I'm struggling to get the required documents from my prospect. What can I do?
This is probably the hardest part of the whole process. And if you're struggling with it, you're not alone. Almost every agent who has tried to move a captive forward with a prospect has hit this exact wall.
Here's the honest answer. There are usually two things going on when documents don't show up, and they're very different problems.
The first is the incumbent agent. The minute your prospect asks their current agent for loss runs and policies, that agent knows something is happening. And some of them will slow-roll it. They'll say they have to order the loss runs. They'll say the audits aren't ready. They'll buy time, because they know that if they can stall long enough, your prospect might lose interest or the conversation might die. We know this game. And so do you.
The second problem is that your prospect hasn't fully committed to the process. They said they were interested, but when it came time to actually get documents from their current agent and have an uncomfortable conversation, they went quiet. That's not a document problem. That's a commitment problem. And you have to address it directly.
Here's what Warren recommends. Have the upfront contract conversation before you ever ask for documents. In his experience walking other prospects through this, here are a couple of things that tend to trip it up: Your current agent will ask why you need this information. They may push back. They may try to bring you a captive option themselves. When that happens, and it might, what are you going to do? Get them to say it out loud before the situation arises. Because if you set the rules of the game at the beginning, you can come back to that conversation when things stall.
We also have tools that let the business owner go directly to the carrier for their own documents. Policies, audits, loss runs. It's their information. They're entitled to it. And going direct bypasses the incumbent agent entirely.
But here's the most important thing. Don't make it up. Don't estimate. Don't round numbers or fill in gaps with guesses. Actuaries know the difference between real data and invented data, and it affects the quality of what we can do for your client. If the documents aren't there yet, the answer is to stay in the process and get them right, not to move forward without them.
Get the commitment upfront. Use the tools available. And if your prospect won't go get their own documents when they have every right to, that tells you something important about whether they're actually ready to move forward.
We'll help you navigate all of it.
It's always your client. Never ours.
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