The 10 Best Insurance Producer Schools and Training Programs for Commercial Insurance Producers in 2020
A simple Google search for "insurance producer training programs" will yield you 12,900,000+ results. Haha! It’s true!
Yet very few that will get you actual results. For insurance producers who want to become elite at what they do, effective training is critical.
Why should you care about my opinion? Well I’ve been in the industry since 2005 in various sales, sales leadership and executive leadership positions and helped build and run the New Producer University for two of the Top 10 largest global insurance brokers. I’m also the Founder and Creator of the ECLIPS Academy, which since our launch a few years ago, has served over 6,000 producers and agency leaders from agencies and brokerages of all sizes throughout the country.
By far our most read and in demand blog post has been this one on finding the right training. I decided it’s time to update it for the new decade.
So, if you’re an insurance producer looking for the best training yourself or an insurance agency leader looking for a way to develop and invest in your agency’s most valuable resource, what are the best insurance producer schools or best training programs for commercial insurance producers heading into 2020 and beyond?
For clarification, this is specifically targeted for commercial insurance producer training.
Making the Best
The demand for high quality, commercial insurance producer training is at an all-time high. According to a recent study by the National Alliance Research Academy, the most important factor in the success of a producer is effective training in certain critical areas. Great producers are the lifeblood of insurance agencies.
But with the intense pressure on profitability and growth, the old days of being able to "grow your own" and invest two or more years to develop a new producer are gone. This begs the question, who is responsible for making the best producers of the future?
A few of the larger national brokers still have internal producer development programs, but most, including nearly all regional and local agencies today choose to outsource this function to a third party - typically industry associations, insurance carrier partners or some type of general sales consultants.
Of A Bad Situation
While there are differing opinions on this "outsourced development" approach, most agree that the current state of producer training is a bad situation. And the number of quality options are few. However, since our original post in 2017, there have been a number of new insurance sales training programs that have popped up. Along with a few that have kind of fizzled away. We will look at the most popular of all of these.
Outsourcing the development of a producer’s success is much like outsourcing parenting. The kids may eventually learn what they need to learn to be successful, and may even experience great success, but the familial bond can be eroded as the values caught are those of "others." It’s extremely important as you look for advanced training, that you choose a training program that believes what you believe and can come alongside the culture you’re building in your agency and support it, not detract from it. Many can offer an insurance producer knowledge, few can offer them real training, and fewer still can offer them elite training.
Arguing the pros and cons of this outsourced approach is not the subject of this article. (However, if you happen to be an insurance agency sales leader looking to build your own sales training program, check out our free Ebook “The Making of An Elite Insurance Producer: A Powerfully Simple Roadmap to Building A Training Program That Develops A World Class Sales Team”).
The reality is most agencies don’t have the in-house resources or time to build their own training program. Trust me, it’s hard. I know because I’ve built one. The truth we are left to work with is that outsourcing producer training is the current mainstream approach.
So the real question for producers looking to hone their craft is, "how do I make the best of a bad situation?"
Making the Best of a Bad Situation
No matter how popular the belief that if a producer "has what it takes, they will figure it out" is, it's a lie. No athlete just "figures out" how to be the best in the world at their sport. Nobody is born a surgeon, nor given an innate gifting in heart surgery. All those who rise to an elite level in their respective field, have invested both the time and money into putting themselves through the very best training. Most of the time pushing themselves to a level most never attempt.
So, for commercial insurance producers today who desire to be elite, they are forced to play the cards they have been dealt and make the best of a bad situation. Good training is still available, it's just hard to find and even harder to piece together a total solution.
What are the best training options out there? Because there is no real one-size-fits-all option out there, we will break producer development down into two areas of focus:
Technical insurance training. Things like insurance coverage analysis, identifying gaps in coverage, working with underwriters, building programs, understanding policy forms, etc. This is where most of the existing options of insurance producer schools focus.
Tactical sales and business training. Things like building and running a massively successful business, relationship building, time management, setting boundaries, focused attention, building a niché, understanding the buyer, developing processes, etc.
