Is the old school way of insurance sales- gone forever?

[WinoBlues]

Feels like, for me, I'd have to weed out roughly 30% of the people I talk to if I went with choosing my clients.

Not opposed to it, but curious if there's a better way to obtain leads to begin with.

Telesales specifically.

.
I wasn't bright enough to know I could not do it.

I used to write anyone that could fog a mirror. I sat on rickety chairs with jelly on them, stepped over dog chit, smelled some funky stuff. Then dealt with ever changing banks and lapses. Driving 30,000+ business miles a year. F orget that.

Best thing I ever did was starting to walk from or refer out some prospects or letting some lapse.

In the last several years 100% of the policies I've written were call ins or referrals. So I am not the guy to ask on bought leads. If I choose to use the lead credits I have I am adding a bottom income filter and no top income filter. I am to lazy to work that hard.

There are a lot of guys here that work leads mainly. And are killing it.

 

[Runtime25]

I have noticed, lately, that the vast majority of FMO/IMO type recruiting on the job sites, internet, craigslist, so on... are all now virtual, sell from home. Online zoom calls for sales interviews. Sell them online, over the webs. In two years , it will be 40 yrs since I got my first insurance license, as I am sitting at 38 yrs now. I just wonder: when all of us old timers die off, will anybody go door to door and face to face? Since covid, the trend has been to work from home.

I have had an interesting career with insurance, most of which has been, "training the old fashioned way". Will this method of training and sales go bye-bye? Has it been gone already for a few years?

I do not think so; I will say that the type of insurance setup I have is mainly taking inbound leads and I’m in the health insurance industry.

However, I have done life while cross selling health insurance (FEX/Medicare) and I still go out in the field every now and then to test my wits and see if anything has changed…welp it hasn’t and is an under utilized industry.

If I were still in the field, I would do a combination of setting appts and door knocks…it will always be away to avoid chargebacks and setting the tone for really great clients in my personal opinion!

 

[rmhaire]

The new generation of agents were brought up in the AI age. They do not want to do face to face anything.

Yep. They're coming in by the boat load and leaving about as fast.

Doesn't matter if you're virtual or F2F or both, if you don't know how to sell or how to build relationships, you're not going to be around too long.

 

[shonceman]

I've been selling insurance for 24 years and during that time there have been plenty of supposed killers of the business (in particular the real old side of home service). Whether it was the internet, over the phone, through the mail, or only on payroll deduction. Things change with time, but there is still a huge opportunity for those that want to take it. The WSJ wrote and article a few years ago that I thought was applicable to this discussion. Bassically you can see that as less insurance agents are there to do what we do more people are uninsured or underinsured?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-end-of-an-era-metlife-looks-to-part-with-insurance-agents-1456399695

As Jesus said, the field is white with the harvest but the laborers are few.

As most of you know, I’m an OLD old school home service guy.

I’m in the field right now. I just stopped to collect from a client who was a referral from another client. She had stepped out so I drove another half block to collect from another client who was a referral from a different client. Guess what? The first lady I mentioned was down at the second guy’s house. I collected from both of them. Point is, they both came to me through relationships I had built with other clients. Finding them together only solidifies my relationship with both. This leads to other referrals.

They started talking about how their phone carrier wants them to pay by auto bank draft, and how they’ve both been burned by it before. They’d rather deal face to face, and pay in person. Well, here I am, standing in front of them, doing exactly that!

This kind of thing is why the old Home Service debit system still works, and will continue into the future.

But, as I’ve said before, you don’t have to be a debit guy to develop relationships with your clients. Yes, we have a built in relationship marketing system. But all it really takes is to genuinely care about your clients and find ways to stay in touch with them.

 

[H-TOWN Ins Guy]

Field sales is not going anywhere but they are definitely pushing the wfh virtual sales agent model and there will be more of that.

I can only speak about the medicare side of it as a wfh agent of 4.5 years and what's on the horizon and actually currently happening is a huge fall out. Too many agents being hired over the past 5 years and now CMS is pulling back again on reimbursment rates etc.

We saw many Carriers slash benefits this year and will see many exit a few markets for 2025 plans. Agencies are tightening up the metrics and cutting the fat. Assurance already went bust and while these others can probably tread water for some years it will not be good for most virtual agents. Don't even get me started about the interet flex card only ad leads etc. I would've been better off as a field agent building my own book if I could've gotten off of the ground with the intial costs back then but you know pandemic was in full swing blah blah blah.

 

[SeniorGurl]

I have been working with Medicare for 15 years, (and also ACA) since it started. I am stepping away from and new ACA clients which I have done exclusively online and a rare in person appt. Medicare is a whole other bird. My favorite part of my job is meeting people and forming connections with them. If I am writing Medicare, even if they live a couple hours away, I prefer in person appts. Most of the time (the client) drives to me. I will continue to run my business this way, it's just who I am, and how I do things. I am not money driven, I am helping driven. Of course I need to make a living, but I also love meeting and helping people and the only way to have a real face to face where you can get the details that are often missed in a phone conversation or worse (online platform like zoom, etc) is at the table, asking questions and feeling comfortable. Referrals usually follow! Why would I stop? I just turned 65, I want to slow down and have clients that appreciate the time and effort I give them, and I earn a comfortable living, why push it?

 

[Edwardfin]

As masters of our craft, you should master both. They both have good sides and bad sides. The steak dinner presentation and/or educational seminars are still my most profitable events however definitely looking at over-the-phone sales.

 

[Jccwell]

As masters of our craft, you should master both. They both have good sides and bad sides. The steak dinner presentation and/or educational seminars are still my most profitable events however definitely looking at over-the-phone sales.

Seminars and dinner for Final Expense? Or are you talking Medicare?

 

[jdeasy]

Seminars and dinner for Final Expense? Or are you talking Medicare?

You expect FE discussions in the FE forum??

 

[DonP]

Seminars and dinner for Final Expense? Or are you talking Medicare?

Yes !!! I bet you’d pack the room at Ruth Chris !!! Lmao . A agent I know did a dinner seminar for t-65 . She mailed to stay away from the lowest income . 1/2 the audience was hood rat fe people . She did a Buffett . The hood rats were stuffing food in containers to take home