Our 5-Part Permission Sales Framework teaches both new and experienced producers how to build a $1,000,000 or more Book of Business.
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Hello! My name is Charles Specht and I want to thank you for considering Permission Sales — a division of Permission Network Insurance Agency, LLC — for your insurance producer sales training.
At Permission Network we pride ourselves on being the place where insurance producers can find useful information, resources, training, and inspiration for building a $1,000,000 Book of Business.
“How exactly do you do that?” you may be wondering? By teaching producers how to collect more signed Broker of Record letters, of course!
WHAT I CAN DO FOR YOU
The purpose of this page is to demonstrate the inherent value and Return on Investment (R.O.I.) that I would provide to you (both the Producer and the Agency Principals) through:
- Insurance Producer Sales Training to help your producers improve their sales skills, particularly in the area of securing more signed Broker of Record Letters.
- Teach, train, and help your insurance producers market themselves more strategically and efficiently to prospective clients.
- Assist your organization in further developing a “Winning Sales Culture” in order to attract, recruit, and hire experienced insurance producers and/or new member agencies.
- Train and inspire your insurance producers on how to become more successful at consistently writing larger revenue generating accounts.
What I do is teach, consult, and help insurance producers like yourself discover how to be both highly successful and extremely profitable in their insurance careers. I coach producers with 1-on-1 mentorship, teach large groups in both one- and two-day seminar settings, as well as being formally retained by agency Sales Managers and Principals in order to motivate, encourage, and help their producers grow their books.
My entire Permission Sales training model is centered around the most powerful (and most often ignored) piece of paper in the insurance industry: The signed Broker of Record letter. Ultimately, I teach producers to stop wasting time “offering quotes” and to collect signed Broker of Record letters instead.
My philosophy of insurance sales is centered on the idea of PERMISSION. Some call it sales, others refer to it as persuasion, but I firmly believe that what matters most is for you to secure your prospect’s PERMISSION.
The Permission Sales approach is the perfect answer for all insurance salespeople, particularly:
- Brand new producers with no insurance experience and no book of business.
- Struggling producers stuck at a book of $100,000.
- Seasoned producers “coasting” on a $350,000 book of business.
- High-performance producers with a $1,000,000 book of business, looking to grow that book to $2,000,000 and then $3,000,000.
My Sales Background
Insurance Career – (Year #1)
I began my insurance career in 2000 as a very “green” Property & Casualty producer, accepting a position with InterWest Insurance Services, LLC, a highly reputable insurance agency located in central California.
I initially focused on writing small subcontractor accounts, as that was what most of the other producers in that particular profit center wrote. I won thirty (30) new clients and booked $135,000 of new business commission during my first fourteen (14) months at that agency, but my average annual revenue/commission—per account—was only around $4,500.
Although it was one of the better “first years” a brand new agent ever had at that agency location, that production model simply wasn’t sustainable for the long-term results I was hoping to achieve.
Insurance Career – (Year #2)
I eventually left InterWest (on good terms, I might add) and accepted a sales position with Arthur J. Gallagher & Company.
It was at Gallagher that my eyes were opened to an entirely different approach to consultative sales. I began to understand the importance of “Micro-Niche” specialization, to be perceived as an “expert” in the specialized micro-industry of my prospective client, to pursue much larger revenue generating accounts, and to focus on gaining the client’s PERMISSION before ever putting together an Acord application.
The result? I won fifteen (15) new clients and wrote $375,000 of new business revenue in my first nine months, without “bringing over” any of my prior clients to Gallagher.
Year #1:
- 30 new clients
- $135,000 of new business revenue
- $4,500 annualized revenue per account.
Year #2:
- 15 new clients
- $375,000 of new business revenue
- $25,000 annualized revenue per account.
After a few more years at Gallagher, I earned my Certified Insurance Counselor designation, was eventually promoted to Area Vice President, and built a personal book of business of over $1,100,000 in annual revenue.
During that time, I secured the PERMISSION from the Board of Directors for three different national homogeneous industry associations. I was endorsed as the sole insurance liaison for each association and even assisted with the creation of an entirely new insurance program for one of them.
Why I Stopped Selling Insurance
In 2010, however, I felt called into ministry and accepted an Associate Pastor position at Madera Baptist Church in Madera, California.
From 2011-2018, I served as the full-time bivocational Senior Pastor position at Faith Baptist Church in Strathmore, California.
From 2019-2021, I was the full-time, bivocational Adult Ministries Pastor position at Campus Bible Church in Fresno, California. I continued in that role until July 2021, when I moved my family to Nashville, Tennessee so that our youngest son (who is fully blind) could attend the Tennessee School for the Blind.
Since July 2023 I’ve been serving as the senior pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
MAJOR TRANSITION: Sales Coach & Agency Consultant
While serving as a bivocational pastor, I knew I could no longer devote myself to insurance production on a full-time basis, so I chose to exit the brokerage/placement side of the insurance industry altogether. Soon thereafter, I established Constructive Risk, an unbiased and wholly independent, fee-based consulting firm that both educates commercial insurance buyers and manages their renewal bid strategies.
One thing I didn’t expect when transitioning from a broker to an independent consultant at Constructive Risk was discovering how poorly trained many of my client’s insurance brokers/agents were—not specifically in product knowledge, but certainly in regards to sales technique. Frankly, some of my client’s incumbent agents were the most lackadaisical salespeople I’ve ever met. (By that I mean if another of my client’s other insurance policies didn’t fall into the agent’s lap, the agent never asked for more of my client’s business!)
Moreover, too many of the “competing” agents were either rude, scared, or unsure of exactly what value they brought to the table, and nearly all were just “playing the quoting game” and not winning in the end.
It was around that time I began seeing the “deep hole” in the marketplace for intelligent insurance sales training, strategic sales technique, and approaches to the sales process that would actually gain the insured’s trust and PERMISSION, ultimately leading to gathering signatures on Broker of Record letters.
I then began coaching individual brokers and agents around the country in my own personal sales process, conducting both on-site and off-site seminars for multiple insurance producers, and sculpting insurance sales training programs for individual agencies.
Some of what I do here at Permission Sales is teach insurance agents what worked (and what didn’t work) for me as a producer when I built my own book of business to over $1,000,000. However, I also teach what I’ve learned while being contracted as an unbiased, independent risk management consultant to the insurance buyer directly (Constructive Risk). The wealth of tips, knowledge, and psychology I gained from sitting on that side of the “sales table” (the client’s side of the sales process), is truly what I believe matters most in today’s insurance sales cycle.
As an insurance producer, I once thought I understood what insurance buyers truly and honestly wanted from their agent, as well as why and how they chose their current agent. But I was mistaken on many key aspects.
Now, as an unbiased, wholly independent consultant who has worked side-by-side with multiple insurance buyers, I’ve come to a much better understanding of what insurance buyers truly want from their agent.
