Unhappy Captive Agent

[Shmegegi]

It's like I'm banging my head against a wall, and it feels about as productive.

About a month ago, I signed on with Farmers Insurance as a captive agent. I've no background in sales, and my last job was submitting health applications. It wasn't their first time contacting me, but I was giving it more and more thought as time passed. I wasn't happy with my job--no authority, no privacy, no autonomy, just a grunt making $14/hour who took the brunt of my bosses frustrations--and I wanted to be more...independent. Chatted it over with the fiancé, and we decided, well, we're young and broke anyway; maybe this way when we're not young, we won't be broke, either.

It's already lost its glamour.

The DMs idea of lead generation is Project 200, and I'm gathering from these forums that it's not a unique idea. The issue is that I don't have any living family. I have kept my friends close, but sans family, my Project 200 was looking a little...bare.

What they want me to do is harass my friends about buying insurance--calling them repeatedly, sending out mailers, treating them like any other lead--but I'm against it. I've spoken to all of them about my new agency and what I'm setting myself up for, and they're kind of interested, but I'm not going to spam them with calls multiple times a day.

I'm at this weird age where all of my friends are getting married and having babies, and my DM claims, "They're great prospects! Now is the time to market!" Yeah, sure, when the time comes. But when a pregnant woman is bent over a toilet hurling up her guts for two days, she doesn't care about her auto insurance. When new parents aren't sleeping at all because of the newborn, they're too exhausted to talk about the importance of life insurance. When a friend is out of state for a week-long vacation, the talk can wait until she gets back. But the DM doesn't care. "Do it now," he demands. But I'm not going to strong-arm anyone into insurance when they clearly have other things going on--my friends aren't going there. We can chat about it later, on the weekend, or after a doctor's appointment, or when they get back into the state.

Instead, I want to know: what can I do for external leads?

And the advice stops there.

Surely they have some idea of what to do?

Nothing.

The DM's office is accusing me of withholding from them--like I have friends and family members stashed in my attic or something--and have totally stopped helping me out. I'm brand new at this. Really green.

I knew it was going to be difficult, but now it's like the office is going out of their way to pile on. I've heard and read all sorts of awful things about the Friends and Family approach, and I can't help but think about the coincidental timing: once my Project 200 dried up, they just don't want me around anymore. I can't stand working in the DM's office, and their drama is stressing me out.

I like insurance. I know, it's not the most thrilling of careers that a 23-year old would be into, but I'm really happy with the career itself. The DM's office is another matter entirely.

Now I have all these doubts. Should I have tried to go independent instead? Is Farmers a good company to be appointed with? Can I distance myself from their drama long enough to really get started?

And I have questions: where are good places to generate leads from? Free leads; paid leads?

These are things my DM claimed he'd help me out with, but it's like his only idea was Project 200 then send me out the door. I'm just not willing to give up that easily.

Advice?

 

[Josh]

You covered a lot here.

Some thoughts in no particular order:

If you're having an adversarial relationship with the powers that be, it's not going to work. Even if they're right, they're wrong, or your both right, it's not going to be productive.

When people are having babies and buying houses, it's a great time to talk to them about life insurance, auto seems a lot more vanilla. You might be surprised by how many people don't even know what they have and how (un)covered they are. My wife's friends ask me about their insurance and are genuinely interested. I'm not appointed with anyone or interested in chasing the business so it doesn't result in any sales, but it is something valuable to folks.

Is the $14/hour your current job, or did you leave? Where are you now? At 23 ~$28k/year is pretty good in a lot of areas and it's not a bad place to start. A lot of people get messed up being greedy. Experience helps a lot.

 

[Norwayguy]

For external leads there is always cold canvassing, walking into businesses or door knocking residential areas. There is the internet lead market but I would caution you jumping into that expense while green and with a captive carrier.

If the only thing your DM is bringing to the table is a project 200 which let's face it standard fare at all the captives it sounds like your in for a rough haul. You might reach out to some other successful agents in your area seeing if they might help mentor you problem is you are their competition.

 

[Shmegegi]

@Josh: It was part looking for help and part needing to rant. Sorry for the disorganization.

The $14/hour gig was a temp job that might become a permanent job. I didn't leave voluntarily. I was diagnosed with appendicitis after living with pain for five days and had to undergo a last-minute appendectomy before it burst (my surgeon was convinced it would; I'm still surprised it didn't). When my employer found out about the surgery, they told me not to bother coming back to work. My "assignment is ended early."

The fact that the DM and I are clashing so much is a big concern to me. I'll still have to work with him once I'm established, but not as closely or as often. But the guy himself has these wild mood-swings. Sometimes it feels like he's written me off as a lost cause, other times it seems kind of like he wants to help. He's gone often, so I work a lot with his staff, and they are squarely in the "you're a lost cause" category. We don't get on at all.

People having babies and buying houses is a great marketing opportunity, but his expectations are to do it right now. Like, before the end of the hour right now. So when I know that a friend of mine is clutching onto a toilet and has been for two days, his response is "call her and get her life insurance in the next thirty minutes," but I know she can't physically talk on the phone. It can wait a few days while she gets this bug figured out with her doctor, but my DM doesn't see it that way.

@Norwayguy: Thanks!

