I am new here to the insurance industry and I was referred here by one of my bosses to come here and check things out. I was with Bankers Life and Casualty as an agent for 3 months and did not make a dime. Now I am at Colonial Life to give the insurance career another try. I still have yet to sell anything so i still am working as a waiter on the weekends. I look forward to meeting some of the experienced agents and learning lots of advice and insurance war stories.
New Agent from Colonial Life
- Thread starter endeav0r
- Start date
- 8,707
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
Nothing wrong with Colonial life, I prefer them over the Duck. However you want to make sure you are at a company that is the right fit for yourself. At Colonial you will be calling on businesses to offer voluntary products. This is a different sale than selling products at the kitchen table. The good news is if you land an account you can make a bunch of sales in a short period of time.
Now based on your post I'm going to assume you have not sold many policies with Colonial or Bankers and would hope that you are out running appointments with another agent or a manager to learn the business.
Nothing wrong with Colonial life, I prefer them over the Duck. However you want to make sure you are at a company that is the right fit for yourself. At Colonial you will be calling on businesses to offer voluntary products. This is a different sale than selling products at the kitchen table. The good news is if you land an account you can make a bunch of sales in a short period of time.
Now based on your post I'm going to assume you have not sold many policies with Colonial or Bankers and would hope that you are out running appointments with another agent or a manager to learn the business.
- 11,996
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
Plenty wrong with Colonial from a full-time perspective. If you're looking for a career type job, you probably need to find a new offer. For more about Colonial try out the search function and you'll find out a bunch about them.
Plenty wrong with Colonial from a full-time perspective. If you're looking for a career type job, you probably need to find a new offer. For more about Colonial try out the search function and you'll find out a bunch about them.
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
Can you make money and have a career with Colonial? Yes you can!! However Colonial is mostly a bunch of former Aflac agents.. Unless you know or have a lot of contacts with business owners, this is going to take a while..
Can you make money and have a career with Colonial? Yes you can!! However Colonial is mostly a bunch of former Aflac agents.. Unless you know or have a lot of contacts with business owners, this is going to take a while..
- 15,041
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
I second MPS. Let's ignore the commissions from Colonial, or even how good or bad their products are. Just focus on who their market is.
Colonial Life focuses on marketing to blue collar employees in the workplace. In order to get an account, you have to see the owner, convince the owner that you have a valuable product that is worth presenting to the employees, and won't take too much of their work time to do. Then you have to sell these products to the employees and get them enrolled. Finally, you have tons of service work as employees drop coverage, add coverage, terminate employment, get hired, etc.
That isn't an easy task in a good economy. How likely do you think Joe Wrenchturner is to part with another $10 a week from his paycheck in this economy? Or that Mr. Owner is going to let you have even 15 minutes of Joe's time? Or that Sally Donutstains is going to even let you get in to see Mr. Owner?
I second MPS. Let's ignore the commissions from Colonial, or even how good or bad their products are. Just focus on who their market is.
Colonial Life focuses on marketing to blue collar employees in the workplace. In order to get an account, you have to see the owner, convince the owner that you have a valuable product that is worth presenting to the employees, and won't take too much of their work time to do. Then you have to sell these products to the employees and get them enrolled. Finally, you have tons of service work as employees drop coverage, add coverage, terminate employment, get hired, etc.
That isn't an easy task in a good economy. How likely do you think Joe Wrenchturner is to part with another $10 a week from his paycheck in this economy? Or that Mr. Owner is going to let you have even 15 minutes of Joe's time? Or that Sally Donutstains is going to even let you get in to see Mr. Owner?
