is willing to pay more or they’re skilled enough at this point to go start their own agency. You might say.

So let’s start today’s episode with a question. What would you do if your best producer walked out tomorrow? How long before most of their book leaves? As well? This was a conversation I had with a sales leader a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to use it as an episode for the podcast because I thought it would be extremely relevant for the agency executive sales leaders out there who probably can admit they’re neglecting their top producers a little bit.

So let me set the stage. I was talking to, a regional sales leader of a large, large organization in the insurance industry, and we’re just discussing training for producers going into 2026. What is she looking for or what are her goals? And in the conversation, she admitted that, you know, we probably don’t spend enough time with our top producers because the assumption is they’re already killing it, right?

Their book is probably north of $1 million, in some cases, well north of $1 million. And so when you’re leading those types of producers, you just it’s an easy assumption to figure that they’ve got it. They’ve got it figured out. Leave them alone. Let them do their thing. However, she admitted that behind the scenes, those producers are asking for help, too.

And today I’m going to help you solve that. If you are a leader within your agency, your sales leader, agency executive, I think today is going to be really valuable, for you, because neglecting top producers is a common problem and it can go hidden for many, many years until a top producer decides that he or she is going to leave, maybe to go start their own agency.

Or worse yet, they leave for a competitor because the reality is they leave. I know they don’t technically own their book, but let’s be honest, if they leave within two years, most of that book is going somewhere. If not back to them once their non-compete is done. And this brings back, a problem I have with the industry at large.

When we hire top producers, producers we think are going to go on and have a lot of success. I always find it interesting that the first move we make is to write an airtight non-compete, just in case they leave. So before we even think about them having success, we’re already welcoming them to the team by planning for what happens when they leave.

And my philosophy on that is, instead of setting yourself up and protecting yourself in case they leave, why don’t we ask ourselves what can we do to support this producer throughout his or her journey? No matter how high they rise within this organization, what can we do to continue to support them so they can keep rising?

Because when you look at top producers and let me let me pause and maybe define what a top producer looks like. This is somebody who has probably been within your organization for 4 or 5 years or more. They’ve grown their book of business to $1 million. Plus, you know, I know advisors today who have books north of $8 million.

And at that point, they have two choices. They can decide that their book of business feeds them the lifestyle they’re looking for, affords them to have the house, the toys, everything they want in life, the membership at the country club, and they might take their foot off the gas. And quite frankly, they’ve earned that right. If they choose to do so.

But as a as a leader, my guess is you’re hoping that they continue to grow that book because it will help them, but it’s also going to help your bottom line, right? If you look at most agencies today, I’m willing to bet at least at less than 20% of the producers are driving at least 80% of the revenue.

And this actually, on the flip side, as a challenge, I hear a lot from other sales leaders who are part of organizations who are in M&A mode. They will go buy a book, a business, you know, buy an agency, acquire them, bring them in house. But after doing all the due diligence and unfortunately, this is often after the acquisition has occurred, they realize that the majority of the revenue sits with 1 or 2 producers who are no longer actively selling.

And so they bought a large book of business. But it’s not a book, a business that is still growing, which creates its own set of challenges. But for this specific sales leader that I was talking to a couple of weeks ago, she realized that, yeah, we’re probably neglecting our top producers because we assume that they’ve got it figured out.

And the reality is, I bet you a lot of them are willing to admit they don’t. But at a minimum, they want to keep growing and they need help because when you hit $1 million, let’s use that as the threshold. You run into a new challenge, right? It is a grind to grow a book from 0 to 1 million.

But when you hit $1 million, that presents its own set of new challenges, especially if you want to keep growing. Number one, you are serving a lot more clients than you used to. So now bandwidth presents a problem. You don’t have as much time as you used to, and so you’re trying to figure out how you’re going to scale your book when you just don’t have the same amount of time as you used to.

On top of that, you know, what got you here won’t get you there. If you talk to most producers who hit the million dollar mark and above, they recall the days that they totally just grinded it out with a bunch of cold calls, cold emails, networking. Some even went door to door. And they know that if they’re going to go from one to 3 to 5, they can’t keep doing that because one, they don’t have enough time, but two, that just took a lot of blood, sweat and tears, which they don’t want to exhaust anymore.

And again, they’ve earned the right not to. So how the heck are you going to scale if you just don’t have the same tools or amount of time that you used to have? Now a third.

