My personal experience with Aflac

[Reuben]

Re: Working for Aflac?

...Last year they cured a little girl that had sisacell.

Ahmmn...I was under the impression that there is no cure for "Sickle cell anemia".

FYI:

Sickle Cell anemia affects millions of people worldwide. There are excellent treatments for the symptoms and complications of the condition, but in most cases there's no cure. (Some researchers believe that bone marrow transplants may offer a cure in a small number of cases.)

Over the past 30 years, doctors have learned a great deal about the condition. They know what causes it, how it affects the body, and how to treat many of the complications. Today, with good health care, many people with the condition live close to normal lives and are in fairly good health much of the time. These people can live into their forties or fifties, or longer.

Having Sickle Cell Anemia would be classified as a pre-existing medical condition and, I would suggest, a lot of "hoop jumpiing" in order to qualify for any sort of medial/life cover.

Please be careful when writing about medical "facts". I only hope you don't use this "knowledge" of the "cure" when you're visiting clients.....

 

[Reuben]

Re: Working for Aflac?

Fortunately for you, sisacell is now curable.

You need to read the small print: It's curable only if you have the relavant up to date paid policy.

Just see what happens if you let the policy lapse for a month or two....

 

[xrac]

Re: Working for Aflac?

Aflac, it looks like everyone is at the table for this one. So, I too will roll up my sleeves and put on the gloves. I got my start in Insurance through Aflac. I sold for them for 5 years, and had both positive and negative experiences.

Let's talk about Aflac as a product, market, and organization.

First, Aflac has a second to none supplimental program. My brokerage firm uses Aflac in all of our cases. It is a great way to increase revenues without increasing our headache. The product they use is very comprehensive covering anything from travel expenses to breast augmentations after cancer varying from product to product. They offer a ton of services to companies free of charge or low cost that are usually offered by third parties who charge too much. Because Aflac does not necissarily cost an employer anything its a terrific way to provide another benefit to many companies.

As a market, Aflac tends to explode and implode. What I mean by that is that through mass recruiting they tend to fly through agents like a chinaman on a math exam. They open 3 or 4 accounts before quitting and pursuing other careers. Due to this Aflac constantly experiences the frustration of service issues. Its fine to open tons of accounts up, but when someone leaves and no one services they create a negative feeling in the market place. Furthermore these agents go out and door to door mass market everyone from 3 person mom and pops to 10,000+ companies. What this does is poison not only their market, but mainline brokers as well. Aflac, also advertizes to their agents a low market saturation percentage, but truth be told 75% of the good companies (10-50 lives) are either already Aflac clients or perminantly dissenfranchised with Aflac. So starting out for them takes a lot of work dedication, and outside the box thinking. Lets just say Aflac is not for the weak of heart or spirit.

As an organization they are like a pack of snakes and vultures waiting for the perfect opportunity to rip each other off. I have been a part of several state organizations both as upper and lower management as well as a standard agent. I have yet to meet more than 1 or 2 people per state organization with management skills, and a gratious lacking in self absorbed behavior. You do not get promoted with in Aflac unless you have big numbers, and lets face it!! That's a catch 22 because not everyone who can produce can manage, but you dont want non producers as managers either. I have been robbed, ripped off, wrongfully accused, and swarmed with corporate politics by this company. After 5 years I achieved president's club twice, and hit my bonus every quarter as a manager. I decided to leave Aflac when a broker friend of mine asked to start up an agency with me, and I gladly accepted. I now handle all lines of insurance from Health supplimental to P&C. In two years we grew our agency from just us with 50 commercial clients to 10 producers 3 CSRs 2 locations and 618 commercial clients. I never could have gotten where I was without first being a part of Aflac. In my opinion its the best worst experience you will ever have.

Great post! One of the best I have seen about AFLAC. I understand that AFLAC can be a great training ground, it is a great supplemental product to be able to offer, and it is probably a place that almost no one will stay with exclusively long term because of the issues you described.

 

[Corporate Death]

Re: Working for Aflac?

I'm a little confused about something.

I'm not calling anyone out or anything, thats not my style, but I've heard a LOT of people say that AFLAC is a great training ground, but in the next line they point out how horrible a place it is to work and how little money you'll make.

If you could, please explain why or how that mixture could possibly be. If they are great at training people, why are the majority of agents starving to death? What is it that they are training CORRECTLY? If they are training a particular thing correctly, why are newbies digging lint out of their pockets?

 

[xrac]

Re: Working for Aflac?

I'm a little confused about something. I'm not calling anyone out or anything, thats not my style, but I've heard a LOT of people say that AFLAC is a great training ground, but in the next line they point out how horrible a place it is to work and how little money you'll make. If you could, please explain why or how that mixture could possibly be. If they are great at training people, why are the majority of agents starving to death? What is it that they are training CORRECTLY? If they are training a particular thing correctly, why are newbies digging lint out of their pockets?

AFLAC can be a great training ground because you learn to cold walk businesses. This is a very lucrative market and once you learn to do this you can open doors to life sales, business planning, group benefits, etc. Now most people starve at AFLAC learning to do this but once they are away from AFLAC this experience serves them well.

Other places like Western Southern, Combined, Bankers Life, etc. can be good places to be as far as learning to sell. However, most of these places are not good places to be for a long term career and you usually don't make a lot of money while you are there.

 

[Mac1958]

Re: Working for Aflac?

Former AFLAC District Manager here. A few random thoughts...

1. I was told when I was made a manager that my job description was "recruit, hire, train, recruit, hire, train." No insurance company exemplifies the phrase "it's a numbers game" more than AFLAC. Keep hiring them, train them, get them on the street. If they sell, fine. If they don't, oh well. Keep hiring. If they sell some but end up starving, give their book of business to the next agent. I could no longer, in good conscience, go about business that way.

