What annoys you the most?

[Markthebroker]

that view education as an expense and not an investment.

Ooh, that's a good one.

 

[WMSG]

What annoys you the most about other insurance agents and Financial Advisors? Ill go first!

!; Complaining about being broke (your fault you are Lazy)
2: Laziness (Your broke because your Lazy)
3: Complaining of Charge Backs (we all get them), and complaining this is why your broke.

I prefer replies from people who are actually producers.

Excellent question! Let me preface my answer by saying I don't have any producers that "work" for me per se. I am not a GA, manager, etc. I am a producer. I have a "para-planner/professional" on my team, who is a licensed producer, but he doesn't go out and write business on his own. He "works" for me and works on my cases.

However, I do a lot of speaking engagements/presentations, speak to producers all the time, serve on FAB's, producer committees/boards, industry committees/boards, etc. What I find most common vis a vis complaints is:
1) Complaints about products
2) Complaints about support
3) Complaints about compliance and underwriting
4) Complaints about compensation
5) Complaints about management

I am sure I am leaving something/more out. I hear it time and time again, every single time I talk to producers.

After 35 years in this business, I have learned that there is one solution to every single problem. I don't care what the problem is, where it originates from, the cause, effect, whatever the case may be. The answer...the solution...is...

See more people...write more business...place more business. Period.

I don't know if this is going to make sense to anyone...But...Believe it or not, that can solve every single problem you may have or face. There is an entire discussion, mindset, etc., in and around this. It has to do with your business and business model. Put your head down, see more people, write more business, and place more business. That gives you the ability to resolve any problem you may have or face. Sid Friedman told me that. We were on a trip together to Napa Valley. There were about twenty of us. I forgot which company, production, award, etc., trip it was. But it was a very heart-to-heart, bottom line, cut the BS type of discussion. If you produce more...then you can afford to spend, invest, hire, buy...in whatever the solution might be...technology, real estate, personnel, marketing, personal, whatever!

I don't mean to sound cold, indifferent, or dismissive. I face issues in my business and complain as well. But, I also realize, immediately, that either I am going to be part of the problem, or I am going to be part of the solution...and that there is a solution.

 

[toolbelt]

and that view education as an expense and not an investment.

Not when the seminars and conferences they are coerced into attending are sold as a means for "personal growth" rather than a business cost.

 

[WMSG]

Agents that don't bother to do exposure analysis, that don't know the products they sell, and that view education as an expense and not an investment.

Congratulations on 500 posts! The education aspect, I couldn't agree more. I hear big producers talk about Heckerling, Notre Dame Tax & Estate Planning, NYU Tax, and they complain about the cost, their GA or company won't pay/subsidize, etc. That I never understood.

I did hear one good argument though. A producer who was a non-captive agent, housed inside a mutual insurer GA, said that he spent 3k going to Heckerling. He said "the investment" absolutely paid for itself, many times over. But he also said that the business he wrote -- every dollar in premium -- he earned, let's say 85 cents on that dollar. The GA earned X cents on the dollar. If he funded 100% of the investment, and earned 85% of the resulting income -- why shouldn't the GA subsidize him a little? Good point.

However, he told me that he earned an expense allowance "bonus" -- and I felt that paid for it. He agreed, but still felt the GA should directly subsidize the cost of attending. Circular discussion, LOL.

Excellent point though, thanks!

 

[WMSG]

Not when the seminars and conferences they are coerced into attending are sold as a means for "personal growth" rather than a business cost.

Sorry, I am missing something...who is coerced? The producer? And who is coercing them? Thanks.

 

[toolbelt]

Sorry, I am missing something...who is coerced? The producer? And who is coercing them? Thanks.

When an upline suggests that attendance will "set your business on fire" or that "Frank, I think attending will really set a good example for your downlines" or "Frank, your the last guy on the team who hasn't signed up for the conference", etc etc etc.

 

[WMSG]

When an upline suggests that attendance will "set your business on fire" or that "Frank, I think attending will really set a good example for your downlines" or "Frank, your the last guy on the team who hasn't signed up for the conference", etc etc etc.

Got it. Thanks. If it's more of those self-help, personal, etc., kind of things, yes, I get it. Even if it's business oriented/related, I get that as well. I guess that is part of the nature of the beast when you have a "food chain" type of organization. LOL.

 

[rousemark]

Ooh, that's a good one.

yeah..those things actually can have negative effects on client's well-being.

 

[DHK]

Primerica

 

[WMSG]

Primerica

LOL. Good one.