BOR or Bust

Nick is buying water by the cartload. Daryl finally gets a school prospect on the phone after seven years. And neither of us wants to be your number two broker.

This week on BOR or Bust, we get into why different brokers can get different prices—and why the strategy they run matters more than another promise to “shop your insurance.”

Daryl breaks down a recent prospect conversation, including how he moved the buyer away from “I’ll send you my policies” and into a discussion about what they actually wanted from their renewal.

We cover:
• Why “Are you happy with your broker?” gets you nowhere.
• How to ask questions that uncover what buyers actually want.
• Why selling the strategy changes the conversation.
• How 35-minute cold calling blocks, shutting down email, and batching follow-ups help protect prospecting time.
• Why we still leave voicemails—even when prospects don’t call back.
• What you’re communicating when you ask to be someone’s backup broker.

Plus: new teeth, doomsday supplies, and a surprising number of ways to bring every conversation back to the BOR.

BOR is more than a letter. It’s a mindset. Bet on yourself.

Subscribe for weekly conversations about commercial insurance sales, broker of record strategies, prospecting, and building a book of business.

Getting a prospect to buy into your BOR strategy is only part of the job. You also need your account manager on board.

In this episode of BOR or Bust, Daryl Henry and Nick Aube unpack the producer–account manager relationship: why friction happens, how to divide responsibilities, and how to explain the benefits of getting a client’s commitment before asking your team to spend hours quoting.

Then Daryl breaks down a 15-minute sales conversation that went from an irritated prospect to one asking, “How do I hire you?”

Nick and Daryl examine what worked, where the conversation could have been smoother, and why the prospect revealed his deeper frustration only after Daryl offered a useful strategy.

We cover:

• How to get account managers to buy into the BOR approach.
• Why approaching markets and negotiating finalized quotes are different requests.
• How producers can reduce wasted work for their service teams.
• Why you might be blowing past a prospect’s pain while trying to find it.
• How to sell the strategy before selling yourself.
• The three-question loop that helps move the conversation toward a decision.

Real sales conversations. Honest breakdowns. A few completely unnecessary detours.

BOR is a mindset. Bet on yourself.

What if you could save your client $12,000 on their insurance renewal, protect a $7,000 revenue account, and eliminate the need for competing brokers?

That's exactly what Daryl did.

In this episode of BOR or Bust, Daryl and Nick break down the negotiation strategy that helped turn a potentially competitive renewal into a win for everyone involved.

Instead of waiting for competing brokers to bring quotes, Daryl started 90 days before renewal, built a complete submission, created competition among underwriters, and negotiated the best possible deal.

The result? A $60,000 insurance premium dropped to $48,000, the client was thrilled, and no competing broker was needed.

But that's just the beginning.

Daryl and Nick dig into:

• How to structure a renewal negotiation strategy meeting
• Why your clients think they need competing brokers — and how to change their minds
• How to negotiate with underwriters instead of simply collecting quotes
• Why giving clients ownership of the renewal makes your job easier
• How to get clients to complete underwriting requirements without constantly chasing them
• How to create leverage with incumbent carriers without shopping the market every year
• Why the best brokers give clients options instead of making decisions for them

Plus, Daryl shares a story about his nine-year-old son's football practice that reveals why doing hard things never really gets easier — even when you're a successful producer.

And, somehow, the conversation includes dirty toilets, questionable math, and an offer of male surrogacy.

This is BOR or Bust: real producers, real deals, real strategies, and absolutely no interest in being the second-place broker.

Stop quoting. Start negotiating.

Subscribe to BOR or Bust for weekly conversations about winning more accounts, getting more BORs, and building a better insurance career.

How much money is every hour of your workday actually worth?

If you're an insurance producer, the answer depends on a lot more than how hard you work.

Every day, you make decisions about where to spend your time. Which prospects deserve your attention? Which accounts are worth pursuing? When should you say no? And how much time should you invest in becoming a better producer?

In this episode of BOR or Bust, Daryl Henry and Nick Aube explore how insurance producers can maximize the dollar value of every hour they work.

We get into:

• Why being busy isn't the same as being productive.
• How to evaluate opportunities based on their potential return.
• Why chasing quotes can be an expensive use of your time.
• How to protect prospecting time from constant interruptions.
• Why developing your sales skills can be more valuable than simply increasing your activity.
• How raising your personal standards changes the economics of your career.
• Why believing in yourself matters when you're asking a prospect to believe in you.