2. Don't join AFLAC expecting to make a living just selling AFLAC. A few do it, but they're rare. Be prepared to sell health (at least individual, but you'll also get opportunities to sell group), life, etc. Unless you can live on, oh, say, $500 a month, diversify.

3. The products are good, the claims are paid, the duck helps BIG time when you're knocking on doors. No doubt about it. Commissions are pretty good, too.

4. Get ready to hear "Good God, you're the fourth AFLAC agent to call me this WEEK!" Often.

5. All in all, I'm glad I was there, and I survived it just fine because I took what I learned there and expanded on it.

 

[xrac]

Re: Working for Aflac?

Former AFLAC District Manager here. A few random thoughts...

1. I was told when I was made a manager that my job description was "recruit, hire, train, recruit, hire, train." No insurance company exemplifies the phrase "it's a numbers game" more than AFLAC. Keep hiring them, train them, get them on the street. If they sell, fine. If they don't, oh well. Keep hiring. If they sell some but end up starving, give their book of business to the next agent. I could no longer, in good conscience, go about business that way.

2. Don't join AFLAC expecting to make a living just selling AFLAC. A few do it, but they're rare. Be prepared to sell health (at least individual, but you'll also get opportunities to sell group), life, etc. Unless you can live on, oh, say, $500 a month, diversify.

3. The products are good, the claims are paid, the duck helps BIG time when you're knocking on doors. No doubt about it. Commissions are pretty good, too.

4. Get ready to hear "Good God, you're the fourth AFLAC agent to call me this WEEK!" Often.

5. All in all, I'm glad I was there, and I survived it just fine because I took what I learned there and expanded on it.

Mac1958, your post and that of MichaelJM above are both really descriptive of the AFLAC experience. Anybody considering selling for AFLAC should read these. Can I sum it up as good company with good product but they burn through agents and over saturate the market.

 

[Mac1958]

Re: Working for Aflac?

Can I sum it up as good company with good product but they burn through agents and over saturate the market.

Bingo.

I hate seeing newbies being sold a bill of goods, only to end up failing. Especially when they leave a decent job for it. I don't blame the newbies, I blame the hiring manager.

This career can be a great one, but only if you research, ask questions and plan your moves. That's why forums such as this are so valuable.

...

 

[Jeanie2]

Re: Working with AFLAC for now

the low E&O is available to new agents with Aflac. I can hardly wait to hear the comments on this

 

[RVExotics]

Here's my situation. Is AFLAC right for me?

I found this forum yesterday and have been reading through some pretty eye opening threads. I'll begin by saying I'm wholly new to the insurance industry. I have a B. Sc. in Life/Earth Science Education and spent the last school year teaching science at a rural high school here in Arkansas. I had an opportunity for a much higher paying job this year, so I forfeited my teaching job to try for it. It now appears that it probably won't work out, so I'm pursuing other options. Like many here, I replied to an ad in the newspaper from AFLAC and have now had two interviews with the RSC for this area. She has been extremely friendly and informative during both interviews, but also like many others, I could tell it was more of a sales pitch to me than vice versa.

So it's likely I'm going to be offered a "position" next week, if not today, and I'm having some trouble deciding what I want to do. I'll describe my situation and I'd appreciate feedback from the seasoned professionals here.

I live in a town of about 5,000 people, which borders a town of roughly 24,000 people. There are small towns scattered throughout these counties and they're all rural. I'm roughly an hour and a half in any direction from Little Rock, Fort Smith, Fayetteville, and Hot Springs, all of which are relatively large towns with numerous businesses. So even though it is Arkansas, there are lots of prospects around here.

I've never sold insurance before (surprise surprise), but do have some sales experience both for companies and privately selling hobby type things. Certainly not the aggressive tact it takes to sell insurance. I believe I could do it and do it fairly well, as I'm a people person and found that as a teacher, I can very quickly build rapport with people.

I'm absolutely not doing this as a get rich quick scheme. When the RSC was going over the potential income numbers, I just smiled and nodded, while fully realizing that because those were "averages," there is a lot of performance below that. Honestly, I'd be happy to hit the $30k mark for the year, as that was what I was making teaching. I'm willing to work a part-time job until commissions start coming in steadily, and already have one standing by which could actually get me some leads. Even if I only pulled in $12-1500 some months, I wouldn't go broke and starve like some are doing.

I like the idea of talking to people as a business. I like the idea of doing what I want, when I want to make money. On the other side of that coin, I do need money, so I have the motivation to get out and about at 8 am and not come home until 5 pm or later if necessary (I was warned some people have trouble with the freedom). I also happen to really enjoy driving my car, and heck, it's eye catching and I could use it to strike up a conversation for a potential client - the car is a MINI Cooper.

So in your opinion, based on the description of my situation and my monetary needs, is selling AFLAC a good idea? I'm not going to buy their ridiculously overpriced laptop (I already own two), my DSC has some she lets agents borrow. I do think it's kind of silly to have to pay $150 for their sales school. I'll be looking at spending roughly $250 next week if I decide to do this to cover the background check, sales school, and licensing test.

While I'm considering that, I also have another job opportunity to work at a call center for the next year (until next school year) and bring in a steady, albeit it low, income. This is my quandry, choosing between these two scenarios: safe and cheap, or risky and potentially rewarding. If only that other job had worked out!

I appreciate any and all input. Feel free to be as harsh as necessary. The one thing I absolutely want to avoid is putting myself into a situation where I'm going to completely sink. It's been tempting to just throw the idea out all together from reading some of the threads here about AFLAC, but I want to keep an open mind.