09/24/2026
The #1 way brokers say they find new clients accounts for 5% of my business.
Canadian Underwriter asked 169 brokers where new clients come from. 71% said referrals from existing customers. Half said referrals from other professionals.
So I ran my own 2026 numbers. Here's where every new sale actually started:
Cold outreach: 56%
Facebook advertising: 24%
LinkedIn: 10%
Customer referrals: 5%
Networking: 3.5%
Professional referrals: 0.5%
It's almost a perfect inversion. The industry's top answer is 5% of my book. Its third is half a percent. 90% came from calling and posting, the things brokers ranked near the bottom.
I'm not knocking referrals. I know people decades into financial services who run almost entirely on them. No ads, no cold calls. It clearly works for them.
It just never worked for me. I tried waiting for the phone to ring. The phone did not ring.
So I dialed.
The part that stuck with me wasn't the numbers. Most owners I talk to know their revenue to the dollar. Far fewer know where their last ten customers actually came from, so they keep investing in the channel everyone says works instead of the one that works for them.
If you run a business, do you know where your last ten customers came from, or just where you think they did?
Peter Young Insurance