Along the way, we share stories about difficult prospects, bad drinking and smoking habits, waking up early, drinking celery juice, and anything else we felt like talking about along the way. 

Because the goal isn't necessarily to work more hours.

It's to make the hours you already work worth more.

It's BOR or Bust, baby!

$30,000 in revenue. Two meetings. Six weeks.

That's what happened when a producer used the Broker of Record (BOR) strategy to win a $220,000 premium account.

But the real lesson isn't just how quickly the deal closed. It's what happens when you stop chasing quotes and start getting prospects to make decisions.

In this episode of BOR or Bust, Daryl Henry and Nick Aube break down why speed to decision is one of the most important drivers of growth for insurance producers.

We get into one of the most frustrating situations in commercial insurance sales: the prospect who likes your strategy, knows they have a problem, but just won't make a decision.

How do you create urgency without becoming a pushy salesperson? How do you follow up without constantly "checking in"? And when should you stop investing your time in an opportunity that isn't moving?

We also get into the economics of a producer's calendar. If you're spending 10, 20, or 40 hours chasing quotes for prospects who haven't committed to working with you, what opportunities are you missing?

In this episode:

• How a producer won $30K in revenue with just two meetings
• Why dissatisfied prospects still refuse to leave their incumbent broker
• How to use your renewal strategy to create legitimate urgency
• How to follow up with stalled prospects without sounding desperate
• Why getting to a decision faster is more valuable than simply getting more quotes
• How time blocking protects your most valuable selling hours
• Why being busy isn't the same as being productive
• How to increase the revenue-generating value of your time

Plus, Nick and Daryl somehow find their way into plant-based diets, bad math, personal trainers, and Fourth of July celebrations.

Because apparently that's how we teach insurance sales now.

The bottom line: You don't grow your book just by working harder. You grow by getting better decisions, faster, and protecting the time you need to pursue the next opportunity.

BOR or Bust is about strategy, action, and community.

Subscribe for real conversations about building a better insurance sales career.

Nick shut down the agency.

But he isn't thinking smaller.

He's pursuing a bigger vision—and he believes he's found a faster path to building it.

In this episode, Nick explains why he decided to close the agency, what the experience taught him, and why he's shifting his focus toward building the environment producers need to grow.

And there's another big announcement:

Nick is giving away the BOR Growth System for FREE.

The complete system—including the frameworks, scripts, videos, and sales process Nick has developed for winning commercial insurance business through Broker of Record—is being opened up for producers to use.

Then we get into what happens when that system meets the messy reality of commercial insurance sales.

What happens when you want to use a BOR strategy—but you don't have access to the incumbent carrier?

Do you just go back to quoting?

We don't think so.

Instead, we unpack the idea of creating a BOR Standard: defining the level of commitment you require from a prospect before investing your time, expertise, and market relationships—even when a traditional Broker of Record letter isn't available on the incumbent carrier.

We get into:

• Why Nick shut down the agency—and why he sees it as a faster path toward a bigger goal
• What he's building instead
• Why the BOR Growth System is being released for free
• What going back into production taught Nick
• Committed revenue vs. bound revenue
• One-call vs. two-call sales strategies
• Using market reconnaissance to build the right strategy
• How to compete against direct writers and inaccessible markets
• Getting BORs for the rest of the marketplace
• When strategic quoting can actually make sense
• Why your BOR standard should change based on your competitive environment
• How to determine whether a prospect actually intends to work with you
• Why the strategy itself has value—even when the prospect doesn't hire you

The BOR letter is a tool.

The bigger idea is having a standard for how you operate.

How much commitment do you require before you're willing to invest your time?

When should you quote?

When should you demand the BOR?

And when should you simply walk away?

That's what we work through in this episode.

BOR or Bust, baby.

We already ended the episode.

Then we kept talking.

Nick had about ten more minutes, and we were still trying to figure out what happens when you win the BOR—but you can't take over the incumbent carrier.

So we turned the microphones back on.

Because this is where the BOR strategy gets complicated.

What happens when the prospect wants to work with you, but their current carrier won't let you take over the policy?

Do you walk away?

Do you quote around the incumbent?

Do you get the BOR for the rest of the marketplace?

