Learn the “Conversation Checklist” That Helped One Agent 4X Their ROI

George Elossais began his insurance sales career in 2018. For someone who has been in the business for less than a decade, he has achieved a shocking level of success: In 2024, the agency he manages was ranked as the sixth largest captive insurance agency, and it consistently falls in the top 100 for auto, fire, health, investments, and multi-line insurance.

How did George help his agency achieve all this so quickly?

He credits his use of a “Conversation Checklist” he requires every producer in the agency to use on every single call.

George recently conducted a webinar with EverQuote explaining his background, his strategies, and his use of the checklist in his agency. You’ll find the details below, but give his full webinar a listen if you have the time. He’ll give you the opportunity to download his scripts and checklist for free, as well as the chance to work with him directly.

Part of George’s strategy relies on consistently working internet leads to find new customers. Fill your pipeline today by reaching out to EverQuote.

Here’s The “Conversation Checklist” That Catapulted George Elossais To The Top

Before we dive into the checklist itself, there’s one key point we need to explain: The information you’ll be gathering is the foundation for finding your customers’ gaps in coverage across a wide range of policy types. Your goal isn’t to land a new customer and sell just one policy. You want to sell as many multi-line policies as possible.

George breaks down the math:

Let’s say you buy each lead for $10. If you close 3% of your purchased leads, you’d need 30 leads to make a sale. If you sell one auto line to that customer and make 8% commission on a $700 premium policy:

• Your cost per sale is $10 / 0.03 = $300.
• Your revenue per sale is 8% of $700, or $56.
• For every sale you make, you’ve lost $244 on the leads you purchased.

On the other hand, if you sold multiple policies to the same customer, the math looks a lot different.

Let’s say you buy the same amount of leads at the same price, but instead of just selling auto insurance, you also sell home, umbrella, and life insurance. You make 11% on P&C, 20% on life, and you might qualify for a multi-line bonus depending on your carrier.

In this scenario:

• Your total revenue is $1,280.
• Your investment is $300.
• You’ve made $4 for every $1 you spent.

With the goal of multi-line sales in mind, here’s George’s checklist that will help you gather the information you need.

As you speak with the customer, fill out the answers to each question:

Why does following the checklist matter?

Imagine you’re speaking with a potential customer. You work your way through the questions above and discover that the customer has a high-deductible health plan through his job, no disability coverage at all, and a 401(k) left over from a previous job that he never touches.

Those are three strong reasons to encourage your customer to consider supplemental health insurance, disability insurance, and a retirement rollover account. And you’ve discovered this all within a fifteen minute phone call.

Instead of quoting a $60 per month auto policy and calling it a day, you now have the information you need to fill in the customer’s coverage gaps and help him save more effectively for retirement.

As far as George is concerned, following this checklist isn’t optional for his team.

“This is what we require of every conversation in our office. If there’s no checklist, the conversation didn’t happen.”

He also has a requirement that each producer present at least three policy lines per conversation. He focuses on auto, fire, and financial services, but your choices may vary depending on your business.

George keeps this strict policy for good reason. After implementing the checklist, the agency he manages cut new agent onboarding from six months down to 30 days and boosted commissions, retention, and overall profitability.

Asking these questions and making a commitment to offer at least three policy lines (with a focus on financial services) to every customer ensures that George’s agency pulls in, at his latest estimate, over $9,000 per year in financial services alone.

Beyond this checklist, George also has a couple more pieces of advice for maximizing your results:

#1: Focus on your outbound strategies.

When you want to expand the services you provide, the temptation is to look to your existing book of customers. They already know you, and you already have their contact information and a working relationship with them.

However, George cautions against this method.

Not only do you not want to over-work your existing book of clients and risk irritating them, your book is also finite. Reaching out to new contacts, however, puts you in front of a theoretically limitless number of potential customers. As George puts it, “Would you rather spend your time where it’s capped or where there’s no cap?”

George recommends relentlessly pursuing internet leads and tracking down old leads who have fallen off your radar. His team even revisits old clients and unresponsive prospects from previous lead campaigns. It also pays to have an aggressive strategy for getting referrals.

Regardless of how you go about it, the goal is to maximize your number of “asks.” As George says, “Whoever asks the most, writes the most!”

#2: Use simple, effective scripts.

When you get a customer on the phone, you’ll need more than just a checklist to steer the conversation toward a sale.

George offers scripts that will get you from point A to point B as part of his training program. You can also check out the scripts that other successful agents use in these ebooks:

Time-Tested Tips & Real-World Scripts for P&C Agents Expanding Into Life Insurance

Home Insurance Lead Scripts Proven To Grow Your Agency’s Business

You know what’s even more effective than calling internet leads? Consumer initiated inbound calls and exclusive leads from EverQuote.

George values internet leads highly (and so do we!) but that’s not the only game in town.

If you want to maximize the bang for your buck, try our consumer initiated inbound calls and exclusive leads programs in addition to our curated lists of internet leads.

Combining approaches is a fantastic way to diversify your efforts and find the methods that work best in your agency.

Regardless of your lead preferences, EQ has you covered. Contact us to start getting qualified leads right away.