For each of the two areas of focus, below is a comparison of the top-rated training options available for producers today, as rated by producers who have built exponential books of business (and me, having gone through most of them). In our original comparison, we limited it to the Top 3 of each area of focus. This time we’re expanding it to include all the best programs that we get questions on and come across most frequently. As a result, you’ll find several new programs on our list for 2020.
Don’t miss this point, it’s critical:
For a complete and well-rounded development program, the recommended plan-of-action would be that a producer invest in a combination of the two areas of focus. Becoming a technical expert without effective sales and business training, essentially equips you to be a great underwriter. Investing in sales and business training without the technical knowledge, will prevent you from writing larger accounts and set limitations on your potential success. After all, this is a very technical business, especially as the accounts get larger.
If you want to be an elite insurance producer, you must invest in effective, elite-level training on both the technical and tactical sides of the business.
We’ll start with the best technical insurance training programs for commercial insurance producers and their agency leaders. These are most commonly known throughout the industry and "new producer schools" or "commercial lines producer schools."
5 Best technical insurance training programs for commercial insurance producers.
Hartford’s New Producer School has been the leader of the pack for many years now. I am a proud graduate and holder of their CLCS designation! But those who think they are familiar with it should take another look as Hartford has made some changes to their program heading into 2020.
Format: Hartford’s Commercial Lines Producer School is targeted toward brand new insurance producers with less than a year of experience and is laid out in two phases (down from three phases in the past). Phase 1 is a 4-week, self-study program as an “Introduction to Insurance.” Phase 2 consists of a 2-week, interactive classroom session with a teacher. One major change to the program this year is Hartford has dropped their third phase post-graduate sales webinars and virtual sales calls. The program covers introductory foundational concepts in Property, General Liability, Umbrella, Workers’ Compensation, and BOP. Hartford, out of all the carrier-run programs, does the best job at keeping their program carrier-neutral and not pushing Hartford coverage forms or products.
Pricing: Another big difference this year is Hartford has raised their prices $500 from $3,495 to $3,995. This is a steep price for 6-weeks of mostly self-study and cram-style learning. But Hartford has built a reputation that probably can ask for it as they are the “default” go-to for some of the larger brokers in the industry who are less budget-sensitive. Including two weeks of travel, hotel and food costs for the classroom portion of the program you’re looking at dropping a cool total of $6,500 (not including the time for spending two weeks out of the office).
Review: Despite the cost, Hartford still gets 4.9/5 star reviews. You can find out more what’s included along with their 2020 schedule here.
Travelers New Producer School is a new entrant on the list for its growing influence that most likely correlates to the growth of the overall Travelers brand throughout the country over the past few years. In comparison of topics covered, the Travelers School closely compares with the Hartford New Producer School.
Format: Travelers’ program is a three-phase program. Phase 1 consists of four two-hour online sessions held over one week. Phase 2 is an eight-day in classroom setting much like Hartford’s, consisting of the same foundational coverage concepts. For example, each major coverage (Property, General Liability, Workers’ Compensation, etc.) gets about a day to a day-and-a-half of focus. Phase 3 consists of one-on-one follow ups between the producer and the Travelers sponsor. One important thing Travelers goes out of their way to note here is that “Sales training is not part of this school.” However they do spend a block of time on “Travelers specific products and services.”
Pricing: Tuition for the Travelers New Producer School will run you $3,500. Add in travel costs, hotel, and food for the classroom phase and you’re looking at a total cost of about $6,000. Slightly less than Hartford.
Review: As of this time I’m writing this, Travelers hasn’t released their 2020 schedule yet but you can find more information on the program here.
Chubb’s Premier Producer Development Program is also a new entrant on the list. As a company, Chubb offers a variety of training options, but this is the most recommended and complete program for commercial insurance producers.
Format: Like Hartford and Travelers, Chubb takes a multi-phase approach to their program as well (Are you beginning to see a trend?). Phase 1 consists of a self-study portion. Phase 2 is a two-week classroom session focused on insurance coverage basics, risk management and Chubb’s personal carrier appetite and core coverages. The second week focuses on some basic sales training, going over the DiSC personality test and business etiquette. Phase 3 includes some basic sales coaching videos and niché-coverage webcasts.