And how do you make sure the incumbent broker doesn't use their position to beat you anyway?

That conversation led us somewhere bigger.

Nick isn't just solving the problems of a producer anymore. He's solving the problems of an agency principal.

Carrier access. Volume. Leverage. Market relationships. And the reality that when you're the smaller agency, sometimes you have to fight a little guerrilla warfare.

But by the end of the conversation, Nick starts asking a different question:

What if we're thinking about the incumbent broker all wrong?

Instead of fighting the fact that they're still involved, what if we lean into it?

There might be a better BOR play hiding in this problem.

We have some ideas.

That's next week's show.

This is the conversation after the conversation.

BONUS: We Weren't Done — What Happens When You Can't BOR the Incumbent Carrier?

Nick got the BOR.

The prospect committed. The strategy worked. He delivered an option.

And he still lost the account.

In this episode of BOR or Bust, Nick breaks down a brutal month where he generated roughly $130,000 in committed revenue—only to watch deal after deal fall apart during fulfillment.

That leads us into a much bigger conversation:

Is getting the BOR really enough?

We dig into the difference between committed revenue and fulfilled revenue, why producers may need far more lead volume than they think, what happens when your carrier doesn't deliver, and how market access changes the effectiveness of a BOR strategy.

We also talk about what producers can actually control: lead volume, positioning, their standard for accepting opportunities, and the products they choose to sell.

Along the way, we somehow get into glitter, shoplifting, Stoicism, Hertz Rent A Car, Chihuahuas, Corgis, and an incumbent broker calling a client from the hospital.

This one went places.

If you're an insurance producer trying to grow a commercial book, this is an honest conversation about what happens after you get the commitment—and why getting the BOR doesn't necessarily mean you've won.

BOR or Bust is about building an insurance book by becoming the broker clients choose before the quoting starts.

Subscribe for weekly conversations about insurance sales, prospecting, broker-of-record strategy, lead generation, commercial insurance, and building a high-performance book of business.

It's BOR or Bust, baby.

In this episode of BOR or Bust, Nick and Daryl work through three problems they’re dealing with in real time.

Daryl has been testing a new cold-calling script with contractors—and it wasn’t quite working. Then a contractor gave him the exact language he needed to change the opening. A small tweak started getting a very different response.

Nick is learning another lesson as he builds his agency: getting the BOR is only the beginning. Pre-indications change. Underwriters decline accounts. Pricing moves. Market access matters. We talk about how to work through those problems and turn a commitment into an actual bound account.

Then we get into lead generation. Nick tried outsourcing cold calling and had 21 appointments scheduled in the first week—but almost nobody showed. So what parts of lead generation can actually be outsourced? Can producers build a pipeline without spending their entire day cold calling? And where do content, email, power dialers and inbound leads fit?

This one is a real-time look at what happens when you stop talking about sales systems in theory and actually try to execute them.

BOR or Bust, Baby.

16 decision conversations in three days.

Coming off Labor Day weekend, Nick wasn't particularly motivated to cold call. He was tired. He was questioning whether he was moving fast enough. And even after putting up some of his best prospecting numbers, the self-doubt was still there.

But he made the calls anyway.

In this episode of BOR or Bust, Daryl and Nick break down exactly what worked—and what they're still figuring out.

They dig into the mental frameworks Nick uses to keep executing when he doesn't feel like it, why you need to build your support systems before you actually need them, and how Daryl has learned to completely reframe cold-call rejection.

Then they get into the numbers.

166 calls. 16 decision conversations. Roughly a 9.5% hit rate. And $92,000 in committed September revenue.

Nick explains why he's stopped scheduling traditional first meetings and started taking decision conversations live, what actually counts as a decision conversation, and why getting to a "no" faster might actually make his sales process more efficient.

Then the tables turn.

Daryl's been cold calling contractors—and his opening isn't working as well as he'd like. Nick helps him diagnose the problem in real time, and they rebuild the script around a simple principle: stop talking to prospects the way YOU want to be spoken to. Start using the language your customers actually use.

This is a conversation about what high-volume prospecting really looks like: managing your head, testing your messaging, tracking your numbers, listening to the market, and constantly adjusting the machine.

16 decision conversations. Three days.

Here's what worked.

Second place isn't good enough.

It's BOR or Bust.