Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
Welcome to the forum!
Does your boss offer any kind of training?
Welcome to the forum!
Does your boss offer any kind of training?
New Agent from Colonial Life
- Thread starter endeav0r
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- Thread starter
- #12
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
thanks for all your comments, information, and concerns. I am actually looking into agencies as well. I have recently been appointed with a life insurance broker that has 60 companies under its belt called Root Financial. I bought leads through a friend and I am going to see where this can lead me to. As well as another friend of mine is actually looking to open his own brokerage mainly selling group health.
I am currently getting a small draw in commission from CL because I am one of the more active agents that do their work. Better to shop around with all these career options at the age of 25 then 55.
thanks for all your comments, information, and concerns. I am actually looking into agencies as well. I have recently been appointed with a life insurance broker that has 60 companies under its belt called Root Financial. I bought leads through a friend and I am going to see where this can lead me to. As well as another friend of mine is actually looking to open his own brokerage mainly selling group health.
I am currently getting a small draw in commission from CL because I am one of the more active agents that do their work. Better to shop around with all these career options at the age of 25 then 55.
- 11,997
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
It's not about me, it's about agents signing up for them. It sounds like you either work for them or at least did at some point and still want to promote them. Statistically agents who come their broke, will leave there even more broke. Do you have any numbers on the success rate of new agents at Colonial?
It's not about me, it's about agents signing up for them. It sounds like you either work for them or at least did at some point and still want to promote them. Statistically agents who come their broke, will leave there even more broke. Do you have any numbers on the success rate of new agents at Colonial?
- 26,136
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
Jeff seems like a good guy. I hear he has some type of system were you submitt the app and they take care of everything else. Soup to nuts. You need to learn to do that stuff, but more importantly you need to have cash flow. Good luck.
Jeff seems like a good guy. I hear he has some type of system were you submitt the app and they take care of everything else. Soup to nuts. You need to learn to do that stuff, but more importantly you need to have cash flow. Good luck.
gmcarter
Expert
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
I left industry in 2004 after suffering through a year with Bankers and their stupid rules. Just got back in a month ago and doing well with FE sales. Don't know much, but my new career is going well with American Amicable. It's all about finding your niche. Welcome and good luck.
I left industry in 2004 after suffering through a year with Bankers and their stupid rules. Just got back in a month ago and doing well with FE sales. Don't know much, but my new career is going well with American Amicable. It's all about finding your niche. Welcome and good luck.
- 2,455
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
I know a few Aflac agents and they do fairly well. They aren't getting rich but they are making a decent living. The one I know the best also does group health and individual.
Most on here who are telling you how difficult it is are the ones who spend the most time on this forum. If you are doing your job in this new arena with Colonial, you won't have a lot of time for this place. As a matter of fact, I suggest you stay as far away from hear as possible, do the plan they give you to work and come back later and report how well you are doing as you will probably stand a better chance that way.
Most of the agents out beating the streets aren't here with few exceptions. The time you waste here could be more valuable spent learning your products and out prospecting.
In fact I believe more opportunity exist now than ever FOR THE FOLKS WHO ARE READY TO WORK. The days of order taking are over with. Many agents are exiting out of voluntary benefits because they have already set themselves up for failure with their bad attitude. The ones I know sticking with it are doing well.
Is it hard? You bet your ass it's hard! If any of these guys can show me something easy, I'm all ears. It doesn't mean I don't dislike anyone one here. I've just come to know a lot of them. Attitude is everything! Take a bad attitude with you to your waiter job and you'll see what I'm saying.
I know a few Aflac agents and they do fairly well. They aren't getting rich but they are making a decent living. The one I know the best also does group health and individual.
Most on here who are telling you how difficult it is are the ones who spend the most time on this forum. If you are doing your job in this new arena with Colonial, you won't have a lot of time for this place. As a matter of fact, I suggest you stay as far away from hear as possible, do the plan they give you to work and come back later and report how well you are doing as you will probably stand a better chance that way.
Most of the agents out beating the streets aren't here with few exceptions. The time you waste here could be more valuable spent learning your products and out prospecting.
In fact I believe more opportunity exist now than ever FOR THE FOLKS WHO ARE READY TO WORK. The days of order taking are over with. Many agents are exiting out of voluntary benefits because they have already set themselves up for failure with their bad attitude. The ones I know sticking with it are doing well.
