How to Interview Insurance Sales Agents: Scorecard and Questions

October 23, 2026 · Nohl

For a phone sales job, the phone is the interview. Run every candidate through the same four stages: a 15-minute phone screen, a structured interview, a live role play with two objections, and reference calls. Then score them on a weighted scorecard you set before the first interview, so you hire the person who sounds right on a call and takes coaching, not the best talker in the room.

Stage	Length	What you're testing	Pass signal	Fail signal
1. Phone screen	15 minutes	Phone presence, schedule fit, honesty about numbers	Clear, direct answers; knows their own numbers; can work your hours	Vague on schedule, blames past managers, can't give a single number
2. Structured interview	30 to 45 minutes	How they handle rejection, scripts and slow weeks	Specific stories: what they did and what happened	Hypotheticals only, "I just work hard," no examples
3. Live role play	20 to 30 minutes, script sent 24 hours ahead	Phone skill under objections, coachability	Uses your note on the second run; stays calm on objections	Argues with the prospect, ignores the note, reads flat
4. Reference calls	10 minutes each	Whether past managers would hire them again	A former manager says yes without hedging	Only friends as references, long pauses on "would you rehire"

Why the phone screen comes first

Your producers will spend the day on the phone with people who didn't plan to talk to them. A sit-down interview tests something else: how someone does face to face, with a friendly audience, in their best clothes. Plenty of people who shine there go quiet on the dial.

So the first contact is a call. In the first two minutes you learn whether they pick up on time, how they open, and whether they sound like someone a 70-year-old would stay on the line with. If they miss the scheduled call and don't call back, that's your answer.

Who runs each stage

Stage	Small agency (owner plus a few producers)	Larger floor
Phone screen	Owner	Team leader or an admin trained on the five questions
Structured interview	Owner	Sales manager
Live role play	Owner plays the prospect	Sales manager plays the prospect; a top producer can sit in
Reference calls	Owner	Sales manager or admin
Final decision	Owner	Sales manager recommends, owner or principal signs off

If you hire in batches, block the stages. Run all phone screens on one afternoon, all role plays on another, and score each candidate the same day while the call is fresh. If you support many agencies under one hierarchy, put the same process in front of every downline agency. More on that in how to run an IMO.

The phone screen: 15 minutes, five questions

Ask these word for word, in this order. Take notes against each one. Don't sell the job yet.

1. Schedule. "This role is on the phones during set hours. Our floor runs [your hours, your days]. What does your week look like, and is there anything that would keep you from those hours?"

Strong: names their current commitments plainly and gives a straight yes or no.
Red flag: "I'm flexible" with nothing behind it, or a second job that only comes up when you push.

2. Motivation. "Why phone sales, and why insurance, right now?"

Strong: a specific reason they can explain in two sentences, including what they want out of it.
Red flag: "I heard you can make a lot of money fast." That person is buying a story, and they leave when the story doesn't show up in month one.

3. Dialing volume. "Tell me about the most calls you've made in a day in any job. What were you calling for, and how many conversations did that turn into?"

Strong: a real number, a real context and some sense of the ratio.
Red flag: no outbound experience and no curiosity about what the job takes. No experience is fine. No curiosity isn't.

4. Rejection. "On a phone floor, most calls end in a no or no answer. What did you do the last time you heard no all day?"

Strong: describes a routine. Takes a short break, resets, keeps dialing, reviews what went wrong.
Red flag: says rejection doesn't bother them at all. It bothers everyone. You want the person who has a way to handle it.

5. Their own numbers. "How did you track your own results in your last role? What were your numbers last month?"

Strong: gives numbers, even unflattering ones, and explains what they did about them.
Red flag: "I don't really track that," or numbers that change when you ask a follow-up.

Check license status yourself

Close the screen with: "Are you currently licensed? In which states and lines?" Then verify it. The National Insurance Producer Registry is the public place to look up a producer's license status. Don't rely on a screenshot from the candidate. If they aren't licensed yet, decide before you start interviewing whether you hire pre-licensed people, and what the plan is to get them licensed before they take a sales call.

The structured interview

Every candidate gets the same questions, in the same order, scored the same way. That's the whole point. If you freestyle, you end up comparing a good conversation with one candidate against a bad one with another, and the scorecard means nothing.

Ask for a specific time, not what they would do. Follow every answer with "What did you do next?" and "How did it turn out?"

"Tell me about a week where you heard no over and over. What did you do on day four?"
"Tell me about a time you had to follow a script or process you disagreed with. What did you do, and what happened?"
"Walk me through your slowest week in your last sales or customer-facing job. What did you change?"
"Tell me about feedback from a manager that stung. What did you do with it?"
"Tell me about a time you made a mistake with a customer. How did you fix it?"
"What would your last manager say you need to work on?"

