AfroPope
Expert
Hi all,
LONG POST AHEAD.
You may remember me from such classic threads as "I'm getting porched a lot." As more time went by without money in my pocket I dawned upon a great realization that I knew I would arrive at eventually: I'm getting porched a lot because the leads are total crap. And then the next great realization: I'm getting screwed.
Now again, of course I knew that this was borderline inevitable when I signed on with (wait for it) Bankers, but I drank the Kool-Aid and tried to do the best I could for my clients at the time. But I'm forming my exit plan right now, and I'll get to that at the end.
First a little reflection, and credit where credit is due: the folks at the PDX Office aren't scumbags like I've heard so many BLC agents are. People have gotten fired for pulling shady stuff, and I genuinely think they do, for the most part, care about their clients and try to do right by them. Now, some of the people who've been there a while are quite pushy and aggressive and try to tell others to do the same, but it doesn't seem to fly with most new hires, thank God. The training I got was pretty solid, but I realize I'm the exception rather than the rule.
But here's the downsides, which I am listing for any new agents who may stumble onto this: commission structures are pretty abysmal, especially when your products aren't competitive. Our only advantages are a KICK ASS Critical Illness policy and that we're the only issuer of Short-term Care in Oregon or Washington. Other than that, we suck. Our Med Supps are middle of the road in OR and EXTREMELY expensive in WA. Whole life isn't SUPER competitive on simplified issue and is absolute crap for FU above $30k - I didn't even know we HAD WL above $30k until I griped to another agent today.
Which brings me to my next point: since the WL above $30k is crap, you're pushed into selling IULs instead of WLs. The problem is that IULs are extremely complicated financial instruments and you can't just sell them like a WL, and you get the bare minimum of training on this fact, if any. Same with the EIAs - you get almost NO information about them other than the basics about how they work in cash. Underwriting is ludicrously strict (in what world does a 27-year-old get rated Table D for ADHD and a history of low-dose antidepressants?) which makes all of the FU policies an even tougher sell.
The big "I'm being screwed" moment, though, was when I realized that five or six people in the office are making $200k+ a year (one guy about $500k) while everyone else starves. If you're managing an office where more than half of your staff is failing, you shouldn't be managing an office - unless it's by design. Unless the entire business model is to hire as many warm bodies off the street as you can, even if they have NO business selling insurance, get them to sell a few policies, and then when they go broke, get discouraged, and quit, you send one of the "veteran agents" in to re-write or upsell the policies. Which, of course, is the business model. But if you're not in that boy's club, you get a fat stack of re-hashed recycled internet leads (for the senior market, really?) and are browbeaten for not turning piss-soaked straw into gold consistently. "Stop complaining about the leads," "everyone always complains about the leads," etc. Which, again, that's the business model. It's a big cool kids' club and you're not part of it.
I've seen people who are GOOD on the phones make 400+ dials in a day and not book an appointment. And when you do book an appointment, you're pushed into using that "I'm just bringing you information, it's not a sales meeting" line that's so obnoxiously deceptive (but hey it gets you in the door, I guess) instead of saying "my man, I am going to sell you some insurance." I tend to say the latter. But going back to being browbeaten, I actually got into a borderline shouting match with my Branch Manager once because he didn't think I was aggressive enough with someone in terms of getting the appointment. "You didn't acknowledge his concerns and move on," "you didn't control the conversation," blah blah blah - I was like "the guy told me to **** off and hung up, what was I supposed to say? What was I supposed to do!?" and that got pretty heated before another agent broke it up.
But in all of this, I realized some things about myself: I like this job and I'm good at it. Despite my terrible appointment setting ratio off crap leads, I have one of the best closing ratios in the office. I enjoy meeting with people and trying to help them. I've had multiple clients tell me that I don't "act like a traditional salesman" and that they could tell I had their best interests at heart. I aced my insurance exam on the first try and I know more already in six months than most agents learn in their first few years, according to some of the people from this forum I've talked to offline. Even before I started doing this I had agents tell me I should go into this field. I think they were right.
So I want to keep at it. But this misguided venture with BLC has rendered me almost destitute and I haven't got the seed money to start going independent (paying for leads, E&O, etc). I think my next move is going to be to find something stable with a salary for a while, get back on my feet financially, and then go independent. That sounds like the right next step for me, right? What do y'all think?
I apologize that this is such a LONG essay of a post, and I've seen a lot of these gripes before in bits and pieces on the forum. I've just had all this rattling around in my noggin for a few days now and wanted to put it out somewhere. All thoughts, comments, advice, compliments appreciated, especially the latter two
Thanks for reading!
