There are too many agents taking business/career advice from their uplines. They think they can trust the advice because the IMO's incentives are perfectly aligned with yours. They only make money when you make money. Right? Wrong.
A few areas in which your IMO's advice, especially the mass recruiting MLM types, will SCREW you.
1. Profitability
- Your expenses are your expenses regardless of how much you sell. Your FMO's "system" that they're touting to you most likely doesn't include accounting or money management, and they will most likely not suggest you learn it before you start selling.
2. Leads
- If they don't have quality leads, many will simply lie to you about their quality. The more trusting agents will be confused and begin to blame themselves for their lack of success with them. They also have an incentive to re-sell your old leads to other agents because it raises their potential profitability. This is the equivalent of selling the data of all of your clients to somebody else.
3. Market
- This may be the most important point. Your IMO will only give you advice on how to succeed in a way that's profitable for them. What do you expect? They are a business. They will NOT give you objective advice on which markets may be the best to pursue for your personal goals. Some will even conflate multiple markets as the same thing, like Final Expense and Mortgage Protection, and iron over the differences between them. The fewer questions you ask, the faster they can make money off of you.
4. Contracts/Commission levels
- Obviously, the lower your comp is, the more money they make. The honest ones will give you the highest available to a retail agent without downlines/proof of high production. Most are not honest. Even if you could earn a higher commission somewhere else, many will actively tell lies to persuade you not to take advantage of those opportunities.
Of course, there are many respectable IMO's, some of which are on these forums. However, an agent would be wise to remember that people respond to incentives and IMO's are no exception. If your only source of mentorship in this business is your upline, I would highly suggest you expand your network.
A few areas in which your IMO's advice, especially the mass recruiting MLM types, will SCREW you.
1. Profitability
- Your expenses are your expenses regardless of how much you sell. Your FMO's "system" that they're touting to you most likely doesn't include accounting or money management, and they will most likely not suggest you learn it before you start selling.
2. Leads
- If they don't have quality leads, many will simply lie to you about their quality. The more trusting agents will be confused and begin to blame themselves for their lack of success with them. They also have an incentive to re-sell your old leads to other agents because it raises their potential profitability. This is the equivalent of selling the data of all of your clients to somebody else.
3. Market
- This may be the most important point. Your IMO will only give you advice on how to succeed in a way that's profitable for them. What do you expect? They are a business. They will NOT give you objective advice on which markets may be the best to pursue for your personal goals. Some will even conflate multiple markets as the same thing, like Final Expense and Mortgage Protection, and iron over the differences between them. The fewer questions you ask, the faster they can make money off of you.
4. Contracts/Commission levels
- Obviously, the lower your comp is, the more money they make. The honest ones will give you the highest available to a retail agent without downlines/proof of high production. Most are not honest. Even if you could earn a higher commission somewhere else, many will actively tell lies to persuade you not to take advantage of those opportunities.
Of course, there are many respectable IMO's, some of which are on these forums. However, an agent would be wise to remember that people respond to incentives and IMO's are no exception. If your only source of mentorship in this business is your upline, I would highly suggest you expand your network.
