Case study · the founder’s own agency
Recorded calls reviewed. The manager still decides.
- Where
- Goodwill Financial: the founder’s independent P&C agency and life MGA, Elmhurst, Illinois
- Status
- Running · weekly
- Period
- Nightly scoring April to August 2026 · weekly manager audit since late September 2026
1The problem
A sales manager can listen to a handful of calls a week. So coaching runs on anecdote: the same objections get lost again, good habits go unnoticed, and nobody knows whether a script is actually being used.
2How it worked before
- Calls recorded by the phone system, and almost never listened to.
- Coaching when a manager happened to overhear something.
- No written link between what was said on a call and what the coaching asked for.
3What we built
- From April to August, a nightly job transcribed recorded agent calls of a minute or longer and scored each on five parts: needs questions, value, objection handling, the referral ask and initiative, with one coaching moment per call.
- Each scored call also listed the lines of coverage the household did not have yet, from the CRM, as a cross-sell prompt.
- Since late September, a weekly audit, one person at a time: their recorded conversations of half a minute or longer transcribed and scored against that person’s own script, each coaching point backed by a quote that is checked word for word against the transcript.
- A private coaching board per person, and a coaching email drafted for the manager. The manager edits it and decides whether to send it. Nothing goes to an agent automatically.
| Part of the script | Score | Backed by this line from the call |
|---|---|---|
| Needs questions | 3 / 5 | “How many drivers are on the policy?” |
| Value | 4 / 5 | “The difference is the roadside and rental cover.” |
| Objection handling | 2 / 5 | “OK, I understand, it’s too much.” |
| Referral ask | 0 / 5 | Not asked |
| Initiative | 4 / 5 | “I’ll send the comparison by four today.” |
Coaching momentOn price, the agent agreed before asking what the client compared against. Script step 4: ask for the other quote, then compare coverage line by line.
From the CRMHousehold has auto only. Ask about home or renters and an umbrella.
The managerEdits the coaching note, then decides whether to send it. Nothing goes to the agent automatically.
4The verified result
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Recorded agent calls scored | 2,208, April to August 2026, each with a coaching note |
| Coaching that reaches the agent | A manager’s edited email, weekly, backed by quotes from the calls |
| Change in sales results | Not claimed (see below) |
We publish the volume, not an improvement. We have one person’s four weeks of before-and-after, with no comparison group. That is not proof, so it is not on this page.
5What it means for the business
- The manager coaches from what was actually said, not from what they happened to overhear.
- Time goes to the coaching conversation, not to listening to hours of audio.
- Each person is measured against their own script, so the feedback fits the job they do.
Not measured yet
Whether coaching changed close rates or premium. That needs several people over several months, measured against a baseline, and we will publish it with its method when we have it.
What did not work
The nightly version also drafted daily emails about each agent’s calls. After it drafted a “no calls logged” note to an agent on a day the phone system had logged none, the founder switched the daily emails off in October; the weekly audit, started in late September, is now the only coaching path. Call review only works on calls your phone system records lawfully; in all-party-consent states such as Illinois, callers must be told.
Published October 2026. Sources and dates are kept on file. Names of staff and clients are left out.
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