New Agent Needs Advice from Seasoned Agents

[kcinsc]

Hi everyone and thanks in advance for your advice this forum has been very helpful thus far in my journey.

Anyway my current situation is I manage a used car lot and while the pay isnt terrible and the benefits are excellent, I just want more out of life honestly. I have a family with 2 small children so just up and leaving my job is not an option at this time.

Im taking my Life health and accident exam on monday and plan on getting auto license shortly after. I will have to start out as a part time agent at first and work towards the goal of leaving my job to be a full time agent. For those who have been in this industry I ask if you could please be honest and critique my plan below

I have read a lot and I know all the drawbacks of the company but right now it seems that my only option as an inexperienced new agent to do this part time is to join NAA. I know the commissions suck and im not into the mlm part of the business but my thinking is to join them to get my feet wet and learn about the business. I work full time though I have a lot of down time here where I could dedicate a few hours a day and after work on being an agent. Once i got a good feel for this business I would eventually move on from NAA and I would eventually like to move more towards home and auto because I have a retail location next door and I feel i could write a lot of auto policies from the car dealership and there is a pretty good demand for car insurance for low income residents in this area.
I have tried exploring options other than NAA but its seems that it would be extremely difficult to join an alliance or cluster group as a new agent and if so it seems they require hefty fees which I am unable to fork out right now.
Honest opinions does this sound like a decent plan or should I be looking for a different strategy? thanks

 

[TampaHound]

I'm in a similar boat but my situation is different. I've been doing tele-sales for the last two years in life and health. I'm not leaving my job either but I'm doing something similar (only not going into P and C).

I attended a NAA meeting and have a few friends that sell NAA on the side. They generally seem to like it but I've heard of problems where an agent not been able to get the help they need. I didn't care for the "ra-ra" nature of it either.

Someone else referred to it as the "Amway of Insurance" in another thread. I also understand that if you try to leave later they try to keep you book of business.

That being said I did something similar and joined World Financial Group mostly because my former boss is starting an agency. I plan on concentrating only on the products that benefit me and my clients.

My advice is you find what works best for you, become an expert at those products and not worry about all the other things.

If they need an annuity and your not comfortable with it, refer them to an expert. A split commission is better than no commission.