Would like some insight. Opportunity at nwm

[indaville]

Again what bothers me, or my concern is that you go through all the work and training and cold calling and frustration, and then you do not see a paycheck for months. I dont see basepay as something bad. I see it as an assurance of payment for your work.

again i ask the question.. what is the success rate for a life insurance agent in this industry? 1 out of 10, 20, 30? I rather look at the average then look at the top 2 percent.

Over the years I have mentored many reps. I have determined that about 10% in the industry are naturals and they will succeed no matter what. I would also say that 20% that enter the business will fail no matter what you do, these are the ones that should not have been hired in the first place. That leaves around 70% in the middle that will fail or succeed depending on how good or bad the training and management is in your agency.

I think after 5 years around 25% will still be in the industry with an average pay around $60k. After 5 years though you should be earning well in excess of $100k if you put any kind of effort in. This industry is not for everyone but I do not know of another career that could is as rewarding as ours. I am only 30 years old and I will earn in excess of seven figures this year. I am my own boss, I take as much vacation as I want, and I can sell my book of business when I am ready. I do not mention that to brag, but to give you an idea of the potential. It has been a lot of hard work though. It did not come easy for me, the first couple of years I struggled, but I had staying power.

Matt

 

[Dave020]

Not offended, it just seemed that this was heading for an "NML-bashing" thread. NML whether anyone you know has heard of it, is considered the premier life insurance company in the USA. Not only top rated, but a long long history of great products, dividends, financial security and so on. The name carries a lot of weight with people who make money, they know the company.

That being said, your chances of success depend on two things:

1 - quickly finding an appropriate market for the products/services

2 - having the financial ability to weather a few months of low income (possible no income)

If money is tight, my earlier suggestion would be still to find a paying job and get financially right before leaping into a commission-only career.

Stress creates success or failure, depending on the individual. Lack of income causes stress which can spiral and create a very bad experience for most people.

If you do it right, you can enjoy tremendous success with a company like NML (or NYL, Pru, Met and the other biggies). But you have to do it right and not waste time on people that are not financially equipped to get value from the products you are selling.

The kitchen table is West Coast Life or Banner. The boardroom is NML, NYL, MassMutual, Pru, Met.

 

[PaladinX]

Great advice and information everyone. And thanks again Dave for sharing your wisdom and knowledge in this field. I get what you are saying, and you have more knowledge then me in their individual products. I have no idea what WM is good for or not.

I guess The answers here are consistent with what I thought just from my own limited experience. There there is potential, but you really might struggle at first, and not everyone makes it. That the bulk of agents might leave after seeing no stability. At least you have given me somewhat of a game plan, and one I pretty much agree with. I really think selling life insurance policies to the mom and pop crew might be really hard and under productive. No one seems to be interested in life insurance, and if they do become interested, I notice a lot of people say they just go online and shop for it on their terms when they are ready.

My last interview with them, NMFN, is tomorrow. They want me to make a list of people i know and all this. I was going to turn down the offer, but am deciding to go to one more interview to take a look at the contract, and ask a few more questions. The contract means a lot to me. If they expect me to stay there for a whole year, and if i make no money, i owe them money or some crazy ****, I really dont want it. Taking a risk is bad enough, but contracts that will further hurt me I am not interested in. They are going to pay for my training, testing, and i think even give me a 1000 dollars if I pass the exam. I think they are going to cover their asses in the contract if they spend that money on me.

Perhaps I should go there tomorrow and be honest, and say I really do not wish to sell insurance to moms and pops, and i want to work with experienced agents and target business owners, and people with high incomes. I really do not want to go door to door being a salesman.

One last thing then I will shut up. What frightens me is after all that, If i have slow months no checks, and that never changes, and i have to quit. thats a lot of wasted time and energy for nothing. Thats what scares me too.

again thanks everyone. And thank you dave.

regards

 

[Guest]

PaladinX - for what it's worth, I'm in somewhat of a similar situation and have an extra 2 cents.