What you're listening for:

Specifics. Names, numbers, days. Vague answers usually mean it didn't happen the way they're telling it.
Ownership. Do they say "I" when things went right and "they" when things went wrong?
Script discipline. Question 2 matters on a regulated phone floor. You want the person who raises the disagreement with a manager and still runs the approved script, not the one who goes off script because they think they know better.

Keep every question tied to the job: what you can't ask, and whether your producers are 1099 contractors or employees, are employment law questions, so start with the EEOC's page on prohibited employment policies and practices and have HR or an employment attorney review your process.

The live role play

This is the stage that separates people. It's the closest you get to watching them work before they're on your floor.

Set it up

24 hours ahead, send the candidate the script section below with this note: "You'll run this with me as the prospect. I'll throw in a couple of objections. Handle them however you think is right."
Run it over video so you hear the call and see how they carry themselves. With Nohl, candidates join a video meeting from a link, with no download or account, so there's nothing to install the night before.
Run it twice. First run cold. Give one note. Run it again from the top.

The script you send the candidate

This is a made-up final expense scenario, not a real call or customer.

Opener: "Hi, is this Ms. Carter? This is [your name] with [agency]. You sent in a request about final expense coverage, and I'm following up on it. Do you have a few minutes?"

Reason for the call: "Most people I talk with want to make sure their family isn't stuck with the funeral costs. Is that what got you looking?"

Discovery: "Who would you want this coverage to take care of?"

Transition: "That helps. I'll ask a few quick health questions so I can see which options fit you, and then we'll look at the numbers together."

The interviewer's card (don't send this)

You play Ms. Carter: 68, polite, a little cautious. Stay in character. Don't help.

Objection 1 (after the discovery question): "You know, I really need to talk to my husband before I do anything like this."

Listen for: Do they agree instead of arguing? Do they ask whether he's home and can join now? If not, do they set a specific time to talk with both of you?
Red flag: pushing past it, or ending with "I'll call you sometime."

Objection 2 (after the transition): "Honestly, this sounds expensive. Can you just mail me something?"

Listen for: Do they acknowledge it, ask what monthly amount would feel comfortable, and keep the conversation going without pressure?
Red flag: quoting a price they can't know yet, making promises about cost, or folding and agreeing to mail a packet without trying to stay on the call.

You're not testing product knowledge. You're testing how they sound, how they handle a no, and whether they stay on the script's path.

The coaching note

After the first run, give one note. Pick the most useful one. Examples:

"When she raised the objection, you answered right away. Next time, agree first, then ask a question before you answer."
"You read the opener. Say it the way you'd say it to a neighbor."

Then run it again. You're not scoring whether the second run is perfect. You're scoring whether they used the note. Someone who takes one note in an interview, under pressure, will take notes from you on the floor. Someone who repeats the first run word for word, or argues with the note, is showing you how coaching will go.

The scorecard

Set the weights before you interview anyone. If you set them after, you'll weight whatever your favorite candidate happened to be good at.

Criteria and weights

Score each criterion 1 to 5. Fill in your own weights. They must add up to 100.

Criterion	Where you score it	What a 5 looks like	What a 1 looks like	Your weight
Phone presence	Screen, role play	Clear, warm, well paced; you'd stay on the line	Flat, rushed or hard to follow	[ __ ]%
Coachability	Role play second run, interview Q4	Used the note right away	Ignored or argued with the note	[ __ ]%
Work ethic signals	Screen Q1 and Q3, interview Q1 and Q3	Concrete routines and real volume history	"I work hard" with no example	[ __ ]%
Script adherence	Role play, interview Q2	Ran the script, adapted the words not the substance	Went off script or skipped steps	[ __ ]%
Honesty about past results	Screen Q5, references	Numbers match across stages and references	Numbers shift, or references contradict them	[ __ ]%
Total				Adds up to 100

Weighted score formula

For each criterion: (score ÷ 5) × weight. Add the five lines. The total is out of 100.

Example: if you set phone presence at [W1]% and the candidate scores 4, that line is (4 ÷ 5) × [W1].

Hire threshold and knockouts

Hire threshold: [ your number ] out of 100. Set it before the first batch and don't move it for a candidate you like.
Knockouts that override the total: a 1 on honesty, a license claim that doesn't check out, or a no-show on the scheduled screen with no call. Add your own.
Review after each batch. Once you know who made it through ramp and who didn't, look at which criteria predicted it on your floor and adjust the weights for the next batch.

