So I Just Took My Life & Health Insurance Exam...

[arnguy]

x2 for what M&M posted!!!!! Excellent advice.

 

[xrac]

Robert, allow me to give you a "30 second" sales school, based on over twenty years of experience. This is stuff your "manager" won't tell you.

The folks that are successful with AFLAC (or Colonial for that matter) are the ones that work with brokers who have a group health relationship with potential clients. They are able to work on what's called a "favorable basis".

Since you just got a license yesterday, I doubt you have these relationships in place.

If your job is to prospect for new businesses to offer AFLAC to their employees, here's the ONLY shot you've got (and the odds are still long)...

Forget websites, SEO, direct mail, etc. You'll be wasting your time - it isn't going to work. I hope you're good on the phone, you'll have to make 250-300 dials a day to businesses - 2 to 2.5 days per week. You'll actually talk to someone 20-25% of the time. If you spill your spiel to HR Managers, etc., you'll get stroked 99.9% of the time (they can say NO, but can't say YES). If by some chance you have exceptional phone skills and can actually talk to an owner, or someone who can say yes, you've got a small shot - if you can then help them convince themselves in a face-to-face meeting that your offer has merit. How much B2B selling to owners have you done?

Are your phone and presentation skills up to that challenge?

If you want to make a career in the insurance business, there are numerous better places to start.

That is good advice but we have already been over that frontwards and backwards on a different thread and he is stuck on AFLAC

 

[Robert_Brown]

i'm not "stuck" on Aflac. They're guiding me through getting my license, which I just got, and putting me through their "sales school". So I'm going to take what they have to offer.

I'm not captive, and I can sell other company insurance if I choose to, but since I'm new to this, I want to get good at one thing first and then move on. What's wrong with starting out with Aflac?

 

[stuy119]

i'm not "stuck" on Aflac. They're guiding me through getting my license, which I just got, and putting me through their "sales school". So I'm going to take what they have to offer.

I'm not captive, and I can sell other company insurance if I choose to, but since I'm new to this, I want to get good at one thing first and then move on. What's wrong with starting out with Aflac?

As mentioned previously:

- over-saturated marketplace
- difficulty getting to the true decision-maker
- difficulty getting access to the employees post decision
- low income in the first few years

Other than those items, it's great.

 

[Robert_Brown]

As mentioned previously:

- over-saturated marketplace
- difficulty getting to the true decision-maker
- difficulty getting access to the employees post decision
- low income in the first few years

Other than those items, it's great.

-Over-saturation, yes I've been hearing that a lot. But I can also sell Aflac to individuals, so I don't think it should affect me as if I was only selling to businesses?

-Wouldn't it be the same difficulty getting to the decision maker with any other insurance if you are targeting businesses?

- wouldn't your income the first few years depend on you? Is Aflac's commission paid a lot less that others? The commission I make off of Aflac is 63%.
3% residual years 1-3
7% residual years 4+
Fully vested after 10 years

Should I focus on medicare supps as well?

 

[ctg]

I've always been a natural at talking to people face to face. I don't have much on the phone experience, but I don't think I would be bad at it. Yes I would have to practice at it, but I think I could get it down pretty well.

Since I'm not captive with aflac, what are some better places to start? I could still offer aflac to businesses though.

Also I planned on making 100 cold calls a day, 3 days a week.

The hardest part for me is getting the face to face. Once you can actually sit down with them, you've cleared the biggest hurdle. And try not to limit when you cold call-I've had appointments in the middle of my "scheduled" cold calling time. I try to think of quality calls rather than a set quantity. Some days you can get 5 appointments out of 100 calls and some days you'll get nothing out of 200. I'm still working on my cold call skills and I think I'll have to continue to improve for a very long time. Unless, of course, I reach the goal of every agent where I have so much business where I don't have to prospect anymore!

 

[xrac]

-Over-saturation, yes I've been hearing that a lot. But I can also sell Aflac to individuals, so I don't think it should affect me as if I was only selling to businesses?

-Wouldn't it be the same difficulty getting to the decision maker with any other insurance if you are targeting businesses?

- wouldn't your income the first few years depend on you? Is Aflac's commission paid a lot less that others? The commission I make off of Aflac is 63%.
3% residual years 1-3
7% residual years 4+
Fully vested after 10 years

Should I focus on medicare supps as well?

Glad you have it all figured out. Check back with us in 2 months. Different people have shared their experience on this in different threads and you aren't listening to what is almost a unnanimous opinion. We have nothing at stake in this fight.

 

[Wtprice]

-Over-saturation, yes I've been hearing that a lot. But I can also sell Aflac to individuals, so I don't think it should affect me as if I was only selling to businesses?

-Wouldn't it be the same difficulty getting to the decision maker with any other insurance if you are targeting businesses?

- wouldn't your income the first few years depend on you? Is Aflac's commission paid a lot less that others? The commission I make off of Aflac is 63%.
3% residual years 1-3
7% residual years 4+
Fully vested after 10 years

Should I focus on medicare supps as well?

You should focus on a very few lines of insurance starting out, maybe 1. MedSupps are pretty nice, but you have to have a passion for whatever your selling.

Once you feel you are an expert in 1 line of insurance (MedSupps for example), branch out into something that you can cross sell, like final expense or LTC or even a vision, dental and hearing plan. The deal is to have a theme.

300 cold calls are not going to be excellent per week in the beginning. You should have a goal to call 2-300 per day. A huge part of your business right now is marketing and learning product and sales techniques.

Personally, I'd pick a different line of insurance; but that's only because I'd rather have a little success than scrapping by to eat.

 

[Robert_Brown]

Yea, I've had a few people from this forum tell me I should look at selling FE. I will take a closer look at that once I get comfortable with what I'm doing now.

You're right. I'm going to need to make as many calls as I can starting out. probably 200-300 a day, 3 days a week. I'm thinking I should use a dialer. I've heard good things about salesdialers.com
I just have no idea how to use one....

 

[FinPlanner]

I like life insurance....70%-120% of first year premiums and most people are not insured or are underinsured. Great way to get some money in to pay the bills while you build your "residual" business.

For permanent, I like Hartford and Lincoln. For term, I like American General, Genworth, ING ReliaStar.