Un-sure...about ins.

INSAZ

New Member
3
Hello everyone....i'm a 37 yr old arizona noob here. I also don't know how to spell :lol:

I usually type everything in all caps so i can see...but i won't today.

I know nothing about the ins. industry.....

I am wanting to get into the insurance industry. I have been doing the automotive industry for 17 years. My body cannot do it anymore. i want to go in this the right way...right the first time. We all make mistakes...i just want to cut that % down as much as I can right off the bat.

I want a new career that i can help people in need. I figure, just like cars...insurance is a must have in all aspects of life. i do love to help people. i am married and have 2 kids as well.

Anyway..... I found NAA in my local paper. called the # and they said i had to get a licence and after 30 days my own E&O insurance. i said fine...no problem.

I want to start on with my new venture but after finding your old forum... :lol: :lol: acouple of you guys crack me up. Anyway, what i am wanting to know is....

How do i know what is a marketing scam and what is a legimate co. to start with. The deal i get from the old forum is the managers get the good leads and the noobs get the old leads...the gentleman I met lastnight at midnight told me there are no NAA reps in phx and would like me to start, get me trained and make me a manager and recruiter.....

I just don't know who to trust and is the field worth getting into?

the NAA rep i met was at an IHOP at midnite last night....after talking to him after 2 1/2 hours..I finally get the "you have to buy your leads for $20.00 a lead". he was flying out from phx back to tenn where his office is. I asked him why he flew in to write business from tenn. he went to lake hav., kingman and bullhead city. Because he had nobody here to do it....i find that hard to believe....

I just find it hard to believe that thier are no NAA reps here in Az. That he has to fly in from out of state to write business.


so at this point...i'm pretty much lost on what to do...who to trust....where to start.

I need to do something quick...i have a family and i dont want to return to working on cars again....


Any advice would been appreciated....

Thanks
 
Ask your manager to show you proof of what he made when we was a rep in the field. He should have a 1099. If he didn't make great money, he can't tell you that you'll make great money.
 
Also ask him to break down a typical day hour by hour when you're new. These are things some managers try to avoid talking about.

The question would be posed like this:

"Ok, so I take the NAA job, get trained then I wake up on Monday. Tell me what I'd be doing on Monday hour by hour."

He wants you to buy $2 recycled leads? You can make 40 calls in an hour. That's $80 in leads right there. What are you gonna do with the other 7 hours?

Also tell him that you'd like to watch him make calls off the $2 leads as part of training. Heck, tell him you'll buy the first batch but you'd like to see him make the calls so you can hear what he says to people on the phone.

It should all get pretty interesting at that point.
 
I too was in the same situation you were in about 3 years ago. I was in the automotive biz and wanted something new.

Here is what I would suggest:

Decide what you want to sell. Life, health, disability, senior market, P&C (auto and home) etc. See what interestes you.

Buy or get some publications for the insurance industry. One publication that I get that usually covers various products is Agent Sales Journal. They also hvae a lot of ads for various products and brokerage firms looking for agents. Plus it is free.

After you get those study study and study!

There are a lot of very smart people on this board so ask questions! Do not assume.

If you want to make a smart move, then make sure that you have some money to live off of for a while since it will take some time to get a steady income coming in.

Hope this helps!
 
The 1099 could be deceiving even if he showed it to you, which I personally wouldn't. The problem is that he might have been writing on a 100% contract and he could claim he earned that money on a 50% contract which would suggest twice the sales as he actually had.

I find it hard to believe there isn't an NAA rep there too. I've mailed there and couldn't get a good enough response rate to be profitable. NAA can apparently get by on a much lower response rate than I do because I don't charge for leads and have expenses to cover. When I can't get at least a 3% or better response rate, I know there is a lot of competition and/or someone is mailing locally and beating me to the punch. $20 per lead is probably going to turn out to be unprofitable, to use a kind word. I've hired quite a few ex-NAA guys and they were paying anywhere from $13-16 per lead, but I've never heard $20. The most important piece of information about a lead is the date it was returned. They lose a LOT of value once they are 2 weeks old, especially in an area like Phoenix where other agents will have already called them several times by then.

If they don't publish the date on the leads (which I do) ask him how old they are and say "I guess I'll find out when I start calling them and asking how long ago they sent them in, but I need to know this up front. I don't want to waste my time and your time with training only to quit in the first week because I find out the leads are old." Be careful too, I know agents that have walked away from themIn most markets, I am beating NAA in the door by about 2 weeks, so that will tell you something about their leads.

It is also reckless for him to be talking about you recruiting and managing when you aren't even licensed yet. Nothing personal, but how are you going to help agents learn the finer points of the products and how to overcome objections, manage a schedule, etc. if you are new to it yourself? That might tell you something about the depth of experience the guy sitting across from your pancakes has.

In a nutshell, I'd walk away from that one my friend. If it weren't for the $20 per lead, it would be okay because you would at least have a selling system under your belt. I don't agree with their approach, but it is a system and it's a lot better than the captive situation where the district manager couldn't sell cotton candy at a carnival. They want you to either do the old friends and family crap, referrals, or you work "leads" that not much better than just buying a filtered list of names from experian.

