Recent ad - real or not?

[Guest]

I was cut short with him (client called) and Emailed asking him why I would take $100 comm for a coventry sale when street level is $330. That is $230 for an appointment.

They never emailed back. Go figure.

There is no way they are setting up that many quality appointments. Unless you have 1 appointment in St. Louis, and the next in Kansas City (4 hours apart one way).

Exactly...the agent is getting ripped off, new or not. Plus, there is no way you are getting those many appts in a centralized area.
Like James said learning this is not difficult...learn a couple products, do some cold calling and make that same $1500 a week on 3-6 appts. and own the business.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

That's why I posted whether or not it was do-able. Even in a small state like MD it's a five hour drive from tip to end. I'd have to assume that 8 appointments are scattered all over the state and not in the proper order.

That means you have a 9am in southern MD, then drive an hour north for your 11:30, then an hour back south for your 2pm. Also, the girls scheduling this stuff don't know the distance between appointments. They might set a 10am, then a 12:30 pm two hours away. I dealt with that when I did home improvements and got my appointments for the day; "Hey, how am I driving from Frederick to Mechanicsville in an hour when it's a two hour drive?"

Unless those 8 appointment were all in the same vicinity I can't see it working logistically. The reality would be it's a 16 hour day with all the driving.

Also agreed that's a major in-house call center scheduling 8 appointments a day - hence the crappy cut of commissions. It would cost a small fortune to run a call center that large.

And by the way, the agent I'm speaking with already called and didn't milk that much info during the call. He has a meeting with someone on Friday.

 

[midwestbroker]

I just got off the phone with Eddie in NJ and he said I cannot be part of their program since I am already selling MA plans. Conflict of interest according to him.

Ah shucks! To make $1000 a week with them is 10 sales, with CIP its 3.3.

He told me that they were just calling the seniors, setting the appointments, email you with them the night before, and you go sell. I am sure it is a script like "the agent will be in your area, do you want him to drop off some information to you?"

Mega marketing in the senior market!

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Lol. Well, actually the goal is to just book the appoinment - hence the 8 appointments a day to probably get 2 sales. I'm sure a few houses you go into would say "Just leave the brochures on the table and I'll read 'em when I get a chance. That's sweetie!"

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Mega marketing in the senior market!

Yes, I remember my Mega "just book it" training for setting appointments. That ended after a two hour drive and the lady who answered weighed at least 300 pounds and carted around an oxygen tank.

After that I qualified to the point where it was all but a done deal by the time I got to the house.

 

[J.R.]

I see your point - even though they might actually make $1,500 in a week they still shouldn't be getting ripped off. And if that's the equivalent of me paying new health agents 5% then it's a rip-off. This new agent I'm in contact with is digging deeper - like making sure there's no charge for the appointments. If there's a cost for the appointments it might be something to walk away from.

I don't envy new agents. I really don't see a lot of legitimate ethical agencies out there offering fair starting commissions and free leads. This is another case of an agent who doesn't have any money and needs free leads to start.

What might be best is just taking the offer (if the appointments are free) and busting butt, making that $1,500 a week and simply saving money. Then you can blow out when you're little more financially stable.

Lord - if anyone started an agency with a sole purpose of getting new agents off the ground, ran it ethically and offered a fair deal they'd be filthy rich.

What in your experience do you consider to be a fair deal to new agents?

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

A fair deal for everyone would be a GA at 30% giving 15% to freshly licensed newbies and flooding them with leads - at least 15 quality exclusive leads per day. That's a fair deal. The agent can make good money and the GA is properly compensated.

Remember that time is money. An agency's time and effort to train and support has a dollar figure on it. This is how I got ravaged last summer when I got the dumb idea to "mass hire." Right....training and supporting 20 agents is an 8 hour a day job. And when only 4 of those 20 agents are writing anything and I'm only stroking 5% that's an ass-kicking. Then it all gets chaged back since most new agents are in "sales mode" and don't work the correct way.

Like I said - everyone wants a top contract but they also want intense training, support and leads. At a 5% override I spend 2 hours a day training and support and they don't write business I'm physically losing money - and some agents don't understand that.

 

[J.R.]

I see your point - even though they might actually make $1,500 in a week they still shouldn't be getting ripped off. And if that's the equivalent of me paying new health agents 5% then it's a rip-off. This new agent I'm in contact with is digging deeper - like making sure there's no charge for the appointments. If there's a cost for the appointments it might be something to walk away from.

I don't envy new agents. I really don't see a lot of legitimate ethical agencies out there offering fair starting commissions and free leads. This is another case of an agent who doesn't have any money and needs free leads to start.

What might be best is just taking the offer (if the appointments are free) and busting butt, making that $1,500 a week and simply saving money. Then you can blow out when you're little more financially stable.

Lord - if anyone started an agency with a sole purpose of getting new agents off the ground, ran it ethically and offered a fair deal they'd be filthy rich.

I see your point and agree with your thoughts on newly licensed agents. I would also add some type of incentive to keep them with the agency based on a tier structure. Once they realize that they can get a 25% contract after writing $75,000 (Assurant) there needs to be an incentive (i.e., leads, support, commission level, etc.) to keep them working and happy.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Again, agents need to realize that it's not all about max commission. I personally know a few agents who did very well under GAs and MGAs at 20% who had some good support and comaraderie and blew out to get the 25% - did next to nothing. There are also those agents who will write less business as they get commission raises so they can work less and make the same amount of money. I'm in that catagory. I was writing Mega at 10% and working 10 hour days. Now I'm working 3 to 4 hours a day at 25%.

25% is nice if you can handle sitting at home by yourself with no forces motivating you. For me it's the fear of my wife kicking my ass. And although you might laught at that, it works. I can't imagine screwing off for a week and not turning in a deal. She'd literally say "so what the hell have you been doing all day?"

 

[Frank Stastny]

The main problem I have with their concept is that they are apparently convincing a new agent that he/she can effectively run 8 appointments in one day, every day and do an effective job of educating the prospect.

The average Med Supp appointment will take me about an hour and thirty to forty-five minutes. The maximum I want and can handle effectively in one day is four and some days that is a lot.

I guess eight presentations a day would be possible if they were all next door to each other and it was a slam, bam, thank you mam type of presentation. That could be why the new clients are not going to remember the agent. I want to be remembered.

Maybe that is why I'm not selling more Advantage plans.

New agents do need to make money fast or they are going to get discouraged and quit. The agency could add another $50.00 to the hundred and just take an extra couple of months before they are wealthy enough to retire.

Am I the only one who can't handle eight presentations in a day? If I am then please educate me. I generally don't schedule appointments at 2am.