Pricing: In comparison to the prior mentioned, Chubb is less expensive with a tuition of $1,800. However, they also spend a significant amount of time on their own appetite, coverage forms, and miscellaneous topics that may or may not help you write more business. This is probably only recommended for producers of agencies who write a significant amount of business with Chubb. Add in travel, hotel and food, the total cost of training with Chubb will set you back $4,300. However, they do offer 50% discount for Cornerstone-level agencies.
Review: You can find out more about Chubb’s Premier Producer Development Program here.
State Auto is also a new entrant on our list for 2020, but not because they are new. This program has been around for several years actually and is highly recommended by the State Auto agencies who partner with them. That is one significant point to note, the Pacesetter program is only for State Auto agencies who are committed to partnering with them to write more business. Instead of a “producer school,” they call it a year-long sales partnership. The main idea behind it is your agency will write more business together. If you’re not a State Auto agent/agency, you can skip to the next one.
Format: In comparison to the first three, State Auto’s program runs much longer and more in depth. Instead of 6-8 weeks, you’re looking at an entire year. They have the motto of “High Tech, High Touch,” incorporating a significant amount of technology training on platforms like Salesforce, ReferenceUSA and LinkedIn, along with weekly calls, role playing and sales coaching. In similar fashion to the others, the program still centers around a two-week in classroom setting they term a “sales conference,” but is basically the same stuff as the other program. However, the post-conference involvement and expectations required by both agency sponsor, producer, agency and State Auto is much higher. The program is offered twice a year.
Pricing: As you can imagine, with the significantly higher time investment comes a significantly higher cost. Tuition for the PaceSetter Program will run you $6,900. Add in travel, hotel and food and you’re looking at a total out-of-pocket spend of roughly $9,500.
Review: If you’re a State Auto agent and want to learn more about the added bells and whistles, you can get more details here.
The one training program landing in our Top 5 that is not a carrier sponsored program is The National Alliance’s Producer School. This is the education and research organization that offers some of the industry’s most sought after designations like CIC and CPCU.
Format: Like Hartford, National Alliance has made a number of significant changes to their program for 2020. Namely, carving up the program into smaller segmented courses. Instead of one two-week long new producer school, they now have several options for different stages of development including the five-day Dynamics Master Sales Class, the online-only New Producer Accelerator, the two-hour online Successful Starts for Producers class, the online-only Professional Risk Consultant course, and an outsourced Polestar High-Payoff Selling course. In comparison to the other programs, the Dynamics Master Sales class is probably closest. It’s only five days long but covers a lot more sales concepts than the other options and probably fits best in the below area of focus. For more technical training, The National Alliance is pushing their other certification programs more now. To compare to the other programs on this list, you’ll probably have to add-in a commercial insurance fundamentals course.
Pricing: For the Dynamics Master Sales class you’re going to pay $1,250 in tuition. Add in travel, hotel and food and you’re looking at around a total cost of $2,500 for a week of training.
Review: One nice thing about the Dynamics Master Sales Class is the faculty has agency sales experience, something which can’t be said about the carrier sponsored programs. Most of those programs are taught by underwriters who’ve never sold. You can find more about all The National Alliance offerings here.
5 Best tactical training programs for commercial lines insurance producers.
This is a little more difficult to limit to three. There are dozens of professional sales schools and hundreds more, if not thousands, of independent consultants out there. First let's define what is meant by "tactical training."
Essentially this is training and development for everything not having to do with understanding technical insurance coverages, definitions, etc. Things like how to grow a book of business, manage time, sell complex accounts with multiple decision makers, build a niche, set up business processes, deciding where to invest in resources, run a sales process, etc. Everything about working on your business, not in it. This is where the carrier sponsored programs really suffer.
Even greater variability exists when it comes to expected pricing for this type of training. General estimates typically range between $2,000 - $5,000 per person on the low end to about $14,000 on the higher end, not including any additional costs for travel, lodging, food, etc. Larger agencies may be able to negotiate better pricing for a group session for their producers.
