P & C Agent Seeking Career Advice!

A. DuBose

New Member
2
Hello all,

I've work on the railroad for 11 years now, but reached my peak with this company. I have a LH&PC license and I'm really looking to leave my job and go full force with insurance. I applied for State Farm, but didn't make it pass the second test . I have A TON of connections asking me to bundle their business and home..but I don't have a product to offer them. I am even willing to be captive at this point. Any advice is helpful. Thanks.
 
Hello all,

I've work on the railroad for 11 years now, but reached my peak with this company. I have a LH&PC license and I'm really looking to leave my job and go full force with insurance. I applied for State Farm, but didn't make it pass the second test . I have A TON of connections asking me to bundle their business and home..but I don't have a product to offer them. I am even willing to be captive at this point. Any advice is helpful. Thanks.

You probably should be happy State Farm didn't want you.
 
Hello all,

I've work on the railroad for 11 years now, but reached my peak with this company. I have a LH&PC license and I'm really looking to leave my job and go full force with insurance. I applied for State Farm, but didn't make it pass the second test . I have A TON of connections asking me to bundle their business and home..but I don't have a product to offer them. I am even willing to be captive at this point. Any advice is helpful. Thanks.

start cold calling businesses.
Some will tell you they dont want to train anyone...others will hear you out.

Im in the same position as you.
Its been my experience so far that principles are happy to hear from someone looking to make them money.
Some will straight up tell you they dont have time to train...but their nice about it...and they will give you some tips on how to find your first job.
 
You probably should be happy State Farm didn't want you.

So State Farm isn't a good company?

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start cold calling businesses.
Some will tell you they dont want to train anyone...others will hear you out.

Im in the same position as you.
Its been my experience so far that principles are happy to hear from someone looking to make them money.
Some will straight up tell you they dont have time to train...but their nice about it...and they will give you some tips on how to find your first job.

Thank you! Very helpful. I
 
So State Farm isn't a good company?

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Thank you! Very helpful. I

Not a company I would go to work for under their current contract but that is also true of Allstate and Farmers.
 
How about Shelter, American Family, Farm Bureau, or Country Companies. In my mind they are maybees. Does anybody agree or disagree? I think AAA is a place someone might learn but not a long term gig.
 
Country isn't bad. Currently captive with them, but their production metrics are kinda screwy. Your contract with them runs on a quarterly basis where you have to get X number of units. Don't get the units, don't keep your job.The problem is:

1) People with bad credit that aren't placed in mutual or preferred auto don't count toward production.
2) Umbrellas don't count
3) Stand alone renter's policies don't count
4)Writing a home with someone who has bad credit doesn't count for production.

So on and so on...

Problem I have here is that Country spends $0 on corporate branding advertising, so no one knows the company even though they bought out Cotton States years ago. And the way they do their rating for P&C, I turn away more business than I write. (If the difference is $50 more, I can usually talk my way into the sale... but sometimes we are looking at 50% more than what they are currently paying.) Kinda hard to scalp an Allstate policy when we cost alot more and have almost nil brand recognition.

Systems are slightly outdated and CBR (credit reports) aren't always accurate (bad credit on auto, but good credit on HO...?).

Overall, not a bad company and I wouldn't mind working there forever if they had a better understanding of the Southern market.

I was working at State Farm before (oddly enough, both companies are headquartered in the same town...) and the corporate culture there sucks. SF is all about numbers, not about quality. The only thing that keeps them alive is the brand. They treat their independent agents like dirt. I was looking at becoming a State Farm agent, but after seeing the way they are treated on top of the requirement of investing thousands into their brand, I decided they can keep their dog and pony show.

State Farm's biggest flaw is their marketing structure. In my town there are roughly 29 State Farm agents. When I would go into the office 20 min away, I would pass 4 other offices. This type of strategy of having an office on every corner was the Starbucks idea, which caused them to cannibalize their own market and they had to close stores; but since State Farm doesn't have much skin in the game, what do they care?

tl;dr- Country isn't bad. State Farm isn't worth your time.

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I think AAA is a place someone might learn but not a long term gig.

Was offered a position with them, turned it down. While the first year pay is good, I would be stuck only selling P&C and any life would go to a different department (???). After talking to a few who worked with them in the past, customer and employee retention is awful in this market. Production requirements, from what I was told, after the first year was depressing. Not a bad place to get your feet wet (they were offering $50k plus commission starting out here).

Also, it required 3 weeks of training in St. Louis. I hate St. Louis.:nah:

Their HO policies are overpriced here, so whenever I find someone with one of their policies... it's like money in the bank.
 
Luk, you don't make Country sound very good either FYI...in fact it feels/sounds like hell.

Granted... could be alot better... but could be worse too.

They are trying... I will give them that. Marketing is realizing these gaps and trying to fix them. They used to push buying leads, but they've backed off of it and updating technology.

Behind the times a little, but their heart is in the right place.

Way too conservative on their risk taking. I've tainted business/commercial relationships because their UW standards when there are a few minor things the owner needed to do to be compliant or credit score of the owner. Had a client willing to pay $1200 more in premium vs. what he already had with about the same policy and they decided to say that they won't write it over some cardboard boxes in storage.

"UW has denied covering you.."
"Why?"
"You have too many cardboard boxes in storage..."
"What?"
"Yeah... I know."

Hours of my life wasted.

Every company has their good and bad.

They consider vape shops too risky as well... and ecommerce.

People there are pretty awesome. Very down to earth and they really excel at agriculture products.

I've worked in hell. This isn't it. SF was much worse.
 
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