So, what I've decided is best for me to do is get a 2nd job to provide just an additional bit of cusion until my book of business is self-sustaining and I've got this all down pat. I won't even tell you what the 2nd job is - unless you really need a good chuckle - then ask - I'll tell!

The 2nd job will not interfere with my getting trained and selling. And, as I keep reminding myself over and over and over - it's not forever and won't kill me. Ok - I'll tell you what it is just because I still find it humerous - I have just picked up a 4 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. shift at -- UPS! Loading and unloading boxes.

It's not forever and won't kill me (repeating, repeating, repeating...) The pay actually isn't bad, they have 100% tuition reimbursement (I'm going to check to see if licensing classes are covered - if not, no worries). If I can keep doing this for a year, they provide 100% paid insurance.

I'm sharing this to show that if you want it bad enough, you will do what it takes. I've also been doing a lot of research. There's no guarantees and there are no "easy" ways in. It's all hard work and dedication. I'm actually excited about this because when I can quit the 2nd job and focus exclusively on the insurance I'll know I did it by hard work and determination - not because I found an easy company who will bottle feed me. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I have this stubborn streak in me that will not allow me to want that.....

So from 4am - 9:30am I will hump boxes. From 10-10:30am until I drop - I will walk n talk, dial for dollars, and suck all the information I can out of my fellow agents

Now I challenge you and other newbies - if a 42 yr old female can pull this off, don't you think that you studly young uns can? Granted I feel comfortable doing this with my background and I know exactly what I'm getting into. I'm thinking I ain't gonna hit 6 figures in year one. But who knows? Maybe I will!! It's not impossible!

As the dude on the fashion show sez - "Make it work"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
One more thing, for what it's worth (I found a couple more cents...)

In my case - this is a long term venture. I plan on doing this right til the end so the sacrafices and chances I'm taking make sense for ME. You need to really think about what you want, where you want to get it from, and how you're going to get there.

Keep an open mind - worst case - the first 2, 3, 10 ventures don't work for you. If this is what you decide you want, it may take a few re-starts. You'll figure it out as you go!

 

[PaladinX]

Well I must say, having that kind of motivation and ambition has to pay off for you no matter what you do.

Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is, I am not that ambitious to do what you are doing lol. I have my own philosophy that one should work to live, not live to work. Granted you have to work hard usually to get ahead, but at what expense and when does working too much outweigh the benefits. A good balance I think is nice.

What discouraged me from this field the most, was talking to a life agent who has worked at it for 7 years at metlife. Now granted, everyone is different, but you have to take into consideration that he must have been doing decent at least to last 7 years in this field with a house and 2 kids to pay for. This is not someone who went in, couldnt cut it, and walked out, but someone who stuck with it and probably had some measure of success within the 7 years. Another note, he was doing this when the economy was going great and everyone was buying homes. Hed even have a list of new morgages and knew how to sell to them. For someone with this experience to tell me "tell them to take the job and shove it" its kind of frightening.

He told me that there are maybe 2 to 5 percent of agents who really do well, and that most dont even last six months. That he has seen agent after agent come in and go out like a revolving door, all thinking they are eventually going to be millionaires. He has dedicated time, energy and 7 years into this field and he left it completely and does not recommend it. Now of course that is not true for everyone. theres probably millionaires in here who have made it great.. but this just goes to show you about your odds.

 

[Dave020]

Charm, good advice. I know many agents who took part time evening jobs to supplement while they were building a book of business.

Paladin - they key in this business is to find products and channels that are less or non-market sensitive. What I mean is, areas to sell in that will be available in both up and down markets. Obviously health insurance is a good choice for that, people will want to lower premiums (HSA sales should increase) but most will not be willing to drop coverage all together and risk that big inpatient or outpatient bill. The risk is simply too great for most people. I am selling a ton of HIPAA right now, in a major recession, with companies dropping employee benefits left and right. The premiums are high, but people need to coverage and with pre-ex, they can't get through underwriting. They suck it up and pay the HIPAA premiums.

You friend is right about a lot of things. Wash out rate is very high in life insurance (and all financial services). Even armed with methods to try and avoid it, it will still happen. More often than not, it is simply the wrong fit for a person. Most people cannot be commission-only self employed. That's why very few make it in MLMs either.

