Shorter Learning Curve. Mass, Agla, Insphere and Asurea

[insurancemet]

It seems it would be a shorter learning curve to share agla products rather than mass mutual approaching people as a financia advisor rather than just meeting insurance needs. Would it be foolish to go from Mass to Agla? It seems Agla would be an easier sell. Thoughts? Pls advice

Also it looks like Insphere would have more structure than Mass.
What do you all think?

If one wants to just meet insurance needs and just want to learn life, would it be better to with someone like Insphere and or Agla.

Seems like Mass, Northwestern is a longer training learning curve.
What do you all think?

 

[xrac]

Depends on who you market is. The old-line career mutuals are mostly for the upper income crowd. AGLA is more for the middle to lower end.

 

[DHK]

insurancemet,

I think your biggest problem is in trying to avoid making a bad decision. You need to PICK ONE and stick with it for a while.

Most agents go from one career agency to another - either until they find the right fit, or they give up on the career agencies and just go "indy".

Now, that said, I just signed on with Mutual of Omaha's local career agency and just got my online access. I feel like a kid in a candy store! They have a TON of stuff that was NOT available to me as a MassMutual career agent. Mutual of Omaha seems to have a simplified business model for maximum effectiveness (compared to the vast resources and available tools for purchase for each agent with Mass).

Anyway... PICK ONE! Stick with it for a while. Learn what you can and then move on to the next one.

You will NOT know everything you need to know before you sign on with a company. So just jump on in and get going!

 

[insurancemet]

Thanks Xrac, DHK. Dhk~ seeing your post makes me want to jump to MoO. This is really what I am looking for a simple system. Mass seems complicated somehow. I can't seem to get motivated by this leap concept and still not seeing the value of it maybe. In our Mass office there is a lack of product training. I am told to just get appts and out in the field and if we have a case, that is where and when I will learn. The other Mass office has more trainings. I am not sure I really want to be a financial rep...pushing mainly whole life...maybe I just still don't see totally the value of it and no one is really showing me.

I'm thinking maybe just term/whole life blend and medicare etc might be a better fit for me. I am feeling lost in the Mass system and I just don't want to call all these people yet still not fully believing or knowing the value of whole life. They seem to want people to invest a lot into whole life products. I'm not sure if I myself buy that right now. I am more motivated by the fact that whole life provides death benefits..

Mass products again not really knowing yet how their whole life stands out among others, other than a higher div I am told, looks like 1 negative thing is they are more expensive, more higher fees but I could be wrong.

DHK..I am soo ready to do that just jump right in but I really want more structured training..instead of being pretty much left to myself to just set appts then get trained more on the products and how it appropriates to the client later after I get the appts....maybe I am thinking this all wrong.. I don't know.

 

[DHK]

We've had plenty of conversations about various companies.

MassMutual has a lot of "diffusion" in it. Too many things that want to take up your time. Precision Growth Newsletter

However, also at Mass, they don't want to spend a lot of time with you until you can prove that you can set and get appointments. Then you should take your MANAGER with you on the appointment as the manager should NOT be taking a commission cut. Every other agent would take a %.

There's little emphasis on term insurance - a decent product to help you build a clientele. Because of the limited insurance product line, Mass really needed a way to help agents make money faster... so they partnered with LEAP. Sell larger policies and you'll make more money.

That's their new agent business model.

Maybe it's also the business model of most mutual insurance companies - to have the agents buy all their tools and supplies and eventually have what they need - at the agent's cost to build their business.

Mutual of Omaha is not a "true mutual" and doesn't have the greatest CV life policy. But they've got a simple agent portal, a FREE agent website, FREE email templates (compliance approved), a very low-cost CRM program that integrates with the company email system, and much, much more! (I'm still discovering all that's there!)

Mass has a LOT of reps - many who have transferred from other companies. They need to 'cater' to them as well. That's why you have over 10 'approved' software packages - to cater to the producers. It doesn't make it any easier for the new person to get started.

I would *think* that AGLA may be similar. I have no knowledge on insphere or asurea.

 

[Josh]

Definitely take Insphere off the table.

 

[fcorcoran]

Whole life for the big life. Lots of money in it for the agent, but not always right for the client. Graded polices are good for older with health issues. If young, I go with term almost always.

 

[creid58]

Asurea has a strategy focused on niche marketing lead programs for new agents. In essence, they (we) get you really good at a particular niche market inside the insurance industry. This way you earn earn immediate income (good income) which still affords you the opportunity to continue to learn and develop yourself as a true insurance professional in the business. I am sure the other companies have their own strategies that work for them - but this has served us very well for a long time. Hope it helps!

 

[insurancemet]

Thanks to all who replied. At creid 58, do you have face to face local training. At Dhk, looks like with Mass, one can't really succeed lest they embrace the leap concept,looks like if someone has the money they will always try to sell big whole life policy. I wonder if whole life has been sold traditionally.this way and they just systemized it in which case it is confusing since agents don't always agree that whole life is th right prod for the client. What in MoO would you sell in place of whole life since they don't sell it thru their agents. Was it universal life if I remember correctly.

 

[DHK]

You won't hear this from the folks at LEAP, but I think they took John Savage's approach and "modernized" it.

If you want to get an idea of what John Savage did (which he did for over 25 years before his death in 1993), click on this link: John Savage System (Yes, the girl is annoying - just fill out the form and download the free mp3.)

Listen to the mp3 with a paper and pen. Draw the circles as he outlines them. You'll begin to see a correlation between PS&G and "banking, investments and insurance" that John Savage does. To see it, buy John's book "High Touch Selling". You can probably find a copy on Amazon.

John Savage is a master at simplicity. LEAP make it much more methodical... thereby more complex. Yes, there's a lot of "financial engineering", but you don't have to do it that way to sell a permanent life product.

John Savage talked about savings. LEAP talks about death benefit.

Mutual of Omaha's products are a UL and some guaranteed non-lapse UL policies. With the UL, I would be sure that the product is going to be well-funded as UL has a rising cost of insurance within the product.

I don't start my training with MoO until next week. And my district manager reminds me a LOT of John Savage and his methodology. It's his own spin on it, but it is very similar.

Every agent is 'brainwashed' in a particular way. The question is: is your kool-aid good enough to sell to someone else and earn a decent living while doing so?

BTW, when I compare the resources that MoO offers each agent, compared to Mass... it makes me think that Mass agents are helping the company to offer larger dividends because Mass doesn't seem to invest a lot into their people. Yes, their people get discounts on their systems and training... but it still comes out of the agent's pockets. (When you have over 7,000 agents nationwide, that can represent a large buying pool for many vendors - so of course, Mass would offer a discount so they don't have to invest.) This allows Mass to declare larger dividends when agents are self-financing their business tools. This may be common with other larger mutual career agency systems, but I can't speak with authority on that.

Just my own (probably bitter) observation.