Compare candidates side by side

Criterion (weight)	Candidate A	Candidate B	Candidate C
Phone presence ([ __ ]%)
Coachability ([ __ ]%)
Work ethic signals ([ __ ]%)
Script adherence ([ __ ]%)
Honesty about past results ([ __ ]%)
Weighted total
Knockout? (Y/N)
Decision

Everyone who ran a stage scores on their own first, then you compare. If two scorers are far apart on the same candidate, talk through the specific moment before you average.

Reference calls and the offer conversation

Three reference questions that get past polite answers

Ask for a former direct manager, not a coworker or a friend. Then ask:

"If you had an open seat today, would you hire them back for the same role?" Listen to the pause as much as the answer.
"Tell me about a time you gave them feedback they didn't like. What did they do the next week?"
"What would I need to manage closely with them in the first 90 days?"

Confirm dates and role too. If the numbers the candidate gave you don't match what their manager remembers, that goes into the honesty score.

Set expectations before day one

When a new producer quits in week three, ask whether they understood the job they took. Close that gap in the offer conversation. Cover:

Lead flow. Where leads come from, how they're assigned, what a shift looks like on your floor in your own numbers, and who pays for leads if that applies.
Schedule. Exact hours, days, training sessions and what happens when someone misses them.
Contracting. That they'll be contracted and appointed with carriers before they sell, roughly how long that has taken with your carriers, and what they do in the meantime. Keep it general. The details depend on the carriers and states involved.
Compensation. How it works, not what they'll earn.

Offer language without income promises

Never quote an income range you can't support. Describe the structure instead:

"You're paid commission on the policies you write and place, at the levels in your contract. We'll walk through how commissions are paid, when they're paid and how chargebacks work. We won't give you an earnings number, because your production decides that."

The same rule applies to job ads. Describe the work, the schedule, the training and the lead setup. Leave out "six figures," "uncapped income" and anything like them. For the cost side of adding seats, see what it costs to run a virtual insurance agency.

Day one starts the ramp

The interview tells you who to hire. The first weeks decide whether they stay. Hand every new producer straight into your playbook and a written first-week plan so nobody spends day one waiting to be told what to do. If you don't have one yet, start with how to build a sales playbook.

Train on real calls. Your top producers' recorded calls are the best training material you have. Nohl keeps searchable call recordings and transcripts, so a manager can pull the calls where a top producer handled the spouse objection and have a new hire listen before their first shift. Recording laws vary by state, and some states require everyone on the call to consent. You're responsible for recording notices and consent.

Coach on live calls. During early calls, Sales AI suggests the next line or an objection answer on the rep's screen while the call is happening. The prospect never hears it. The new producer still decides what to say, in their own words. More on how that works in AI sales coach for insurance agents.

Run the floor from one place. With Mogul, agency owners assign leads and manage their reps from one place, so a new producer gets the leads you decide they're ready for. See how it works for agencies on Nohl for teams.

Bring the scorecard back at day 30. Put each producer's actual work next to how you scored them in the interview. That comparison is what makes your next batch of hires better.

See Mogul for agencies and IMOs

Frequently asked questions

What questions should I ask an insurance sales agent in an interview?

Start with a 15-minute phone screen covering schedule, motivation, past dialing volume, how they handle rejection, and how they track their own numbers. Then run a structured interview with behavioral questions: a week of repeated rejection, a script they disagreed with, their slowest week, and feedback that stung. Ask every candidate the same questions in the same order so your scorecard compares like with like.

How do you test sales ability in an interview?

Run a live role play. Send a short script section 24 hours ahead, play the prospect over a video meeting, and throw in two objections. Then give one coaching note and run it again. You learn how they sound on a call, how they handle a no, and whether they use feedback, which a sit-down conversation won't show you.

Should I hire unlicensed agents?

It depends on whether you can train them and carry them until they're ready. A pre-licensed hire can't take sales calls until they're licensed in the states where they'll sell and contracted with your carriers. Decide your policy before you interview, verify any license claim through the NIPR producer lookup, and check your state insurance department's requirements.

How long should the hiring process take?

The four stages add up to a few hours of your time per candidate. With the 24-hour role-play prep, you can move a candidate from screen to offer in about a week if you schedule tightly. Set your own target and stick to it. Long gaps between stages give strong candidates time to take another offer.

What are red flags when hiring insurance agents?

Missing the scheduled phone screen without calling back, being vague about schedule, focusing on fast money, claiming rejection never bothers them, not knowing or changing their own numbers, ignoring or arguing with a coaching note in the role play, and offering only friends as references instead of a former manager.