For independent commercial insurance producers however, five programs that are consistently brought up among the elite are:
The Sitkins ProFit producer program is one of the longest running, most well known commercial insurance producer training programs. Founder and primary instructor, Roger Sitkins, has been doing it for over 35 years and is a great motivator and communicator. He recently started transitioning his consulting business by bringing on a new trainer in Brent Kelly. Sitkins niché focus on the commercial insurance sector makes him highly respected.
Format: The ProFit program takes cram-style sessions to an all new level. It is a four-phase program. Phase 1 is a day-an-a-half classroom session. Phase 2 & 3 are online webinars. Phase 4 wraps up the program with another day-and-a-half classroom session. In comparison to the other programs on the list, you’re getting a lot less time investment but a lot more commercial insurance-specific selling focus.
Pricing: The base price tuition per producer is $1,995 for non-Sitkins network members. Add in travel, hotel and food, and you can safely estimate a total investment (not including time out of the office) of about $4,000. The investment is significant considering you’re essentially getting 3 days of classroom time and 2 webinars.
Review: You can find out more about the 2020 dates and pricing and program info here.
We included this program up in the technical area of focus, but it probably fits just as well or better in the sales focus because of their recent changes. It covers things like crafting a value proposition, identifying buyer pain, qualifying, and overcoming objections. This is a five-day classroom course. More info is found above.
Lappin180, led and named after is founder Dan Lappin, is recommended by some of the most successful and highest performing producers in the business. Lappin180 focuses primarily on the mindset of a producer. Shifting your focus from "closing the sale" to "helping the prospect determine if they should change their status quo." Their team of coaches believe the most important conversations insurance producers need to be skilled in is change conversations, not technical skills. The technical skills only come into play after the client has decided to make a change.
Format: The agency offers two main formats: in agency sales training for sales teams, and seminars and workshops. They target more sales team partnerships more than individual producer training.
Pricing: Expect to invest a more money for this training because it’s geared for agencies and sales teams, not individuals. But perhaps that is what you really need. I participated on a team of about 20 producers that went through the Lappin180 program and we each paid $1,000/month for six months. They don’t publish their prices, so you may be able to negotiate a deal for your sales team.
Review: You can find out more about what Lappin180 believes here.
The Millery Heiman organization recently joined forces with the Korn Ferry organization so there could be some changes coming down the line. This organization is quite different and larger than the other two, but not as specific to insurance. While they offer several different types of courses, their Strategic Selling Course seems to be one of the favorites of elite producers.
Format: The Strategic Selling Course focuses on large complex sales with long sales cycles and is heavily focused on technology and methodology in the sales process. The potential wild card with Miller Heiman is the quality of each course is highly dependent on the instructor teaching it, which can vary course by course. They are famous for their iconic blue sheets and are five-day classroom sessions.
Pricing: This is the most expensive of all the programs on the market with a tuition of $14,000 for the five-day program. Add in travel, hotel and food and you’re looking at $16,000 for a week of general sales training. That’s no small thing.
Review: You can find out the schedules and more information here.
Randy Schwantz’s training program is famous within the industry because of his same titled 116-page paperback book currently selling on Amazon for $74 called The Wedge. Haha, it really is $74 for 116 pages of insurance selling concepts. I own it and have read it, but contrary to what the price indicates, the words are not written in gold lettering. I suggest you save your $74 and put it toward real training.
Format: The Wedge’s most popular course is The Million Dollar Producer Masterclass. The program makes some very aggressive boasts about doubling your revenue, increasing your close ratio to 60%, and getting you flooded with referrals from clients. It’s a two-and-a-half day classroom setting.
Pricing: Tuition for The Million Dollar Producer will run you $2,000. Add it travel, hotel and food and your total cost will run around $3,000.
Review: You can read about his open letter to insurance producers here for more info.
A Program in a League of Its Own
For producers struggling to decide which program(s) to choose, don't stress. You'll never regret any investment you make in yourself. Warren Buffett said the greatest investment you can ever make is in yourself. Do your research and find the ones that align with your style and spirit the most, then go for it. For a well-rounded training program, you can expect somewhere around a $10,000-$20,000 total investment.
