When I Was a Swashbuckling Agent...

[engineer]

I was just curious how some of you swashbucklers got started. What was it like your first year? Did you start with nothing or did you have a multimillion dollar ad budget ? Would you have done anything differently if you could go back and do it again? Just looking for some success/failure stories.

Thanks again gang!

engineer

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

In 1980, I started in the business because my other two job offers were lousy. Sportswriter for the Piqua (Oh) Daily Call or writing features for "Cincinnati Magazine," the Sunday supplement of the Cincinnati Enquirer. I thought I deserved better. The Sacramento Bee and Philadelphia Daily News disagreed.




I was lousy my first year but learned to listen to co-workers that know more than you, be patient, understand the competition and work harder than anybody else. So far, so good.

 

[Newby]

Back in 1996 I was leaving a motorcycle dealership I had worked for for 20-years and was buying out one of their competitors. I just needed a job for about 6-months during the transition.

I accepted a job with a local funeral home that I knew some of the people that worked there. They needed another preplanning salesman. I didn't even know that I needed to get my insurance license when I took the job. Didn't give any of it much thought because to me it was just going to be short term. If I had studied it more, it probably would have scared me away.

Long story short...it was a slice of heaven selling insurance after selling motorcycles for 20-years. Better hours, less stress and just a real enjoyable career.

I still say for those of you that want to get into insurance the easy way and need a little more structure than being fully independent, there is no better place to be than to go to work for a GOOD locally owned funeral home as a pre-need insurance agent.

 

[Guest]

Hi All,

I too am a new agent just getting into the insurance sales business. Well sort of, about 15 years ago sold all lines of insurance at State Farm. I know the sales process but I'm sure it's different working as an independent for a small brokerage firm than it is working for a big name like State Farm with an office where people are walking in and your phone rings off the hook. I have been in sales for the last 5 years selling capital equipment to manufacturing companies and earning 6 figures. The economy crunch/failure allowed for my 6 figures to dwindle down to almost single digits. I am hoping to use my sales experience and insurance knowledge to again build my income. I will be selling to the senior market here in sunny FL - any tips, association recommendations, network meetings, etc. would be very appreciated.

 

[Frank Stastny]

I was just curious how some of you swashbucklers got started. What was it like your first year? Did you start with nothing or did you have a multimillion dollar ad budget ? Would you have done anything differently if you could go back and do it again? Just looking for some success/failure stories.

Thanks again gang!

engineer

The first year was interesting to say the least. I knew nothing about insurance, I had to look it up in the dictionary to make sure I was spelling it correctly.

I started as a captive agent selling Med Supps. The training I was promised really didn't exist. The leads I was promised turned out to be a voter registration list.

I did not have an "ad budget", never have and don't now. I learned to generate my own leads and how to prospect. I still do it that way.

The only thing I wish I would have done different is to enter the senior market years before I did. I have developed a method of prospecting for and selling Med Supps that is actually very enjoyable. And, the money just keeps rolling in.