New P&C Licensee

Tim Gill

New Member
1
My goal is to get a P&C license and be independent. Would appreciate advise/feedback on best approach to achieve this. What can I expect, e.g. early struggles, earnings (assuming I'm capable and work hard), a timeline to experience success . I know one hurdle would be getting carriers to write. Pertaining to the carrier issue how do I achieve this?

All advice & comments are appreciated.

Thank You
Tim Gill
 
First, you have to find a cluster that is willing to take on a newly licensed agent. Even most clusters requires 2-3 years experiences. Don't even waste your time contacting the insurance company yourself, they will tell you "NO".

Next, you will need money to pay for business expenses like office, phone, internet, website, insurance, and other expenses related to business.

Have good amount of money to pay for marketing material and marketing expenses. If you don't have money to pay for someone to market for you, you better pound the pavement passing out flyers, door hangers, door knocking, and networking with other professionals to trade referrals.

Buy consumer insurance lists and contact them by phone or mail and ask if you can give them a quote to compete with their upcoming renewal.

Know your products inside and out. Learn how to sell. Find a sales process that fits your personality. Set goals, set activities and actually go out and do it. I friend of mine always tells his producers, go knock on doors and go get 100 "NOs" a day. Out of all that "NOs", some will say "YES".

Educated yourself. Read as much as you can about insurance, marketing, and sales. Tons of book at amazon or library.

Most important thing is TAKE ACTION.
 
Even though your goal is to go independent. I would highly advise you to either Go work for an Independent Agency First or go work with a Captive Agency first. Do it for a year and if you survive, consider setting up your own shop.

There are so many terms and concepts to master doing it completely alone is much harder than it needs to be.
 
I got my P & C license last year and have done little with it. I have recently started teaming with a local independent I know and have found it's just way, way different than life and health (if you have any background in that). So...number one as some have said above it's difficult to get direct appointments with no experience..not impossible, but difficult. It will also be difficult to keep those appointments a they all want to see a certain minimum of production. Also , and this is a part I don't really understand yet, when quoting a client I think most agents start with a rating or quoting tool like EZlinx. This shows you a lot of estimates based on preliminary information you put into their system. Then armed with that information you go to the company you decide fits best and you nail down the pricing. When this is done; some sort of background check runs and that costs the carrier money. If you don't close a certain percentage of deals you quote then you can get a chargeback for the expense.

I know that I got burned by my first experience in the business where I was a captive agent and forever vowed I would be independent...but 5 years later I see how my career, industry knowledge, and income have suffered because of it. So...as the others do I would advise that you find a independent that you can trust to work with. Most in this industry are not the backstabbing ogre's that are portrayed in people's imagination...but there are a few bad apples in every bunch. So find someone you can trust. Learn...and don't worry so much about splitting commissions. You never get to keep everything you make anyway. You need an office, support staff, EZlinx (or somethign like that) etc. There's a lot of expenses. a 50/50 split for your first year or two is totally acceptable for all that IF you get agreement up front (in writing) that you can get releases when you ask for them and/or you are vested in your commissions.
 
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