What would you do only 90 days after you started a captive?

[BADTROUT]

It depends on the person and the circumstance... many captive opportunities present as completely turnkey, but you dont know what you dont know.

 

[Markthebroker]

In this age of accessible information, the captive carriers have done an astonishingly good job of roping people into less than ideal opportunities, I'll give you that.

 

[DayTimer]

In this age of accessible information, the captive carriers have done an astonishingly good job of roping people into less than ideal opportunities, I'll give you that.

There are a number of known successful agents/agency owners on this forum who started in this business by choosing a less than ideal opportunity. They all succeeded because they did not give up on themselves, and someone else thought enough of them to give them a chance with a better opportunity.

 

[Markthebroker]

Whatever. I've already built my book and retirement.

I'd prefer not to see this person harm themselves any more than they already have. If you want to encourage the op, go ahead I guess.

 

[insurlegend]

You're not going to like this answer, but here we go.

If you told me you have a dui, I would suggest you consider not drinking any more.

If you told me you had bad credit, I would suggest you stop borrowing money.

If you told me you rushed into a business situation and spent a bunch of money without doing any research beyond what the salesperson (Farmers in this case) told you, I would say business ownership is not for you.

Don't throw good money after bad. Go work for someone else instead of digging your hole deeper. I don't envision you suddenly doing a 180 and making prudent business decisions. When Farmers contacted me about 15 years ago and pitched me I went and contacted Farmers agents to confirm what I had been told, and found out I had been lied to by the recruiter. The same lies I suspect you were told. I confronted the recruiter so that I could call her a liar to her face, and then contacted her manager. I was about 25 with 5 years or so experience in sales. With 20 years in sales you should have known better. I don't see business ownership for your, you could however make a great employee.

It seems to me like every time I talk to recruiters with companies they exaggerate what a new agent could expect to accomplish. Do you think that almost every captive company has recruiters that lie when talking about what their agents do?

 

[insurlegend]

You're not going to like this answer, but here we go.

If you told me you have a dui, I would suggest you consider not drinking any more.

If you told me you had bad credit, I would suggest you stop borrowing money.

If you told me you rushed into a business situation and spent a bunch of money without doing any research beyond what the salesperson (Farmers in this case) told you, I would say business ownership is not for you.

Don't throw good money after bad. Go work for someone else instead of digging your hole deeper. I don't envision you suddenly doing a 180 and making prudent business decisions. When Farmers contacted me about 15 years ago and pitched me I went and contacted Farmers agents to confirm what I had been told, and found out I had been lied to by the recruiter. The same lies I suspect you were told. I confronted the recruiter so that I could call her a liar to her face, and then contacted her manager. I was about 25 with 5 years or so experience in sales. With 20 years in sales you should have known better. I don't see business ownership for your, you could however make a great employee.

For example I was told first year out of college I would make 80k selling retirement plans and life insurance for a certain company. Of course I thought this was a little extreme but is that even realistic?

 

[BADTROUT]

I present our opportunity with a conscience... I tell people it will be hard, and that most people fail... 85% even with assistance. Some back out, and the ones that dont, after hearing the odds and push through the rate of failure is far less. The only difference being motivation and confidence.

I remember Ed McMahon telling me every day on TV that I COULD be a millionaire....

 

[Markthebroker]

It seems to me like every time I talk to recruiters with companies they exaggerate what a new agent could expect to accomplish. Do you think that almost every captive company has recruiters that lie when talking about what their agents do?

Yes.

 

[insurlegend]

Yes.

This is why I find it hard to make a smart business decision when attempting to enter the insurance field. It's hard to determine fact from fiction and I obviously do not want to jump into an agency when recruiters say in 5 years I will be making 250k when in reality I have a much higher probability of being 100k in debt and making 50k or less

 

[BADTROUT]

This is why I find it hard to make a smart business decision when attempting to enter the insurance field. It's hard to determine fact from fiction and I obviously do not want to jump into an agency when recruiters say in 5 years I will be making 250k when in reality I have a much higher probability of being 100k in debt and making 50k or less

The problem with insurance is it's based off performance. I've seen morons making 250k because they sell shamelessly, and I've seen well intentioned geniuses flounder...

Location, experience and product are factors for sure... so can you make 300... yeah... statistically is it realistic? Well, the 80/20 rule applies to the 80/20 as well.