Im a New to the Industry (Farmers Insurance)

[JJIA24]

Re: Im a New to the Industry. (Farmers Insurance)

Why the eff would I lie? I made nothing because I had to pay for leads every month. Oh and I said "up to" 150 policies. Three others in my district whom were also career agents wrote 200-300 policies per month. Its just systems dude.

 

[Guest]

Re: Im a New to the Industry. (Farmers Insurance)

Why the eff would I lie? I made nothing because I had to pay for leads every month. Oh and I said "up to" 150 policies. Three others in my district whom were also career agents wrote 200-300 policies per month. Its just systems dude.

Because I was a Farmers agent for 6.5 years, and especially in Cali, i know they are over priced and people CANT sell it because its that far outta whack.

Also, if you WERE writing that much, they wouldnt have terminated you, plus with their ***ed up computer system, you spend all your time redoing crap, scanning every litle piece of paper for them to see and approve. by the time you call mortgage companies, lienholders, etc, spend half your day on hold to farmers trying to straighten out their problems. there is no way you were writing that much a month.

I call complete BULLSHIT

 

[Bob Klee]

Re: Im a New to the Industry. (Farmers Insurance)

I believe JJIA24.

on the PIF: 1000 PIF/18 months is only an average of 56 PIF a month. We all start out slow & build some momentum. 150 PIF is not that hard unless one is writing all apps with a pen & triplicate forms with carbon paper!! Plus not easy if you had no support staff. But doable.

Harder to believe, but not impossible: $5,000 a month spent on Internet leads. Of course one would assume you didn't spend that much early on...that you would ramp up to that in 4-6 months. [18 months x $5000 = $90,000] Assume an average cost for home/auto lead of $10 bucks & he was working 500 internet leads a month. 120/per week, 46/business day. That is CRAZY unless you have staff to help you write/quote business. It would be hard to call each lead more than 1 time but I'm not saying impossible because: IF he closed 30% each month that = 150 PIF. That is a Very High close ratio for internet leads. I dare say most on this forum would be satisfied with 1/2 that return on internet leads. But that would assume no other source for new business which IMO is not logical.

I'd say you could teach some of us here a thing or two about working internet leads if that was the case! Plus they must have been good leads so many would like to know the source.

Hey, I wish it was Hometown Quotes! Obviously don't know one way or the other with the secrecy of folks here as most hide their names. But there are good lead providers with good reputations, no matter what I read.

Back before I was in the lead business, I'd never tell the guys in my market who a good lead company, or advertising source was. If a local guy asked me what I thought of NQ I'd say I'd tried them & they were junk leads, a waste of money. I didn't want them competing with me

 

[JJIA24]

Re: Im a New to the Industry. (Farmers Insurance)

Because I was a Farmers agent for 6.5 years, and especially in Cali, i know they are over priced and people CANT sell it because its that far outta whack.

Also, if you WERE writing that much, they wouldnt have terminated you, plus with their ***ed up computer system, you spend all your time redoing crap, scanning every litle piece of paper for them to see and approve. by the time you call mortgage companies, lienholders, etc, spend half your day on hold to farmers trying to straighten out their problems. there is no way you were writing that much a month.

I call complete BULLSHIT

Well there red blooded american I am sorry you feel that way, but I assure you that I am not here to flog my dolphin. I am here to offer advice and obtain support in having some question answered about my newest independent venture. I think you may have animosity towards me because I was **** hot with the company, oh and I was not terminated by the company I resigned big difference. And you posted some very valid points about their garbage systems hence why I had to pay someone to deal with all the paperwork which cost me more off of my bottom line.

Well I went from reserve to career in 39 days with no 6 month reserve program. I have a friend who runs an association with Farmers that handles 90% of the business they handle in that field so I started and hit the ground running. Here is the kicker, I would have made a ton of money if Farmers wasnt so stringent on the way there commercial policies were written. Take this for example, I had a commercial auto fleet of 120 vehicles all but ready to be written, but because Farmers didnt write the GL I couldnt write the fleet. Bye bye 30k commission.

I can go on and on about Farmers experiences, but I wont. I am here to hopefully deter this agent from pursuing a waste of time with Farmers.

In regards to writing the policies, I worked from about 8 AM to 9-10 PM everyday. I had a small staff of licensed producers that I paid 75% for new business. I was Farmers golden boy within the district and was writing anywhere from 40-150 policies per month.

It is what it is.
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I believe JJIA24.

on the PIF: 1000 PIF/18 months is only an average of 56 PIF a month. We all start out slow & build some momentum. 150 PIF is not that hard unless one is writing all apps with a pen & triplicate forms with carbon paper!! Plus not easy if you had no support staff. But doable.

Harder to believe, but not impossible: $5,000 a month spent on Internet leads. Of course one would assume you didn't spend that much early on...that you would ramp up to that in 4-6 months. [18 months x $5000 = $90,000] Assume an average cost for home/auto lead of $10 bucks & he was working 500 internet leads a month. 120/per week, 46/business day. That is CRAZY unless you have staff to help you write/quote business. It would be hard to call each lead more than 1 time but I'm not saying impossible because: IF he closed 30% each month that = 150 PIF. That is a Very High close ratio for internet leads. I dare say most on this forum would be satisfied with 1/2 that return on internet leads. But that would assume no other source for new business which IMO is not logical.

I'd say you could teach some of us here a thing or two about working internet leads if that was the case! Plus they must have been good leads so many would like to know the source.

