WSJ: Why It's So Hard to Fill Sales Jobs

[sshafran]

If you are a young and single guy or gal and in line at the grocery store and there is a hot-looking babe or dude in front you that you'd like to hit on, do you want to tell them "I'm an independent life insurance salesperson for several companies" vs. "I'm with Goldman and I bring merger and acquisition ideas to CEOs of companies in the information technology industry?"

Who gives a flip about "perception."

Some of us are in niches which people look at as being weird. Imagine a 30 year old explaining that his job is selling medicare-related insurance. It's a tad strange...

Who who cares? A solid book doesn't take long to build. Several years of trial and error coupled with hard work can bring in 1,000 clients and over $200,000 in income.

Sure - not CEO money. But it beats most home office jobs...

Screw the benefits. Build the book of business.

 

[DHK]

I think you have part of that right. The 'entitlement' comes from their parents and teachers telling them that if they do well in school (or the military) that they will get (be 'entitled' to) good jobs. For the most part young people (today) tend to believe what they are told and this is what they have been told.

It also depends on where you went to school too and how much this mentality and environment shapes you as you grow up.

I grew up in Santa Ana, California... a 'ghetto' in Orange County, California. People did the jobs they did and could get. The focus in education was just to get the non-English speakers to learn to read and write English.

In my 8th grade year, my family moved to Irvine, California - one of the top upper-middle income communities in the United States - yet it's only about 10 miles away from Santa Ana.

My church and community was full of "well to do" people who owned businesses, were CEOs, attorneys, CPAs, doctors, etc. Schools taught that "if you don't do well, you'll be digging ditches for the rest of your life" - totally putting down menial labor-type jobs and essentially being a failure product of the community. And since we lived in a great community, and we wanted to make our teachers proud and be like our parents... the message seems to stick more in our upbringing.

Even in Santa Ana, people wanted "better" for their kids... so the mantra is still to "get good grades, get into a good college, so you can get a good job". And if you're around people who HAVE good jobs and seem to be successful in careers and life... their words seem to mean that much more.

It's not until you take a look around and make a decision to do something different that you'll pick a different course for your life and career.

 

[somarco]

Despite being one of only eight players
in baseball history to record 400 home
runs while collecting more than 3,000
hits, despite the fact that (Cal Ripken, Jr.) won two most
valuable player awards and appeared in
19 All-Star Games, his lifelong Baltimore
Orioles legacy will always be most closely
linked to one thing: “I had a good attendance
record,” he says with a smile. -


See more at: http://www.success.com/article/lessons-from-sports-cal-ripken-jr#sthash.iuUdks47.dpuf

 

[Rearden]

I have to disagree there. The college youth I know and work with through my religious college outreach program are not lazy... they work quite hard... and long.

- They take a full schedule (so they can get out in 4 years)

- The classes they take (especially the science and math) are not easy and entail a lot of reading, papers, and tests.

- The costs are high and the expectations of their parents are also high

- On the community college level the competition to do well so as to transfer into a superior university and get some financial aid is very high.

- Many college students have full-time or part-time jobs as well as a full-load of classes. How can you be 'lazy' and do that?

I don't know what college youth you have come in contact with, but my experience has been the total opposite of yours.




I think you have part of that right. The 'entitlement' comes from their parents and teachers telling them that if they do well in school (or the military) that they will get (be 'entitled' to) good jobs. For the most part young people (today) tend to believe what they are told and this is what they have been told.

As for the insurance industry not 'selling itself' well as a career choice, I agree with you, if that is what you meant. The wire-houses and investments banks do a much better job on campus.

Also, young people see that if you can 'sell' something as complex as health insurance via the web, how long will it be before life, LTC, annuities, etc. will be sold that way as well.

How many here want to leave insurance for a career as a travel agent?

You have a great sampling of student-prospects to work with.

Sadly, I believe this is not the case over a larger sampling.

