- 5,303
To be fair, Don did come back for me. =)
Duford Insurance Group vs. Digital BGA for Final Expense Telesales
- Thread starter Chris Donnelly
- Start date
Hi all.
My name is Chris and I am a brand new agent looking to enter the business of final expense telesales.
I am coming into this business from the academic world of political science (decided I was tired of going from visiting gig to visiting gig but never nailing down a tenure track job, and so I now want something radically different for myself and have decided on entering this new (for me) field.
I consider myself someone who tries to do a lot of research and due diligence, however, before making any big decisions, and so I am asking for some help from you all.
So in terms of where I want to call home for my first job in final expense telesales, after doing a lot of shopping around, I have narrowed my search down to what seem to me to be two excellent choices:
Duford Insurance Group
and
Digital BGA
As such, as I was wondering if any more experienced agents here could lend some insight as to the pros and cons of joining one or the other of these two companies.
Just to preemptively answer some basic questions about my own plans and background that people might have:
-I am 37 years old and do not have a significant other or children, and live alone
-I plan to work from my apartment in the Boston area
-As above suggests, I am looking to do exclusively do telesales, NOT F2F
-I am fortunate enough to have accumulated some money from family, past work, and passive income and so can afford to spend a good bit of money on buying leads
-I have not yet gotten licensed but hope to pass the MA state exam in a few weeks tops and to purchase transferences so that I can sell in some other states, too
-I am planning on doing this full time, not part time
-I'd hope to be able to earn six figures in income after a couple of years of doing this (realistic?)
-Getting high quality training and mentoring is of utmost importance to me, as I do not have a background in sales or insurance
Anyhow, I hope this info is helpful.
I look forward to reading what people think!
I'm currently under Digital. I would like to say go with them, but with all of the changes they are making and the direction they are heading, It seems like they are more focused on their w2 agents as well as their LOA call centers. The indy agent is being left behind.
If you are a new agent and need to learn how to sell over the phone and need a ton of support, Unfortunately, I don't believe Digital is offering that for the new agent. I think they are more here for the Indy agents who can sell and just need a platform and want to work their leads.
- 5,058
Righto, new agents should definitely avail themselves of the W-2 remote position as they got that new Trainer who sounds great, that would go a long way to preparing an agent to be 1099 but to go straight to 1099 without that initial support and changes they've made might be a recipe for disappointment.
- 5,303
With telesales, hands-on training is an absolute must.
- 931
Independent agents are our focus and always will be, Ken.
I know you haven't been engaged on the life side as much lately since you're working on your medicare biz outside of us, but it appears we could do a better job at communicating why we have our w2 side.
We built the w2 platform for NEW agents that need the hand holding and not worrying about making ends meet while they're getting experience. A reality of this industry is most agents can't cash flow this business and with inflation and recession pressures, we believe this option is what many new agents will need moving forward. We had new agents in mind when building this out...a veteran agent coming to a w2 model is a red flag for us. We want NEW, motiviated non-jaded agents. We pay for all non-resident licensing, send them a dual monitor computer setup and are fully invested in their success. A significant investment into a new agent.
For the agents that go independent, we work closely with each new agent.
- You're on 1 on 1 calls with your Brokerage Manager/Trainer. They will listen to your calls and critique, answer questions you have and give you all the training needed to be successful.
- You have a .pdf onboarding document with links to training videos on every question you could possibly ask on our technology, scripting, field underwriting and general business training. This document gets new agents up to speed quickly.
- Every Monday, I hold a 1 hour Zoom call strictly for marketing and lead gen for independent agents at 9:00 CST. We have a recurring script training Zoom at 8:30 AM as well. On Tuesday, Nic and I hold a call for ALL independent agents with updates, training and soliciting feedback. Wednesday a brand new training video for independent agents is launched at 8:30 AM CST on YouTube. Thursday, our team runs a Zoom training for independent agents and I run our "Agency Builder Call" for independent agents building agencies to strategize and execute that anyone can listen in on. Friday we have "Coffee with the Coaches" which features an independent agent at DigitalBGA talking about what they're doing and what's working for them.
- For support you have our resources page, agent chat, support chat, support email and your brokerage manager's phone number.
All of this is to help NEW independent agents thrive quickly. Hopefully this clarifies what to expect as a new agent with us.
- 931
Agreed.
I'm hearing good things on your new telesales program, David!
_
I believe you can't go wrong with FE telesales between us, David Duford, Summit Life Group and Doug Massi's new program. All different systems and worth a call to see what fits you best.
- 26,086
Sounds New Old School.
An updated version of my training as an FNG at a large mutual a long time ago.
- 5,945
That's one with whom I am unfamiliar.
As anyone who's anyone knows, if an agency isn't on the forum, they don't actually exist.
Does Digital BGA have an on-going business relationship with any or all of these agencies?
I am in the Boston area with Dufford so give me a message. I would say based on other postings here DGA is more high tech than Dufford. However, in the Final expense business, being hitech is not that important. 95% of the people who start this business fail. 95% applies to both of these agencies. Being in MA, understand that transitioning to Medicare sales is harder in this state. So you will well advised to have a multi state strategy. Also inside the 128 area, most areas are high income and you will find it hard to sell by phone or you need to cross sell like I do. Walkins are fine actually. Outside of 128, if you are living in Brookline and calling West Springfield, you need to adjust your language and tonality. Dave is a master at this and he also attended Boston University so he will understand where you are coming from. In this business how you say Hi on the phone matters. Its really a show business. I applied DGA few times at the beginning, they never called me back. I ended up with Duford based on his youtube videos.
- Thread starter
- #30
Chris Donnelly
Expert
- 32
As an update, I just passed my life and health producer exams this week, and my license is currently processing.
But, as I considered the fact that I am lucky enough to have some money in reserve that I can live on and use to start my new business as an independent agent, I have actually decided to start off with selling Medicare supplements instead of FE.
There is no doubt that is a "slower start," but it seems to me that as one builds a book of business, they can start generating a good bit of passive income down the line by selling Medicare policies. Once I get some more experience under my belt, I might try to cross-sell Final Expense policies, but yeah, in terms of where I start, I am going to go with Medicare and it is going to be with Digital BGA as my home.
Hopefully my license finishes processing fairly soon, at which point I can do my AHIP certification…
But, as I considered the fact that I am lucky enough to have some money in reserve that I can live on and use to start my new business as an independent agent, I have actually decided to start off with selling Medicare supplements instead of FE.
There is no doubt that is a "slower start," but it seems to me that as one builds a book of business, they can start generating a good bit of passive income down the line by selling Medicare policies. Once I get some more experience under my belt, I might try to cross-sell Final Expense policies, but yeah, in terms of where I start, I am going to go with Medicare and it is going to be with Digital BGA as my home.
Hopefully my license finishes processing fairly soon, at which point I can do my AHIP certification…
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