The All Aboard Newsletter

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

Today, I’m diving into a topic that I get asked about on a weekly basis: How do I scale my sales team?

The pain always seems to manifest in the same way.

Rising goals and more pressure than ever before is creating urgency. Agents need not only more talent, but the right talent to hit their numbers.

To compound the issue, as soon as they get a new salesperson who looks like a star? Someone else quits!

Trust me, I’ve been there. But then it clicked. We figured it out!

In 2022 we grew our team from 8 people to 15 people in the matter of three months. It was messy.

Then we scaled from 15 people to 22 people in 2023 over the course of 6 months.

But scaling a team isn’t about just hiring anyone who walks through the door. It’s about hiring the right way, with the right logistics in place.

Learn from my mistakes! We had over $400k in dead payroll in 2023 alone from people who didn’t work out and never contributed to the bottom line.

So, today, I want to share the method we’ve used (and still use) to hire salespeople.

Note, this issue is about the logistics of hiring—not the interview tactics or candidate screening, but the process that makes growth sustainable. Let’s get into it!

Want to scale? Don’t stop hiring!!

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 Mistake Every Agent Makes When Scaling their Team

Let me be blunt: Agents make the same mistake when hiring over and over again.

They hire only what they need and no more than that.

Here’s the scenario: Let’s say you have three salespeople, and your goal is to get to six.

So, you hire three people. But what happens? One or two of them fail, and suddenly, you're back to square one. You set out to grow to six salespeople, did the work, and now you only have four people and you’ve wasted 60-90 days of work, energy, and money.

This is the vicious cycle that many agents get stuck in. You hire, you get excited, you train, then something falls through. Why? Because hiring just to meet the number you need is setting you up for failure.

If you need three salespeople, hire four or five. By always hiring more people than you need, you’re giving yourself a cushion.

People quit. People fail. Life happens creating circumstances that force people to leave!

If you hire just enough to fill a role, you're not accounting turnover that is almost certain to occur.

Always hire more than you think you need. That extra buffer will protect you from that vicious cycle and help you scale more sustainably.

And before you say “I can’t afford it” - ask yourself what the opportunity cost of the missed sales means in lost revenue. Furthermore, if you can’t afford it, perhaps your finances aren’t in a place that is conducive to scaling, and you need to get some expenses in line (I can help with 1:1 consulting).

Create a Hiring Timeline to Reduce Risk

Let’s talk about the true amount of time the hiring and training cycle takes.

Have you ever sat and mapped out your hiring and training process? How long does it take?

Probably longer than most people think. But by knowing what this timeline looks like, you can better prepare to hire well and hit your goals on schedule.

Typically, from the time you decide to hire until your new team member is producing, you're looking at anywhere from 60 to 75 days of work. That’s almost 3 months! Sometimes, it takes even longer.

If you’re serious about making your sales team (and sales) grow, you can’t afford to wait that long. Here is what that 60-75 days typically looks like.

1. Deciding to Hire
   It starts with writing job descriptions, posting listings, and getting the ball rolling. This usually takes about 7 days.

2. Interview Process:
   Then, you pick through interviews, reach out to candidates, and set up times to talk. If you’re doing a multiple interview format (which I recommend) it can be 2+ weeks in this portion of the timeline.

3. Hiring and Onboarding:
   Now you’ve selected your candidates! You’ve made an offer, they’ve accepted now you need to set them up with codes, systems, and equipment. By the time this is done, it might be 10 days before they can start.

4. Training Time:
   Its go time. They’ve started, and its time to train them up. Training can take anywhere from 30 to 45 days, depending on how in-depth you go. There are certainly ways to go faster, but we’re talking about fully trained and hitting goals.

At the end of it all, you're looking at about 60-75 days from start to finish. That’s a lot of time before you see any real production from your new hires.

Next we’ll talk about how to shorten this timeline in case some of your salespeople don’t work out!

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!

I use all of these strategies at Peachy Insurance and people will often say “I don’t have the team” or “I don’t have the budget” to employ all these strategies.

Good news is, you don’t need a huge budget or a huge team, because Ideal Traits makes it easy and affordable. I didn’t even list all their features like 1-way video interviewing which has been a game-changing strategy for Next Call Club too!

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

Check em out!

Speeding Up the Process: Hire in Classes

So, how do we solve this these two challenges of turnover and long hiring timelines?

By hiring in classes. Here’s the deal: Instead of hiring a few people at a time and dragging it out, you hire groups of people at once.

By bringing in, say, 3 people together, you get the benefit of synergies. It makes training more efficient, and it helps you maintain a steady flow of new hires. Then, 4 to 6 weeks later, you do it again. This creates a rhythm and prevents you from constantly being behind. Once you’re full, you stop hiring, but continue interviewing. But instead of interviewing 4-6 people a week, maybe you interview 1-2 people per week.

The goal is to compress that 75-day timeline down to 30 or 40 days by keeping new hires on a consistent schedule. In the video, I lay out where in the timeline we start another class if you’re curious.

By not waiting a full 60-75 days between hiring cycles, you shorten your hiring timeline and start producing faster.

Now, if only 50% of the people you hire work out, you have another class of people coming in a few weeks. This method increases your chances of success and reduces the risk of hiring too few people to sustain growth.

I want to leave you with some food for thought: Some agents say they have an Accountability Problem.

Agents don’t have an “accountability problem” they have a hiring problem. Its a lot easier to hold people accountable when you’re confident you can hire new people consistently.

So lets get moving!

To Recap:

1. Don’t stop hiring: Even when you’re full, keep interviewing! There is no such thing as “too many good salespeople.”

2. Create a hiring timeline: Hiring and training takes significantly longer than you think it does. If you need production next month, you’re already behind. Get started ASAP.

3. Hire in classes: Hire people in groups, train them together, and stay on a regular schedule. This gives them camaraderie, shared experience, and hedges your bet!

4. Use the right tools: Recruiting is ultimately just like sales. You need the right tools to stay in touch with prospective recruits, and tools to figure out who is a fit and who isn’t. Ideal Traits is an excellent choice if you’re looking to improve your tech stack and supercharge hiring.

P.S - There is an extra tip in the video if you decide to watch it - Let me know what you think!

By following these steps, you’ll avoid the the vicious cycle of hiring, turnover, hiring, turnover, etc and scale your sales team in a faster and more effective way.

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!

Cheers!

Three ways I can help you:

1.) If you need leads, calls, or data analytics - We’d love the opportunity to show how Next Call Club can help you grow faster and more profitably than before. We’re ready for the TCPA changes and can help you be ready too!

2.) Looking to scale in 2025? Maybe you’re shifting your strategic direction. Want a person you can work through plans with? Lets talk about 1:1 Consulting for you and your agency!

3.) Want to sponsor this newsletter? Lets talk about whether you’re a fit to reach 1,000+ agency owners every week!

As always - Thank you for the support! I’m looking forward to bringing you insights, ideas, and actionable strategies multiple times per month! If you enjoyed this newsletter or it gave you value, please consider sharing it with a friend!