Just Starting Out and Need Information and Advice

[tyler9953]

Graet info Tyler, thanks. I am talking to MOO, someone else posted that they were doing well there selling to orphan policies. If I go indy, I was thinking about working the medd supp market by cold calling seniors. I would use a dialer and a list. Does this work in your opinion. Are you getting your leads from just direct mail?

Mike,

I will say this again and again, you can do it independant and you will be so happy with yourself for going independant. The cool thing is, there are going to be all kind of IMO/GA's that will want your business. Feels nice that someone wants you. The reason I say that, is you will never have that feeling as a carrer agent in my opinion. They do not value you as a IMO/GA does. And there are many good ones out there so shop around. This guy above may be good as well. You will want to shop contracts a bit. Make sure you are getting top notch. You don't have to be a huge producer to get a good contract.

There are probably 101 ways to get business. I like direct mail. Cold calling works too. Once you get contracted with UsaData you can get lists for pre-65's in how ever many counties you want for pretty darn cheap (I think .05 per name). Referrals are huge in the senior market. You need to have impecable character and treat them the way you would treat your own grandparents. If you do this right, you will be successful. There are a ton of agents who want to make money, but offer no service after the sale...make sure you don't become one of those. Don't push seniors. You can close med supps over the phone. When I go on my appt's, I know they are done deals because the initial (or multiple) phone conversation(s) I have had with that individual. You can have some instance success with the med supp market. If you have any connections with someone who works in a doctor's office, get them to give your cards to their senior patients. Go to a "silver sneakers" and have an "educational" event. Find ways of getting biz that are not expensive. Find mom and pop resteraunts that have napkin holder's. Alot of these napkin holders have a slot to put an add in. Some of these place will let you advertise for free in them! This works very well. There is more but I will quit for now. Be creative...and please...go independant. Trust me on this one.

 

[DHagy]

Reply to DavidD1 questions,

1. Yes, we provide immediate contract vesting.

2. We provide lead credits on all sales. This allows the agents to use their credits towards many different lead companies we utilize or other lead generation ideas such as yellow page adds, Google add words, take one, signs, news paper inserts or adds, etc.

3. I'm don't know of any MGA/IMO that provides 24/7 "Live" support. Unless of course your referring to 24/7 Website Support, which we have. We do have a support staff of 10 employees that are available Mon-Thur 8am to 5pm EST and Fri 8am to 2pm EST

4. We offer two unique but different Agent/GA opportunities!
(Each has their own unique commission and bonus contracts)

National Marketing Group, Inc.
-Traditional MGA/IMO Brokerage Sales Channel-
20% starting street health contracts
25% GA health contracts - 5 sales per/mo average
Advertising/Marketing Expense Accounts for high volume
GA Agencies
90%+ starting street health contracts
100%+ GA life contracts

United Independent Wholesale Insurance Network
20% starting street level contracts
90% starting life contracts

Plus monthly...
“Personal Production Bonuses"
"Agent Sponsorship Bonuses"
"Quick Start Bonuses"
"Organizational Bonuses"
"Director Bonuses"

We offer an online "Compensation Overview" Audio/Visual if you would like to get more detail on the above bonus payouts.

 

[Frank Stastny]

Mike,

I will say this again and again, you can do it independent and you will be so happy with yourself for going independent... Make sure you are getting top notch. You don't have to be a huge producer to get a good contract...

I will say that again and again as well. Any agent who wants to go into the senior market today is going to have to be an independent agent to be really successful selling Med Supps.

I try to have active contracts with at least three of who I consider the "best" in Missouri. When one falls off of my list I look for a replacement. A captive agent is going to be in trouble if the premiums increase beyond what is considered competitive in his area.

In my opinion an agent should not give up commission for promises of leads, training or support. From what I have seen, most of those are hollow promises. If anything, any agent who is willing to learn deserves a good contract, not one substantially under street level. And, above all, an agent should not sign with anyone unless the selling agent is also the agent of record.

