Worst Advice you ever got in Insurance Industry?

[axeman462]

"work for Bankers Life & Casualty"

 

[KRobby]

Regardless of my answer it will be scrutinized by someone. In the same sense I could ask everyone here how much they produced and I am sure many would not be telling the truth. The best answer for what agents or brokers produce can be found in the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Off topic but I don't think the Bureau of Labor Statistics contemplates independent agents. Within my geographic demographic it shows there are 2,510 Insurance Sales Agents with an annual mean wage of $87,300. Some states are over 100k, and I don't think they're including all the high earning Independents, just the captives.

 

[rousemark]

To clarify. I do not get a salary. I get 14% of the sales through the leads. I'm a licensed broker that prefers to do the marketing I also help close the sales of they want my help. I have 25 + years of outside sales. I love this business model. When a broker has to market, cold call, and buy leads less time is spent with clients. I wouldn't do it any other way.

In other words the agents are paying 14% of their sales for the leads/appointments because if you were not receiving the 14% it could go to the agent. That is no different than the independent agents who buy leads from a lead vendor and then pay a person to call the leads and set appointments. To say the agents in your unit do not pay for leads is disingenuous.

 

[Deborah Armstrong]

What you say you don’t care for about this forum is what keeps it real. This forum is known to not allow people to come on a give bull sheet advice that they “think” might work as real tried and true and proven methods of successfully selling insurance. This is not Facebook where everyone is fake it till you make it but hardly anyone makes it.

Your post right here is a perfect example. You start out saying you are a very good appointment setter and lead generator but instead of giving us your favorite appointment setting or lead generating tips you go into speculating on how you think you would approach selling FE which you have never sold. Why would you do that? You’re talking on here to agents that are selling $4,000 to $10,000+ of Final Expense every week and many have kept that pace going for YEARS. Why in the world would you think they want to hear your theories about what you think might work in a post like this. That is like going to the world’s top medical college and telling them your theories on curing cancer.

As far as people calling out BS on anything you say about your successes, just give them factual info that they can’t argue with. Companies have leaderboards. Companies have conventions. Companies have presidents club. MDRT does verifying of production. Agencies have producer rings or other awards. There are ways to show that you are a credible resource of how to sell insurance.

This forum is one of the best resources on the internet for insurance agents. The reason for that is the very problem you have with it. We call you out if you aren’t keeping it real. Agents who are here to learn, love it. But it’s just noise to have someone mixing nonsense that they think might work in with proven advice.

Welcome to the forum. Approach it the right way and you will love it.

As far as what I would do for FE if I were selling it. It isn't a theory. I am basing it on my 25+ years of sales experience. I have sold multiple products in my life time, from copiers to businesses, to political research, and everything in between. Sales strategies never change, I have used the same strategies in every sales position I have ever had. It works and I am sure the things I mentioned people are already using. If anything, I am preaching to the choir. If not, then maybe a new agent will get something out of it.

It goes back to "sell me this pen". You ask the potential customer what kind of pen they use. Why did they choose to buy the pen they have now, what do they like best about it, if they could change anything what would they change, what features would it have? Then you tell them about the features of your pen that are most important to them. It doesn't matter what you are selling. You use the same strategies for everything.

 

[Deborah Armstrong]

Off topic but I don't think the Bureau of Labor Statistics contemplates independent agents. Within my geographic demographic it shows there are 2,510 Insurance Sales Agents with an annual mean wage of $87,300. Some states are over 100k, and I don't think they're including all the high earning Independents, just the captives.

I do not know where you got those numbers. I have been on the sight. [EXTERNAL LINK] - Insurance Sales Agents : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics They give a range of percentiles, from the bottom 10% to 90% You would be surprised at how much information our government gets. I have worked for the IRS as a collection agent, the census Bureau and I almost got a position with the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The information they gather asks enough questions to get pretty accurate results. You can look up your state and the national average, projected growth.

 

[Deborah Armstrong]

In other words the agents are paying 14% of their sales for the leads/appointments because if you were not receiving the 14% it could go to the agent. That is no different than the independent agents who buy leads from a lead vendor and then pay a person to call the leads and set appointments. To say the agents in your unit do not pay for leads is disingenuous.

I get your point and I want to add they don't have to market all the time. They would have been buying leads and calling potential clients. Instead, they are in front of potential clients seeing more people because of leads given to them.

 

[KRobby]

I do not know where you got those numbers. I have been on the sight. [EXTERNAL LINK] - Insurance Sales Agents : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics They give a range of percentiles, from the bottom 10% to 90% You would be surprised at how much information our government gets. I have worked for the IRS as a collection agent, the census Bureau and I almost got a position with the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The information they gather asks enough questions to get pretty accurate results. You can look up your state and the national average, projected growth.

Yes they have a lot of info to play around with. Here's the area of the site I'm looking at.

[EXTERNAL LINK] - Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI - May 2022 OEWS Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates

Tailored to geographic region which I find more interesting and recently updated with 2022 data. Most of the sales related occupations usually have much greater deviation between avg and med which makes sense.

Here's NJ over 100k

[EXTERNAL LINK] - New Jersey - May 2022 OEWS State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates

 

[Deborah Armstrong]

Yes they have a lot of info to play around with. Here's the area of the site I'm looking at.

[EXTERNAL LINK] - Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI - May 2022 OEWS Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates

Tailored to geographic region which I find more interesting and recently updated with 2022 data. Most of the sales related occupations usually have much greater deviation between avg and med which makes sense.

Here's NJ over 100k

[EXTERNAL LINK] - New Jersey - May 2022 OEWS State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates

Ok I can agree with that.

 

[Markthebroker]

Off topic but I don't think the Bureau of Labor Statistics contemplates independent agents. Within my geographic demographic it shows there are 2,510 Insurance Sales Agents with an annual mean wage of $87,300. Some states are over 100k, and I don't think they're including all the high earning Independents, just the captives.

I think it would actually be lower. You have a handful of agents and agency owners that are killing it, and a bunch of agents that trying are to make it work. You also have account managers and csr's that make a meager, but steady income. I think it would probably average out to more like $40k, but these are rough numbers off the top of my head.