Most people in this business will tell you selling is the hard part.
Prospecting, follow-ups, closing. It takes discipline.
What nobody warns you about is this: the sale isn’t the hard conversation.
The hard conversations are the ones where you have bad news to share.
When The Real Work Starts
A policy gets sold. You move on to the next prospect.
Somewhere down the line, a premium jumps, a claim gets denied, or coverage doesn’t match what the client thought they had.
This moment decides whether you keep the client or lose them.
What happens when things get uncomfortable and you have to sit across from someone and tell them something they don’t want to hear.
Plenty of producers delay or avoid that conversation.
They delay the renewal increase they know is coming. They let the carrier deliver bad news instead of getting ahead of it themselves.
It feels easier in the moment, but it puts the client in a worse spot, and it’s usually what sends them shopping for another broker.
Clients Don’t Expect Perfection
Clients aren’t looking for an agency that never has bad news to share.
They’re looking for someone who tells them the truth before they have to find out on their own.
A few things separate the agencies clients stay loyal to:
- They explain what’s coming before it happens, not after
- They deliver bad news directly instead of softening it into something vague
- They stay involved after the sale instead of disappearing until renewal
- They treat every interaction like a chance to build trust, not a task to close out
None of that requires a script. It requires a producer willing to have a conversation that might not go smoothly.
Why Producers Avoid It
Fear, mostly. Fear of the reaction. Fear of losing the account. So the conversation gets pushed off, and the client finds out the hard way instead of hearing it from the person they trusted with their coverage.
Ironically, avoiding the conversation is what causes the damage you’re are trying to prevent.
Silence reads as a lack of care, even when that’s not the intention.
The Takeaway
Sales get a client in the door. Communication is what keeps them there.
If you’re only comfortable having the easy conversations, the good news, the wins, the “everything’s great” check-ins, you’re leaving the hardest part of the job for someone else to handle.
And that someone else is usually a competing broker, once the client goes looking for one.
The producers who last in this industry aren’t the ones who avoid hard conversations.
They’re the ones who’ve gotten good at having them.
Resources:
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- Connect with me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andyneary/
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- Connect with me on Instagram: instagram.com/andy_neary/
Business is no longer about who you know. Business is about who knows you. In a noisy industry like we’re in gang, you got to get people to know who you are.