9 Good Reasons To Operate A Insurance Sales Call Center:

[TXINSURANCE]

I am not sure if this post is intended to be serious or a joke? I am not saying an insurance call center is not a good idea - but what I am saying is it is extremely difficult to operate, manage, and turn a profit.

I did this for many years with my wife out of our house before I considered and office and payroll staff. Between fixed costs, marketing and taxes - it is out of control on small micro tickets.

Not to mention the joys of personnel management - someone is late every day, I have never seen so many people "sick" then magically better the next day - it is hard to get people that want to work (for low pay, since you can not afford to pay them massive amounts on micro tickets).

The biggest challenges are: Marketing, Labor Cost, Fixed Costs, and Taxes.

It can be done (I do it) but there are a lot of ups and downs and you need to watch EVERY PENNY and keep the staff at arms length.

 

[patch36]

Wouldn't starting out as a one man call center make more sense than some get rich quick scheme?

I have started and run a few different call centers, none of them insurance related. They worked fine, but they seem to run their course. It is all dependent on finding good people to do the calling, and in general, telemarketers are not the most reliable or stable of employees. For instance...never pay them on noon on a Friday. You will not see them again until Monday, at the soonest, and if you do they will not be sober.

Don't know what myinsurebiz expected, other than a gang tackle and butt kicking after the back and forth on the bankruptcy thread.

And all these pearls of wisdom... pure BS. Those that can, sell, the rest of them become sales managers and authors.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

When I hired it generally went like this:

Most can't write
Those who can soon say "hey...I should get a GA deal myself"

 

[myinsurebiz]

" Not to mention the joys of personnel management - someone is late every day, I have never seen so many people "sick" then magically better the next day - it is hard to get people that want to work (for low pay, since you can not afford to pay them massive amounts on micro tickets). "

The people occupying the Call Center seats are independent insurance agents - if they don't produce - just replace them.

They are 1099 Independent Contractors - they're not employees. They know the office schedule and production quotas in order to have a seat in the Call Center. They are free to work any hours / days they wish - but leads will only be provided during normal business hours. The agent pays for the lead - so if they don't want to work the program - it's their loss and the Call Center seat can be assigned to someone else. Turnover is projected.

There are plenty of people wanting to be an agent in this environment. I get 20 people a week responding to a simple independent agent program - just imagine what I would get providing them space, free internet and free long distance to work with . . .

We'll be testing the Call Center concept throughout August - I'll let you know how it works out.

Tom

p.s. - peeler you keep mentioning your 8 months - You wanted action - I took you up on a $10k wager - put your money where your mouth is pal . . .

 

[myinsurebiz]

patch -

The key to a Call Center is maximizing time and assets.

If I can personally close 16 deals a week in my office and I can have 2 or 3 others do the same and I over-ride them it makes sense. The light bill is the same, the internet bill is the same - the overhead is the same. This is additional revenue.

This isn't babysitting. If the agent doesn't produce - get rid of them and fill the seat with somebody hungry.

All the agents have to do in this concept is talk to clients AFTER they have been pre-qualified AND close the deal.

Gotta Think Outside The Box.

Tom

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

" Not to mention the joys of personnel management - someone is late every day, I have never seen so many people "sick" then magically better the next day - it is hard to get people that want to work (for low pay, since you can not afford to pay them massive amounts on micro tickets). "

The people occupying the Call Center seats are independent insurance agents - if they don't produce - just replace them.

They are 1099 Independent Contractors - they're not employees. .

If you make it mandatory that they come into an office the work certain hours they cannot be 1099 and most be employees. This why even through car salesmen are 100% commission they are all W2.

Read up on the 1099 rules:

Independent Contractor (Self-Employed) or Employee?

 

[djs]

20 people a week? How many go through with it? How many call in has no bearing on anything.

Tom - I realize you view this as a MLM type of system, that's fine, but it's not really that type of system, if you want to be successful long term. Yes, you can have producers, and you can get overrides, but it's not the tupperware type of MLM of old.

I personally have no desire to run a 4 seat call center. Some people do, which is good. Some people do very well at it, personally, I wouldn't.

Also, your reason #4 and reason #5 contradict each other a bit. Impulse buys rarely change lives for the better. Impulse buys are the ones people usually regret later.

Dan
P.S. I'm assuming this should be in insurance offers. This technically isn't phrased as an offer, but it does seem to be what the intent is.

 

[myinsurebiz]

" If you make it mandatory that they come into an office the work certain hours they cannot be 1099 and must be employees. This why even through car salesmen are 100% commission they are all W2. Read up on the 1099 rules: "

In the Call Center - They are free to choose when to come to the Call Center, within business hours, and work the leads they have ordered or generated by themselves.

Operators don't require them to work a schedule. Operators do require they hit a sales quota in order to use the Call Center as their place of business. It's not a free ride. They either produce or they hit the road or maybe call from home using their own lead sources. Operator will assign the Call Center seat to someone else if someone can't produce.

The Call Center is open from 9am to 7pm. They tell us when they will be in the Call Center and we will schedule lead flow accordingly. If they aren't there - they bought the leads.

They will receive 4 Call Back Leads and 2 Live Transfers for every $1400 in AP produced in the previous week. They pay $15 for Call Back Leads and $25 for Live Transfers OR they can create their own leads.

New agents receive a reduced amount of leads until they show they can close deals. Generic leads are only $3 and are good to practice learn on.

Sales Quotas:

Sales quota is $5,000 Annual Premium (AP) produced weekly. Should agents not achieve a sales quota over a 3 week rolling average - they may lose their Call Center seat. That's only 8 - $60 a month premium deals per week. If they can't do an average of 2 deals a day - they may not be cut out for the Call Center opportunity.

Like I said - we expect high turnover on an annual basis. I hope I'm wrong . . .

 

[myinsurebiz]

Dan said - " Tom - I realize you view this as a MLM type of system, that's fine, but it's not really that type of system, if you want to be successful long term. Yes, you can have producers, and you can get overrides, but it's not the tupperware type of MLM of old. "

Dan - I started working the Insurance biz not to personally sell - but to recruit and build a team. My strengths are recruiting and creating workable business plans. Insurance seems to be a good fit for my latest concept.

Before Friday - I was focused on building a team of independent agents, training them and earning an over-ride. However - since my eyes were opened by the gentleman that wanted to utilize his existing office space and put his son to work - we are going to shift gears and target business people that want to open and operate a small Insurance Sales Call Center in their area.

This will still accomplish my goal of having 200+ agents - just I won't have to personally manage them individually - but through independently owned and operated Sales Centers.

I will still get my 10% over-ride either way.

I don't expect to get anyone from this forum to sign on for their own Sales Center - they already have the connections to do it themselves. I appreciate feedback and in this forum - you get feedback.

" P.S. I'm assuming this should be in insurance offers. This technically isn't phrased as an offer, but it does seem to be what the intent is. "

Not really. I'm not selling anything - just wondering if people think the Call Center is a good idea and whether or not they think it might work. Think of it as a focus group.

 

[senior-advisor-indiana]

What a joke. How many markets have you been through this year? It is funny though, because you will still get some poor fools to work under you.