Looking for an opinion

[wsands]

Hi all. I hae recently been told by a family member that knows an aflac rep, who is looking for people to help her "part-time" in my area. This would be great for me, as i have done a lot of reading about people's experiences with aflac, and its pretty mixed. I have sold insurance before for family heritage, which provides cancer policies as well as some accident plan and heart plans, it was door to door and very much full time.

I can't see how this would be a part time job, is the part time just a lure that when i get in and see how much money i could make and etc etc that i quit my job?

ideally this would be great if i could work it part time, i already have a decent paying job that takes care of all my bills and a bit more.

Everyone says that if you don't have anything saved up don't do it, but i could live with not selling anything for several months. My question is, would it really be worth it? I could see if in a year or so that my skills were sharped and i was a bit wiser in the area of selling insurance about what is out there and what not, quitting my job because its getting in the way.

I just don't want to get pulled into the "dream". I know that if you really want to build a financially free life that it will involve sales, and i like sales, but i dont' want to waste my time.

any thoughts on this would be great!!

thanks

will


p.s. has anyone ever sold insurance for farm bureau? It seems to me that Life and auto policies would be easier to sell than supplemental policies such as cancer and accident.

Sorry if my terminology isn't up to snuff, a lot of it just confuses me at this point

 

[patch36]

Aflac is basically a pyramid scheme. Agents hire agents who hire agents who hire agents...

You will learn the business, but it is a brutal education. Read as much as you can here and you will find a lot of answers to your questions from some experienced insurance agents.

There are lots of ways to get where you want to go, but some of them are really tough. Aflac, UA & Combined, are some of the toughest and least respected. That said, there are folks who do well with those companies.

 

[EdHead]

I have been with AFLAC for a little over two months. It took about 6 weeks before I started writing business. You have to call on many business week after week to be able to set 2 to 5 appointments per week. Businesses make slow decisions so you have to keep making new contacts and setting appointments each week.

As far as a pyramid scheme goes, each office is different. Some operate that way and some don't. The office I work out of is ran very well. We have some associates who have been there for 18 years we have some that only work part time and some that work full time.

You probably wont get rich working for AFLAC but you could make a nice living. You will get out of it what you put into it.

Will I stay with AFLAC long term, probably not. But I cant say anything bad about my experience so far.

 

[wsands]

The part time thing just seems strange to me because every sales job i have had has been very clear that you "cannot do it part time" because it just wouldnt' work. But I suppose if you work it part time you get part time pay, which is really what i am looking to get out of it right now. Unless i just find myself hindered by my job, however i wouldn't imagine that would happen in the first couple of months anyhow.

My biggest question is, how do you get licensed? Is there a study guide out there for that? Do you have to be licensed for every type of insurance that you sell? What are the fee's like for testing? Does aflac help or pay for that if they hire you?

Does an agency generally provide you with the tools to market (i.e. booklets, brochures, etc...) so you have something to leave with your prospect or are you responsible for buying them? I understand that there are most likely fee's for the license test, but what other start up fee's am i looking at here? Other people talk about a laptop that aflac basically requires you to buy just to write the policy without paperwork, can you just do it on paper at first ?

Well I just read my own post and realized that I have about a million questions, I'm brand new to all of this and I thank you guys for taking time out of your day to answer my questions.

 

[midwestbroker]

The only thing I have to say about worksite marketing is that there seems to be a lot of people selling things to small business...

Insurance
Credit Card Processors
Suppliers
etc...

Just make sure that your market does not have a lot of agents working the same area. That was the main complaint I have heard from other agents that tried it...

 

[DM77]

My biggest question is, how do you get licensed? Is there a study guide out there for that? Do you have to be licensed for every type of insurance that you sell? What are the fee's like for testing? Does aflac help or pay for that if they hire you?

I guess I'm confused by this question. Your first post stated that you've sold insurance before. But now you're asking about licensing....nothing's really changed as far as that goes. CE stuff has changed but the process of getting licensed hasn't. You will have to have your life/health license. To get that you'll need to pass the exam....and to do that, yes, you'll need to study. There are even cram courses offered in many states.

Does an agency generally provide you with the tools to market (i.e. booklets, brochures, etc...) so you have something to leave with your prospect or are you responsible for buying them? I understand that there are most likely fee's for the license test, but what other start up fee's am i looking at here? Other people talk about a laptop that aflac basically requires you to buy just to write the policy without paperwork, can you just do it on paper at first ?

Most companies give you the marketing materials on the products. In some cases, there are things you're required to leave with the prospect. As far as the costs/fees of getting licensed, that varies by state.
Most of these questions need to be directed to the AFLAC rep.

 

[toc3]

Danielle,

I may have you confused with another lady but are you selling med. supps through msis? If so I would like to talk to you. I have some questions. Thanks

 

[wsands]

about licensing, when i sold insurance, it was about 4 years ago, and i had a temporary license through the company. I didn't stay with them long enough to take the test or get my license.