I do not think Combined is a good place to be long term but I think it is a good place to be to learn to sell. It is certainly a better company than several companies that are discussed regularly on this site. Here is a personal opinion. I would rather be with Combined than with AFLAC, the Torchmark Companies, Mega, etc. but there are better places to be.
Combined
- Thread starter ka8lhi
- Start date
I remember Combined as a kid and the guy would come by every other month or so and try to add on something else. My parents were s/e and we didn't have any health insurance--Combined accident was it....and it wasn't much. Whenever I see a white Subaru (the old boxy style) I think of that guy...he'd drive all the way to my little podunk town, 3hrs from where he lives to sell those policies. I wonder what happened to him....that was 20 years ago.
Anyway, that was my first impression of Combined...always trying to add on something and get another buck from people who don't have much. It's like preying on the poor/gullible.
Anyway, that was my first impression of Combined...always trying to add on something and get another buck from people who don't have much. It's like preying on the poor/gullible.
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Yes, but I would like to think that the training was better than it s now.
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Great story, unfortunately many sales people do the same thing these days as well. They should be praying, not preying.
- 104
Winter where the hell do you get all these damn Collardgreens Rice pictures
The only life insurance anyone in my family ever had was when the Combined agent sold my mother a $1,000 burial policies on each of us children. She gave me the policy paid up about 20 years ago. I cashed it in. The cash value was only about $400. It had a very low interest rate and I had other coverage (today I have $1,000,000). But when I think of it I think of it as an act of love and sacrifice by my mother and I appreciate the agent who sold it to her. If something had happened and I had died it would have helped. My philosophy is that some coverage is better than no coverage.
I know agents do that these days as well...Liberty National was very similar in that respect (at least in Savannah). I know there's a need for coverage for all income levels. When I was there my 'book' was in the low income housing areas...places I wouldn't go after dark.
Of course, this Combined guy may have also been coming to try to collect the premium as well. At 10 years old I didn't understand what was going on but at 31 I do. My parents have never felt insurance was a priority. They still don't have any life insurance...and now dad can't get it because of heart issues. I quit trying to 'save' them two years ago...after my mom got a health insurance policy through me and then let it lapse 3 mo's later because she felt she didn't need it....yet there's a strong history of cancer and heart problems in her family and she's lucky enough to not have any of those issues (yet).
"You can't save them all....you can't save them all..."
- 2,090
I would drive three hours -right now- today- to sell a $20 a month whole life policy. That's just how I roll. Call me old school.
Hmm...I guess short term, you're at a loss...loss of 6 production hours and then mileage/gas. But over the long term...make it up I guess...maybe the client will buy other things from you.
I've had to deal with this quite a bit....I'm young, hungry for business and willing to do what I need to do to write it. Then I have the proverbial angel vs. devil battle with my conscience...the one side says "Go! Do it!" and then the other says "why bother. This is going to cost you more than it's worth. You're just wasting your time."
I was doing pretty good at telling the other side to shut up until I heard those words come out of my bosses mouths when I was gearing up for a road trip in February. I planned to be out of the office most of the day, had 3 appts scheduled in a town about 2 hrs from here. When I reminded them I was going to be out they both questioned my sanity. Then a snowstorm came through and dumped 4 ft of snow on that town and all 3 appts called and begged me not get out on the roads. I closed 2 of them via mail and the 3rd ended up coming to my town the next week...he was closed but then denied because of asbestosis (mesothelo...??? whatever it's called) which he had been diagnosed with the week prior.
Anyway, I have to draw the line with driving to meet people or at least group my appts together. Ultimately, I'd like to get away from the face to face appts but that's a bit difficult for me...I guess I try to set myself apart because of the service side of it. I know some of you are phone agents--for life policies, I set myself apart by talking about how I handle the claims process--how I will meet with the beneficiaries to fill out the claim forms, follow-up on the claim, etc. I don't just send them the claim forms and say good luck. That's just something I think I owe the client is to make sure their beneficiaries are taken care of...that's the whole point, right?
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