Is it hard? You bet your ass it's hard! If any of these guys can show me something easy, I'm all ears. It doesn't mean I don't dislike anyone one here. I've just come to know a lot of them. Attitude is everything! Take a bad attitude with you to your waiter job and you'll see what I'm saying.
- Thread starter
- #18
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
That sounds like some sound advice. I only check this forum after hours. I like to have that mind state that thinks "I can get some exercise and prospect instead of sit here and type." But its 11 at night and no businesses are open.
That sounds like some sound advice. I only check this forum after hours. I like to have that mind state that thinks "I can get some exercise and prospect instead of sit here and type." But its 11 at night and no businesses are open.
G
Guest
Guest
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
The above is true, but it's an oversimplification. Here are some of the reasons that working in the worksite benefit area is "hard."
- One company has huge name-recognition and a bad reputation in many areas and if the boss has even heard of whatever company you are with (which they haven't) when he hears "worksite benefits" he thinks about the 10 guys from that company with the bird-mascot who called him last week.
- Worksite companies are similar to other (semi) captive carriers. They bring on a ton of people knowing one a tiny percentage will make it but hope most will write one group, quit and those groups becomes cash-cow "house accounts" for the manager.
- Many worksite benefits are way overpriced for healthy people who would save more money and get better coverage by getting their own personal coverage for LTC, DI, accident, etc. Thus, at some level you are screwing people and that will not make you feel good about yourself.
- Group health rates have gone through the roof such that companies are dropping their contributions to much lower levels meaning the employees have to pick up the tab leaving far less discretionary income for ancillary coverages.
- Worksite carrier comp is often very low. There are too many levels of management above you with hands in your pocket.
- At your level, there are often others who will split... the enroller and the coordinator for example.
- To make real money you have to enroll your own groups meaning you have to be knowledgeable about a huge number of benefits which means a lot of study time that could be used prospecting and selling.
- Enrollments can be a huge time-sink for you. Some people are great "blue collar" enrollers and others are great "boardroom" sales people. Few are both... but have to be in order to make any money in this game.
- You will hear the term "working conditions" a lot. This is the amount of time (and place) you will get with each employee. The carrier wants you to sell complex UL or STD plans in the 15 minutes the boss gives you with each person. It can't be done so you end up selling quick to explain, low-cost/low-comp accident and hospital indemnity.
- The sales-cycle can take forever, especially if people are on vacation or sick or if partners have to agree, and if the HR lady does not want to do payroll-deduct (or list-bill.)
- Companies are not increasing their head-counts and any reductions usually mean a cut in your comp.
- Worksite carriers are manic about chargebacks. They will follow you to the end of the earth for ten bucks!
- With some carriers if you don't do a minimum amount of production you will lose your vesting (another way of saying there IS no vesting!)
- You often have to work a wide geo-area meaning a lot of driving / traveling which is "down" time.
- Many carriers will micro-manage you, which can be a good thing, but often a bad thing as you will probably want to do worksite as a part-time gig and they are going to try to monopolize your time by holding group cold-calling events or tag-team door-knocking days. (Neither work too well.)
- With many carriers your manager can arbitrarily split your comp with anyone he wishes and upper-management will back him. Happened to me. I did 90% of the work on a case and manager gave 50% of my comp to another agent who did the 10%. Why? Politics, favors, etc. It's a dog-eat-dog jungle in worksite districts/regions. When you shake hands with your manager, when you walk away make sure you count all your fingers!
- Worksite can become a maintenance time-sink where employees call you with problems when claims are not paid.
- Some worksite companies have a reputation for not paying claims very promptly or at all. Check some of the "rip off" web sites. This eventually will come to haunt you.
- The base comp for worksite products vary and are not high to begin with. Money is made via a bonus structure... and worksite companies have a bad habit of ending the bonus program just before you reach a "level" and move the goal line too often so that no one ever gets across.
- Most often is is the managers who earn the nice trips, not the players on the field.
- Some companies will put pressure on you to recruit new people into the agency/district/region and may even make your continuation contingent on you bringing in at least one or two people.
- In my experience, worksite benefit companies have truly terrible management. I don't know why. Many are old-school, high-pressure, "beat 'em up" sales jocks.
