Insurancesquared.com

I would just add that I didn't mean that everyone has an agenda to sell a product or service off of the people who we contact or off of the posts we make. An agenda could be much smaller, it could be just to feel good about yourself for helping people avoid your mistakes, or people could enjoy popularity or being viewed as someone who knows what they are talking about etc...

An agenda is not good or bad, and even those who do end up selling some service or product may still be doing someone else a favor.
 
As shameful as some people may find it...the big captive companies (I'm referring to Pru, Met etc...) provide a great foundation of training.

Sure, the retention is low, but you can always take that training with you.
 
moonlightandmargaritas said:
The problem is this;

There are only two types of people in life...those who have the "employee" mentality, and those who have the "owner" mentality.

The people that do well in this business have the "owner" mentality - it's just what's required to be successful.

I've hired many agents. When one of the first questions they'd ask me is about "what kind of benefits do I get?" - I knew it was NOT a good fit.
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The real issue very few people want to discuss is you need a talent for sales combined with ambition to make it.

Ambition alone is not enough. The "law of averages" is a myth. Contacting large numbers of prospects with a poor presentation will result in large numbers of "no's." If your voice sucks and you go on 100 auditions does the law of averages say you'll get a recording contract?

There is an "it" factor to this and you have it or don't. I've watched agents struggle so hard it was almost physically painful - bought 60, 80, 100 leads, cold-called - BtoB, telemarketed and just got slaughtered in the end.

The other truth is most agents don't have enough of a marketing budget to be effective and an unwillingness to cold-call.

If you don't have at least $250 to $300 per week for marketing money AND you are unwilling to cold call Sunday can't come fast enough - grab the paper.

Another truth; this is mainly phone work and most people suck on the phone. Whether you're buying shared leads, telemarketed leads, selling online or in person you need to be great (not good) on the phone.

And yet another truth; new agents aren't working full days. Sorry to say this buy my renewals at this point are nice - I can afford to crap around sometimes.

But as a new agent, you can't. All you have is time - 8 hours a day to fill. Are you gonna fill up 8 hours with those 5 leads a day? Hardly. Hit the streets, hit the phones, do something. Part-time hours = part-time pay.

You pay sucked last week? Start logging your day. You're new - you don't have clients to manage, you don't have customer service, you don't even have presentations to give. All you have is time to prospect.

I hear a lot about what's "a waste of time" a lot. I'll tell you what's a waste of time for new agents; spending 2 hours a day calling shared leads and doing nothing with the other 6.
 
Love that HealthAgent! Now everytime we get one of those new agent requests let's just cut and paste your piece into the reply. Maybe getting 17 EXACT responses will move that new person to proper action.

I had an agent prepay to come on and we trained him on systems and processes and moved ALL his contracts. He spent 8 MINUTES in our dialer system and said it didn't work, he wanted a refund.

I bet I make more folks go away than I bring on and it's not too far from what you say in your piece, though you've articulated it better. How much money do you have and how hard do you intend to work. Without both of those I can't help you, you need to find another system or organization. I don't need anymore angry agents...........
 
CHUMPS FROM OXFORD said:
As shameful as some people may find it...the big captive companies (I'm referring to Pru, Met etc...) provide a great foundation of training.

Sure, the retention is low, but you can always take that training with you.
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Yes Ed, excellent point, agreed.

I started with Pru. Nobody "taught" it to me (my manager disappeared, literally on my third day in the biz) but I managed to learn it - because I wanted to.

Didn't take long to figure out it wasn't a "long term" deal for me though...

They did pay me a salary to begin, which was very valuable at the time.

"Get A Piece Of The Rock"
 
Melmunch3 said:
An agenda is not good or bad, and even those who do end up selling some service or product may still be doing someone else a favor.
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I concur. However, in this discussion I think we are getting the meanings of "hidden-agenda," an ulterior motive for something, and "self-serving," the concern for oneself before others mixed up with "agenda:" a list of items of business to be considered and discussed at a meeting - something with which this forum excels.

If any one of us have a service or product to offer to anyone else, as we all do, isn't that just the marketplace? Whether we are offering these services to our clients or to one another I feel it is our responsibility to display integrity with full disclosure.

The issue of solicitation is a touchy one. I have both services and products to offer that may or may not be beneficial to any number of you. Here's an example of the issue: If I refer you to third party, like Glenn's Websites, that seems to be inbounds. However, if I'm Glenn, it seems to be out-of-bounds as it may be taken as my "hidden agenda."

I believe Melmunch3 created the "Insurance Offers" forum to resolve this dilemma. However, in this forum under a variety of topics I have found members requesting the whereabouts of services and products with other members replying by offering their own services and products or referring to an outside source.

I think the arguments boil down to the differences between a solicitation (accosting) and an offer of services or products.

Just my thoughts. I could be wrong.

PS - HealthAgent: Bravo! Very well said.
 
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Well that would be my experience when I hired:

agent: "didn't make anything this week."

Me: "you get leads?"
agent: "no"

Me: "you cold-call?"
agent: "no"

Okay.......
 
healthagent said:
Well that would be my experience when I hired:

agent: "didn't make anything this week."

Me: "you get leads?"
agent: "no"

Me: "you cold-call?"
agent: "no"

Okay.......
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Boy, that says it all. Is this a variation of, "You got to kiss a lot of frogs to find one Prince Charming?"

No more kissing frogs for me.
 
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