The last time I posted I was starting out as an independent Medicare agent. This was a few months ago. It was very rough for me and I did not make a single sale. I began to realize that I struggle a lot with generating leads. So I tried purchasing some leads, but they did not result in any sales. Around the end of April I started looking into job listings on Indeed, LinkedIn, and ZipRecruiter. I was trying to find a position with base salary. I applied to a few jobs and had a few interviews, but no luck. Earlier this month I got a response from of the jobs I applied to. It was for a Life agent position and it sounded like it had all the things I was looking for: remote work with base pay. The recruiter from the company explained that we will be paid $500 per week or the commission we made on sales that week, if it is greater than $500. I ended up interviewing and they asked me to join the team. The hours are 5 hrs/day 5 days a week. We spend the day on a dialer that automatically calls prospects, the leads are all provided by the company. After about a week of working, the mentors that have been training us new agents made an announcement. If we had not made any sales so far we will not be getting paid and will have to go back to training the next week (which they refer to as "bootcamp"). Bootcamp involves spending two days out of the work week training with them by going over the script and doing roleplaying exercises. Then "auditions" will be held again where they will decide to keep you on or decide to let you go. Auditions means getting on the dialer while they monitor the conversations with prospects and they decide if you are doing a satisfactory job or not. We already went through this at the beginning which was only a week ago at that point. I was confused when they told everyone this. Because I was under the impression that we would be getting paid weekly. The recruiter did not say anything about pay being dependent on whether we make a sale or not. Also they are wanting us to make 5 sales a week but at LEAST 3. The pay is in the form of a draw. This was not mentioned by the recruiter. I had no idea what a draw was until it was mentioned later on by one of the mentors. Last week when they told us about the bootcamp situation I was/still am very concerned. I had not made a sale yet when they made they announcement. So of course I was expecting them to tell me that I would need to go back to training. However, last Tuesday I closed my first sale with help from one of the mentors. I was feeling relieved, thinking that I was saved from bootcamp and would be getting paid finally. However, over the holiday weekend the client called me and asked to cancel his policy. He said it was a mistake and his aunt already took care of getting him a policy. I asked him if he wanted to cancel the one his aunt had gotten him and keep the new one, but he declined. Just to let everyone know, the leads they give us are not easy pickings either. Most, if not all, of the people who answer the calls either say they did not request the info, say they aren't interested, hang up right away, or they're just straight up rude. I do my best to stick to the script and address their objections by redirecting. But the bottom line is that these are definitely not warm leads or direct transfers. In fact, we were told that the leads are fresh and maybe a couple of days old, the oldest would be no more than 30 days old. But I actually had a prospect tell me that 1.) they aren't the person who requested the info and 2.) the person who requested the info filled out the form 2 YEARS AGO and they are still calling him! So now I am back at square one. At this point I am feeling extremely frustrated because I thought I had found what I was looking for in this new job. But it is turning out to be dead end. I need some insight and suggestions from you guys. I don't know if I should stick it out here or if I should start looking for something else. I've been without any income from being an insurance agent for months. Thank God I still have my SSI payments to keep me barely afloat. But the reason why I got licensed was to make more money as an agent and no longer have to depend on SSI. So far I have been struggling to reach that goal and it is so disheartening. I'm still hoping to find something with base pay that is remote. If anyone knows of place that offers this type of position, pleaaase let me know. Also, sorry for my essay of a post.
Where do I go from here?
- Thread starter Kay2427D
- Start date
- 1,058
Wow, that sounds terrible. I work in commercial P&C so I don't have much advice for your specific niche of insurance, but I don't think I could do Medicare.
There’s really no such thing as a salary in selling life ins. You’re getting a draw against commission . Obviously if you don’t sell quickly the draw stops . They’re probably feeding you very low intent facebook leads that are prefilled that costs them $2 a lead or using recycled old leads that cost them basically nothing hoping you close a few . Unfortunately you’re entering a business with no capital and you’re at peoples mercy .As Walthammy says your best bet for a draw type situation is a select quote probably . And i think most of those leads are inbound which you want . So you willing to give up your ssi disability if you make a certain amount?
tikibarrister
Guru
- 497
In other news, paragraphs were invented a few centuries ago.
Jim Wright
Super Genius
- 218
Try to find a good Medicare agent locally that has been working for a long time. Chances are, one of them has too much on their plate and is looking for help. You may not receive full commission from them but you likely aren't from the call centers either.
You'll be able to learn much more from them and have more success than someone hounding you to hit the phones and make your quotas
You'll be able to learn much more from them and have more success than someone hounding you to hit the phones and make your quotas