Bottom line, given the amount of work vs. the amount of reward, I believe that a reasonably competent sales person can make a better living with less work and less stress being an independent agent in life and group health and DI without all the baggage and low-comp of "partnering" with the worksite carriers.
I wish you the best of luck. You will need a lot of it to "make it" in the worksite sector, especially if you are in an economically "hard hit" location.
As always, YMMV.
Al (who once wrote for Colonial)
You can find me here.
The above is true, but it's an oversimplification. Here are some of the reasons that working in the worksite benefit area is "hard."
- One company has huge name-recognition and a bad reputation in many areas and if the boss has even heard of whatever company you are with (which they haven't) when he hears "worksite benefits" he thinks about the 10 guys from that company with the bird-mascot who called him last week.
- Worksite companies are similar to other (semi) captive carriers. They bring on a ton of people knowing one a tiny percentage will make it but hope most will write one group, quit and those groups becomes cash-cow "house accounts" for the manager.
- Many worksite benefits are way overpriced for healthy people who would save more money and get better coverage by getting their own personal coverage for LTC, DI, accident, etc. Thus, at some level you are screwing people and that will not make you feel good about yourself.
- Group health rates have gone through the roof such that companies are dropping their contributions to much lower levels meaning the employees have to pick up the tab leaving far less discretionary income for ancillary coverages.
- Worksite carrier comp is often very low. There are too many levels of management above you with hands in your pocket.
- At your level, there are often others who will split... the enroller and the coordinator for example.
- To make real money you have to enroll your own groups meaning you have to be knowledgeable about a huge number of benefits which means a lot of study time that could be used prospecting and selling.
- Enrollments can be a huge time-sink for you. Some people are great "blue collar" enrollers and others are great "boardroom" sales people. Few are both... but have to be in order to make any money in this game.
- You will hear the term "working conditions" a lot. This is the amount of time (and place) you will get with each employee. The carrier wants you to sell complex UL or STD plans in the 15 minutes the boss gives you with each person. It can't be done so you end up selling quick to explain, low-cost/low-comp accident and hospital indemnity.
- The sales-cycle can take forever, especially if people are on vacation or sick or if partners have to agree, and if the HR lady does not want to do payroll-deduct (or list-bill.)
- Companies are not increasing their head-counts and any reductions usually mean a cut in your comp.
- Worksite carriers are manic about chargebacks. They will follow you to the end of the earth for ten bucks!
- With some carriers if you don't do a minimum amount of production you will lose your vesting (another way of saying there IS no vesting!)
- You often have to work a wide geo-area meaning a lot of driving / traveling which is "down" time.
- Many carriers will micro-manage you, which can be a good thing, but often a bad thing as you will probably want to do worksite as a part-time gig and they are going to try to monopolize your time by holding group cold-calling events or tag-team door-knocking days. (Neither work too well.)
- With many carriers your manager can arbitrarily split your comp with anyone he wishes and upper-management will back him. Happened to me. I did 90% of the work on a case and manager gave 50% of my comp to another agent who did the 10%. Why? Politics, favors, etc. It's a dog-eat-dog jungle in worksite districts/regions. When you shake hands with your manager, when you walk away make sure you count all your fingers!
- Worksite can become a maintenance time-sink where employees call you with problems when claims are not paid.
- Some worksite companies have a reputation for not paying claims very promptly or at all. Check some of the "rip off" web sites. This eventually will come to haunt you.
- The base comp for worksite products vary and are not high to begin with. Money is made via a bonus structure... and worksite companies have a bad habit of ending the bonus program just before you reach a "level" and move the goal line too often so that no one ever gets across.
- Most often is is the managers who earn the nice trips, not the players on the field.
- Some companies will put pressure on you to recruit new people into the agency/district/region and may even make your continuation contingent on you bringing in at least one or two people.
- In my experience, worksite benefit companies have truly terrible management. I don't know why. Many are old-school, high-pressure, "beat 'em up" sales jocks.
Bottom line, given the amount of work vs. the amount of reward, I believe that a reasonably competent sales person can make a better living with less work and less stress being an independent agent in life and group health and DI without all the baggage and low-comp of "partnering" with the worksite carriers.
I wish you the best of luck. You will need a lot of it to "make it" in the worksite sector, especially if you are in an economically "hard hit" location.