LONG POST AHEAD.
You may remember me from such classic threads as "I'm getting porched a lot." As more time went by without money in my pocket I dawned upon a great realization that I knew I would arrive at eventually: I'm getting porched a lot because the leads are total crap. And then the next great realization: I'm getting screwed.
Now again, of course I knew that this was borderline inevitable when I signed on with (wait for it) Bankers, but I drank the Kool-Aid and tried to do the best I could for my clients at the time. But I'm forming my exit plan right now, and I'll get to that at the end.
First a little reflection, and credit where credit is due: the folks at the PDX Office aren't scumbags like I've heard so many BLC agents are. People have gotten fired for pulling shady stuff, and I genuinely think they do, for the most part, care about their clients and try to do right by them. Now, some of the people who've been there a while are quite pushy and aggressive and try to tell others to do the same, but it doesn't seem to fly with most new hires, thank God. The training I got was pretty solid, but I realize I'm the exception rather than the rule.
But here's the downsides, which I am listing for any new agents who may stumble onto this: commission structures are pretty abysmal, especially when your products aren't competitive. Our only advantages are a KICK ASS Critical Illness policy and that we're the only issuer of Short-term Care in Oregon or Washington. Other than that, we suck. Our Med Supps are middle of the road in OR and EXTREMELY expensive in WA. Whole life isn't SUPER competitive on simplified issue and is absolute crap for FU above $30k - I didn't even know we HAD WL above $30k until I griped to another agent today.
Which brings me to my next point: since the WL above $30k is crap, you're pushed into selling IULs instead of WLs. The problem is that IULs are extremely complicated financial instruments and you can't just sell them like a WL, and you get the bare minimum of training on this fact, if any. Same with the EIAs - you get almost NO information about them other than the basics about how they work in cash. Underwriting is ludicrously strict (in what world does a 27-year-old get rated Table D for ADHD and a history of low-dose antidepressants?) which makes all of the FU policies an even tougher sell.
The big "I'm being screwed" moment, though, was when I realized that five or six people in the office are making $200k+ a year (one guy about $500k) while everyone else starves. If you're managing an office where more than half of your staff is failing, you shouldn't be managing an office - unless it's by design. Unless the entire business model is to hire as many warm bodies off the street as you can, even if they have NO business selling insurance, get them to sell a few policies, and then when they go broke, get discouraged, and quit, you send one of the "veteran agents" in to re-write or upsell the policies. Which, of course, is the business model. But if you're not in that boy's club, you get a fat stack of re-hashed recycled internet leads (for the senior market, really?) and are browbeaten for not turning piss-soaked straw into gold consistently. "Stop complaining about the leads," "everyone always complains about the leads," etc. Which, again, that's the business model. It's a big cool kids' club and you're not part of it.
I've seen people who are GOOD on the phones make 400+ dials in a day and not book an appointment. And when you do book an appointment, you're pushed into using that "I'm just bringing you information, it's not a sales meeting" line that's so obnoxiously deceptive (but hey it gets you in the door, I guess) instead of saying "my man, I am going to sell you some insurance." I tend to say the latter. But going back to being browbeaten, I actually got into a borderline shouting match with my Branch Manager once because he didn't think I was aggressive enough with someone in terms of getting the appointment. "You didn't acknowledge his concerns and move on," "you didn't control the conversation," blah blah blah - I was like "the guy told me to **** off and hung up, what was I supposed to say? What was I supposed to do!?" and that got pretty heated before another agent broke it up.
But in all of this, I realized some things about myself: I like this job and I'm good at it. Despite my terrible appointment setting ratio off crap leads, I have one of the best closing ratios in the office. I enjoy meeting with people and trying to help them. I've had multiple clients tell me that I don't "act like a traditional salesman" and that they could tell I had their best interests at heart. I aced my insurance exam on the first try and I know more already in six months than most agents learn in their first few years, according to some of the people from this forum I've talked to offline. Even before I started doing this I had agents tell me I should go into this field. I think they were right.
So I want to keep at it. But this misguided venture with BLC has rendered me almost destitute and I haven't got the seed money to start going independent (paying for leads, E&O, etc). I think my next move is going to be to find something stable with a salary for a while, get back on my feet financially, and then go independent. That sounds like the right next step for me, right? What do y'all think?
I apologize that this is such a LONG essay of a post, and I've seen a lot of these gripes before in bits and pieces on the forum. I've just had all this rattling around in my noggin for a few days now and wanted to put it out somewhere. All thoughts, comments, advice, compliments appreciated, especially the latter two
Thanks for reading!
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