Hey, I wish it was Hometown Quotes! Obviously don't know one way or the other with the secrecy of folks here as most hide their names. But there are good lead providers with good reputations, no matter what I read.

Back before I was in the lead business, I'd never tell the guys in my market who a good lead company, or advertising source was. If a local guy asked me what I thought of NQ I'd say I'd tried them & they were junk leads, a waste of money. I didn't want them competing with me

Bob I started off with Insurance Leads.com and was buying about 10 leads per day. That lasted about a week. I then got hooked up with NetQuote which I found out where Farmers had decent rates and bought nearly 30 zip codes at $3.50 per lead. This was in the hay day of returning more than a max of 25% of bad leads. I would receive anywhere from 15-50 leads per day with this one carrier and I was very effective in my sales delivery and follow ups. Once I got the hang of things, I grabbed All Web Leads, Hometown Quotes, Insure Me and Quote Wizard. I have terrible results with all of these especially because the filters I needed were anywhere from $6-13 per lead. So there you can see how it all added up quickly and I was leveraging an accounts receivable basis. At the end of every folio, I would have to pay back all these lead companies which left me little. I do have to say that my overall closing ratio was roughly 25-27% only because I was selling tons of multi-line policies. I had a ton of monoline auto, but the way I wrote my business and my systems in place allowed for one specific game plan.

Hope this helps.
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Oh and another thing, this is an Insurance Agents forum. Why are people gloating so much over what I was writing? I was seeded right in the middle of the district. The rockstars were writing 300 or more per month. I actually felt I was a small fish in a big pond. I dont get it. Not rocket science.

 

[infoe]

Re: Im a New to the Industry. (Farmers Insurance)

RBA I believe him, he sounds like me when I first started. I was doing all those internet leads in the first few months to wait for the ramping up of my mailers. We were closing 10% and sometimes even less because the farm is so stringent on auto policies and really internet shoppers was all about price so if they qualified for the farm's best rate we would get them but if not we would'nt. It's all a game. I could WRITE as much business I want to all day (or as much as I can aford to buy) but it would'nt be fun to watch it go all out the backdoor cause it is crap business.

As a susb standard maybe even a standard insurance agent with maybe a brother or wife as an allstate agent...someone could make a killing buying auto internet leads and sharing them between offices..having them both send out the quotes that customer and see who can get the business.

(Ive thought of doing this)

In either case JJIA24 i've been giving you tough love on the other thread where your asking for advise, but I do wish you well in the new venture. Seems like you've found a sweet spot to land on.

 

[JJIA24]

Re: Im a New to the Industry. (Farmers Insurance)

RBA I believe him, he sounds like me when I first started. I was doing all those internet leads in the first few months to wait for the ramping up of my mailers. We were closing 10% and sometimes even less because the farm is so stringent on auto policies and really internet shoppers was all about price so if they qualified for the farm's best rate we would get them but if not we would'nt. It's all a game. I could WRITE as much business I want to all day (or as much as I can aford to buy) but it would'nt be fun to watch it go all out the backdoor cause it is crap business.

As a susb standard maybe even a standard insurance agent with maybe a brother or wife as an allstate agent...someone could make a killing buying auto internet leads and sharing them between offices..having them both send out the quotes that customer and see who can get the business.

(Ive thought of doing this)

In either case JJIA24 i've been giving you tough love on the other thread where your asking for advise, but I do wish you well in the new venture. Seems like you've found a sweet spot to land on.

Infoe, I sure do appreciate the tough love and thats exactly how I am viewing it

I am trying to convince myself and my wife that this indy move is the best bet for us. Obviously I am seeking advice so I can make this as favorable as possible for me.

 

[Guest]

Re: Im a New to the Industry. (Farmers Insurance)

Just my opinion, but I still call Bullshit.

Sure an experienced agent with staff can handle that much, but not a newbie, still being trained, going to all of Farmers stupid meetings and training meetings. Leanring the product, the system.

And Farmers Cali rates completely suck ass, so simply put, I dont believe you. I think if you were doing that much business, you would stumble on enough life insurance to get you your numbers, especially with their simple term crap policy,

If you really were, then good for you, but I just wont believe it.

And you say you went career in 39 days, well, you have to have 40 P&C and 4 life ISSUED in that time frame, so I guess if you write cheap nothing simple terms, you could do it, but still hard to believe. I mean, when did you have time to learn products, policies, etc. You had to have time to learn HOW TO RUN this business. Lots of follow up and stuff, I just dont see it for a newbie, an expericened agent, sure, just not a newbie. Again, just my opinion, but if you did, then good job.

 

[Bob Klee]

Re: Im a New to the Industry. (Farmers Insurance)

JJIA24,
Did you earn the "Order of the Blue Vase?"

I did & still have it.
FYI: for those that haven't been a FIG agent: Interesting book/story they give you at career school when you start. Only time in your career with Farmers you can earn it is in the first 6 months and completely related to Life Insurance sales.

Memories.....

 

[VaDwayne]

Re: Im a New to the Industry. (Farmers Insurance)

I LOVE FARMERS as I sell commercial insurance and in 2 years I have NEVER run into a Farmers commercial account...

 

[Bertolinoins]

Re: Im a New to the Industry. (Farmers Insurance)

I LOVE FARMERS as I sell commercial insurance and in 2 years I have NEVER run into a Farmers commercial account...

Farmers is extremely strong in a few narrow niches including restaurants, condo associations, Hotels, towing and large workers comp. You do not want them to heat up in one of the niches where you have a lot of business.