The All Aboard Newsletter

Hey everyone, and welcome back to another weekly edition of the All Aboard Newsletter!

This week’s written portion is going to be a bit condensed. I’m battling the flu and certainly not feeling 100%. The video is going to go much deeper on the topic, so I highly encourage you to listen in if you’re looking for the most information.

Today, we’re continuing the discussion we started a few weeks ago about hiring.

We’re going to be diving into job descriptions, specifically what makes a good job description, and what makes a poor one. Unfortunately, most job descriptions suck, and its subtly sabotaging your hiring efforts. But we’re going to help you fix that.

As we discussed a few weeks ago, a key to scaling your team is to never stop hiring and having a job description that actually entices candidates to apply can keep your hiring pipeline full.

Our goal is to write job descriptions that attract candidates and make them excited to talk with you.

Below, I’ll talk about a few issues that plague most job ads, and then give you some step by step tools on how to make your job description pop.

If you’re interested in watching me walk through Peachy Insurance’s job description, I do so in the video. For context, this job post got a 17% application rate on LinkedIn and while that doesn’t sound high, the average application rate in insurance on the platform is right around 3%.

I’m here to help and after today, you should have all the tools you need to overhaul your job post.

Lets dive in!

Job Descriptions/Posts that don’t suck!

If the embedded link doesn’t work, you can access the video here: Click Me

For the best experience and most information, I highly suggest you click the video!

The Problem with Traditional Job Descriptions: 

Job descriptions (especially in the insurance industry) are often dry, clinical, and cookie-cutter. They don’t excite anyone. A lot of applicants are turned off by the bland, overly formal language. Instead of applying, they hit the “back” button and move on to the next opportunity.

Worse yet, these job descriptions fail to clearly communicate what the company offers, which leaves candidates with no real reason to apply.

Lets face it - People don’t plan to work in insurance. It just kind of…. you know… works out that way. Ask pretty much anyone why they got into insurance and they often say “I just kind of fell into it.”

So, if thats the case, we need to make sure people want to learn more. Unfortunately, there are six common mistakes I see across people’s job posts. Here they are:

Common Mistakes in Job Posts:

1. Lack of Differentiation: Job posts that look the same as every other listing are going to get passed over. If you don’t stand out, you can’t win the talent war.

   A professor in college once asked my class “What makes you special?” then had everyone submit their answers. Then she threw everyone’s answers on the board. As a shock to most people, there were only a handful of different answers. All the things people thought made them special were listed by others.

   Our job descriptions are often similar. We think there is something that makes us unique, but once you take a look at other job descriptions, you find out we’ve all listed the same things. So dig deep here, find what actually makes you and your agency different.

2. Boring and Generic: Most job descriptions are plain and lack personality. They’re not engaging enough to grab anyone’s attention.

   Find a way to stand out by writing your description in a way that your ideal candidate would want to be spoken to. If you don’t and it just seems like it was written by ChatGPT or some random HR person, people are going to scroll on by.

3. No Salary Transparency: Hiding the salary or making unrealistic salary claims creates confusion and mistrust. Be upfront about what the pay looks like, even if there’s no base salary.

   Nobody wants to go through 3-4 interviews just to find out the job doesn’t meet their monetary expectations. Its a waste of everyone’s time, especially yours. Don’t be weird about pay, just be honest and lets move forward!

4. Too Much Focus on the Employer: Job descriptions shouldn’t be all about what the company wants. Candidates want to know what's in it for them.

   Relationships are give and take, and an employer-employee relationship is no different. If your job description only talks about whats in it for you, its probably a signal of whats to come for the applicant.

5. Unrealistic Experience Requirements: Many agencies look for applicants with extensive experience when, in fact, training someone from scratch can be much more effective.

   If you want someone with five years of experience, be prepared to pay someone like they have five years experience.

6. Cumbersome Application Process: Making candidates jump through hoops before they even apply is a big mistake. Keep the application process simple to attract more applicants.

   I used to argue with my team about this all the time - We should make it easy to apply - Recruiting is just sales. We wouldn’t ask a prospect to jump through a million hoops to get their business, so why do we do the same with applicants?

This week’s edition of All Aboard is brought to you by:

Ideal Traits!

Boost Your Recruiting with Ideal Traits

As part of scaling your sales team, you need the right tools in your hiring toolkit. That’s why I want to recommend Ideal Traits. They’re changing the game for insurance agents when it comes to recruiting.

A lot of people think “Candidate Assessments” when they hear of Ideal Traits, but they offer so much more.