I've gotten more help from other green agents than from the DM, but since we're all so new and not a single one of us has a background in insurance or sales, we're all sort of figuring it out together. Half of them are thrice my age and just looking to fund their retirement, so they're not in this for the long-haul.

Those tips do help!

 

[TwiLight]

It's like I'm banging my head against a wall, and it feels about as productive.

About a month ago, I signed on with Farmers Insurance as a captive agent. I've no background in sales, and my last job was submitting health applications. It wasn't their first time contacting me, but I was giving it more and more thought as time passed. I wasn't happy with my job--no authority, no privacy, no autonomy, just a grunt making $14/hour who took the brunt of my bosses frustrations--and I wanted to be more...independent. Chatted it over with the fiancé, and we decided, well, we're young and broke anyway; maybe this way when we're not young, we won't be broke, either.

It's already lost its glamour.

The DMs idea of lead generation is Project 200, and I'm gathering from these forums that it's not a unique idea. The issue is that I don't have any living family. I have kept my friends close, but sans family, my Project 200 was looking a little...bare.

What they want me to do is harass my friends about buying insurance--calling them repeatedly, sending out mailers, treating them like any other lead--but I'm against it. I've spoken to all of them about my new agency and what I'm setting myself up for, and they're kind of interested, but I'm not going to spam them with calls multiple times a day.

I'm at this weird age where all of my friends are getting married and having babies, and my DM claims, "They're great prospects! Now is the time to market!" Yeah, sure, when the time comes. But when a pregnant woman is bent over a toilet hurling up her guts for two days, she doesn't care about her auto insurance. When new parents aren't sleeping at all because of the newborn, they're too exhausted to talk about the importance of life insurance. When a friend is out of state for a week-long vacation, the talk can wait until she gets back. But the DM doesn't care. "Do it now," he demands. But I'm not going to strong-arm anyone into insurance when they clearly have other things going on--my friends aren't going there. We can chat about it later, on the weekend, or after a doctor's appointment, or when they get back into the state.

Instead, I want to know: what can I do for external leads?

And the advice stops there.

Surely they have some idea of what to do?

Nothing.

The DM's office is accusing me of withholding from them--like I have friends and family members stashed in my attic or something--and have totally stopped helping me out. I'm brand new at this. Really green.

I knew it was going to be difficult, but now it's like the office is going out of their way to pile on. I've heard and read all sorts of awful things about the Friends and Family approach, and I can't help but think about the coincidental timing: once my Project 200 dried up, they just don't want me around anymore. I can't stand working in the DM's office, and their drama is stressing me out.

I like insurance. I know, it's not the most thrilling of careers that a 23-year old would be into, but I'm really happy with the career itself. The DM's office is another matter entirely.

Now I have all these doubts. Should I have tried to go independent instead? Is Farmers a good company to be appointed with? Can I distance myself from their drama long enough to really get started?

And I have questions: where are good places to generate leads from? Free leads; paid leads?

These are things my DM claimed he'd help me out with, but it's like his only idea was Project 200 then send me out the door. I'm just not willing to give up that easily.

Advice?

This post hurts my eyes.... Just glad I did not have to listen to it.

 

[pcbinsurance]

"The DMs idea of lead generation is Project 200, and I'm gathering from these forums that it's not a unique idea."
************************
It's called the Project 200 because the "idea" is 200 years old.

 

[Today93]

Unhappy captive? Is there any other kind of captive?

 

[todd02]

I'm a successful 5yr Farmers agent. I see a major flaw in your post. No where do I see/feel an entrepreneurial drive. It sounds like you are blaming the DM. Friends and family are the best way to start because you can make mistakes, which you will, and they won't get too mad at you. I've learned there is nothing wrong soliciting friends and family insurance because everyone has it and needs it. It's not like we are selling snake oil. Back to you lack of entrepreneurship... If I were you I would go work for an Agent as a producer and learn the ropes from a large top producing agency. Tell them that you were excited at becoming an agent but at 23 and with no experience you were unable to support your family. Tell them you'd like to find an agent who will mentor you while you help build their agency and you'd like to work out a plan with them where it benefits both of you. Good luck!

 

[VolAgent]

There is a reason State Farm and Allstate require you have money in the bank and the ability to borrow more before they will make you an agent. Just opening your doors is not going to lead to success. You are going to have to find people to talk to about insurance and generally that takes money for marketing. With Farmers you can start out in the DM's office and save on expenses. But that also means no signage, no store front and no book of business to start with.

It is your business, you need to figure out how to find people to talk to about insurance. Going independent wouldn't have helped. You would have been completely without direction, also you never would have gotten appointments with carriers, and you would have to pay for your own office.

There is a lot of advice on this forum about how to market. You should look into it. There are also many members of this forum that would be glad to help you with ideas. But right now you seem more interested in venting and whining that solving your problem.

 

[nyc2phi]

Any Farmers agent should read "So You Want To Be An Insurance Agent" by Jeff Hastings. He was one of the most successful Farmers Agents around and his book could really help you.

Some advice on external marketing.
1) Direct Mail (Farmers should have premade EDDM and other mailers)
2) Buy internet leads that fit Farmers appetite
3) Cold Call
4) Hire a sales assistant to help generate leads
5) Join at networking group like BNI and attend networking meetings.

Hope this helps!