First year Agent struggles

[NCAgent828]

Because I am on my first year of a scratch agency I have pursued additional sources of income. I love what I do but it is slow at first and many of you know this!

What you did to make it through the first few years?

A huge nest egg or savings account would help but for newer agents and those pursuing this I'd love for them to hear first hand accounts of what it is like in the beginning.

 

[Newby]

Because I am on my first year of a scratch agency I have pursued additional sources of income. I love what I do but it is slow at first and many of you know this!

What you did to make it through the first few years?

A huge nest egg or savings account would help but for newer agents and those pursuing this I'd love for them to hear first hand accounts of what it is like in the beginning.

It would help to know what kind of insurance you are doing. I don't think it is slow at first if you are doing transactional products and buying enough leads. FE or Medicare agents hit the ground and start running.

If you are building a financial planning practice or P&C agency that might be a slower start up. But you should still be very busy in the beginning.

You should spend 100% of your time either in front of a prospective client. Or trying to get in front of a prospective client. So selling and prospecting is all you do in the beginning. There is no slow time with that.

 

[NCAgent828]

P&C business. I mean slow growth financially. I mean there is a reason agents talk the way they do about the first couple years. I doubt I'm the only one feeling the strain.

 

[sshafran]

P&C business. I mean slow growth financially. I mean there is a reason agents talk the way they do about the first couple years. I doubt I'm the only one feeling the strain.

I sold other products in addition to insurance my first few years. I was super slow at building a med supp book of business - most of my summers, I did roofing/siding sales (insurance claims, mostly). Selling roofing/siding was considered "slow" by a lot of people because sometimes you had to wait 2... maybe 3 months before getting paid - but once you got paid, it was a chunk (average job about $1,500, and you can sell multiple jobs per month without too much work). Compared to med supps - this was lightning fast.

You wouldn't be able to do ^ above more than likely (conflict of interest, if you are P&C) - but you may be able to do some other kind of sales.

At the end of the day, I think working two streams isn't bad while building a long-term book of business that takes a while to pay us. But I'd just recommend keeping that second stream within the realm of sales. You don't want to sell P&C part time then work in a non-sales position the other part time. It would get you out of the "mode" too much, in my opinion.

Sometimes Life can pay pretty quickly, I just was never very good at selling it (although it took several tries to realize this).

 

[NCAgent828]

Yeah I totally agree! I have been serving tables at a major food chain as well as will now beginning working with, no for, a school fundraising company that will be good money and also while I'm traveling I can prospect in the same areas.

 

[Life Hawk]

Because I am on my first year of a scratch agency I have pursued additional sources of income. I love what I do but it is slow at first and many of you know this!

What you did to make it through the first few years?

A huge nest egg or savings account would help but for newer agents and those pursuing this I'd love for them to hear first hand accounts of what it is like in the beginning.

Take some of your time to canvas an area and do some quoting...

A few benefits...

• You get some F2F time and get a feel for the sales process.
• Helps you meet new people and feel more comfortable in the process while thinking on your feet.
• Pushes you to not only better understand your product but how to better explain its need.
• Practice learning a skill few have mastered... referrals...

Get out of the office and meet the people...

 

[fed up]

Explore every opportunity you have with a new P&C customer to sell some life insurance. Take your commissions "AS PAID" so you don't face a huge chargeback, or gamble and use the money to get leads but watch out for the charge back. It's a killer