Sounds though like your friend was working in a market driven sector. Mortgage leads are kitchen table leads predicated on good economy and lots of home sales. Obviously won't work now. You should ask him how many of his cases in seven years were business cases, what percentage life, di, ltci and so on.

You really have to look in your heart and determine whether or not you are able to go for broke and gut it out. If it's too scary or uncertain for your comfort zone, don't do it, or at least wait a few years until you have more $$ to support yourself.

If you go for your last interview, ask the recruiter if you can meet a couple of the senior, successful agents and talk to them about what they are experiencing. Explain your concerns and reservations and see how their business is going. That will tell you a lot and also might help you find the agent you want to do joint work with if you go forward. Don't be afraid to ask specific questions like how much premium are they writing monthly right now, what kind of cases are they writing, and so on.

Also, ask about your expenses in the first six and 12 months. DA should be paying for most, if not all at least for the first six months.

 

[LGilmore]

Let me make this suggestion. Tell the recruiter you'd like to job shadow a couple agents at different times. Recruiters are paid to put butts in the seats. Agents do the job. Ask to go with an experienced one and one within his first five years.

See if what they go through is worth it to you, what you have to learn in this business is what things are worth to you.

Honestly, there's days I feel like your friend and there's days that are almost better than sex. I've learned to live with the ups and downs.. and there is ups and downs..I've both won and lost deals that paid 50k year each year... I keep going because it's what I do after 20 years. Your always one phone call away from happiness or pain.

I guess it's like baseball (I hate baseball). You get your at bats, get hits, outs, strikes and balls. If you're connecting on 3 out of 10 prospects you're very good. If you're 5 for 10 you're babe ruth.

Along the way you'll get your share of hits, singles, doubles an occasional grand slam. You just gotta stay in the game.

But first decide if the game is one you want to play. job shadow a bit.

 

[PaladinX]

That really was an excellent well put view of the field, I greatly appreciate it, and it was very honest and to the point, and made tons of sense.

Thank you very much. It is cool everyone on this forum is here to help out, even a rookie nobody like me.

I had my last interview today, I stated my concerns to him. I told him that I enjoyed the conversing with him etc, but I wanted to take an honest approach rather then a salesman pitch for myself.. i asked him some questions about his agents how long they are there etc, he was honest and said 95 percent of the agents do not stay past 4 years, and that he has to interview like 50 or more people to get one agent. He has five agents in his office, and it has been established since around 2002. or 01.

after my concerns with him, and telling him that the kitchen table market, or the references I gathered would be very hard to market to in a time of economic hardships. And that I see potential with those who are financially secure, or the high income markets.

Ultimately he was nice about it and honest, he said this might not be the ideal situation for me given my financial stability to take the risks needed. he said that i can come back at six months or another time if I became interested again, and also was nice enough to tell me he might know a few recruiters or head hunters I could use.

So i guess I will wait to pursue this career, when I am more financially stable. I have no income right now, and i need at least something to live and make it worth my effort, I cant really think of what is going to happen to me in five years, or 10 years.. I need a little stability.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time out to share their insights with me, I greatly appreciate it, and i will continue reading this board and absorbing all the great knowledge you guys are willing to share. I wish all of you success in this challenging industry..

sincerely.

 

[eric rose]

Paladin,
All of the really successful agents that I know have two things in common.

1) They are willing to bust their a$$ to get ahead and build a career/business. This becomes a top priority, only behind family and in many cases religion.

2)They have confidence in their ability and their work ethic.

If your first concern when starting out is a well balanced work/life ratio, a salaried position is probably a better option for you. There is nothing wrong with that, just be honest with yourself. Most people are not willing to make the sacrifice to succeed in a business like this. That is why the successful few make so much money.

Success in this field takes a level of commitment that you may not want or be ready for. That is a much more important question to answer before you look at NWFN.

 

[lyndell]

Yeah I am about to work at NWM and I am scared I was thinking about buying some leads or outsourcing my cold calls to get a jump start on clients any suggestions?