With any sort of lead program available to you, you can realistically make over $50,000 in your first year, and if you can get a steady supply of leads and you turn out to be a strong closer with excellent follow-through skills on your pending business you can make over $100,000. I have a guy I hired over a year ago who wasn't even licensed (I've only ever hired 4 unlicensed agents) and he will make about $140,00 this year. It's like all those ads you see. I could say "make over $140,000 in your first year!" just because it CAN be done, but the fact is that it's rarified air so you should lower your expectations somewhat. It is an industry where if you figure things out and are business minded enough to start growing an agency you can make $300 - $500K a year and up. There aren't many other careers where someone with a high school diploma can make more than a lot of doctors and lawyers.
 
The truth is simple. You can make fantastic money with any agency. I saw UGA agents making over $200,000 a year and they were not managers.

The truth is YOU control your pay, not a company or agency. YOU need a good work ethic and good closing skills. You also need to strongly believe in your product.

I read a lot of "can I make good money?" posts here. The answer? You'll make between zero and $200,000 selling insurance and only you will determine what your pay will be.

I have one agent who after one month bitched me out. Said I lied to him about how much he could make and he didn't submit a deal. I also had another agent make over $3,000 last week and she worked about 20 hours.

Here's another truth: You can hire, train and support 100 agents. 2 of them will make it.
 
John,

I agree with the point you are making here in general but there does have to be some lead generation program in place and there needs to be support for the agent as he/she adapts to the selling system. With regard to your last statement though, I find the following recruiting numbers to hold pretty true for me:

Of 20 agents hired and trained (and I actually am selective and don't just hire everyone who comes down the pike).

1-2 superstars

6 who will consistently meet or exceed targets and stay on board at least one year.

4 who struggle that I try to bring up to par, but ultimately let go.

The rest are so bad in the first two weeks that I cut my losses immediately. These are the ones that no show the clients, try to sell them on the phone, take a week to call in an exam, can't get an app filled out right (EVER), and so on. I have people call behind the agents to do a quick QC on the agent and get feedback from the client, so not much gets by me for long.
 
THANKS FOR THE REPLIES :P


IS THIS NAA CO. WORTH STARTING WITH? ARE THEY A LEGIT CO.?

I GUESS THE PHONE CALL AND THE GUY ASKING ME TO MEET HIM AT MIDNITE WAS SOMETHING I AM NOT USED TO....A JOB INTERVIEW AT AN IHOP AT MIDNITE.... :lol:


I JUST LEFT HIM WITH A BAD FEELING.....

I AM A VERY HARD WORKER...AND THIS IS SOMETHING I WANT TO DO.

IS NAA THE WAY TO GO? OR SHOULD I SEEK OUT SOMEPLACE LIKE FARMERS AND SO ON?

THANKS AGAIN...
 
INSAZ said:
THANKS FOR THE REPLIES :P


IS THIS NAA CO. WORTH STARTING WITH? ARE THEY A LEGIT CO.?

I GUESS THE PHONE CALL AND THE GUY ASKING ME TO MEET HIM AT MIDNITE WAS SOMETHING I AM NOT USED TO....A JOB INTERVIEW AT AN IHOP AT MIDNITE.... :lol:


I JUST LEFT HIM WITH A BAD FEELING.....

I AM A VERY HARD WORKER...AND THIS IS SOMETHING I WANT TO DO.

IS NAA THE WAY TO GO? OR SHOULD I SEEK OUT SOMEPLACE LIKE FARMERS AND SO ON?

THANKS AGAIN...

Go else where! Stay away from companies like NAA if you wish to have a career that you can enjoy and benefit from in the long haul.
 
Man this one is tough because I don't have any better ideas for you, but I'd walk away from that. NAA is a legit company, but a lot of people don't seem to like the way they do business. I get that from comments here and I get that from ex-NAA agents that I've recruited.

I think the things that would concern me are paying for leads that many say are worked over, and I definitely would not like the assignment of commissions. I like agents getting paid directly from the carrier so if you leave, no one is messing with your pending business commissions.

Again, while you might eventually grow a nationwide agency to swamp all others, it's too soon for that guy to be talking about that with you and he sound like he's overselling the opportunity to me. Many people have joined them only to find there are only 6 leads a week available for them to buy and that's hard to make a living. Also keep in mind that it's a bunch of bunk about them closing 90-100%. They are talking about how many who say on the phone that they will buy from you follow through with a check when you arrive. That's not a closing ratio. A closing ratio is the ratio of prospects pitched to sales. So if you call 10 people and 5 people aren't interested in your offer but the other 5 see you and buy, they call that 100% closing ratio - I and everyone else in the world call that a 50% closing ratio. The only people that don't count towards a closing ratio are people you can't reach or people that don't allow you to do a presentation. Since NAA uses phone selling, if you get through your spiel, that's a pitch and it counts if they don't buy from you.
 
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