Do Not Coach the Whole Call

“Be more confident.”

“Ask better questions.”

“Control the conversation.”

These comments may identify a concern, but they do not tell a producer what to do differently on the next call.

Insurance conversations require several skills at once: listening, fact-finding, explaining unfamiliar terms, recognizing uncertainty, documenting information, and advancing an appropriate next step. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics includes interviewing prospects, explaining policy features, handling sales and renewals, and maintaining customer records among an insurance sales agent’s typical duties. It also notes that agents learn many duties through on-the-job training and by shadowing experienced agents. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

When a manager reviews an entire call and delivers ten corrections, the producer may leave with plenty of criticism but no clear practice target.

A better coaching session isolates one decision.

Use the CLIP method

C — Choose one moment

Select a short section of the conversation where the producer had to make a decision.

Examples include:

• A prospect revealed new information
• A question was answered only partially
• The producer changed subjects too quickly
• An unverified statement was presented as fact
• The next step was left unclear

Choose the moment with the greatest instructional value. Do not begin by listing everything that went wrong.

L — Label the observable behavior

Describe what occurred without assigning a personality trait.

Avoid:

“You were not confident.”

Use:

“After the customer introduced a new business activity, you continued to the next question without investigating the change.”

Observable feedback gives the producer something specific to examine. Personality labels encourage defensiveness because they are difficult to test or correct.

I — Identify the better decision

Ask the producer to explain what they noticed at that moment and which options were available.

Useful coaching questions include:

• What new information did you hear?
• Why did it matter?
• What did you know for certain?
• What still required clarification?
• What could you have asked before continuing?
• Did the situation require carrier, underwriting, or supervisory review?

The manager can then help select one better response. The objective is not to create a perfect script for every situation. It is to improve the producer’s judgment at a recognizable decision point.

P — Practice the replacement

The producer should repeat the corrected response aloud.

Use a short drill:

1. Replay or describe the customer’s statement
2. Let the producer respond
3. Give one correction
4. Repeat the moment
5. Define what to listen for on the next real call

Practice converts feedback into an action the producer can attempt and evaluate.

Illustrative coaching example

The following is hypothetical and does not describe an actual agency, customer, or result.

During a commercial-insurance discovery call, a business owner says:

“We started using subcontractors for some of the larger projects.”

The producer acknowledges the comment but continues to the next standard question.

A vague coaching response would be:

“You need to dig deeper.”

Using CLIP, the manager chooses that specific moment and labels the behavior:

“When the customer described a change in operations, you acknowledged it but did not clarify what changed.”

The manager then asks:

“What information would you need before treating the account as unchanged?”

Together, they develop a replacement response:

“Thank you for mentioning that. Before we continue, I need to understand the change. What work is being subcontracted, when did this begin, and what information do you currently collect about those subcontractors? I may need to confirm additional requirements with underwriting.”

The response gathers facts without predicting eligibility or making a coverage determination.

Actual coverage depends on the policy’s terms, conditions, exclusions, endorsements, applicable law, and circumstances. This illustrative example does not bind coverage or guarantee a claim outcome.

A 12-minute coaching agenda

Managers can use this structure:

• Two minutes: Establish the call’s context
• Three minutes: Review one decision point
• Three minutes: Identify the better response
• Three minutes: Practice the replacement
• One minute: Record the next-call behavior

Use call recordings, transcripts, and customer information only through approved systems and in accordance with applicable licensing, employer, carrier, privacy, recording-consent, and recordkeeping requirements.

Your next action

Choose one recent sales conversation and identify a single 30- to 90-second decision point.

Complete one CLIP review and record only this next-call objective:

“When I hear ___, I will pause and ___.”

Evaluate whether the producer attempted the new behavior—not whether one coaching session produced a sale. Coaching and practice do not guarantee sales, income, employment, or other results.

Continue with how to validate AI call scores and building an insurance specialty through reviewed practice.

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Your Coverage Coach provides general education and professional-development information, not individualized professional advice. Verify current requirements and apply your own professional judgment.