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[goillini52]

Here's my take on it:

Driving all across the countryside and city to market to people who, in many cases, live in poverty is a difficult sales job to be in. You are, many times, going into homes that are in disrepair, and if you do it long enough, you will find yourself in a number of non-ideal situations. The day I sold a lady who literally had dog feces in the middle of her living room (which I had to step around) was the day I stopped selling face to face. I got into the lead business, I was burnt out.

The money is good in final expense sales, but with what a typical agent has to go through in a day you'd think they'd make an episode of "Dirty Jobs" about it.

For many successful agents who sold face to face, their comes a time when you contemplate; "Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life?" The answer is typically "no", but since you've made money at it, you capitalize on your experience and bring value to the market place by means of training, leads, and providing contracts.

This is why so many "successful" agents are recruiting and selling leads. The job is difficult, and they'd much rather make a living working from an office, than they would doing the "dirty job".

This is partly why you are seeing an uptick in final expense telesales. Many agents are simply tired of sitting on damp couch cushions to make money.

So, why did you get out of the lead business?

 

[HoosierLife]

So, why did you get out of the lead business?

Overrides baby!

 

[NSRH]

So, why did you get out of the lead business?

There's no long game in the lead business, and most of your time is spent talking to nonselling agents trying to figure out how to help them rub two pennies together. I found this to be true when I had a downline of brokers as well.

That is exactly why I run my operation the way I do. Captive with free leads. There are no excuses as to why you cant money.

 

[Todd King]

Lead cost means nothing. I can throw up an ad right now that says "fill this out for a free Walmart gift card & you also get a quote for life insurance!" & I would get leads for dirt cheap.

But is that really a lead? I'd rather pay $20+ for someone who knows exactly what it is & is actively searching for our product. That way I don't have to sift through all the crap & get burned out in the process. Not fun.

Here's a video where I outline all the hoops I make them jump through to make sure it's a quality lead. (No I'm not selling leads.) I also filter out certain demographics which increases quality but also increases cost.

In just watching this video, it got me to thinking about what is happening to the "salepersons" out there. We all know that companies are moving to a more slimline process to deal with clients who come to them, but the agents are starting to do this too. Just like in the video here, the non-buyers are being weeded out. But therein lies the problem.

Agents are looking for easier and easier ways to sell. So instead of honing their salesmanship, they just market more and take the low hanging fruit. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it makes me wonder how many people would buy if they had an actual salesperson they were dealing with instead of "fill out this questionnaire and if you reach the end you may be worthy of my time since I have now determined that you may actually want some insurance."

In comparison, back in the day there was no such things as leads, unless you were referring to the phone book. Nowadays, agents just can't seem to figure out any other way to sell unless they get leads. Today's agents are getting even more demanding on what they want in a lead. Years ago a lead was a name and a number. Once an agent had that, then THEY went to work. Nowadays they want name, number, address, and everything else just short of signing an app.

My point? Agents are becoming order takers, and getting away from the actual sales process. They are slowly becoming no better than the CSR of a company that just accepts incoming calls and sells what they have in front of them while not understanding the client or the industry. Sad.

 

[FinalExpenseDojo.com]

It's not a bad thing to always look for a better way. Blockbuster once laughed at the opportunity of buying RedBox for 1m. I think we all know how that story ended!

It's just the glory of capitalism. Innovate or die!

 

[chasejordan1]

It's not a bad thing to always look for a better way. Blockbuster once laughed at the opportunity of buying RedBox for 1m. I think we all know how that story ended!

It's just the glory of capitalism. Innovate or die!

It's adapt and overcome.

 

[FinalExpenseDojo.com]

It's adapt and overcome.

Exactly. Look at all the industries that Elon Musk is disrupting. Innovation doesn't discriminate.

 

[Tothetop]

In just watching this video, it got me to thinking about what is happening to the "salepersons" out there. We all know that companies are moving to a more slimline process to deal with clients who come to them, but the agents are starting to do this too. Just like in the video here, the non-buyers are being weeded out. But therein lies the problem.

Agents are looking for easier and easier ways to sell. So instead of honing their salesmanship, they just market more and take the low hanging fruit. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it makes me wonder how many people would buy if they had an actual salesperson they were dealing with instead of "fill out this questionnaire and if you reach the end you may be worthy of my time since I have now determined that you may actually want some insurance."

In comparison, back in the day there was no such things as leads, unless you were referring to the phone book. Nowadays, agents just can't seem to figure out any other way to sell unless they get leads. Today's agents are getting even more demanding on what they want in a lead. Years ago a lead was a name and a number. Once an agent had that, then THEY went to work. Nowadays they want name, number, address, and everything else just short of signing an app.

My point? Agents are becoming order takers, and getting away from the actual sales process. They are slowly becoming no better than the CSR of a company that just accepts incoming calls and sells what they have in front of them while not understanding the client or the industry. Sad.

Alot has changed since "back in the day." People are bombarded with information so they screen more. Tons of mailers, commercials, phone calls, etc. Not to mention the Internet, which leads to people feeling like they can Google this stuff when they are ready.

That's why the days of a lead being a name and number in the phone book are long gone. Schucks we don't even have a phone book anymore! Ask some millennials what's the yellow pages and watch the blank look on their face.

I remember their was a thread, if I remember correctly, where an agent was talking about surviving in this business and how he worked with teachers and their retirement. I remember one of his tips was that the s business is a business of opportunity. Simply put time and chance. Be at the right place at the right time and jump on the right opportunity when it comes along.

I wish someone told me this when I first started and was trained. I learned the old way: walk and talk, cold call, and referrals. I did all of that before I decided to search for the right opportunity and landed on this forum and learned about leads. I ate many days because I bought some leads.

And even though they are warm I still have to sell them because people are people and one day they can be interested and the next day they are not so I don't see myself as less of a salesman.

I knew an agent who was bringing in 150k easy his first two years doing it the old way with referrals and working his warm market and by his third, let's just say the well ran dry. All that being said when I hear people talk about yesteryear in insurance I feel like it's apple and oranges.

 

[RookieAgent2018]

This business seems like if your not careful you can go into the RED as an agent very quickly.

 

[somarco]

do you know Karate?

I believe we met at a party once at Joe Jitsu's house

Agents are becoming order takers, and getting away from the actual sales process.

That's me. An order taker looking for low hanging fruit. Don't have the time or desire to chase deadbeats.