Please give me advice, I really need to make a change.

[multipledigits]

Hello Everyone!

I started as a 1099 Medicare agent with Assurance IQ about a year ago. I had never done sales or worked in the insurance industry and it was a pretty brutal start diving into this with no experience.

First, some background:

For anyone who doesn't know how Assurance works, I log in basically whenever I want and I start taking calls transferred from "guides" who pre-qualify every caller (they don't, and usually the transfers are people who were told by the guide that they can get a $9,000 stimulus check and they just need to talk to me about it, and about 25% of the time the caller doesn't even have Part A/B so they can't enroll anyway). Despite the soul-sucking bait and switch leads, my average call time to close the sale is about 45-55 minutes, and I usually make a sale ever 4-6 calls. All sales are MAPD, we don't do MS and rarely do PDP.

Even though I'm an "independent" 1099 agent, our commissions are heavily scaled back, and tiered. If I make 60 sales in one month then my commission is going to be $160 per sale. If I were to only make 20 sales in a month, then my commission is going to be $60 per sale. I had no idea going into this how much the actual commission is ($601 in 2023 for new sales, etc.). Naturally, there are zero residual/renewal commissions.

After a series of disastrous (for agents, good for executives) decisions, including cutting everyone's AEP commissions down several tiers at the last minute without telling any of us and then paying it once people started threatening with lawsuits and production tanked, and after almost a year of "looks like our payroll department messed up today and we can't pay you for another week", I have decided that perhaps this gig is no longer for me.

After doing some googling, I discovered Ritter IM, and it sounds like maybe what I'm looking for. They have an open release policy as opposed to Assurance's 4-month waiting period to be released. And they contract with A LOT more carriers for MA and for Med Supp. I've never sold Medicare Supplement but I really want to try it. And since I'll probably only be able to sell MS while I'm waiting to get released from Assurance (since I have Humana, UHC, Wellcare, etc. through Assurance), I figured that this may be a good opportunity to get really good at it.

I've never worked with another FMO nor have I ever bought/sourced my own leads, so I have no idea about what I should expect. From what I've gathered so far, it looks like I should buy direct mail leads. Ritter offers "exclusive" internet leads but I don't know about the quality just because I can't really find any reviews of it anywhere online and their MS leads are $55 per lead so I'm a bit hesitant considering I've seen a bunch of people say "exclusive" leads aren't actually exclusive and they're bad, etc.

I don't really know if there are any other options for me. I wish I would've started with an actual agency that mentors and helps agents, but who knows if that even really exists. My experience with Assurance has left me a bit cynical but I'm really holding out for the hope that it was just a bad experience and not every FMO/agency is like them.

As for the advice part, I'm just wondering what I should do. I feel like I'm panicking a bit right now because the sales managers at Assurance drill it into our heads daily that Assurance is basically as good as it will ever get for agents, and SMs saying things like "at least you're not cold calling!" etc.

I can handle objections, I can handle angry/frustrated people on the phone, I don't mind talking to people who already have a plan because most of the time it seems like I can get them to switch anyway. My frustration with the leads is that these people don't even want me talking to them in the first place and after a year of this, I am exhausted and fully mentally strained. I like helping people. I don't want my job to make me feel like a scummy scam artist. I want to build relationships with my clients instead of making them feel like another number. I would love to do things like send birthday cards, reach out about new products, etc. and be an actual agent if that makes any sense. But that's not in the cards for me at Assurance.

I want to know the following things (from any of you experienced Medicare agents):
- Am I being ungrateful to Assurance? Is it really the best gig for insurance agents?
- Am I wrong to complain about the leads? They are "free" after all.
- I'm contracted with several MS carriers now through Ritter. Should I try direct mail (T65) or these exclusive internet leads through Ritter, or something like Lead Heroes?
- Is the bait and switch medicare ad thing pretty normal/standard for the industry?
- Is it possible for me to just speak to people who are turning 65 or who actually indicate that they are interested in hearing about Medicare products?

I am very motivated, and I know this industry involves a lot of risk. I just want to know that I'm investing my time, money, effort into the right things instead of wasting it away with Assurance. I can work on whatever it is I need to perfect or do 24/7, partly because this is the only job I can do right now and I have no other choice but to make it work. I am fully willing to learn.

Thank you for your help and advice!!

 

[rmhaire]

Is it possible for me to just speak to people who are turning 65 or who actually indicate that they are interested in hearing about Medicare products?

The short answer to this question is yes. Real medicare agents do it every day.

Your problem is that you've spent the last year with one of the armpits in the industry and still have a lot of learning to do.

First of all, go independent. You don't need a large agency. Why give them the money?

Find some more FMOs. I use 5 or 6. I'd suggest reaching out to Todd King. He's on here and he can help you.

