For over half of my 26-year career, I worked as a captive insurance agent. It was a great place to start—I learned the business, built relationships with clients, and gained the foundation I needed to run an agency. But over time, I started to see the limits of what I could offer. If my carrier didn’t have the right product, I couldn’t help my client.
That didn’t sit well with me.
Eventually, I realized that going independent was the only way to give my clients the options and flexibility they deserved. It was a huge decision — and honestly, a little scary — but it completely changed the way I run my agency and how I serve my clients. HawkSoft became a big part of making it work.
I want to share some tools in HawkSoft that helped me as my agency made the move to independent, and that continue to help us achieve our goals. Whether you’re just starting out as an independent agent or are farther along in your journey, this might give you some ideas on how HawkSoft can help you grow.
Understand where money is made/lost by carrier, line, niche, and account size
- Run book of business reports filtered by carrier, line, effective/renewal dates. Save your favorite views for monthly review.
- Run production/commission reports to see revenue concentration. Export to CSV to slice in Excel/Sheets if needed.
- Use client tags (e.g., artisan contractor, landscaper, auto-only) to segment your book by niche without overbuilding reports.
- Attach loss runs to the client/policy and add a log note summarizing LR% for at-a-glance underwriting notes.
Quick Win: Create a recurring report template for top 10 revenue clients by line & carrier. Review quarterly and set growth/retention plays per segment.
Reduce E&O risk and stop hunting through inboxes
- Configure standardized activity tags and require a tag on every logged customer touch (call, email, text, COI). Build a one-page guide on tags and how they should be used.
- Create tasks for anything that isn’t done today (with due dates and assignees). Create task templates for common workflows.
- Save carrier eDocs/downloads right into the policy. Attach proposal PDFs, signed apps, and photos.
- Route email/text into the client file (via integrations) so conversations live with the policy.
Quick Win: Add an activity tag rule: if a policy is issued but the Bound File Checklist isn’t complete, auto-create a task to finish it.
Measure a few things that matter—and actually move them
- Retention: Run renewal reports monthly; compare policies renewed vs. remarketed/cancelled.
- Policies per client: Run a client report with a policy count column; sort ascending to find mono-line upselling targets.
- Revenue per client: View production/commission reports grouped by client.
- Quote-to-bind: Use activity reports filtered by activity tags for Quote Sent vs. Bound.
Quick Win: Save four report templates: Retention, Mono-line list, Top revenue clients, Quote to Bind. Review in a 30-minute team huddle monthly.
If it isn’t in Hawksoft, it didn’t happen
- Use a coverage checklist template and attach it to every new/renewed policy.
- Log declines of coverage (UM/UIM, Flood, EQ, Cyber) and save signed forms in the policy attachments.
- Save carrier chats/emails as PDFs in the client file and add a one‑line activity summary for search.
Quick Win: Create a task template for Bound File Checklist: dec pages, signed apps, photos, waivers/declines, certificates issued, finance docs, welcome email.
Make the most of HawkSoft
HawkSoft isn’t just a filing cabinet—it’s the engine of your growth. Lean into activity tags, task templates, client tags, certificates, and report templates to improve retention, raise revenue per client, and cut E&O risk—without adding extra software.
Peggy Sellman
Sellman Insurance
Nampa, ID
