The Hard Market Left Good Habits

I sat down with Brad a few weeks ago for the Insurance Perspectives podcast and we ended up going pretty deep on what 2024 and 2025 actually cost us, and what we're doing differently heading into this year. If you want the full conversation, you can listen here:

The short version: those two years were painful. Carriers pulling back, clients leaving, staff burned out, high premiums masking the fact that your policy count was quietly shrinking. A lot of us were working harder than ever.  

But here's what I told Brad that I want to say again here, because I think it's worth sitting with: the hard market forced habits that I should have built years ago. 

Smart cycling is the one I keep coming back to. Every prospect we quote and don't close goes into a follow-up sequence. We set a diary, tag the reason we lost, and come back at a time that actually makes sense, whether that's six months out or right before a claim hits the three-year mark on their current policy. We're sitting at over 400 smart cycle leads right now. That list took discipline to build, and I wish we'd started it at day one of the agency. 

The other one is pre-qualification. In 2025 we quoted half the volume we quoted in 2024 and wrote the same amount of premium. Half the intake work, half the quoting labor, same production. The deal-breaker questions we ask up front now are now saving us more time quoting than we could ever have imagined.  

Neither of these are flashy nor part of a secret sauce. They don't require a new tool or a monthly subscription. They just require consistency and discipline, which is the part most agencies skip. 

I also talked about AI, the 4-day workweek, and how we're using HawkSoft data in ways that have actually changed decisions for us. Brad asked some good questions. Worth the listen if you have 45 minutes. 

The main thing I want you to take away: the habits that got you through the hard market are the same ones that will grow you in the soft market. Don't drop them because the pressure is off.