Car salesman part time P&C

[motard78]

Was offered part time positions in Freedom Equity Group for UIL and in a regular carrier agent for P&C. Will choose the latter as I feel my current job gives me daily leads, which is what everyone is after.
Does that idea of leads make sense to you as experienced P&C guys? Are they exploitable? How would you all leverage that if you were in my shoes?
TIA for tips, comments and pluses and minuses.

 

[VolAgent]

Pick the answer you want to hear.

A. It will be the best thing ever. You'll be asking yourself why no one ever thought of it before.
B. It is going to be horrible. You won't sell any insurance and you'll actually lose car deals.
C. You'll write some business, but it won't be as easy as you think and you'll quickly reach a point where you have to decide between car sales and insurance.

 

[Markthebroker]

Selling personal auto seems like the obvious segue from selling cars...

 

[VolAgent]

Selling personal auto seems like the obvious segue from selling cars...

I assumed as much when he said he sells cars and daily leads.

I suspect the answer is going to be somewhere between B and C for him (her or whichever).

 

[InsCommentary]

Insurance is a full time job. Keep in mind that individuals, families and organizations are entrusting the proper protection of their assets and income to you. I wouldn't want a part-time insurance agent being responsible for my financial health any more than I'd want a part-time doctor being responsible for my physical health.

 

[Markthebroker]

Insurance is a full time job. Keep in mind that individuals, families and organizations are entrusting the proper protection of their assets and income to you. I wouldn't want a part-time insurance agent being responsible for my financial health any more than I'd want a part-time doctor being responsible for my physical health.

You will notice he used the words "leads, exploitable, and leverage". Taking care of the clients and their needs was never part of his questions, unfortunately.

 

[DayTimer]

Pick the answer you want to hear.

A. It will be the best thing ever. You'll be asking yourself why no one ever thought of it before.
B. It is going to be horrible. You won't sell any insurance and you'll actually lose car deals.
C. You'll write some business, but it won't be as easy as you think and you'll quickly reach a point where you have to decide between car sales and insurance.

When I sold cars I had a local Geico agent paying me per lead and a local P&C broker paying for each lead. Each knew that I was referring my customers to multiple brokers. I made $70 between the two everytime I Had a customer call them from my desk and get a quote. Usually I needed one of them to save my customer some money on their insurance so I could find the money for their new car payment.

As a car salesman you do get a lot of customers who are looking to save on their insurance coverage at the time of sale. When my dealer found out I had my life license, he actually suggested I get my P&C license and let me set up shop right there at the dealership. There are dealers doing this in my area. A local Allstate agent just set up inside a one of the local Chevy dealers.

 

[VolAgent]

When I sold cars I had a local Geico agent paying me per lead and a local P&C broker paying for each lead. Each knew that I was referring my customers to multiple brokers. I made $70 between the two everytime I Had a customer call them from my desk and get a quote. Usually I needed one of them to save my customer some money on their insurance so I could find the money for their new car payment.

As a car salesman you do get a lot of customers who are looking to save on their insurance coverage at the time of sale. When my dealer found out I had my life license, he actually suggested I get my P&C license and let me set up shop right there at the dealership. There are dealers doing this in my area. A local Allstate agent just set up inside a one of the local Chevy dealers.

Yep, I'm aware that Allstate does this with dealerships all over. They also apparently have different underwriting standards because most of the business would not be eligible for Allstate otherwise.

But it will be pretty hard to do both at the same time. As I said later, I suspect the answer will be somewhere between B and C. He'll write some business, but it will be harder than he thinks and he may blow out a few car deals in the process too.

Also, he'll need to do it on the spot, which means he'll need the ability to rate and bind on the spot. So he'll need direct access and a computer he can access his rater, AMS and carrier from. I wonder what the sales manager will think of that?

Or he could be crazy successful and laugh all the way to the bank.

 

[DayTimer]

I wonder what the sales manager will think of that?

The sales manager will think whatever the Dealer Principal or GM tells him/her to think. My Dealer Principal offered to let me be a full time Auto Insurance Agent within the dealership, but I would no longer have been a car salesman nor a dealership employee. I would have paid some sort of monthly desk fee to the dealer for the privilege of setting up shop in his business. I wasn't interested so it never got more developed than that.

 

[VolAgent]

The sales manager will think whatever the Dealer Principal or GM tells him/her to think. My Dealer Principal offered to let me be a full time Auto Insurance Agent within the dealership, but I would no longer have been a car salesman nor a dealership employee. I would have paid some sort of monthly desk fee to the dealer for the privilege of setting up shop in his business. I wasn't interested so it never got more developed than that.

Ok, let me reword the question. "I wonder what the GM will think of that?"

Nothing has been said to imply the dealership is aware or ok with it. And I think you just proved my point, and InsCommentary's as well. He is either going to sell insurance or cars, not both, at least not to the same people.