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
Good points! However, Colonial has a system where you, as the agent opening the account, don't have to do all these things. The program allows for different folks to handle different aspects. For example, If you want to work as an "Opener", you concentrate only on working with the owner to inform them of ALL the advantages of working with Colonial, which go far beyond just selling the employee voluntary products. Then, they have trained "Benefit Counselors" who actually work with the employees to get them enrolled, so you're spending your time opening new accounts. The work flow for the various responsibilities is segmented, if you desire, so that one person isn't trying to do everything, which is impossible. Colonial has some excellent benefits for the employer, who if it is a right fit, works for them and their employees. Still nothing is right for everyone.
Just a liitle clarification.
Good points! However, Colonial has a system where you, as the agent opening the account, don't have to do all these things. The program allows for different folks to handle different aspects. For example, If you want to work as an "Opener", you concentrate only on working with the owner to inform them of ALL the advantages of working with Colonial, which go far beyond just selling the employee voluntary products. Then, they have trained "Benefit Counselors" who actually work with the employees to get them enrolled, so you're spending your time opening new accounts. The work flow for the various responsibilities is segmented, if you desire, so that one person isn't trying to do everything, which is impossible. Colonial has some excellent benefits for the employer, who if it is a right fit, works for them and their employees. Still nothing is right for everyone.
Just a liitle clarification.
- 15,041
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
Yes, I have some vague knowledge that it is segmented. That doesn't change the point, its going to be a hard row to hoe. How many "Openers" are there for every "Benefit Counselor", 10? Maybe even 20?
Yes, I have some vague knowledge that it is segmented. That doesn't change the point, its going to be a hard row to hoe. How many "Openers" are there for every "Benefit Counselor", 10? Maybe even 20?
- 11,996
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
Oh, boo.
Finding new accounts is the hardest part of the job, if an agent finds a new account they should do the entire deal not only because they need the commissions, but they should know the product top to bottom anyway. They should also have a higher close rate on the employees than a "trained benefit counselor".
It's not impossible for an agent to find an account, pick a day to have everyone do the enrollment, and do the applications.
In action, the benefit counselors are usually the regional managers wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/son/daughter that gets a license and pushes some paper around while taking a chunk of the commissions. That's assuming that the agents manager doesn't just do it themselves.
At the end of the day Colonial has a decent product with decent training, but most agents will starve out of the business on that type of a program.
@VPdkb: Let's ignore that unemployment is still at over 10% and the way it's reported is misleading, of what's left a significant percentage (I think around 30%) are underemployed, meaning they are making much less than they are worth and/or were making before, many work for large employers and/or have rich enough benefits where the colonial products just don't make sense, and also consider how much market share the duck is buying in through advertising and you have a much smaller pool to work, and that's still ignoring all the competition not the least of which are other Colonial agents.
Again, don't get me wrong, it's a decent product and the support is good, but it's not a career product for most agents.
Oh, boo.
Finding new accounts is the hardest part of the job, if an agent finds a new account they should do the entire deal not only because they need the commissions, but they should know the product top to bottom anyway. They should also have a higher close rate on the employees than a "trained benefit counselor".
It's not impossible for an agent to find an account, pick a day to have everyone do the enrollment, and do the applications.
In action, the benefit counselors are usually the regional managers wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/son/daughter that gets a license and pushes some paper around while taking a chunk of the commissions. That's assuming that the agents manager doesn't just do it themselves.
At the end of the day Colonial has a decent product with decent training, but most agents will starve out of the business on that type of a program.
@VPdkb: Let's ignore that unemployment is still at over 10% and the way it's reported is misleading, of what's left a significant percentage (I think around 30%) are underemployed, meaning they are making much less than they are worth and/or were making before, many work for large employers and/or have rich enough benefits where the colonial products just don't make sense, and also consider how much market share the duck is buying in through advertising and you have a much smaller pool to work, and that's still ignoring all the competition not the least of which are other Colonial agents.
Again, don't get me wrong, it's a decent product and the support is good, but it's not a career product for most agents.
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
O.k. You're correct. If you don't believe it will wok, than it surely won't.
O.k. You're correct. If you don't believe it will wok, than it surely won't.