College-aged kids and Millennials like myself (18-35) have been brainwashed on the "sanctity" of a college education above all else, which has engendered an entitlement mentality that has retarded the development of certain virtues such as patience, discipline, and resilience.

College is merely an extension of high school immaturity and not a place for young adults to morph into productive citizens in society.

There are plenty of human interest stories discussing outcomes of this character shift; more adult children now than ever are living with their adults - adults are more intertwined and co-dependent upon their children - entrepreneurship and risk-taking are discouraged, corporate positions are heralded.

What's the culprit? A society of adult children whose biggest concern is how many Facebooks likes they've gotten.

Think about it - no universally-shared hardships like my grandparents and great-grandparents surviving the Great Depression and fighting in World War II. Even our wars today are a matter of convenience and so distant from the masses that it has not made a measurable effect on any daily activities of our lives.

 

[axeman462]

I agree with a lot of this... which is why most life insurance companies don't talk about being a life insurance agent... but being a "financial planner" or "financial consultant"... which sounds like it could be 'on par' with these other kinds of MBA jobs out there.

Most of us in America are caught up in "status-itis" and having reasons to say, brag, and prove how successful you are. Doctor, lawyer, accountant... are the "top jobs" to brag about at your 20-year high school reunion... not "life insurance agent".

i dont know about you, but im proud to say im an insurance agent. If your not, then leave the field and do something your proud of.

 

[DHK]

I'm proud of it too. The problem is the perception of what you do as a life insurance agent. The perception is that all you do is sell policies for XYZ Insurance.

That's not all that I do.

You'll find that many agents will form their own DBAs, LLC, and Inc in order to brand themselves in a different way. They may obtain designations or create a new title in order to convey the desired perception. I have my ChFC designation and market myself with the title "Lifetime Wealth and Retirement Manager". So yeah, I try to create a bit of status, prestige, and a higher value perception than "just" being a life insurance agent.

 

[nylife11023]

i dont know about you, but im proud to say im an insurance agent. If your not, then leave the field and do something your proud of.

You left me with a big smile as there are so many interpretations one can make from your post vis-à-vis the contempt that many here have for those who attended and graduated from a rigorous program of college studies, be it a two-year or four-year program.

dont -> don't
im -> I'm
your -> you're

 

[WCMason]

You left me with a big smile as there are so many interpretations one can make from your post vis-à-vis the contempt that many here have for those who attended and graduated from a rigorous program of college studies, be it a two-year or four-year program.

dont -> don't
im -> I'm
your -> you're

My hope is that he's a trendsetter. These apostrophes should have become obsolete long ago. They're unnecessary. Remove them and the context leaves no doubt of the meaning.

 

[WinoBlues]

I'm proud of it too. The problem is the perception of what you do as a life insurance agent. The perception is that all you do is sell policies for XYZ Insurance.

That's not all that I do.

You'll find that many agents will form their own DBAs, LLC, and Inc in order to brand themselves in a different way. They may obtain designations or create a new title in order to convey the desired perception. I have my ChFC designation and market myself with the title "Lifetime Wealth and Retirement Manager". So yeah, I try to create a bit of status, prestige, and a higher value perception than "just" being a life insurance agent.

That can be determined by your market and marketing as well. I have been a Life Insurance Agent for 29 years of my 30 years.

 

[nylife11023]

I have my ChFC designation

see: CFP, CLU Or ChFC - Which Is Best?

I wonder (out loud) that IF the educational or the licensing or the certification bar was raised for insurance professionals if the standard of professionalism (and maybe compensation) might be raised too?

Right now anyone who can fog a mirror and pass an exam easier than most sixth grade history tests can become an insurance agent. Thus, the carriers have an almost unlimited pool of people to draw from (after they weave their web of huge riches to be found in this industry!)

What if you had to have a four-year college degree and be a ChFC in order to obtain a state license? Or maybe make all agents (especially those who sell indexed products) pass the seven and a sixty-three exams?

The barber or beautician who cuts your hair has met/passed more formal requirements to practice in their field than most of us have to practice ours.