New Producer Seeking Tips to reach my goals

[rebekah74]

Hi everyone!

My name is Rebekah and I am a new producer in South Carolina. Just completed 2nd month with a brand new Allstate agent and agency and love this field!
Hoping to pick your brains a bit. I love serving my local community through protecting all they have worked hard for. I am also a new ambassador at my local Chamber of Commerce.
I have a small salary and a minimum sales goal of 15k that must be hit month 3. First 2 months we were getting our feet wet and learning. I know i have so much to learn and am excited.
My first month premium was $6,700 and 2nd month ended at $10,300.
I want to develop a solid success strategy! Our first month the focus was calling 100-200 a day, second month we started going out in the community more as we are brand new and learning as we go. I am new to this area and the policies i wrote were the people i knew primarily and a few from calls. Also, the Chamber seems like great opportunity. Sold to one man I met there with a good premium and met several area business owners I am planning to cultivate relationships with.
I want to develop a blue print to be a 25k month producer and grow with the sky being the limit. So I would love guidance from some professionals. I want to work smart, know what times and days are best for certain activities, and how to drum up the business. I am eager to learn and very hard-working. Im a one income home, so this is where the rubber hits the road.
Thanks in advance for all who share advice. I am in it to win it!
RebekahThanks

 

[Tcollins]

Hi Rebekah,

Congrats to you on embarking on this journey. It sounds like you have a lot of motivation and are eager to put in the effort and be successful. That's great to see.

You may want to consider creative ways to get warm leads, for example if you have any friends that are real estate agents or work in mortgage lending, they may be able to send you referrals for clients of theirs who are buying property.

Just a thought - wishing you the best in this new career.

 

[rebekah74]

Thanks so much for that. I will work on developing those relationships.

 

[Mike007]

If you want to grow and make money. Think BIG. Think Entrepreneur. Never waste your talents making someone else rich. Get your experience and move on and start your own agency and get a contract from a cluster and be an independent broker.

Once you have enough experience, shift that contract out of the cluster and get your own contracts directly from the insurance companies.

Broker is the way to go. Having the ability to pick and chose from 5-15 other insurance companies for your client is the best way to compete.

 

[rebekah74]

Thanks Mike! Im not familair with the term “cluster” Would you be able to explain that? As soon as the holidays are over I will obtain my life license next. I totally agree to think BIG! Thanks!

 

[Mike007]

Thanks Mike! Im not familair with the term “cluster” Would you be able to explain that? As soon as the holidays are over I will obtain my life license next. I totally agree to think BIG! Thanks!

Clusters are large and successful Independent Insurance Agency. They focus on Auto, Home, Commercial Insurance. They have contracts to many insurance contracts. Because they have many insurance companies to chose from, they are not tied down to one company like Allstate, Farmers, or State Farm. For the most part, Clusters make twice the commissions as well.

Clusters will subcontract people to become their agents in their organization as a Producer/Agent contract. The new Agent now has access to all their companies and can write insurance policies on their behalf. The new Agent for the most part OWNS his/her book of business.

As a subcontractor to the Cluster, an Agent will for the most part run it independently and do as he/she wishes or pleases as long as he/she does not violate any insurance laws and regulations. The new agent can hire producers, staffs, managers, etc into his/her agency. The Cluster becomes a silent partner.

Once the agent's contract ends with a Cluster, he/she may renew the relationship or go on their own and get direct appointments from the insurance companies. Most go on their own because they no longer wants to split commission to the cluster.

Some clusters allow you to join them for free but they take a larger shares of splits. Some have upfront buy ins ranging from $1,500 to $10,000. Some goes as high as $65,000 and up.

The clusters that are free, often will not let you bind the policy right up front. It takes 24-48 hours before the policy can be bind and the client gets insured. So if a person walks into your office and needs insurance RIGHT NOW. It's not going to happen.

Some clusters allow you to bind the policy and get the client insured by the time they leave your office. These clusters often have buy in fees.

Google P&C clusters and you can find one that works in your state when you are ready to go on your own.

As for Life Insurance. Being Independent is the way to go as well. You can pick and chose which insurance company is best for your clients. To get contracts to Life Insurance, you'll need to google IMO Life Insurance. IMO are like clusters except they give you Life Insurance Contracts and not P&C.

 

[rebekah74]

Wow! Thanks so much for this information. I have so much to learn and truly appreciate your feedback!

Now Im going to try to catch up on some football games!

 

[Markthebroker]

I have made a good living doing p&c. Based on my hours, I am pretty much retired, and my income just goes up each year. I'm not even 40 yet. But it took a lot of work to get there. Full disclosure, I am commercial p&c, which is more profitable and higher retention than personal, but there are a lot of similarities. P&c personal is where I started.

In the beginning, I got business cold calling and canvassing. If you are having intelligent, meaningful conversations and going on appointments and getting business, than 100-200 calls a WEEK is reasonable. The only way to hit 100-200 calls per day is to treat your phone like some sort of a drum set. You are guaranteed to fail if that is some sort of long goal of yours; you cannot have meaningful conversations, go on appointments, quote, etc.

I do 0 marketing or advertising. All my business comes in from networking referrals and client referrals. So, I would suggest you continue to network. It takes a long time, but will get you a lot of business. Take time to watch videos and read articles on how to PROPERLY ask for referrals. If you LEARN to PROPERLY ask for referrals from clients, you can stop cold calling.

 

[rebekah74]

Thanks so much for this valuable advice. Im doing what the new agent/agency is “tracking” as far as calls. Now the focus is 5 quotes a day being tracked. But the cold calls have not produced results as of yet so Im going out to canvas more. Trying to find a good icebreaker for when I solicit business. I know we have a good product but trying to Get better at going into businesses and not sounding too “salesy” (dont think thats a word) but you know?

 

[Markthebroker]

Don't dress too nice, or carry any sort of folder or anything like that. They'll know you are a salesperson right away and go on the defensive. After a few business, you'll get to talk to a business owner. Then, the ones you go to after that, you say "Hi there, I was just down the street talking to Joe, at the repair shop. Do you know Joe? Nice guy. I was talking to him about his business insurance" Now you appear to have a reason to be there.

I had some techniques that worked me, but you have to find your own. You're also going to want to figure out what businesses, if any, Allstate is competitive with. Additionally, to be frank, I think being a female gives you many advantages when canvassing or cold calling. You may also want to wear green, that will help. You may want to research how different colors evoke different emotions in different sales situations. You want to tailor the way that you speak to the type of business owners, too. The type of person that owns a flower shop, for instance, is VERY different than the type of person that owns an auto repair shop. I would go walking into a repair shop, and yell at one of the guys "Hey, go get the owner" When they ask what I want or why I am there, I just say "I'm Mark, I wanna talk to the owner, where is he? Go get him please" That worked great at repair shops. I would just bark at them until I get the owner. And guess what? 40% of my income in from auto repair/body/tow shops. Now, if I did that in a small office or flower shop? They'd probably call the police or pepper spray me.