Car Salesman/ P&C Salesman

[RobGarcia93]

Hey guys, I just got my P&C License in Texas. I have no insurance sales experience but I have over 10 years of auto sales experience.

I work for my families car dealership. 25 years in business strong, and i'm wondering what y'all think of the idea of me selling primarily auto insurance to my customers as an independent agent on location. I will have zero overhead, and generally speaking I work on my own terms. Every buyer needs car insurance and that can be a speed bump at times. Car sales are doing good however I am not overwhelmed with work here so I think it'll be possible to manage both car sales and insurance sales to my customers... We're a smallish used car lot with about 40 cars fairly new no older than 5 year old cars.

What are some of the drawbacks of no experience in insurance sales, getting appointed with carriers, should I get experience working for an agency first, any tips getting appointed? etc.

Thanks in advance for tips and advice!! God bless.

 

[BADTROUT]

There is definitely a benefit to the dealership to having an in house insurance guy on hand. I know primarily you are talking auto, but most auto is going to be discounted heavily by being able to package it with a good home policy. Getting experience working for an agency is always helpful, however, if you are going to specialize in what you are going to sell, and you embrace your purpose as just an accommodating the family business kind of guy you could make a go of it potentially.

Much of you getting appointed will depend on your locale as well. Some areas are extremely difficult to get appointed with certain carriers and other areas are easy so where you are (what city) does matter.

I think the most important thing for you to decide early on is if you are doing this to build an insurance business/agency, or if you are doing this to boost the revenue and advance the family car business. What you pick doesn't matter as much as just making that distinction, because it will matter a great deal to carriers. Some don't like the idea of a dealer based agent, some love it.

 

[fed up]

How many sales do you lose to buyers not having insurance? How many sales of cars are held up because the buyer has no insurance? these are answers you can easily get by looking through your records. How many vehicles do you sell in a month? some insurance companies would say that a 5% return on leads is a good return, meaning that you get 5 sales for every 100 people you call. The MAJORITY of your customers probably have insurance already and after spending 2 hours in the dealership discussing the purchase have little interest in spending much more time discussing auto premiums, they want their vehicle and the ability to leave.So if you sell 100 cars per month and 10 people have no insurance and must buy in order to leave the lot, chances are you will make an extra 1000-3000 in commission (10% of the premium) but if there are fewer than 10 people a month it may not be worth your trouble. Bird-dog out the sale and get a referral fee from a local agent

 

[VolAgent]

Fed up pretty much nailed it.

Also food for thought. The people who couldn't buy a car because they didn't have insurance will probably also lapse the policy as soon as they drive off the lot. In fact, I'd say it is even money odds that the down payment won't actually clear or will be charged back.

So if you are doing it simply to get more cars off the lot, I'd recommend partnering up with a local agency. I have a friend with a non-standard agency who has built it in part by being that guy for car lots. Someone is buying a car and needs insurance, they call him and his team to get them insured.

 

[fed up]

I worked as a captive agent for a auto-dealership program. The dealership had 5 rooftops plus used cars. I worked for one rooftop with a used car lot attached. In June they sold a combined 60 vehicles and all sales people were bonused or met their quota, in July they sold 30 vehicles combined. I sold 1 policy, partly because of my guidelines and mostly because we were in a Erie Insurance stronghold. You have an advantage in that the potential customer walks into your agency, but you have a disadvantage because most car buyers feel like the auto dealership has already beat them out of every available dime. You might make more money by installing a penny squisher in the dealership and getting people to pay $.50-$1.00 to ruin a good penny

 

[RobGarcia93]

Thanks for the input guys. In my 10 years working at our dealership, i'd say most people who buy cars from us don't have insurance yet and ask us if they can get insurance with us. Then I have to tell them we don't sell insurance and they have to shop around and come back with full coverage since its a requirement.

Im not thinking about selling insurance to boost car sales at all, but rather just increase my profits and provide the clients what they have been asking for and need.. What do y'all think?

 

[fed up]

What have you got to lose? Go for it

 

[RobGarcia93]

Thanks guys.. 1 question. Like I said I have plenty of experience in car sales but zero experience in insurance sales.

Do y'all think I can learn as I go with no experience and make it as an independent agent on my own, or should I work for an insurance agency first to get experience?

 

[fed up]

Work with somebody so as to avoid E & O claims

 

[BADTROUT]

Work with somebody so as to avoid E & O claims

I agree that working with someone (mentorship) is super important!