Mary Newgard

Mary Newgard, CPC, AU began her insurance career in 2003 as a commercial insurance producer for a nationally recognized independent agency, Cottingham & Butler. In 2006, she joined Capstone Search Group as a Search Associate focused on building the firm’s national reputation in agency consulting. Over the past five years Capstone has become well known for its partnership with independent, retail agencies dedicated to effective sales recruiting. In fact, Capstone is one of the few insurance recruiting firms with a dedicated focus in producer recruiting amongst all three major product disciplines: property and casualty, life and health and high net worth personal lines.
As a Senior Search Consultant, Mary works with agencies of varying size and ownership structure on enacting competitive, results driven sales and service recruiting. This includes education on compensation models, agency perpetuation, Mergers & Acquisitions and advanced technological resources. Additionally, she is integral in Capstone’s continued work with wholesale brokers, Managing General Agencies and Excess & Surplus markets, many of which face the same challenges in recruiting production based talent as retail brokers.
A graduate of Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, Mary is a member of the National Insurance Recruiters Association (NIRA) and is a Certified Personnel Consultant with the National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS). In her spare time Mary stays busy with her husband, twin daughters, golfing and cheering on the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Why Producers and CSRs Quit: How to Avoid Employee Turnover
This course looks at the foundational reasons why two critical positions for most agencies, producers and account managers, are susceptible to turnover.
Is Your Agency's Client Service Structure Outdated?
Getting the most from your existing resources is a priority for most agency owners.
How Agencies are Redefining Value Added Services
Moving beyond price into a more compelling conversation starts for most property and casualty agencies by offering a unique service or product the client couldn't get from the broker next door.
Building Strength within Your Agency
If you're going to take a hard look at improving your agency's employee morale or maintaining an already positive work environment, then you should do so through the lens of specific, insurance related topics.
Avoiding The Top 5 Mistakes Made When Hiring Producers
Learn ways to correct the most common mistakes agencies make when hiring sales executives. The key is to make your own plan, define what makes a "good" producer, hire and avoid repeating the bad habits of old.
Developing Producer Compensation & Agency Perpetuation Plans
Through this course, agency owners, sales managers, and financial officers will begin to see how vital the concept of compensation analysis is to the success of its company.