State Farm to Independent Questions....

iaminsman

Expert
47
I have been working for a State Farm Agent for the past 10 years. I currently have my P&C, L&H and Series 6 in FL. I have wanted to go indy for a long time focusing on L&H. I have finally decided to take the plunge and signed up through Health Choice One based on the recommendations on this site. My boss, however, has been trying to tell me all the horror stories of how over 90% of people will fail in this business by going independent and he thinks that I should take the $25k salary + bonus' he gives and be happy to stay. I have a hard time believing that even in this "rotten economy" as he continue's to remind me, that it is possible to net $50k per year. Please give opinion's and let me know how everyone else feels. I am an above average sales person with a ton of drive- but he is making me second guess myself. Thanks
 
Yes, the failure rates are high however mainly due to:

1) Lack of a marketing plan
2) Lack of effort
3) Lacking a small business owner's mentality

There are other "x" factors however the success rate is high for people who are committed.
 
I am committed, especially due to 3 daughters and a wife. What are the other "x" factors besides committment?
 
If you're selling online one of the X factors would be your voice - some people are interesting to listen to, show confidence and conviction without arrogance and others simply have no phone presence. With no phone presence selling online is near impossible.
 
I am committed, especially due to 3 daughters and a wife. What are the other "x" factors besides committment?

In your case, it looks like they would be:

1) What are you going to do for income while you're ramping up? Nothing ever happens as fast as you would like it to.

2) Do you have some capital to invest in a marketing plan?
 
iaminsman - I was recently with Health Choice and can tell you that they gave me ZERO support whatsoever. And by recently, I mean I just left them this week. I had experience before them and that helped, but if I did not have that experience, I would have been dead in the h20. What part of the state are you in? I would be more than happy to share with you any info you might want to know !!!
I AM NOT a recruiter, but if you want to talk about thsi e-mail me your contact info to [email protected]
 
In your case, it looks like they would be:

1) What are you going to do for income while you're ramping up? Nothing ever happens as fast as you would like it to.

2) Do you have some capital to invest in a marketing plan?

1. I have several cases that I will be writing within the 1st week to start. And I have approximately 6 months of savings to pay for bills, etc while getting commissions coming in.

2. Yes, I have money set aside specifically to market. I will be buying lists for cold calling-flyers for local area's. I also will be doing some AOR changes on some BCBS groups.
 
iaminsman - I was recently with Health Choice and can tell you that they gave me ZERO support whatsoever. And by recently, I mean I just left them this week. I had experience before them and that helped, but if I did not have that experience, I would have been dead in the h20. What part of the state are you in? I would be more than happy to share with you any info you might want to know !!!
I AM NOT a recruiter, but if you want to talk about thsi e-mail me your contact info to [email protected]

What kind of support do you mean? Do you mean with submitting the apps and getting through underwriting or do you mean with leads, etc??
 
Iaminsman,

I'm not sure who SRQ Willie is, but I find it hard to believe he did not get support from HCO. We have daily live webinar training on all of our products and sales methods as well as several account managers available every day to assist with quoting, sales, product selection, underwriting, etc… We answer our phones live 99% of the time and have a staff of 19 to service our agents. I have not received a request from anyone this week to leave HCO, so I suspect this information from SRQ is an attempt to recruit you to another organization.

Feel free to call me anytime. You’ll be able to see for yourself what we are all about and I’m confident you’ll be very pleased with what you find.

:o)
 
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