HELP! I need info on starting my own biz.

[elitensupreme]

Hi everyone. I need help and I hope im in the right place. I have an interesting oppertunity in front of me and I need to make sure it is legit.

I am a hard salesman who is out of a job. Today I read an add in the paper that said "Wanted: Health and life agents. Will train and License. Weekly advanced and leads. 75 to 150k 1st year. Call John"

I called John and he told me about the job. He is an independant agent in a city about 150 miles from me. He told me to get Licensed at Adbanker.com and he would hire me to sell Insurance. He then told me I would basically be running an office out of my home. (Fine since I have a home office) He told me I would get leads from a website that charges 7.50 per lead. Then I would cold call these ppl. I would then set up an appointment with them and try to sell them insurance. He said I would basically be working for myself and I would get out of the biz what ever I put into it. He told me that He has contracts with several companies like Blue cross Blue shield, Uni care and several others. He would pass the contracts on to me as well as the Lead genorating site and in exchange I pay him a percentage of everything I earn. He would not tell me the percentage and said it would be takin out of my comission b4 I ever got it. So far does this seem ok?

Pay, He said that the average comission would be around 700 bucks. He said they advance the whole years comission up front every time I sign someone up. Then for the rest of the policy life after the second year i would get a monthly check however It would be a lot less money over the course of the year. He told me with my background I should be able to close at least 2 ppl a week?

Please give me all the input you can. I am going broke and want to jump on this oppertunity if it is really as lucrative as he made it sound. I am a very hard worker with a strong work ethic. I was working 14 hour days b4 selling JUNK to people who did not need it so I am confident in my abilty but skeptical of the oppertunity. Advice would be MORE than welcome and greatly appreciated.
Thanks Ty

 

[somarco]

Is this John in MD?

Most carriers do not advance 12 mo commission. Time is the only carrier I know of that does that. Never seen a BX plan that advances anything . .. all as earned.

 

[MIBizInsurance]

Did you ask him the amount he was shaving off and he refused to tell you?

If thats the case run don't walk. You need to understand how your going to be paid- Now, not after you've signed the contract.

Hate to say it - this sounds like BS!

If he said $30-50k for first year then maybe it would hold water but $75k, good luck.

Ask him for any and all contracts. Read em and come back with the paticulars. Look for commission level, how long if ever you will be vested...etc.

Do a search there are alot of threads that list ?'s to ask and what to look for.

Good luck.

 

[Survivor]

This guy sounds pretty predatory. First of all, his numbers don't even add up.

You will see about 15% commission if you were personally appointed with the carriers until you write some business. As you write more business, you will see 18-22% commissions on your applications, and few of them advance. Most pay as earned, meaning if you wrote a 300/mo policy (3600 annual premium) at 20% commission (which is higher than what you will start at) you will earn $60/mo each month for that application.

Assuming its all on commission advance @ 20%, which isn't the case, and assuming he never took any portion of your commission (he already said he will, but won't tell you how much), you would have to write 7200AP each week (which is over 344,000 AP/yr) which is 1440 commission, you will only make $74880/yr if you never skipped a week and always wrote at least that a week. In other words, you would have to be much better than many of the experienced agents here to come close to that.

Don't bother.

 

[thebeacon]

If you have never been in any kind of insurance sales and you are going to be buying leads online for 7.50 and setting appointments with these people.... Good Luck. My strong recommendation for you would be, if you do not have any experience in insurance sales, is to work under GA locally with local office that you can go in to for trainings.

On the advance side of things I heard that there was some agency that would advance agents portion of the commission and would take the rest. In that case you are not going to be paid directly by the carriers (bad idea).

 

[elitensupreme]

John is in IL....Well now I see this as a lucrative career....Hell I would rather have the residual income then the pay up front....So it seems like BS huh? Why would he be doing this then?

 

[somarco]

So it seems like BS huh? Why would he be doing this then?

Someone like this prey's on folks looking for a quick fix.

Move on.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

Curious...Does John have a website?

 

[MIBizInsurance]

John is in IL....Well now I see this as a lucrative career....Hell I would rather have the residual income then the pay up front....So it seems like BS huh? Why would he be doing this then?

For the over rides.

Let say this GA gets 25-30% commish from Assurant. He hires agents and pays them 10-15%.

Now 15% is fine if your going to get SOLID on going training in all areas of insurance sales. Even then there should be pre-set point that your moved to 20%.

The best way to find a mentor is contact some local indy agents. Use the Yellow pages and look for agents that have been in the biz for 5+ years. Call or even better stop in and talk to them. Talk to at least 3 and see what happens.
Alot of agents will not want to deal with it as they know new agents come and go. The 10% shave is not going to help them much compared to what they could have made with the time they invest in you by selling themselves.

If it's to good to be true...walk away.

 

[elitensupreme]

So is this something I could do myself? What stops little ole me from going and getting the contracts and genorating the leads myself? One thing he was very protective with was the lead genorating site....He said he wont even tell me what it is until I have started working for him...Why is that so important? Is it that hard to find leads?