There are probably 101 ways to get business. I like direct mail. Cold calling works too. Once you get contracted with UsaData you can get lists for pre-65's in how ever many counties you want for pretty darn cheap (I think .05 per name). Referrals are huge in the senior market. You need to have impecable character and treat them the way you would treat your own grandparents. If you do this right, you will be successful. There are a ton of agents who want to make money, but offer no service after the sale...make sure you don't become one of those. Don't push seniors. You can close med supps over the phone. When I go on my appt's, I know they are done deals because the initial (or multiple) phone conversation(s) I have had with that individual. You can have some instance success with the med supp market. If you have any connections with someone who works in a doctor's office, get them to give your cards to their senior patients. Go to a "silver sneakers" and have an "educational" event. Find ways of getting biz that are not expensive. Find mom and pop resteraunts that have napkin holder's. Alot of these napkin holders have a slot to put an add in. Some of these place will let you advertise for free in them! This works very well. There is more but I will quit for now. Be creative...and please...go independant. Trust me on this one.

Excellent advice from an agent who is obviously very successful at what he does. To say we are "like minded" is an understatement.

 

[ABC]

I have always been interested in this industy meant to start last year but was too busy. Is this not a good time to get into it? If so, then why do you feel that way?

This is a horrible time to get into the industry.
Life insurance sales are at all time low for production.

Group health insurance on groups under 50 lives are drying up. Small employers cannot afford to keep the plan in place.

There is a market for Individual sales because so many people have lost their group coverage.

Now the economy has a huge effect on insurance sales.
If you have a lot of connections and a sales back ground then this might be a good time to get into the biz. If you don't have connections and sales back ground be prepared for the first year to be difficult.

 

[Frank Stastny]

do they provide:
IMMEDIATE CONTRACT RELEASES
FREE LEADS BASED ON PRODUCTION
SUPPORT 24/7
22% HEALTH AGENT STARTING CONTRACTS
90% LIFE AGENT STARTING CONTRACTS
WHAT IS THE GA MINIMUM PRODUCTION FOR CONTRACT


* These should all be questions you can answer openly on line....

Those are all good suggestions but I'm not sure if anyone can give 24/7 support. I don't think you meant that literally did you?

The one thing I would add, that I feel is even more important than a contract release, is to make sure the WRITING AGENT IS ALSO THE AGENT OF RECORD. If the writing agent is not the agent of record then I would suggest running, not walking, away as fast as he can. That is probably the biggest ripoff in this business.

I would also be very leery of any production requirements. In fact, I would not sign any kind of contract that had production requirements. If it does, they will probably be very unrealistic and designed not to be in the agent's best interest.

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This is a horrible time to get into the industry.
Life insurance sales are at all time low for production.

Group health insurance on groups under 50 lives are drying up. Small employers cannot afford to keep the plan in place.

There is a market for Individual sales because so many people have lost their group coverage.

Now the economy has a huge effect on insurance sales.
If you have a lot of connections and a sales back ground then this might be a good time to get into the biz. If you don't have connections and sales back ground be prepared for the first year to be difficult.

All of that is probably true with all kinds of insurance except Med Supps. In the last sixteen years I have not seen any dramatic effect on Med Supp sales regardless of what is happening with the economy.

In fact, now is probably the best time to enter the Med Supp market. I anticipate a huge explosion in Med Supp sales in the next 16 months.

 

[ca-ltc-agent]

Why is the MC Supp market going to explode in the next 16 months? I have never sold this, but have been recently thinking of this product.

A FMO offered me $250 a signed app with no residuals during open enrollment, is this good? What is the usual commission rate on MA?

Thanks in advance,
Steve
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Think I found the answer in the "free training thread." I am installing the YIO software now, so will have to talk to Frank next week... a good tool and free training look good to me, since I have 4 hungry kids to feed. LOL

Interesting thread by the way,
Steve