How do these people get to be Agency owners?

[senior-advisor-indiana]

I work for a career company in the senior market. I looked into my RSM's insurance license and seen he has only been an agent 2 yrs longer than me. I have been in the biz for 4.5 yrs. Why am I working for him? Why haven't I had the opportunity to run an office like this? He is 25yrs older than me.

The sad thing is that I know more than he does and I can find answers faster than he can. How do I get that position? Should I be looking to start an agency or should I just be a one man operation? What are the pros and cons? I am sure I would make much more money having agents under me but how do I do that? How do I get a company to come to me and ask me to run an office?

 

[J.R.]

Have you thought about going out on your own and developing your own agency. It sounds like you have the confidence to do it on your own...

 

[BizyGuy]

Hello SAI,

The only reason you should be with that type of agency is you dont want or are unable to get your own leads. You can have a much higher contract with multiple companies as a independant agent. There are alot of ways to generate your own activity and make more $$$
Hope this helps
Regards,
Steve B

 

[STIBROKER]

all it takes is money....

 

[Frank Stastny]

Maybe I don't understand the "agency" concept but the guys I know who have an "agency", agents under them, didn't have a life or health insurance company came to them and say, we want to start an "agency" in your area, will you please run it for us? Here is an office, equipment, and money for your expenses.

I use to have several agents "under me". I guess you could say I had an "agency". I always set it up so they were receiving their commissions from the company not me. I think that is the only honest and fair way of doing it. I would have them license with the company and I told the company how much commission they were to receive, I got the rest.

I didn't have an "agency" name or an "office" or any staff. I was simply an agent who recruited agents under me and received a percent of everything they wrote for the companies they and I were licensed with.

What's in a name? I have never felt that it was necessary or was a stumbling block in my ability to sell insurance to not have an agency name. That's for the big guys who want to have hundreds of agents under them and a huge operation, in my opinion.

I made some extra money getting an over ride on those agents. Eventually though, all the BS of making sure they were working, calling to make sure they were up in the morning, listening to them bitch with all the "pat" reasons why they weren't producing, putting up with them slamming clients and getting huge charge backs and the difficulty of trying to find people who wanted to work and were self motivated just wasn't worth it.

How many people like you do you know that are self-motivated, will work through hours of rejection, won't give up and are working at 8am and will work after 5 and on weekends if necessary and do this five days a week? I do that and expected agents under me to do the same especially if their production was down or non existent.

I would spend three full days, 12 hour days, of training at the start. Helped them develop a presentation that matched their personality, giving them complete product knowledge, and took them on appointments with me. I would turn them out on their own for a week then we would get together for another full day and analyze what they had experienced.

Then I would send them out for another week and then if they still hadn't gotten it we would spend a day or two going over everything again.

After about three weeks of this they would either make it or I would stop wasting my valuable selling time with them.

If this is something that excites you then by all means go for it. Ask yourself this question, would I want me working for me? If so, where are you going to find even two others like you, let alone 5 or 10. Are you a good "hand holder" and ready to devote a lot of your selling time to training knowing that it's going to take a long time to get even 5 agents who are regular producers? You really want only producing agents in my opinion.

The really good agents, the ones who are hard working, motivated, experienced, know the business and how it works and how to get their own leads are not the ones who are going to want to work under you and take a smaller percentage of commission. You are going to get the ones who are new or the lazy ones looking for a "free ride" with leads handed to them.

However, I may very well be wrong, that is what I have experienced. Others may have a totally different story to tell.

 

[retread]

Frank, I can see your point well. The corollary is true, also.

I just left an "agency" to go out on my own. The "agency" took a BIG slice of my enrollment, constantly told all of us how much his leads cost him, and was tired of hearing complaints of how lousy they were. He complained constantly of not wanting to provide training (even though he did not object to my desire for training when I signed up) and did not follow through with paperwork administration expected of his position. To top it all off, he ran a sales pitch contrary to regulations and was disgusted at my reluctance to follow suit.

I was relieved when we split, but anxious to have to do everything myself. I find that after only a few weeks that I have all my paperwork in order with commissions larger than under my former "boss". No matter how much you stress that you (and your GA) want to remain an independant agent, if you sign up under one of these guys, you are an underling, and he will treat you like an employee.

One of my biggest concerns was where to find leads. Even though I did not get many pointers from forum response, all I needed was one that put me onto where to begin a search. This worked out for me and I have more lead sources that I know what to do with.

In short, I could not have done this without this board. I found the information needed to get started in the insurance business, and now the information needed to head up my own agency just by reading the information available here. What I supply is the effort, and the accountablility is mine alone. To make the money, you have to do the work. If you need hand-holding, you will always be an employee.

 

[Frank Stastny]

Frank, I can see your point well. The corollary is true, also.

I just left an "agency" to go out on my own. The "agency" took a BIG slice of my enrollment, constantly told all of us how much his leads cost him, and was tired of hearing complaints of how lousy they were. He complained constantly of not wanting to provide training...

No matter how much you stress that you (and your GA) want to remain an independant agent, if you sign up under one of these guys, you are an underling, and he will treat you like an employee.

That is not my definition of an "agency". That is a, "I'm gonna rip you off because you don't know any better", not a real agency. An "agency" regardless if you have a "Name", office, staff or not is someone to work under to help you who receives a small percent of your commission that is paid by the company, not some "agency" who is in business to screw you, get paid by the company and then writes you a check for a couple of cents while he takes the lion's share of the commission.

If I recall our conversations, that is exactly who you were "working for". This guy didn't give two damns about you, he simply was out to screw you and make as much money as he could before you found out.

Guys like that should be helped to join a castrati choir so they can sing there little hearts out.

 

[retread]

I often paint with a broad brush, Frank. Sorry. If anyone who runs a viable agency is offended with my comments, my apologies. I guess I am still smarting from the recent experience.

I am a slow learner, but I eventually catch on. To wit: two of the people that log on this board are or were part of this "agency" and one of them put me onto them in the beginning. That one left within a week, and I stayed on for 3 more months. The other just uses them on a part-time basis, which works for him. Am I gullible because I trust? Yeah. My chosen position is that I trust until I am betrayed. Others may deride me, but I find I can live with myself better, and I don't pass on a suspicious nature to my clients. They trust me, and I work to maintain that trust.

That "other" agency has lost a good agent IMO. I am sure he will replace me with a dozen more. In the meantime, I am free to be independant.... totally independant.

 

[midwestbroker]

Retread -

The key to that type of agency is to feel them out. Don't jump in with both feet.

About the agency you are talking about:
I had an understanding with one of the 2 owners, but the 2nd one did not see eye to eye with me, so they get a little bit of biz here and there.

My point is that I felt them out, knew what I wanted and expected. When they could not provide that 100%, we came to a workable solution. But I was not dependent on them. That I think is the key. I had the ability to basically walk away from them and it was no skin off my back.

That, IMHO, is the only way to approach any agency. Granted they got my name on a contract, but I knew that I would not be selling a whole lot of it and I was okay with that.