Establising a Clientele: I'd Welcome Comments on My Direction.

[roger_lockless]

I'm a relatively new Life and Health producer--got my license a little over a year ago, have sold a handful of Life policies but nothing huge--and am trying to build my clientele.

I've recently taken a job at a small but well-established Financial Planning firm. Currently I'm being paid a salary while I get established, but my ability to continue here long-term is contingent on my being able to bring in some of my own business over the next few months. I've been reaching out to friends and family, but that only gets you so far.

The design of my firm is to make me--among other things--their expert in LTC insurance. I have learned it inside and out, and am calling past clients of the company to try to get them in for consults on it.

Even though our company does financial planning as well, I'm limited to citing insurance in my attempts to bring business in the door for compliance reasons. (Since I don't have the securities licenses, I can't reference those products in mailings, marketing, etc.)

I'm still working my personal connections and the good LTC candidates from our database (and the folks in the database are already pretty well-serviced when it comes to Life policies), but once those 2 sources are sufficiently mined, does anyone on the forum have any suggestions for a next step for someone in my position to bring in more business?

I've been looking at InsuranceLeads.com as a possibility for Life and LTC leads. As far as Leads companies go, that one seems to have a better reputation than most here on the forums, but I wonder if it's worth the cost. I'm exploiting even my farthest-reaching connections as best I can, and I'm putting myself out there a little on Social Networking websites, but are there any particularly effective marketing strategies that anyone would suggest?

I'm not shy about dealing with people, and I'm more than happy to put in long hours and throw plenty of crap against the wall to see what sticks, but I also want to gear my efforts to being as cost-effective as I can, so I'd love to hear what's worked for others. Eager to build this business, but still trying to decide which direction to jump, you might say.

 

[Franz Kafka]

Re: Establising a Clientele: I'd Welcome Comments on My Direction

WTH is a financial planning firm? Those bozos will either take a big cut out of your insurance commission or work your clients to add to their own AUM. You probably took the position because you couldn't pay the bills. Pardon me for being overly presumptive but I've seen the same scenario just too many times. Selling LTCi is 10 times more financial planning than managing someone's asset without a frigging clue (and that's what 99% of "financial planners" do or try to do). I'll give you the same recommendation another newbie didn't take. Walk into nearby small businesses (less than 10 employees) and talk to the owners about their health insurance. You don't have to sell health insurance but they'll talk to you if you talk about it because they're all concerned about it. When they talk to you, talk about whatever insurance you want to sell. Once you get the ball rolling toss the "firm". JMO

 

[roger_lockless]

Re: Establising a Clientele: I'd Welcome Comments on My Direction

To clarify my position: The "financial planning firm" where I work is a simply a company that does financial planning and also insurance. They are licensed stockbrokers and the products they primarily traffic in are mutual funds, fixed annuities, variable annuities, retirement plans of all sorts, life insurance, and long-term care insurance. I will probably eventually get the securities licenses as well if I remain here. I'm not locked into anything, but I'm satisfied with the compensation for the moment and I'm benefitting from having a mentor, and without getting too bogged down in the details of our arrangement, I'll just say there are incentives that make staying here attractive, though I am--as always--keeping my options open.

I will take the suggestion of approaching local businesses. I'm working on a Group Life plan for a small company at the moment, and going through that process will be good preparation for me to "take my show on the road", so to speak.

Does anyone else have any suggestions? I'm still considering giving InsuranceLeads.com a try; I know that whether that's profitable or not is wildly variable and depends on everything from the agent's acumen to simple luck-of-the-draw of the leads you get. I've seen varying opinions on this on the site, though, and was hoping to collect a little more data from you guys.

 

[superfly33]

Re: Establising a Clientele: I'd Welcome Comments on My Direction

Don't shy away from prospecting just because you have something to work on right now. I often hear agents say that they are too busy with servicing clients or working on proposals so they don't have time to prospect, but that's really an excuse to not do it.

Make prospecting a daily habit and not something to do when you have nothing to do.

I've tried buying leads before for auto/home insurance and they are mostly a waste of time and money for me. Your mileage may vary.