- 1,912
HA! I remember when Ren and Stimpy was an actual kids show. Now its like the crudest thing on TV.
Telesales - Brutal Truth
- Thread starter Prtzl
- Start date
HA! I remember when Ren and Stimpy was an actual kids show. Now its like the crudest thing on TV.
- Thread starter
- #252
What are the "negatives"..?
I followed the link and the Telesales opportunity says you are "currently" focusing on FE.." Does this mean the company may shift it's focus from FE to something else in the future?
Just like any venture there will be negatives. I have been in the FE market for many years and got tired of grinding it out in the field. So after a lot of deliberation I decided to jump into the telesales market. This was not a side show or a part time attempt but how I fed my family. While I certainly did enjoy not driving all over the place and it was way less overhead each week, I am now back in the field. From a purely financial perspective my experience in telesales was horrendous. But it did learn a few things along the way that are useful in face to face sales.
Why was it a financial disaster? Three reasons come to mind. Number 1 is the absolutely awful placement and persistency. My trainer said a good goal was 70% for both - which translates into half of your sales not being on the books in a year. The last time I looked I had about 40% still paying. Number 2 is that we were selling a product that was not competitively priced. Add to this the underwriting limitations of offering a single product. So when we had a diabetic with neuropathy I had to offer them a 3 year rop rather than write it with RNA like I would in the field. Neither of these things help with the persistency. Number 3 is that my house started to feel like a prison. You sit there with a headset waiting for a beep to let you know that it's time to perform. Sometimes you wait 2 minutes but sometimes the wait was 2 hours. There were plenty of days where I had only one or two calls in an entire day. I thought this would give me some freedom to catch up with friends and things between calls like we do in the field between appointments. Unfortunately you can't really do that when you are sitting there not knowing when the next call will come through.
Ultimately it wasn't for me. The only thing that kept me afloat during this little science experiment was all the business I wrote face to face previously. And I'm not posting this to bash any platform or carrier but to give some additional insight for the guy that may be thinking about getting off the road. For me the grass looked greener until I got there and now I am thrilled to jump in the car every morning.
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- 1,912
Well I put "negatives" in quotation marks, because I'm not convinced they are negatives, but they could be perceived that way from marketers. Our competition surely targets them as negatives, but we are totally up front about what NorthStar has to offer and what the cost is to the agent.
1. We offer lower than street contracts for free leads. We own the lead company, so the quality is the highest in the industry. We make money when you make sales, not when you buy leads.
2. We charge a monthly technology fee, which is minimal, probably less than what you'd spend on gas money in a month if you're selling f2f.
3. We require agents to sign a non compete and don't vest them day one to protect our investment. If an agent quits, its usually within the first couple of months, so in that case the "perceived loss" is minimal.
We've always been in final expense telesales, and we'll always be in final expense telesales. We dont cross sell, or upsell, any other product. So im not sure where you read that, but I wouldnt read too much into it.
We are seven years into this and have yet to sell anything other than final expense.
- 19,667
This would be a negative to any thinking person;
http://www.insurance-forums.net/for...m-insurance-marketing-joke-beware-t30017.html
Great story. Telesales is discussed often here but few posts are from people who have done it or are doing it currently. And you've done both, no less. Face to face is the personal touch we bring and the value we offer.
I think of my car insurance agent. How last time he really went to work for me as the old company had tripled my rate when we added my daughter to the policy. Problem was I had had an at-fault accident not long before. But he found a company that took me at my old rate (including surcharges for the accident and my daughter). I'll actually be paying less if I can stay accident free for another year and a half. Can Geico do that? I know it sounds old fashioned but people should always insist on having an agent. They ain't saving any money going without one. In fact, not having one can be very expensive.
p.s.- Shameful how the companies lie and tell people they are saving them money by cutting us out.
- 1,912
Oh Hi, John, its nice to see you come out from under the bridge to Troll me.
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I think you bring up some awesome points, and as one of the few on here that has done telesales, I think new agents need to read what you wrote and really consider the pro vs. con.
There are many that have never sold over the phone a day in their life that have an "opinion".
But your post goes to prove that a successful face to face agent may not want to get into telesales, and I completely agree.
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I think you bring up some awesome points, and as one of the few on here that has done telesales, I think new agents need to read what you wrote and really consider the pro vs. con.
There are many that have never sold over the phone a day in their life that have an "opinion".
But your post goes to prove that a successful face to face agent may not want to get into telesales, and I completely agree.
- 19,667
No one has to come from anywhere to make a fool of you. You have done that under both of your screen names here. Once a crook, always a crook.
You will sliver back into hiding in no time.
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