Can "Appointment Setters" Get Paid Commission?

[Beans]

Hey all! I'm brand new to insurance and brand new to this forum. I have a simple question.

I live in California.

I have a friend that wants to do cold calls for me. I think it's a great idea to generate leads.

I would want her to do the following:
1 - Cold call
2 - explain our products / health insurance / retirement plans etc. to the customer.
3 - If the customer is interested, she would basically take the health insurance application...name, number, health, smoker, non, etc...
4 - She would then inform the customer that I will follow up with them. She would pass the "warm lead" on to me, and I would call.

I would sell the deal from that point forward. I would go to their house, sell the deals and get paid. She has no further interaction with the customer outside of seeing if they'd be interested, and passing it on to me.

I want to give her a percentage of whatever pay I get from that customer that she took from a "cold call" to a "warm call". Is this legal? If not, what is a legal way of paying someone to do cold calls so I can generate business?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Josh]

Per lead or appointment you're safe, contingent on the sale and you have a problem.

 

[Beans]

Per lead or appointment you're safe, contingent on the sale and you have a problem.

Ok, so just to make sure this is accurate -
If she calls 5 people, and 1 is interested, I have to pay her a flat fee for that lead. What if the lead doesn't produce? You're saying i've just lost the cost of that lead.

why can I not say - "if the sale goes through, I give you 20% of the deal, otherwise nothing"?

Also, I am not only doing health insurance...it would be additional policies and retirement planning. Are they all the same? I can only base it off the actual lead that's given me? So she can NEVER have a percentage of the deal...it's only a flat rate for each lead she gives me?

How would you set it up? What is fair? How much would I pay per lead? Under no circumstances can she make a variable commission on the plans sold? Why is that the case? I'm the one closing the deal...they'd have to say yes or no to me... she's only getting them warm...

Am I mistaken when I feel that a "per lead" basis would more likely give me garbage leads, but a "percentage on the deal" would give me quality leads that actually are genuinely interested?

 

[Norwayguy]

Ok, so just to make sure this is accurate -
If she calls 5 people, and 1 is interested, I have to pay her a flat fee for that lead. What if the lead doesn't produce? You're saying i've just lost the cost of that lead.

why can I not say - "if the sale goes through, I give you 20% of the deal, otherwise nothing"?

Also, I am not only doing health insurance...it would be additional policies and retirement planning. Are they all the same? I can only base it off the actual lead that's given me? So she can NEVER have a percentage of the deal...it's only a flat rate for each lead she gives me?

How would you set it up? What is fair? How much would I pay per lead? Under no circumstances can she make a variable commission on the plans sold? Why is that the case? I'm the one closing the deal...they'd have to say yes or no to me... she's only getting them warm...

Am I mistaken when I feel that a "per lead" basis would more likely give me garbage leads, but a "percentage on the deal" would give me quality leads that actually are genuinely interested?

Because by paying her a percentage of the sales your are paying her a commission on the sale of Insurance Products which would be fine if she was licensed....but if she isn't you can't do it....Yes you are correct if you pay her based on leads provided to you it incentivizes her to produce more leads probably to a lesser quality, the solution to this would be for her to get an insurance license but then why would she do the prospecting work for you for only 20% of the sale....another area to be concerned about was you mentioned her explaining your products to the client unless she is only reading from a script she is going to be straying into the area of insurance sales....

Face it prospecting is the challenging part of this business if you want to outsource it your going to have to pay for that most likely to include bad leads.
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I would want her to do the following:
1 - Cold call
2 - explain our products / health insurance / retirement plans etc. to the customer.
3 - If the customer is interested, she would basically take the health insurance application...name, number, health, smoker, non, etc...
4 - She would then inform the customer that I will follow up with them. She would pass the "warm lead" on to me, and I would call.

I want you to reread what you posted for item 3. The only way to get to 3 if the client is interested is to explain the health insurance product to the client something an unlicensed employee should NOT be doing....If this is your gameplan I forsee legal problem for you when your client feels they were misled or not informed about something and sue the agent listed on the app "YOU" and your E&O carrier finds out your only involvement in the sale was signing the application...I would bet both your E&O carrier as well as the health insurer drop you.

 

[Frank Stastny]

Norwayguy gave excellent advice.

Since you are new to insurance I assume your friend is also. Having her do your calling may work well but who is going to train her?

I would suggest that you initially start doing the calling yourself and get it down smooth and conversational. In other words find out what is going to work the best.

Once you become successful at it then you will be in a much better position to train her to do it.

 

[Beans]

Ok thanks...so I CAN have her call BUT...

1 - She gets paid a flat rate per lead she sends my way - (What is a fair price to pay per lead?)

2 - She CAN NOT discuss the policy in any depth at all.

So if she called, is this a legal call -
"Hi my name is $%@#, I am calling on behalf of %^3. We save people money on health insurance, and we also have retirement planning. Would you be interested in either of these? If yes - Can I get your name and number and have him call you with more details?"

Ok, so it's going to be prettier than that, but that's as simple as I can go with it in order to TRY to get it to be a warm lead. It's not in depth at all. Is that about the extent of my boundaries when it comes to legalities?

And yes, I like to do everything by the book. I'm very honest, so I just want to make sure I won't be stepping past what I'd be allowed to have her do.

Thanks again

 

[Norwayguy]

Ok thanks...so I CAN have her call BUT...

1 - She gets paid a flat rate per lead she sends my way - (What is a fair price to pay per lead?)

2 - She CAN NOT discuss the policy in any depth at all.

So if she called, is this a legal call -
"Hi my name is $%@#, I am calling on behalf of %^3. We save people money on health insurance, and we also have retirement planning. Would you be interested in either of these? If yes - Can I get your name and number and have him call you with more details?"

Ok, so it's going to be prettier than that, but that's as simple as I can go with it in order to TRY to get it to be a warm lead. It's not in depth at all. Is that about the extent of my boundaries when it comes to legalities?

And yes, I like to do everything by the book. I'm very honest, so I just want to make sure I won't be stepping past what I'd be allowed to have her do.

Thanks again

The above example would be legal....I would probably have her book the appointment then as opposed to you now having to call these people later but that would depend on what she ends up booking after a trial of a couple of weeks.

My only question for you is while she is calling for you if you don't have a booked full calendar what will you be doing?

 

[Beans]

And how about this... Businesses give their employees bonuses based on performance. Is there any legal way I can give her a bonus for her work? My sis/n/law is an opthometrist. She gets paid hourly. When the company makes a certain percent of profit, she gets a small bonus. Can I do something like that as well?
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My only question for you is while she is calling for you if you don't have a booked full calendar what will you be doing?

I'm going to be going on calls to continue learning the business from experienced people in the company, studying the different products we have to learn them more thoroughly and then I'd probably be calling to set my own appointments as well.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

It's semantics. You can cut her a bonus check anytime you like and simply say "you've been doing great." Once you state "I just made $800 on this case so your bonus is $100 off that case" you're in trouble.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

if you want to avoid liability just don't come out and say that bonuses paid are a portion of the commissions received. Done.

It's silly actually since ANY pay and ANY bonus by definition is a portion of the commission.