For those who don’t have a cool $20,000 laying around to invest, since its launch in 2017, the ECLIPS Academy has grown to become the #1 Producer Training Program for Commercial Insurance Producers on the market. For just a fraction of the cost of the other programs, in the last three years it has served over 6,000 insurance producers and agency leaders from 9 of the Top 15 Global Insurance Brokers and hundreds of local and regional agencies.
A modern, 30-week, elite-level digital training program that covers all the best practices of the world’s Top 1% of commercial insurance producers. I recommend you invest in the Unicorn Package. For the investment of just the revenue of one small account, you get lifetime access to the entire ECLIPS Academy library plus six months of virtual mentoring and coaching with Founder & Creator, Scott Bradley.
The program consists of two main courses:
- Elite Tactics – 20 Weeks of over 600 advanced technical solutions currently being used by the world’s best producers. This is the Hartford Commercial Lines Producer School, Travelers New Producer School, Chubb Premier Producer Program, Etal., on steroids. Not your traditional “Insurance 101” class. This course gives you a treasure trove of elite tactics as taught from the perspective of selling to a client that will distinguish your brand and make you an elite technician.
- Roll The Hard Six – This course is everything you’ve ever wanted to know about how the world’s most elite group of producers build and scale their business. Not your basic selling concepts class, this course dives into the six critical elements that separate the best producers from the rest of the crowded marketplace, including how they create a competitive differentiation, run a superior sales process, build meaningful relationships, redeem their time, build large open networks, and where they invest in growth. In just 7 weeks, this course will help you spend less time in the office, create real value for your clients, and reinvent your business from success to significance.
The ECLIPS Academy is the one program that has finally solved a major gap in insurance producer training by combining both the technical insurance training in insurance knowledge with the business and sales aspect of being an elite producer, all the while teaching it from the perspective of a commercial lines insurance producer. As Greg Cullom, SVP of Sales & Producer Development at HUB International has said,
“This is the program I’ve been looking for my entire 25-year career. No matter your age or experience, every producer will find immense value going through the ECLIPS Academy program. I wholeheartedly recommend it both as a producer and as a sales leader. It was a game-changer for me.”
For commercial insurance sales leaders and agency leaders, the ECLIPS Academy also offers group packages as well that can supplement your existing training efforts and help you make the transition from asking “What do I teach them?” and “How do I teach them?”, to playing the role of mentor, motivator and ultimate accountability factor.
In terms of reviews, you can read their testimonials here.
How to Choose?
Elite producers are lifelong learners, constantly improving and training. So, look at this not as your last investment, but your first of many. That being said, here's a couple helpful tips in deciding:
- Go with experience. All the programs listed here know the insurance business well. To get the most out of your training, it's important to learn from someone who has experience successfully selling commercial insurance. In this case, someone who's spent time as a producer is ideal. Experience matters.
- Go with uncomfortable. It's easy to shy away from pushing yourself. The best training programs force you to put in work you don't want to do and stretch you in areas that make you uncomfortable. If the program seems easy and comfortable to you, it's not the right one. Becoming elite is not easy. And that's the point.
- Go in humble. The best learners have a spirit of humility. Some of the greatest athletes in the world are extremely coachable. They want to get better and look for every advantage they can get. Most producers fear embarrassment or looking like they don't know something, which in turn can lead to pride. No matter what program you invest in, if you go in with a prideful attitude, you're wasting your money. Stay humble and hungry.
Becoming an elite producer is not something that happens by chance or a fortuitous sequence of luck. It's hours of dedicated, deliberate practice through effective elite-level training. The good news is, that's something anyone can invest in. If you're willing to put in the work.
You are your greatest asset. You can be elite. And these are the best insurance producer schools and training programs to invest in at the start of 2020.
Invest in yourself. Invest in your producer. Ten years from now, your life and career could be among the Top 1%.
Live abundantly,
Scott Bradley | Founder & Creator of ECLIPS Academy
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