As for leads, your friends were right about exclusive leads. There's no such thing. Find a FMO that offers the T65 app. It's free and you can knock them until you get your contracts moved.

Find a guy on here that goes by Somarco. He's a walking encyclopedia on medicare supplements. Follow him. It creeps him out.

Search out Radius CRM. You'll be making outbound calls on Supps. They've got the best out there.

$55 for a direct mail lead? I can get DM leads for $25 but don't. I get TM leads for $11 to $12.

And finally, hop over to the senior forum with this stuff. That's where all of us medicare guys hang out.

Good Luck!

 

[DHK]

Follow him. It creeps him out.

 

[DonP]

The short answer to this question is yes. Real medicare agents do it every day.

Your problem is that you've spent the last year with one of the armpits in the industry and still have a lot of learning to do.

First of all, go independent. You don't need a large agency. Why give them the money?

Find some more FMOs. I use 5 or 6. I'd suggest reaching out to Todd King. He's on here and he can help you.

As for leads, your friends were right about exclusive leads. There's no such thing. Find a FMO that offers the T65 app. It's free and you can knock them until you get your contracts moved.

Find a guy on here that goes by Somarco. He's a walking encyclopedia on medicare supplements. Follow him. It creeps him out.

Search out Radius CRM. You'll be making outbound calls on Supps. They've got the best out there.

$55 for a direct mail lead? I can get DM leads for $25 but don't. I get TM leads for $11 to $12.

And finally, hop over to the senior forum with this stuff. That's where all of us medicare guys hang out.

Good Luck!

Where do you get fixed cost Dm mail Medicare leads for $25 each ? I mail over 100 k mailers a yr and the avg cost is $51 a lead . Whoever is giving you $25 a lead is reselling those or has very deceitful language to get higher response rates . 1% is avg response rate . $ 500 plus a thousand to mail .The orginal postet . You were a order taker at assurance . On your own will take much more skill and money to generate and close leads .

 

[rmhaire]

Where do you get fixed cost Dm mail Medicare leads for $25 each ?

I don't. In fact I specifically posted that I don't get them. But that doesn't change the fact that they are there if I want them. And for $25 each. I only get TM.

 

[Todd King]

Multipledigits....as suggested, reach out to me. I can help you with most everything you need.

I'm not usually one to put down another FMO, but Ritter has a bad habit of not returning calls or returning emails. If you can put up with that, then Ritter is just fine.

 

[DonP]

I don't. In fact I specifically posted that I don't get them. But that doesn't change the fact that they are there if I want them. And for $25 each. I only get TM.

What fmo is offering you $25 fixed cost Medicare direct mail ?They have to be cost sharing those ?

 

[Baseball7]

I get my MA leads free based off MA production.

 

[Terre K Beach]

Hello Everybody,

I am a frustrated female drummer singer who is looking for an honest company to sell Life or Med Sup or annuities or something similar? Does anyone know about Assurance IQ 1099 agent program? I know they are not a good company but they changed right away after being hired 3 months ago. I loved the inbound call leads a lot. It seems like they pay you then they take all the money back so I really do not think I am making anything. They are trying to get all the agents to be a flexx agents now to sell Medicare too but I'm pretty sure I don't want to jump into that since there would be even less money I imagine. They are mass hiring and changed everything they said once I was hired and got through all the unpaid training and added more licensing in 19 states. I paid thousands and there is only 2 managers who are also new for over 180 new agents. Blind leading the blind. You can not get to talk to anyone. They also made the new pay scale EVQ so hard to understand it would take an advanced calculus class to figure it out. Its pretty bad. I thought I was doing pretty well and they tell me I am, just selling the life so far only 2 months and made 35 sales only to find out that 12 have cancelled and can not seem to find out why. I am frustrated and did not want to get back into Medicare due to all the regulations even though I sold 250 policies in 8 months for Premium Choice company about a year or so ago. I left when I discovered that they throw their agents under the bus and are not legally doing anything correct per CMS plus they are not paying their agents what they promised either. It was hourly 22 per hour plus spiffs 50.00 per sale but full time and I'm not wanting to work 9 hours per day. I have tons of sales experience and a good conversion ratio but all in all I just did not want to loose my shirt on leads. Considering David Duford's agency but not sure about him either. Does anyone have any advise? Super frustrated female drummer who wants to spend more time on music and less time on bad expensive leads and companies who are not honest. ??? Please help or advise as to what direction I should go? I have many other opportunities American United Insurance wants me to sign up with them this week and I'm afraid to get appointed. I am already with Kingdom Insurance group for Medicare Advantage and they promised the moon too. Any advise would be greatly appreciated! ???

 

[Baseball7]

Shoot me a text and I’ll be happy to share some advice and insight