How Many Policies Per Week?

[markschneider86]

Doorknocker, your better off cold calling. I guarantee it will lead to closing more policies.

 

[Guest]

With all due respect, the idea of getting an SBA loan to start an insurance agency before you have any experience in the field is INSANE. Sign up with a general agency that does training conference calls weekly, find a good lead company, focus on one product (e.g. life insurance), and learn the business. Get contracted with at least 6 competitive insurance carriers. Do that for a year. Holy smokes, man. You might as well sign up with NAA if you actually WANT to crash and burn in six months.

 

[avaloninsurance]

Interesting topic! I am just finishing up my first year on my own. I say the 10-15 policies per month is a good estimate. I have taken advantage of email marketing to realtors and local mortgage brokers. By doing this I have been able to develop several excellent refferal sources that give me free leads. This is somewhat time consuming to gather email addresses, however it has worked well for me and been a good investment of time. I do agree with some other people in that how much you can write really depends on how many markets you have and your region. I would recommend if you are just starting out in insurance that you work for another agency for at least a year first so they can train you and you can get a taste of what insurance is like. It is not for everyone and it would be better to get your feet wet with another agency first to see if you are going to like it before you make a huge investment and/or get in debt.

 

[markschneider86]

I started out working for a State Farm Agent. After 4 months we bumped heads and I move on to iia. I did get licensed though, while working for them....

 

[df78]

With all due respect, the idea of getting an SBA loan to start an insurance agency before you have any experience in the field is INSANE. Sign up with a general agency that does training conference calls weekly, find a good lead company, focus on one product (e.g. life insurance), and learn the business. Get contracted with at least 6 competitive insurance carriers. Do that for a year. Holy smokes, man. You might as well sign up with NAA if you actually WANT to crash and burn in six months.

Why does everyone go back to life insurance? I really don't want anything to do with life for the first few years.

I have been dealing with insurance agents and adjusters for the last 7 years, I have a good understanding of the business but I haven't been selling.

I have a business degree plus 7 years of experience running another business top to bottom. I have been selling and marketing that business successfully and also have been responsible for P & L etc.

How is starting an agency any different? Why would I need weekly training calls? I have spent the last 7 years learning to market and sell myself and my business. Know your products, know your markets and sell....

As I stated my wife is making enough to pay the our living expenses and I just need to cover the operating expenses for a few years.

I am looking to start out doing commercial out of the home and start building a book of private policies from my network of friends and co-workers for the first year. Once I have some residules coming in during the second or third year, I would look into a storefront.

Any clarification would be appreciated, I really am looking for good information.

 

[Aram Fingal]

Why does everyone go back to life insurance? I really don't want anything to do with life for the first few years.

You should give some serious consideration to selling life insurance as well. Even if it's just to piggyback term policies to your auto/home sales. It's a good way to increase your per client first year commission and the extra money can help you establish yourself.

As an example, lets say you sell a $1,200 per year auto and $800 per year home to a customer. That's $2,000 total premium. Lets use a 10% commission rate because it's easy to do the math, so that would be $200 commission. If you were to also sell a term life policy to the husband and the wife, if they were even as small of a premium as $250 per year each, you'd make about $250 commission on that $500 premium. (I'm using 50% for life because that's fairly typical for term and again the math is easier) If you can sell them a higher death benefit, or if they're a bit older, it's not hard to make $500 commission from that sale.

So instead of just the $200 for the auto/home, you could end up with $700 for the account. True the renewal commission on life insurance is pretty small, but just think of how much more marketing you could do if you made an extra $500 off even 1/4 of your sales. And the renewal commission does add up on life insurance over time...

Anyway, that's just my opinion.

 

[Guest]

You're absolutely right df78. I would stay away from life for the first few years.

 

[df78]

nice with the sarcasm and all.

It just seems that everyone in these forums focuses on life insurance even when the question is about home and auto.

Not everyone wants to be a life insurance salesman.

I really don't want to be out selling life insurance to people in the evenings. To each their own, maybe you have it different. All of my friends that sell life have had to work evenings constantly. I wouldn't mind the cross sell as aram recommended, but its not what I want to focus on.

RBK - I am still interested in info you have about home and auto policies in you first year as the title of the post suggests. As long as we keep the conversation from drifting too telling me I should sell life insurance for someone else to learn the business.

 

[JCK818]

When I first started, I didn't set goals for myself as to how many policies. My goal was in Valume. I had premium goals.

 

[Guest]

My goal was Valium, too.

Sorry df78, um....I didn't realize I was in the P&C forum. I should have kept my big trap shut.