As always, YMMV.
Al (who once wrote for Colonial)
You can find me here.
Re: New Agent from Colinial Life
Al you probably have the most honest website I have ever seen - so much truth in that page - I have been a independent multi-line Health agent successfully for the past 11 years and have watched the Health Bill change everything - most importantly the pool of prospective candidates - as well as severe drop in commissions - and have watched the massive attack from Internet lead boiler room operations who call immediately from CA and NY and FL to online leads from here in my litlle SC just shoving anything down the throats of the prospect (I filled out some of those online "get immediate quotes" forms -just to see what I was up against) it is brutal - I listed to several of them try to sell me a GI product as if it were a 80/20 PPO for only $186 more than once - and they call 100 times - by the time I call the lead they hate everyone - in my search for a good sell-able product I also drank the AFLAC and Colonial Life koolaid - looks good smeels good until you go in the field and everything you say is 100% except may I add - in addition to the huge "do not call EVER list" - neither company will give you a active client list so you do not know if you are the 1st - 2nd or 10th agent to knock on the door - of if they are already with another agent! I had a great local company who wanted to work with me - of whom I knew the owner for years - and when I went to my manager I was told "Sam Sneed talked to them 18 months ago - it is his account" yet the owner had no idea who Sam Sneed was so bumpkus to me but someone reopened that account - BS I say - and the FE market - way disappointing - yeah I went with LH to feel the FE waters - in some respects they are all the same - I know I am in a rural area but when my managers tell me to make sure I set up the payments to coincide with their disability, unemployment or SS check and they can't even scrape up $30 for a premium - I am afraid I have too much of a conscience for that - I saw one guy and then read in the paper he was dead 4 days later! I am sure it is a great field and all the stats point to a need for it but with leads at TV and corporate mail drop @ $25 - $30 a pop - unless you can pay $1000+ to create and drop your own mailers I just don't see how the gas to go in the hood and woods to see poor folk with no checking accounts can be lucrative - I am back to buying leads off the web - running small ads - mailing postcards - knowing I have multiple GI - Major Med and STM companies I can write as well as throw in a FE and/or Term at the same time - but man oh man it is getting rough out here in the real world
Al you probably have the most honest website I have ever seen - so much truth in that page - I have been a independent multi-line Health agent successfully for the past 11 years and have watched the Health Bill change everything - most importantly the pool of prospective candidates - as well as severe drop in commissions - and have watched the massive attack from Internet lead boiler room operations who call immediately from CA and NY and FL to online leads from here in my litlle SC just shoving anything down the throats of the prospect (I filled out some of those online "get immediate quotes" forms -just to see what I was up against) it is brutal - I listed to several of them try to sell me a GI product as if it were a 80/20 PPO for only $186 more than once - and they call 100 times - by the time I call the lead they hate everyone - in my search for a good sell-able product I also drank the AFLAC and Colonial Life koolaid - looks good smeels good until you go in the field and everything you say is 100% except may I add - in addition to the huge "do not call EVER list" - neither company will give you a active client list so you do not know if you are the 1st - 2nd or 10th agent to knock on the door - of if they are already with another agent! I had a great local company who wanted to work with me - of whom I knew the owner for years - and when I went to my manager I was told "Sam Sneed talked to them 18 months ago - it is his account" yet the owner had no idea who Sam Sneed was so bumpkus to me but someone reopened that account - BS I say - and the FE market - way disappointing - yeah I went with LH to feel the FE waters - in some respects they are all the same - I know I am in a rural area but when my managers tell me to make sure I set up the payments to coincide with their disability, unemployment or SS check and they can't even scrape up $30 for a premium - I am afraid I have too much of a conscience for that - I saw one guy and then read in the paper he was dead 4 days later! I am sure it is a great field and all the stats point to a need for it but with leads at TV and corporate mail drop @ $25 - $30 a pop - unless you can pay $1000+ to create and drop your own mailers I just don't see how the gas to go in the hood and woods to see poor folk with no checking accounts can be lucrative - I am back to buying leads off the web - running small ads - mailing postcards - knowing I have multiple GI - Major Med and STM companies I can write as well as throw in a FE and/or Term at the same time - but man oh man it is getting rough out here in the real world
