Armed with Life Insurance License; What to Do Now?

[Todd King]

Andy, There are more lucretive areas in insurance than with FE. You could get into the high-end under-age (65) market, but you need some experience with that one to be successful.

FE is a great place to start as there just isn't that much to learn compared to the other markets. If you decide the senior market is not for you, then you could transition to the under-age crowd if you like.

 

[exLeadJunkie]

by far the best advise was from WinoBlues "My suggestion is get off the forum and start talking to prospects. Start selling something. Delete all the recruiter emails you are getting. Throw away all the company/recruiter mail flooding your mail box. See the people, See the people, See the people." spending time, money & energy planning, studying, preparing, talking (arguing) on forums ... all a waste of time if you don't see the people and see a sh## load of people. You can learn, plan, study, prepare as you go along. You do NOT have to know everything before selling an insurance policy. This is NOT rocket science. Start talking to people about the envitable of them passing away and how they want the experience to impact their loved ones. The choice is theirs but your job is to inform them of their options.

 

[ruin007]

I'll never be flipping burgers. However, after my insurance career goes down in flames, which I guess is a given from everybody, I will be providing free french fries from the McD's frier I'll be working.
Good luck selling everybody, I won't be back here for quite some time.

 

[WinoBlues]

The advice you get here is worth much more than the price you are paying. I wish this forum had been here when I started. These guys are being to easy on you. Wait till you are in a home and some guy unloads on you. Most of the agents that are responding to you have walked in your shoes.

Do not buy files, pens or desk accessories. Do not spend more than 30 minutes designing a business card. Nothing matters at this point but activity. Aggressively getting ready is not activity. There are no short cuts. You have been researching FE. Start with that. Make your calls today. Not later today, but now.

This may make me sound like an asshole. I still have to tell myself the same stuff regularly.

The only activity that counts is Apptivity

This is a great career with a lot of freedoms. But it is a hard career, unless you can keep yourself motivated and on task.

Pick up the phone, Call someone. Or pick a neighborhood and knock on a couple doors. You will learn more doing those two things than reading a forum. You will better understand what you are reading once you have gotten out there a bit.
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I'll never be flipping burgers. However, after my insurance career goes down in flames, which I guess is a given from everybody, I will be providing free french fries from the McD's frier I'll be working.
Good luck selling everybody, I won't be back here for quite some time.

Oh, unknot your panties and calm down.

Abandoning this forum because we did not tell you what you wanted to hear is stupid. Stay on the forum, After business hours, and grow.ave been doing this business for a long time and learn something almost daily.

 

[RyanCO]

Andy, here's my standard (unsolicited) advice. And, like VolAgent, I believe in tough love:

If Final Expense interests you, then get on it now. Contact one of the marketing organizations in the FE area like EFES, get signed up, and get in the field full time. If you have your license, you can plan for 10 years and nothing happens until you get your ass kicked in the field.

If something like life insurance, LTC and annuities excites you, get hired on by Met Life, Prudential, Guardian, Mass Mutual, Mutual of Omaha, New York Life or Northwestern Mutual and do exactly what they tell you.

Starting as an independent means you don't know how to market, don't know how to sell, don't know how to close, don't know how to create proposals or plans, don't know the laws and regulations, and are very likely to hurt someone with ignorance.

It also means that you'll have no one kicking you in the butt, no one to have as a mentor, no one to trust. That's a rotten way to start a career in this industry. You'll find yourself at home watching TV in the afternoons instead of earning a living in no time.

So decide and get on it. Final Expense, Life, P&C, LTC, Annuities, Disability, whatever. Pick one and do it better than anyone else.

That's the way to make it in this industry.


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[ruin007]

There's no point in arguing about it, and I guess the information I received here was par for the course on the internet... some useful and some not so much. My original plan was FE, and that is what I will do. I received a great amount of help from people that contacted me in that forum without recruiting, and will continue to do so.

It has nothing to do with "getting my panties in a knot." It has to do with exploring my options before I make that final leap into a new career path. As for getting out there and selling, I have a full time job in car sales at the moment, and have put in my 2 weeks, but wouldn't feel right just abandoning the place that let me feed my children for the past 2 years without that courtesy. So I can't get out there and sell for at least another 12 days.

I suppose that all the advice given was useful. Suddenly switching career plans is a bad idea at this point, especially since I haven't even sold a single policy of any kind yet. Maybe it shows that I don't have the focus needed, and I will fail.

I don't object to people calling my idea dumb, or telling me that they think I will fail. It's an opinion, and it may be a valid one. The issue I have is with people trying to be clever about it and make snarky put downs. That is what teenagers do to make them feel better about themselves. I realize this is the internet, and people can say whatever they want, but that doesn't mean that they have to.

I've failed before, and I'll fail again, until I find something that I have great success in. Hopefully that thing will be insurance and I've tried to use every tool available to me to make sure I can do it, including this forum. I have no desire to prove anybody wrong, only to succeed. Thank you for all the input, good and bad, and I hope to speak with some of you in the future who would be kind enough to help guide a new agent through the world of final expense. The FE forum is probably where I'll be for the foreseeable future.

TKE, I spoke with somebody on the phone yesterday and he highly recommended you as an alternate source of leads should I need them. I assume that I will need them, and I would love to contact you if it's alright. I can't PM yet, so hopefully you don't mind a phone call in the near future.

 

[Josh]

Just to be clear, I'm not convinced you'll fail, but you're going to live or die by your ability to get in front of people. That's going to be your biggest challenge.

There is no line of insurance that is necessarily more profitable. If you keep your pitch clean and simple you only need to make a few sales a week to make a good living at this. To make a few sales a week you need about 10 solid appointments, maybe less. If you don't have a plan to do that, you're going to have a problem. If you have that figured out, you're starting the game at half-time with a comfortable lead.

 

[WinoBlues]

The next 12 days you still have a job. Today is the perfect time to start. Before or after your shift.

 

[sellinmachine]

Andy. all things start with a dream. Beleive in yourself, learn from those willing to help, accentuate the positive, and never, never give up!!

 

[Cornelius]

Andy first off you need to get a thicker skin. Don't go away from the board stay around and learn. Of course people are going to give you a hard time but that doesn't mean you won't pick up some gems of information every now and then.

On this board at some point most everyone gets flamed and I have to admit some of them are pretty funny. Just hang in there and understand deep down most people are here to help you.

Something to understand is there is just so much to learn and there's so much more to it than just selling a product and making a bunch of money.

Just as a side note if possible you can start part-time with the insurance. Unless you have the funds set aside it might not be a good idea to just up and leave your current employment.

One advantage is you do have a sales background so that should help. If you don't come back I wish you the best.