Aspect comes in a third element to scaling a book at this point is when you’re at $1 million plus, growing to a million probably included winning smaller business right? You got to a million in smaller chunks for most producers early in their career. They’re out hitting singles and doubles. And then as I slowly grow that book, they’re starting to turn their attention more to triples and home runs, right, so they can grow faster.

And when you hit that million dollar mark, you’re looking for more triples and home runs, because that is how you’re going to scale faster. You’ve also earned the right to be pickier. If you’re going to grow a book past $1 million, you’ve got to learn how to say no a lot and be very focused on who you’re trying to do business with.

So you put all these elements into play, a lack of bandwidth and a lack of time.

You don’t want to put in the same amount of hustle that you that got you to that first million, and you’re leveling up the type of prospect, the quality of the prospect that you’re going after. Right? It’s no longer about going out and getting a $20,000 revenue win. It’s now going out and getting 100,000, 200,000, heck, a half million dollar revenue.

When to keep scaling. So what the heck are you going to do?

This is the moment where building a personal brand is paramount.

The bridge that gaps where you are today and where you want to go. So you’re at 1 million or 2. You want to double that over the next 3 to 5 years, and maybe double that again in the next 3 to 5 years. You are at a point in your career where you have to build a personal brand.

Because what got you here won’t get you there. And what you need more than anything, if you’re going to build credibility and thought leadership with larger opportunities, is a personal brand.

And so to bring it back on to that agency executive or that sales leader, my question to you is, what are you doing to help your top producers build a personal brand? Because that’s what’s going to help them keep scaling. Now, I know you could argue, Andy, you’re biased. This is what you guys do as a business. I get it, but I know it’s what it’s done for me.

I know what it’s done for numerous numbers of our clients who have hit that point and found themselves frustrated because they felt stuck. They built a nice book, but they don’t have the time anymore to pick up the phone or send the cold emails, and all of a sudden their revenue growth plateaus and they just can’t figure it out.

And truth be told, when that happens, your top producers actually start doubting themselves a little bit. They’re wondering, what the heck’s going on, why can’t I figure this out like I used to? And it has nothing to do with their skill or their knowledge. It’s the lack of time, and they have to shift the strategy that they’re deploying to continue to grow their book of business.

And I first really recognize this not only when I moved to Colorado and built a book there, but when I started complete game consulting. I’ll never forget a conversation I had with with one of my early clients, and it was that first client that I had where I was. He was at that point in order to scale his book, he needed something different.

I still remember the call we had, the first discovery call we had because we jumped on zoom and he owned his agency. He was a CEO. His agency’s book was at about $4 million at the time, and he wanted to get it to a six and eventually eight. And I remember him telling me what his predicament was and that he was reaching out to me for help.

And I had the same reaction that a lot of agency leaders and sales leaders have with their top producers. When he said that, I said, well, why does this guy need my help? He’s already grown a book to $4 million. Why the heck would he be reaching out to me? And it was what he said in that conversation that was really the unlock for me, the moment.

He said, hey man, I’m not reaching out to you because I need help selling. I already know how to do that. I’m reaching out to you because I need more at bats and I don’t have the time, and I need to do I need you to teach me how to build more of an online brand presence. And that’s what it hit me like,

That is the predicament top producers face, whether they are the agency CEO and they’re still selling, or just one of the top producers on the team, that right there, I already know how to sell, but I need more at bats and I know what got me here won’t get me there, nor do I have the time like I used to.

What the heck am I going to do? This is the problem you have to solve for your top producers, because if you don’t, eventually they are going to go seek another opportunity where somebody is willing to pay a more, or they’re skilled enough at this point to go start their own agency. And you and I both know if they make any of those moves, that book they have with you is going to deteriorate, deteriorate over the next two years.

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Figure revenue opportunities. They must learn how to build credibility and thought leadership online. If they’re targeting C-suite executives, HR directors, whoever they might be targeting, they have to build their credibility before they ever walk in the door. And using platforms like LinkedIn, for example, to create content that speaks to their ideal prospect is one of the best things they can do.

So what I will ask you to do, or I’m urging you to do, is think about how your agency can support that effort to make sure your top producers are showing up online every day. 24 seven building the credibility and the thought leadership they need to keep opening doors and opening bigger doors. Now, if you have an in-house marketing team, great.

