Becoming a P&C agent

[motoxxx]

Also a P & C fan. Started in group health and life in 1986, sold my book of health business in 1990ish and haven't looked back. warrenins is spot on with the commercial info.
I can remember having a goal of 100k in comm in the early years and I hit it in year 4 or 5...unfortunately my strong point was sales not bookkeeping and the 100k after expenses wasn't what I had hoped for. The second 100 was much easier and the third was the most fun. I try to thank God everyday for the chance to be in this business.

RE. Thanking God.I am not a very religious person but I am also very thankful to be in this business. I had spent 22 years in the music industry as a sound engineer and watched many famous people live well off of their residual income. I kind of fell into the insurance biz after being a victim of identity theft, and then losing my recording studio in an arson fire. After all of the crazy hardships, I thank God every day that I am here and able to earn a good stable living helping people.

 

[Ron Van D]

My average auto premium is 700/yr and my average homeowners is 710/year. multiply that by the commision rate you will be paid and see how many you need to sell to make it.

2 cars = 1400 in premium plus 710 for the home and you're sitting at 2210 annual premium. at 15% commission you'd make about 330 split with your agency, that would probably get you about 165 per year in commission. (about 13 bucks a month) How many of these can you write in a month? the renewals take a while to build up, so your gonna starve if you don't sell some life while you're building your base.

I like the renewals of p&c but the few group health policies i have are alot less work.

my advice would be to sell p&c to health clients and vice versa.

 

[1manshow]

I like the renewals of p&c but the few group health policies i have are alot less work.​

I agree, health is a great marketing opportunity as well. Who doesn't want to save some $$ on their group health benefits(besides taxpayer subsidized groups)?? This should be a great door opener if nothing else. Our producers biggest obstacle in group seems to be that every agency in the county is licensed with the same three top carriers that have all the market share.​

 

[djs]

Ironically, I sell a fair amount of group health to my P&C clients. I don't think I've ever sold P&C to an account that started as a group health client prospect.

Part of this is my style at this point. Part of it is my target audience is small businesses that want a single insurance agent to deal with, rather than multiples. Since group health is the same wherever you go (service slightly different), there isn't enough of a differentiator there to entice people to switch things. P&C is a very dynamic market, especially in small business, and is very easy to get small companies to want to save a few $$$$.

Basically, I lead with P&C since everyone else tends to lead with health.


Dan

 

[bobson]

Part of this is my style at this point. Part of it is my target audience is small businesses that want a single insurance agent to deal with, rather than multiples. Since group health is the same wherever you go (service slightly different), there isn't enough of a differentiator there to entice people to switch things.

Basically, I lead with P&C since everyone else tends to lead with health.


Dan

Very good angle. Single stop shopping. Heck you could probably even tell them you cost a little more but you are more convenient. Then when you beat their old price... BLAM

 

[insuranceexec]

Very good angle. Single stop shopping. Heck you could probably even tell them you cost a little more but you are more convenient. Then when you beat their old price... BLAM

I was going to offer some advice but after seeing everything already I could not add anything meaninful.

 

[livebetter]

More thank yous to everyone.

Warrenins- Thanks for the insight on commercial, and the considerations with the agency/producer relationship. I was visiting the forum today specifically to ask about splits so that was especially helpful. I also needed the reminder about the contract agreement and ownership of the book. I had forgotten to bring up that point in my discussions with the agency.

1man- Thanks for the information on your 100K goal and when you got there. I know you were writing health in the early years, too. Are the goals/income expectations fairly similar for an agent that is P&C only?

Motoxxx- It's good to know that you love what you do. It's been a thoughtful process for me to get to the point of deciding to jump into the industry and I've gone back and forth on it for awhile. I hope my feelings are similar to yours in five years. Thanks for sharing.

Motoxx, Ron, djs- Currently, I only intend to sell P&C and commercial so I won't be able to cross sell with health or life. :-(

Ron - Thanks for sharing the numbers on your typical policies. It's really helpful for me to get an idea of what to expect, and to have some more concrete figures to work with when I'm setting goals and figuring income.

This forum has been so helpful! Thank you to everyone who takes the time to help out the new kid.

 

[motoxxx]

Best to just pick one line and start there first and get a good strong foothold. The learning curve can be really steep and overloading yourself with different lines can be paralyzing.