Insurance Agencies Can Reach More Producer Candidates With Informal Conversations

Insurance agencies looking to hire producers may be screening out potential talent before they’ve had a chance to learn what those candidates can do. One recruiter’s advice is to start with a conversation: invite salespeople to coffee, explain the agency’s direction and get to know them before deciding whether there’s a fit.

The approach is simple, but it asks agencies to change how they spend their recruiting time. Producer searches can draw candidates from many sources, including business-to-business sales, internships, campus outreach and other agencies. With so many possible backgrounds, a rigid early screen may overlook people whose previous results were shaped by the conditions around them.

Start with a conversation

Mary Newgard, a partner and senior search consultant at Capstone Search Group, recommends a brief, informal meeting with salespeople an agency might want to recruit. The invitation doesn’t need to begin with a job pitch or a direct question about whether someone is ready to leave. Instead, the agency can introduce itself, share what it hopes to build and ask whether the person would be willing to meet for coffee.

That distinction matters because successful producers may not be actively searching for work. Newgard’s observation is that they’re still often open to hearing about another opportunity. For someone who receives a steady stream of messages, calls and emails asking whether they want a new job, an invitation to talk and learn about an agency may feel more personal and less transactional.

The meeting also gives both sides room to explore interest without treating an initial exchange as a commitment. An agency can explain its goals and ask about the candidate’s experience. The salesperson can learn what the organization is trying to accomplish and decide whether a longer conversation makes sense. A coffee meeting won’t establish that someone is the right hire, but it can create a more useful starting point for evaluating that question.

Look beyond the résumé

Newgard’s case for broad outreach rests on a practical point: a salesperson’s track record doesn’t tell the whole story. Past leadership, the quality of the service team and the business development model can all shape a producer’s experience and performance. A candidate’s results may therefore reflect the environment they worked in as well as their own ability.

That context can be hard to assess from a résumé or a first-round checklist alone. An early conversation lets hiring teams ask how the candidate found prospects, what support was available and how the role was structured. Those details can help an agency understand whether a person’s experience might translate to a different workplace, without treating prior titles or numbers as the only evidence of potential.

This doesn’t mean every salesperson is a strong prospect or that an agency should spend unlimited time on every lead. Newgard acknowledges that recruiters need to avoid investing heavily in poorly qualified candidates. Her point is about when to make that judgment: an overly detailed screen at the outset can reduce the number of people who ever get a chance to explain their background.

Build more chances to connect

Producer recruiting depends in part on the number of candidates an agency reaches and engages. Newgard compares the process to getting more at-bats: agencies that concentrate on fine distinctions too early may end up with fewer conversations and fewer chances to discover a promising fit. The coffee meeting is a way to widen that first stage while keeping the initial commitment modest.

For agencies planning producer hiring for 2027, the suggestion is to make those introductions part of the recruiting routine. That can mean identifying salespeople with relevant experience, approaching them directly and being ready to describe the agency’s aims in clear terms. The source doesn’t prescribe a quota or a particular hiring channel; it emphasizes the agency’s willingness to speak with people across different backgrounds.

Recruiting tools and methods have changed since Newgard began writing about the subject in 2018, but she says the underlying challenges remain familiar: finding and retaining good people, and offering competitive compensation and benefits. Technology can help agencies identify or contact prospects, yet the central interaction still depends on how a person is approached and whether the conversation gives them a reason to listen.

Newgard’s final contribution to “Ask the Insurance Recruiter” also marks her 100th article and her 20th anniversary with Capstone Search Group, where she has spent her recruiting career. She credits readers’ feedback and comments over eight years and invites them to stay in touch about recruiting questions.

For hiring teams, the takeaway is concrete: make the first exchange easy to accept, explain what the agency is working toward, and listen before drawing conclusions from a candidate’s past setting. A larger pool of conversations won’t guarantee a hire, but it gives agencies more opportunities to understand who may fit their producer team.