Is the Farmers Agency Program a Good Way to Start?

[arnguy]

Chuck, were you alone or did you have a female companion?

 

[PilotGuy]

Yesterday marked my one month with Farmers - and I could not be happier! Things are starting to take off, and I am busy! The district DM and trainer/admin is extremely helpful; the other agents are all willing to help me as the newbie; everyone here is very professional and the systems far surpass SF's systems.
I took a leap of faith to start my own business, but I could not be happier! Go for it!!!!!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I tried to send both of you a private message with my contact info... forum would not let me.
feel free to contact me via this forum for now - maybe we can figure out how to share our email addresses?

How is the second month going? I too am looking at Starting a Farmers location in North Dallas,Tx. I am a scratch Agent with a Restoration (Fire/Water/Mold) background. I recently sold my business and am ready to get back into something that is more stable with less employees.

 

[PRColorado]

Pilot Guy - I would be happy to give you an update. Sorry that I haven't visited this forum lately.
First of all, don't listen to all of the negative comments. Nothing is perfect, but I am COMPLETELY happy with Farmers. Farmers Auto rates in Colorado are far better then the major competitors. Agents DO own their BoB.
Please contact me at: [email protected] and we can discuss further.

 

[txagt39]

Okay, so I have been selling insurance for State Farm for 2 years now and I am good at it. I am not great, but I am good. I work for an owning agent, so I am just an employed producer.

So I was contacted by Farmers about becoming a Farmers agent. I have been planning on owning my own agency for a while but have not had the necessary start-up to do it with State Farm (they require that you start with an actual office and with a hired staff).

Farmers seems like they ease you into it by letting you start by selling from the district office and providing you with some leads (I will still have to genereate some of my own leads, which I'm not worried about). This sounds good, but I would like to hear from you all with experience.

Once you are onboard there's no changing ships in the middle of the ocean. Think about it seriously. Sixteen years into my career if I had it to do over again I would have started out as an independent. Once you have your income set it's hard to start over so you're stuck with the one that brung you to the dance regardless of what changes they come out with, how you are treated, market conditions, pricing, etc., etc., etc.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

State Farm and Allstate are the major leagues. Farmer's is the minor leagues...

Trust me, all the majors have issues. In our town most of the Allstate agents have sold their book of business. I don't have a clue why but whatever it is it must be catching. State Farm has 6 agents in the town where we have who the heck knows how many Farmers agents so we're crawling on top of one another and DM is still recruiting. Overkill....yes. Again, start independent, stay independent you may stay sane and still make a good living. Corporate America loves the young pup agents who will eat their young to write an account, including borderline unethical and dishonest behavior all to get the big sales count. If you're an older established agent you are looked upon like pond scumb, they hope you leave so they can reassign your policies to one of the young whipper snapper "yes" men who would eat off the floor of the local DM who butters their bread. All is not fair in love, war, or insurance.

 

[Gulliver]

There was no second month!!!!!

Gulliver

 

[dponek]

I have friends that are Farmers Agents, so last year in July 2009 I got licensed with the State of California and started the Farmers Reserve Program. About 3 months prior, they had changed the contract so you cannot sell outside Farmers. I finished my Reserve period in December, but by then I realized it was time to leave. Being confined to only one carrier is like cheating your clients. I have since abandoned my agency with Farmers and am in the process of starting an independent agency.

Farmers is deceiving. The DM's are hired soley to recruit reserve agents to watch them fail and take their business. I still am friends with my DM, and since January 2009 he has had only 2 agents make it to this point. Farmers new contract has very high number to meet, and in California the personal lines products are very high in most cases. If I had to start again last year, I would have started right off the bat doing an independent agency.

 

[Lyn]

Pilot Guy - I would be happy to give you an update. Sorry that I haven't visited this forum lately.
First of all, don't listen to all of the negative comments. Nothing is perfect, but I am COMPLETELY happy with Farmers. Farmers Auto rates in Colorado are far better then the major competitors. Agents DO own their BoB.
Please contact me at: [email protected] and we can discuss further.

If you really think you own your BOB. check you contract to see if you can take your business with you if you leave. No, you can't. They will pay you what they consider to be contract price for it (their own calculation), but the point is if you truly owned it you could take it with you, sell it to whomever you wanted to at your own negotiated price. I am not trashing Farmers, just pointing out that while I know they say you own your book, it's really a game of semantics.

 

[Insurinator]

PRColorado and PilotGuy, I am currently in the same boat as the two of you. I work for a State Farm agent now but am going to be starting the Farmers Reserve Agent program. I've been a SF team member for about 1.5 years, and when I started wanted to eventually be a State Farm agent. That idea has come and gone, after I have heard the horror stories from new agents about the contracts they are in. I started with a new agent from scratch and saw all the pressure SF puts on them and how much you need to invest in order to start your office. It would take me another 5 years at least to have the capital to start up, and I am not willing to build someone's BOB and work like a dog to get an agency and then work even harder to build my own BOB. Not too mention, where I live(Illinois) there is a SF agent on every street corner and VERY VERY few Farmers agents. One of my toughest challenges now is finding people who don't have SF. The market is saturated here and agents seem to be competing with each other.