My question for you is what is your marketing team doing to support those efforts? I know the marketing team has initiatives to provide marketing support for the entire organization. I understand that and I know know one producer, one teammate is bigger or better than another, but I am here to tell you, if you have a small handful of producers who are out killing it right now, and you want them to keep growing so that they can continue to thrive in their career and help your bottom line.

Your marketing team has to support their online brand awareness efforts, and that does not mean just putting out your company’s logo in their name. That is not what I’m talking about here. We do business with people we like. We did not do business with logos. I heard it from a friend in the industry years ago and he was spot on.

Agencies that understand that they’re renting the brands of the producers will win in the future. Instead of thinking that producers rent the logo of the agency. And I’m here to tell you, your top producers, you’re winning because of their personal brand, not because of your logo. So think about how your marketing team can support their efforts to be online 24 over seven educating your prospects.

Their prospects, and building that online thought leadership and credibility. Now, here’s the good news LinkedIn is about ready to make a huge shift going into 2026. From all indications that I am seeing thought leadership is going to be heavily, heavily pushed in 2026. Video content is coming back. Video content has kind of been kind of suppressed for the past few months, but all indications say video content is going to be pushed heavily in 2026.

So this is a huge opportunity to build leadership next year. And so when you sit down right now as a team, as a leadership team, and figure out what you’re doing from a training perspective or, marketing and sales enablement support perspective, yeah, train your new producers, get them up to profitability, help continue those who validated to keep growing, but don’t ignore the top producers, because that is where the vast majority of revenue sits right now, and you need to find a way to support them so they can keep growing.

Now, let me give you one more example. I’ve got I’ve got a client right now who works for a top 200 agency. Now, his production journey is only three years old right now. Longtime financial analyst in the business, he’s been in the been in the industry for for 15 years at least, but most of it was in the background crunching the numbers, the data as a financial analyst.

But he decided to make a jump to the production role about three years ago. And from day one, even as an UN validated producer, he has used his brand awareness to scale his book of business. And I’m happy to say that in 2025, today he is probably the top producer in the employee benefits team, and his brand awareness has generated multiple inbound leads, a ton of cross-sell opportunities with his teammates, even even generated leads from his boss, the sales director.

Because of the brand and the trust he’s built by building that online presence. And what I love seeing is the support that his organization has put in to helping and maintain that online presence 24 over seven. So he’s going to keep scaling, which is going to continue to help that employee benefit team grow. And now it has created a blueprint the sales leader or sales director can follow to help some of his other top producers do the same.

So my ask of you, as we close out 2025 and look ahead to 2026, if you’re an agency executive and sales leader and you’ve got a bullpen, a handful of producers who are considered your top producers, who are probably selling the majority of your revenue in a given year, instead of just leaving them alone and saying, hey, they got it figured out.

I’m just going to let them do their thing. Ask yourself, ask your team, what can we do to support their brand building efforts? Because that’s what it’s going to take to help them keep scaling. Now, if you don’t have the marketing team to do it, or your marketing team is hyper focused on producing marketing content for the agency at whole as a whole, I would urge you to take a look at our Expert Content Done for You program.

You know, when I look at our most successful clients that are in the expert program, they are agency executives, agency owners who are out still, who are still out selling. They are top producers at large organizations, and their organization is choosing to support, chosen to support them, just not in-house. So they have sought our services, and our team is helping that producers show up every day on platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube, and building content that is creating the credibility and the thought leadership they need, especially to win bigger business.

And in the end, it is generating not only brand awareness. When they walk into appointments with prospects, prospects are commenting and referencing the content, which means they have credibility when they walk in the door. But it is absolutely generating some inbound leads, some referrals from centers of influence or referrals from their own team. Because of the brand. And if you don’t have the bandwidth or your marketing team’s focus is just not there, I highly recommend you take a look at our expert program, because this is how you’re going to help your top producers continue to scale and invest in their growth so that they not only continue to thrive.

Not only does your bottom line continue to thrive, you are creating a retention program that ensures your top producers never leave. So that’s my advice for you today. Whether you use our expert services or you choose to do it in-house, my coaching advice for you today is your top producers need support. They don’t need less support. They just need a different kind of support because the agencies that win in the next decade won’t just have the best producers, they’ll have the most visible.

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