Let’s be honest.

In a soft market, declinations stack up like unopened mail on the kitchen counter. And most brokers handle them about as well as that mail. They hear the verbal “no,” shrug, mumble something about the carrier’s appetite, and move on to the next submission.

That’s a waste of a perfectly good rejection!

Here are five things to do instead, I learned the expensive way at the school of hard knocks.

A verbal “no” is worth exactly the paper it’s printed on.

Always get the declination reason in writing. Think of it as your own little E&O policy. When the client asks what happened, you’ve got receipts. And when the client needs to prove they were marketed properly, they’ve got receipts too.

Everybody wins, except the guy who said “trust me, they passed.”

Before you hang up on a decline, ask this question that’ll change the whole conversation:

“If we overcame these obstacles, would this be a target account for you? Would you be competitive?”

Boom. Now you know exactly what needs to change, and you’ve got a warm door to knock on at next year’s renewal.

Now, the decline stops being a rejection letter and starts being a treasure map.

Getting declined on the package doesn’t mean you pack up and pout about it.

Ask about their umbrella team. Their D&O team. Their environmental team. A no on one line is not a no on every line, and getting some revenue through the door keeps you relevant with that carrier. Too many brokers hear “no” on the lead line and break up with the whole relationship.

Don’t be dramatic. Stay in the game.

When loss history is the only reason a carrier gives you, push back.

Underwriters love driving while staring in the rearview mirror, and your job is to get their eyes back on the road. Is the experience mod about to improve? Did they just roll out a shiny new safety program? Was the bad year really one freak claim that’s now closed? Make the forward-looking case.

The past is data, but the future is the risk they’re actually pricing.

This is the big one.

Hand your client an honest, thorough marketing summary with every declination reason in writing. All of them. Don’t airbrush the ugly parts, and never (and we mean never) just tell the client “everyone declined.” That’s lazy, it’s foggy, and it makes it look like you spent the marketing process on the golf course.

Here’s the funny thing:

Calling the baby ugly builds trust because it’s uncomfortable. The client sees what the market really thinks, understands why their program looks the way it does, and knows you actually did the work.

The broker who hides the declinations is the broker the client eventually stops believing.

They’re free market intel wearing a frowny face.

Get them in writing, turn them into next year’s pipeline, cross-sell around them, challenge the rearview-mirror underwriting, and put the whole ugly truth in front of your client.

That’s how today’s “no” becomes next year’s “yes.”

This is a guest post by Derek Laczniak, CIC. You can connect with Derek on LinkedIn here.

If you’d like to guest post for Max Revenue please shoot us an email at [email protected]