I average about 30 policies a month right now, but that is not good enough for the agent I work for. He thinks 100 policies a month per team member is good.......entire agencies average 100/month, the guys a joke. With Farmers, I already trust my DM and know he won't feed me a bunch of BS(he is a family member). I already know that I hold the key to my own success. Everything depends on how hard and how much I work. I will be out there hitting the streets and hustling all I can to make a nice BOB. I understand Farmers is going to have quotas I have to meet also, but from what I've been told the quotas seem to be fairly reasonable. I'm just not sure how their Life Insurance products are.....?

My question for the two of you is: how is it to sell the Farmers name vs. the State Farm name? What are some of the challenges you faced when first starting? How long did it take you to become Career Agents? What does your BOB look like now? What are eligibility requirements for Farmers? (if someone has a ticket or accident with SF and their credit is bad, automatically ineligible- SF is like the snotty country club people and it makes me sick) How much did you make in your first year with Farmers(even a range would help, if you don't want to put exact #s)?

Any input or advice you can give would be a great help.

 

[xrac]

PRColorado and PilotGuy, I am currently in the same boat as the two of you. I work for a State Farm agent now but am going to be starting the Farmers Reserve Agent program. I've been a SF team member for about 1.5 years, and when I started wanted to eventually be a State Farm agent. That idea has come and gone, after I have heard the horror stories from new agents about the contracts they are in. I started with a new agent from scratch and saw all the pressure SF puts on them and how much you need to invest in order to start your office. It would take me another 5 years at least to have the capital to start up, and I am not willing to build someone's BOB and work like a dog to get an agency and then work even harder to build my own BOB. Not too mention, where I live(Illinois) there is a SF agent on every street corner and VERY VERY few Farmers agents. One of my toughest challenges now is finding people who don't have SF. The market is saturated here and agents seem to be competing with each other.

I average about 30 policies a month right now, but that is not good enough for the agent I work for. He thinks 100 policies a month per team member is good.......entire agencies average 100/month, the guys a joke. With Farmers, I already trust my DM and know he won't feed me a bunch of BS(he is a family member). I already know that I hold the key to my own success. Everything depends on how hard and how much I work. I will be out there hitting the streets and hustling all I can to make a nice BOB. I understand Farmers is going to have quotas I have to meet also, but from what I've been told the quotas seem to be fairly reasonable. I'm just not sure how their Life Insurance products are.....?

My question for the two of you is: how is it to sell the Farmers name vs. the State Farm name? What are some of the challenges you faced when first starting? How long did it take you to become Career Agents? What does your BOB look like now? What are eligibility requirements for Farmers? (if someone has a ticket or accident with SF and their credit is bad, automatically ineligible- SF is like the snotty country club people and it makes me sick) How much did you make in your first year with Farmers(even a range would help, if you don't want to put exact #s)?

Any input or advice you can give would be a great help.

If you have 1.5 years experience why even mess with Farmers. Hook up with a good INDY agency or start your own. Farmers is not a good long term gig in my opinion.

 

[Bob Klee]

Insurinator,

Good questions & me personally, I wouldn't be afraid of the Good Neighbor folks. In IL, you have the HQ for both SF to the East of Lake MI & Allstate to the West. Why wonder why they have so many agents in IL

PilotGuy: Are you a REAL pilot?

Background: I'm an X-Farmers CA agent 7/1995, X-Allstate KY 7/2001 agent & X-TN Allstate 10/2006 agent & I haven't inked an app since Oct '06. BUT, I've built 3 captive agencies from scratch & made a nice living doing it. I was a IA for a while but not really in the business. One can be successful either way IMO.

I think one could write a College Masters paper answering all your questions. But if it was me today: It doesn't matter what the rates are with the above companies. Within 24 months they will change anyway. You need to have a strategy to build momentum from day one when you open the doors. First goal is to get to 1 policy/day, 30/month. Then double it. That's way better than the average agent in most markets.

You can't grow without staff. Hire your opposite. If you're good at selling hire someone to process the applications, make sure they get issued correctly, answer the phone, X-sell & do endorsements. Pay for that person by selling 2 x $100/month Term/UL Life policies per month. Lots of ways to do this. I know SF agents that sell over 100 life apps a year. Yes, many of them are $7500-$15k whole life polices or $100k term policies. But they review & turn them into larger policies later. It works.

One Excellent way to get new business growing fast is Internet Leads. While some say there are no good lead companies....I'd have to ask them how these folks stay in business then? I wouldn't think they could stay in business long by ripping folks off.

Or if you are a skeptic one might say, as P. T. Barnum is credited in saying: "There's a sucker/customer born every minute."

If you'd like more info on how to grow a successful agency, I'd be glad to have a chat or exchange an email or two.

Best of luck in becoming a Professional Insurance Agency owner.