Hiring Smart and Building Loyalty: What to Look for in an Account Manager Who’ll Grow With Your Agency

More Than Just a Role—It’s a Relationship Builder

In many insurance agencies, account managers are the heartbeat of day-to-day operations. They bridge the gap between sales and service, between clients and carriers. They field the tough questions, manage expectations, and often set the tone for your agency’s reputation.

Hiring the wrong person can cost you more than just time and money—it can shake client trust. But hiring the right account manager? That’s an investment in retention, referrals, and long-term growth.

Start With Culture and Client Fit

Before diving into resumes or interview questions, take a moment to define what “fit” looks like. Are your clients mostly small business owners who want hands-on service? Or are they corporate accounts that need efficiency, fast turnarounds, and professionalism above all else?

Knowing your client mix will help you narrow in on candidates who can match those expectations in tone, pace, and relationship style. Not every great account manager is great for your agency—and that’s okay.

The Must-Haves: Core Traits of a Great Hire

While every agency has its own style, a few qualities consistently stand out:

• Responsiveness – Clients don’t expect miracles. But they do expect timely updates. An account manager who knows how to acknowledge a request (even before it’s solved) builds instant trust.
• Curiosity – Policies change. Carrier portals update. Regulations shift. The best hires don’t wait to be told—they stay curious, ask smart questions, and keep learning.
• Organised under pressure – Between claims, renewals, and quoting, there’s rarely a slow week. Look for someone who can handle multiple moving parts without losing track—or losing their cool.

Industry Experience Helps—But Isn’t Everything

Yes, hiring someone with insurance experience can speed up onboarding. But don’t discount people from adjacent industries like banking, tech, or real estate—especially if they’ve worked in high-touch, client-facing roles. Some of the best hires come from outside the box.

Just make sure they’re ready to get up to speed with tools, terminology, and especially management systems for insurance agencies, which are essential for staying efficient at scale. These systems manage everything from contact history to renewal schedules, so fluency here makes a difference in day-to-day performance.

Ask the Right Questions in the Interview

Beyond the standard “tell me about yourself,” try to uncover how candidates think and prioritise:

• “How do you organise your follow-ups when managing 50+ clients?”
• “Describe a time you handled a frustrated client. What was the outcome?”
• “What do you do when you don’t know the answer to a client’s question?”
• “How do you stay updated with changes in your industry or tools?”

Their answers will tell you a lot about how they’d function in your environment—not just what they’ve done elsewhere.

Red Flags to Watch For

It’s easy to be impressed by polish, but here are a few things that should make you pause:

• No follow-up after an interview
• Vague answers about tools or processes they’ve used
• Short stints at multiple jobs without clear reasons
• Blame-heavy storytelling when discussing past roles

Account management is about ownership. You want someone who takes responsibility and can learn from setbacks—not someone who always points fingers.

Set Them Up to Succeed From Day One

Even the best hires can fail if they’re thrown into the deep end with no direction. A structured onboarding plan makes all the difference. Introduce them to your workflows, your most important clients, and your internal communication rhythm.

Provide templates, walkthroughs of your systems, and regular check-ins during the first 90 days. It’s not hand-holding—it’s smart onboarding that protects your clients and your brand.

The Long Game: Loyalty and Retention

Good account managers don’t just reduce churn—they build emotional loyalty. They’re the reason clients renew without shopping around. They’re the voice clients ask for by name.

And when you find one of those people? Support them. Promote them. Give them tools to grow. Because hiring smart isn’t just about today—it’s about building the kind of agency that people want to stay with, both as clients and employees.

Final Thought

Hiring your next account manager isn’t just filling a role. It’s choosing a partner in your agency’s reputation, your team’s stability, and your clients’ satisfaction. So take your time. Ask the right questions. And above all, hire for the way your business actually works—not just the way you think it should.