How Do I Find an Upline?

[crs6633]

I'm in need of some guidance and am hoping that someone will be able to steer me in the right direction.

First my background: I've spent the previous three years as a captive agent in a call center selling life and medicare insurance. I'm licensed in 48 states and feel that my phone sales skills are honed and I'm ready to go independent. My plan is to begin with a website and buying internet leads to get started, but I've no idea where to find an upline to contract with, what to expect of them for service and whether commissions are negotiable. Should I expect them to supply me with leads? If so at what cost? I'll be working nationwide so are there uplines that contract nationwide agents?

I've got a lot more work to do to get my website up and running and come up with material to post on the site, also a CRM, quoting engine etc but I want to know what my upline can offer before I dig into it on the chance that these too can be provided.

Any suggestions appreciated even if just a company name to contact. Thanks!

 

[thomasm]

I'm in need of some guidance and am hoping that someone will be able to steer me in the right direction.

First my background: I've spent the previous three years as a captive agent in a call center selling life and medicare insurance. I'm licensed in 48 states and feel that my phone sales skills are honed and I'm ready to go independent. My plan is to begin with a website and buying internet leads to get started, but I've no idea where to find an upline to contract with, what to expect of them for service and whether commissions are negotiable. Should I expect them to supply me with leads? If so at what cost? I'll be working nationwide so are there uplines that contract nationwide agents?

I've got a lot more work to do to get my website up and running and come up with material to post on the site, also a CRM, quoting engine etc but I want to know what my upline can offer before I dig into it on the chance that these too can be provided.

Any suggestions appreciated even if just a company name to contact. Thanks!

With your experience, you probably know how to sell. But it's easy to sell insurance. What's hard in this business is building the lead systems and marketing funnels. Which takes time and money to build.

How well capitalized are you? Renewing licenses in 48 states is probably around $4,000.

Might be better off just picking a few states to focus on. Maybe one in each time zone.

For Medicare, just pick one of the senior market FMO/IMO's and focus on Medicare Supplement. TR King, Ritter, & Senior Market Sales are a few of the good ones.

An upline is really not that important for Medicare because you have great training sites like Christopher Westfall's that will get you up and running quick! MedicareAgentTraining.com - Medicare training on how to sell Medicare Supplements by phone

He recommends hiring a telemarketer, but you can outsource that by buying exclusive telemarketed leads for around $10 per lead.
Lead Heroes - We Hire, Train, and Manage Telemarketers.


Final expense is where you need a good upline, particularly one who understand telesales if that's what you're wanting to do. Thad.Sipple, or Dtownboy, can point you in the right direction.

If you want to sell term by phone, then JRoot is the guru for that.
SellTermLife.com

Hope this helps narrow it down a little for you.

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A couple more things.....

As far as expecting your upline to supply you with leads, you shouldn't. All you should expect out of an IMO/FMO are top contracts. Free leads are never free.

There are good subidized fixed price lead programs on the final expense side, but you should never have to give up street commission to take advantage of them.

Buy leads in the beginning, but spend your nights and weekends figuring out how to get your website and social media accounts to flood your inbox with fresh leads daily!

As far as quote engines and CRM's, Mr Westfall's training site gives you free access to CSG's Medicare supplement quote engine for all 50 states, and a discount for Radius Bob CRM, if you're a member.

Most good FE uplines should be able set you up with free access to FEX Quotes.

 

[crs6633]

Wow Thomasm, thanks so much for the valuable info.
First, I'm not well capitalized right now at all but am saving for living expenses for 3 months wages and plan to finance marketing dollars with a spend that doesn't exceed $1000 per month until I'm in the black and debt free.

I'll definitely followup on your suggestions for medicare upline's and check out the training pages you suggested. Much appreciated!

 

[crs6633]

Wow, Thomasm. Thanks so much for the info. Much appreciated.

I've still got some time before I can go independant as I'm saving for financing now I'm looking to have 3 months wages saved and then finance the cost of marketing at maybe $1000 monthly until I'm in the black and debt free.

Thanks again!

 

[crs6633]

Thomasm, great stuff all around. I'm still working on the financing end and my current game plan is to go independent when I've got 3 months of wages saved but I intend to finance leads at first with a $1000 monthly budget until I get in the black and debt free.

I'm not too worried about state licensing as I plan to keep it up as I sell. Just gonna have to play with some trial and error on what states are most profitable.

Good tips on where to go for further advice on FE, as well as medicare (I agree that concentrating on medigap and avoiding advantage is best).

Thanks again!