Advice Needed for Recruiting Life Insurance Professionals

[Crabcake Johnny]

Give Dan a call a see if they can target that market.

 

[thall]

This is an old thread, Life Insurance man you pm me today, and I responded, keep in mind there are over 48,000 fmo's out there you need to have something differant if you're going to start trolling threads like Jim does. Don't tell me to go to your website, it shoud look nice! Tell me what you can do for me, I'll do the interviewing. t hall

 

[Guest]

Thanks a lot guys... All of your input has helped me a lot.

As for now, I will continue to do all the recruiting on my own… but so far so good! However, if we expand faster than I can recruit (which will probably happen sooner than later), I will MOST definitely consider making a few calls and reaching out to some of the names/companies you all have listed.

I did consider your advice insuranceexec… Most of the agents I have spoken with are interested in teaming up because of how different we are. What really struck a cord with them was when I told them a little bit about our incredible marketing capabilities and how we literally set them up with several meetings per week… while some companies offer leads, we offer meetings. I personally haven’t been around long enough to know for sure, but if I had to guess, most companies aren’t doing that for their agents.

Anyway, couple all that with our unique positioning in the industry, our proprietary product line, our story, our reputation, etc. ….for any salesman who knows how to close, it becomes a win-win scenario for them (especially since we mostly deal with high-net worth clients). All they have to do is make the sale.

Alright, well it is back to work, but I want to thank you all again for your feedback, time and consideration.

Sincerely,
LifeInsuranceMan

Why do you look for "closers?" That seems to conjure up the dreaded high pressure life insurance agent.

I find that identifying the problem, getting the prospect to agree that there is a problem...and then offering a choice of highly competitive product solutions allows the "sale" to happen naturally. Being a good communicator and people person counts far more to me than being a good "closer."

 

[LifeInsuranceMan]

Why do you look for "closers?" That seems to conjure up the dreaded high pressure life insurance agent.

I find that identifying the problem, getting the prospect to agree that there is a problem...and then offering a choice of highly competitive product solutions allows the "sale" to happen naturally. Being a good communicator and people person counts far more to me than being a good "closer."

You are right… in most circumstances. It is far better to be a good communicator and a people person; however, to make the sale in the competitive marketplace where we provide sophisticated corporate financial planning to high net worth business owners, you have to do more than just build up a rapport... For the natural-market-type prospects, and/or referrals, if you are a nice guy and you know enough (more than him/her), the close might be just around the corner.

The big leagues are different. With the successful businessmen we go to see, you cannot just be a good communicator and a people person (or a “nice guy”). You have to WOW THEM or you will STRIKE OUT. More importantly, you have to be different and show them strategies that all the 100s of other top advisors (who have also knocked down their doors) haven’t shown them already. Given, you should also be able to offer the simple vanilla just like everyone else...

When making the BIG sales, you don't want to be their friend! You should make it a personal goal to walk away from the meeting with them saying, "that right there is a guy who knows his stuff"... instead of, "that right there was a nice guy"… at the end of the day, which professional will he want to have handle his complicated financial situation?

Anyway, aside from my slight tangent, I agree with you… but for the successful business owners we do business for, closers/advanced consultants are who we are looking to partner with. My fault for not making that more clear in my other messsage.

We want closers, or guys who understand the urgency of getting the right points across at the right times… also, not every producer is comfortable speaking with business owners with ultra high net worths… what our platform demands is finding the producers who having the expertise to understand and clearly explain the sophisticated financial designs which we provide our clients with day in and day out.

Feel free to shoot me a PM if you would like to further discuss.

 

[TheKoenigGroup]

LifeInsuranceMan -- here is some information that should help you and others interested in recruiting:

1. My primary list source is Agents Insurance Marketing (AIM) in Fenton, MI. Owned by Don and Jeannie Yerke. 800-822-6424. Don can segregate by the type of license held, indy vs/ captive, length of licensure, number of records at the same address, etc. He just re-did his database and appended phones. They are very accurate, but only 30% of the file has a good phone. Don does not sort by company appointment, because of prior agreements with some large home offices not to target their agents.

2. For company appointments, I use AMC. Call Tom Bielhart at 800-933-9449, ext. 218.

These states have all company appointments available:

Alabama
Arkansas
California
Florida
Kansas
Kentucky
Michigan
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Oregon
South Carolina
Texas
Wisconsin


These states have some to most, but not all, company appointments available:

Arizona
Delaware
Georgia
Idaho
Iowa
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Mexico
North Carolina
Ohio
Utah
West Virginia

3. E-blast recruiting has been done for years by G. Barry Klein, LifeBlasts.com 818-381-2416. Barry has a variety of "packages" and prices.

Also call Agent Recruiting Network, Ron Jeffries, 206-666-4359. They do national as well as state-by-state e-blasting, plus the have a "Hot Transfer Call Center Platform" if you want that.

4. Elaine Scott in NC has done freelance TM recruiting for 6 years. She is very good. Don't have her e-mail, but call her at 336-328-7577 to see if she can help.

Hope this info helps your recruiting efforts. Sorry it took so long to get this posted, but the dance card has been really full. Take care!

atlantainsguy

Probably the best post I have seen in a while, great...there was alot of information I found useful in here!!

I have some skills that can help someone make an offer like this more attractive!

 

[Johnnyboy29073]

This has already been posted, but will post again to show its importance; You have to be different.

High Contracts
Leads (Even Free)
Support
Training; just to name a few.

The largest thing that people forget about is the cost associated with these things.

What kind of background do you have?

What would make someone want to do business with you?

Good questions to ask especially if you are going to attract the cream of the crop. I hope this helps.

Dishing out free leads, along with high contracts to agents who then need training makes no sense.

Provide lead access at a good contract rate, with ample support and you'll succeed.

If you thrust yourself out there as someone with the highest contracts, cheapest leads, and unlimited training, what you will be left with is agents who don't understand that's unsustainable as a business model.

 

[agentrecruiting]

 

[InsuranceRecruiter]

Thank you for your post atlantainsguy this was very helpful! I am relatively new in the recruiting field and I am interested in finding contact info on good sources for lists, phones, and/or e-blasts. Any help for pointing me in the right direction would be great!

Thanks,

InsuranceRecruiter

Depends on the type of agent you're looking for.

In about half the states you can select by company appointment. For example, if you want FE agents -- target companies currently "in trouble" for whatever reason like low comp, high rates, lousy lead program (Bankers L&C, UA, Senior Life, etc.), or companies that train well such as Combined. Do this wherever you can.

One recruiting list source I use can separate by market specialty -- senior life, senior health, "traditional" middle-market agents, etc.

You can easily select by how long they've been licensed, 2-3 years is good as you indicate.

Also, if there are more than 3 names at the same address -- drop them all because these are generally multi-line offices (State Farm, Allstate, etc.) or district Life offices such as NML, NYL, etc. -- where the secretary is paid to toss all recruiting mail.

Several licensed agent databases have phones from 30% to perhaps 60% -- and you can call them all because it's a business, even if the agent uses a home phone # and is on DNC.

I know a lady in NC who's really good with phone recruiting. PM me if you want her contact info...or contact info on good sources for lists, phones, and/or e-blasts.

Atlantainsguy