Here’s what I love about Ideal Traits:

1. Text Recruiting:
   In a world dominated by email, texting candidates makes you stand out. If you send a text from your team, it’s personal, it’s immediate, and it grabs attention. Think about the competitive advantage you have as a small business owner when you can reach out to candidates directly through text. Corporations are slow. Be like Ricky Bobby - Go fast.

2. AI Recruiting Tools:
   Hiring can be tough, especially when you’re trying to write a compelling job description. Most job ads are boring as hell! Ideal Traits provides AI-powered tools that help you build more engaging and effective job descriptions. I’ve learned over time that job descriptions shouldn’t be boring—they should be enticing! Stand out!

3. Career Pages That Work:
   Your career page is your digital first impression. If your page looks outdated or unprofessional, candidates will move on. Ideal Traits helps you create a modern, appealing career page that showcases your agency’s culture and differentiates you from the competition. I mentioned standing out, but can I mention it again? STAND OUT. What makes your agency different? Now you have a chance to show people.

4. Automated Workflows:
   Recruiting is time-consuming, but Ideal Traits offers automated workflows that save you valuable time. From follow-up emails to scheduling interviews, you can automate many of the repetitive tasks involved in recruiting, allowing you to focus on the most important aspects. Just like in sales, you need a CRM!

This entire newsletter is about writing better job descriptions, and Ideal Traits has an AI tool that helps you write a tailored job add that doesn’t suck without doing all the work of writing it yourself.

I highly recommend checking them out!

If you want to chat with a member of their stellar team, click here: Click Me

Check em out!

A Good Job description should…….

1. Speak to the Candidate: Write the job description like you’re emailing your ideal candidate, selling them on the role.

   When the candidate reads the job description, it should feel like the ad is speaking directly to them. Use italics and bolding on your writing to help drive people’s eyes up and down the page to the points you want to emphasize. It works!

2. Be Transparent About Salary: Put the salary and on-target earnings up front, and be clear about whether it's base or commission-only.

   I will never understand why people are so secretive about salary and pay. We’re in 2025 folks. Nobody has time to dance around pay. I don’t work for free, you don’t work for free, and nobody else is working for free either. We work to make money. Thats why we’re here. So be up front about it.

   Pro-tip, if you’re getting a lot of questions about the pay structure, tax form, or salary levels, its probably not clear enough in the job description.

3. Get People Excited: Focus on selling the opportunity and the benefits of working with your agency. Make them want to learn more.

   What this ultimately means is that you’re talking about what is in it for them, not only what you want or need. Its not like it was 30 years ago. People are not lining up to work for their local insurance agent because its an honor, there is a battle for talent. We need to sell people on why they should pick our agency over someone elses.

4. Set Realistic Expectations: Share what a typical day looks like and the kind of work expected. Show them what they’ll need to do to succeed.

   In my job description, I say: “I’ll be up front, we expect a lot out of our sales representatives. But we expect a lot, because we give you a lot.”

   We pay a higher base than many agents across the country, offer a full benefits package, spend a ton of money on marketing, and offer an amazing culture. If you want to work here and experience those benefits, know that we are a hard driving, high performing agency before you come in.

5. Make It Personal: Include a little about your company culture and what makes your agency unique. Candidates want to see how they fit into the bigger picture.

   One of the best changes we made was talking a bit about our managers and listing something personal about them. People want to know who they’re working for and if they feel like they can relate to the person who is going to be their boss, you’re going to attract more people like them.

   Of course, we don’t want to have 10x of the same personality, but if we know our managers and leaders are stars, we should want to attract more people like them.

6. Share the Timeline: Let candidates know how long the hiring process will take. People don’t want to be left hanging.

   We try to paint a picture so people know exactly how many interview are in the process, and how long it takes. People who are looking for a job are often out of and cannot wait around forever. By setting the timeline and making it clear, someone might wait to get through your whole process, rather than take a job that came along faster.

7. Include a Call to Action: Always end your job post with a clear action. Tell candidates exactly what to do next.

   Remember, your job description is just an ad, and no good ad is complete without a call to action!

In the video, I walk through my job description for Sales that we use for Peachy Insurance.

I hit almost every single one of these seven points that I listed above so you can see them in action.

This job description has been one of the best performing job ads we’ve ever used and you can check it out for yourself here: Click Me

And if you’re looking for help or a useful tool, check out Ideal Traits here. As a reminder, our sponsors keep the newsletter free for all the readers!

I hope that these tips help you lock in your own job description. Even if you take 15-20 minutes to make a few tweaks, it can pay of 10x over.

So get out there and get recruiting!

Until next time!

Cheers!

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