Sorry, just had to chime in but after hiring and training sales people for over two decades with the big NYSE Funeral Chain given the same or similar opportunity why did some succeed and most spin around for a few months or years and then disappear and go down the drain? Simple, but some are better or more talented, some work harder; some got better by working harder. You can't learn experience so best to jump in and experience but if you have a good mentor you can learn from his/ her experience and it does help not to reinvent the wheel. Stay away from the excuse makers and sponge off the ethically talented and successful. The two reasons sales people fail they don't start or they quit. Working smarter is working harder in the beginning.
Success in insurance
- Thread starter Micah1127
- Start date
- 1,432
Think like a businessman or businesswoman even if you're an employee.
Understand lifetime value of a client, at least as a concept. (There is no precise way to calculate it). Otherwise you might close a profitable business that has a short term cash flow problem.
Selling is the essential skill. It's the skill that gets you in the game.
But that's like saying dribbling is the essential skill for an NBA point guard. There is more to being successful in this business than selling. (Unless you have a team that can do the other stuff for you.)
Understand lifetime value of a client, at least as a concept. (There is no precise way to calculate it). Otherwise you might close a profitable business that has a short term cash flow problem.
Selling is the essential skill. It's the skill that gets you in the game.
But that's like saying dribbling is the essential skill for an NBA point guard. There is more to being successful in this business than selling. (Unless you have a team that can do the other stuff for you.)
- 25,064
That
InsuranceGuy29
Guru
- 411
Unless you are right out of college, or have a sweet arrangement with no (or VERY low) rent and minimal bills, most people come into this business with large bills to pay. This business (especially when you're independent) takes a solid amount of time to build up. This isn't a get rich quick scheme, and most college kids aren't coming right out of college and going into insurance. They view it as "boring." They all want to get paid to travel, eat, and do Youtube.
On top of that hurdle, you also need to be pretty intelligent, and have much perseverance, motivation, the ability to hear "no thanks" a lot, and you need to have the balls to pick up a phone and talk to a complete stranger.......
No easy feat in today's "skeptical-of-everything" day and age. This job is kind of like learning to be a lawyer, salesperson, and psychologist....all rolled into one. It's not easy....and on top of this, there's a million and one rules.
You also need to have a very trusted mentor that has some time to show you the ropes and be an advisor. This isn't the easiest thing to find, as insurance agents are VERY busy people. If you don't have a mentor, you will be pretty lost.
There's just a lot of factors working against you, in the beginning, and for most people, it's just easier to get discouraged, talk themselves out if it, and go back to the "safety" (quotes because it's anything but safe) of corporate America and their "daddy" benefits.
The irony is, corporate America will fire you for anything. If you breathe the wrong way....FIRED! Walk the wrong way....FIRED!! People have just been programmed, from the time they were born, to be worker drone sheep. That programming is engrained, and is VERY hard to overcome and rewire your brain. But yea...this business just isn't easy. That's why roughly 99% don't make it past the first year.
On top of that hurdle, you also need to be pretty intelligent, and have much perseverance, motivation, the ability to hear "no thanks" a lot, and you need to have the balls to pick up a phone and talk to a complete stranger.......
No easy feat in today's "skeptical-of-everything" day and age. This job is kind of like learning to be a lawyer, salesperson, and psychologist....all rolled into one. It's not easy....and on top of this, there's a million and one rules.
You also need to have a very trusted mentor that has some time to show you the ropes and be an advisor. This isn't the easiest thing to find, as insurance agents are VERY busy people. If you don't have a mentor, you will be pretty lost.
There's just a lot of factors working against you, in the beginning, and for most people, it's just easier to get discouraged, talk themselves out if it, and go back to the "safety" (quotes because it's anything but safe) of corporate America and their "daddy" benefits.
The irony is, corporate America will fire you for anything. If you breathe the wrong way....FIRED! Walk the wrong way....FIRED!! People have just been programmed, from the time they were born, to be worker drone sheep. That programming is engrained, and is VERY hard to overcome and rewire your brain. But yea...this business just isn't easy. That's why roughly 99% don't make it past the first year.
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- 5,299
It took me about 7 years and around $350,000 to build this. But now I am pretty much set for life, and I don't need to work very hard any more, and probably never again.
If you can build it up and make it, it's a great living. But yes you need to be able to sell, work hard, and live on peanuts for the first few years. It's not for everyone.
tribetime32
Guru
- 377
Some of the most analytical/smart people I have known in this business have failed. The reasoning is that they have to understand the ins and outs of every single component before they go sell a policy. My advice is to feed that curiosity in the evening, but force yourself to give 5 presentations before you go into analysis mode.
The only way all of that learning works is if you have cash flow to continue getting in front of people.
Of course there are multiple other factors like leads, upline, system etc.
The only way all of that learning works is if you have cash flow to continue getting in front of people.
Of course there are multiple other factors like leads, upline, system etc.
- 11,305
While I completely agree with you, it's also unfortunate that there's very few quality resources to help agents learn how to sell a company's most profitable product in a way that benefits clients.
We want to do what's right... but we need the context in order to do that - both within the product itself, and how to coordinate those benefits within a comprehensive strategy.
Plus, since this knowledge isn't readily available, self-doubt can easily creep in when there's very few people who advocate for cash value life insurance. And if you sell a good policy, and the client starts to wonder if they made a good decision... it all comes back when you can't quantify how it benefits the client.
So I blame ineffective training and a lack of credible resources... which cause agents to get more into an 'analytical mode'.
- 1,432
I think there has to be a balance. For years I denied my inner nerd and bought into the "work harder and longer" ethic.
Then I had a crisis and thought, "this hole is too deep to work my way out of; I'll have to think my way out of this one."
Of course I had to work hard too, but if I didn't spend some time learning new skills and figuring out new strategies, I would have lost my house. I needed to double my income and even if I went without sleep, I couldn't have doubled the hours I worked.
A strength can be a weakness, but I allowed myself to think I was over-analyzing and under-working to the extent that for a while I was barely thinking, learning or planning at all. Just working.
You can go too far in either direction.
tribetime32
Guru
- 377
I don't disagree with you guys, I'm just saying that when someone is getting started, paralysis by analysis can kill someone's business. I try to learn something every day, but this doesn't get in the way of me getting in front of people. My advice is to use that desire to know and channel it to become a wealth of knowledge.
The most valuable knowledge in my opinion is what we get from experience, not from what we read in a book. Over time, everything combines to create a well-rounded sales person. In the beginning, one needs to have the cash flow to have the ability to be the aforementioned, however.
The most valuable knowledge in my opinion is what we get from experience, not from what we read in a book. Over time, everything combines to create a well-rounded sales person. In the beginning, one needs to have the cash flow to have the ability to be the aforementioned, however.
- 5,299
Given enough time, just about anyone with average or above average intellect can learn insurance. Not everyone can learn to sell.
If you can sell, you will probably eventually figure out the insurance part.
If you've already figured out the insurance part, but don't know how to sell, that part may or may not ever come.
If you want to be an agent/producer/broker, the most important thing, big picture, is knowing how to sell.
Almost any *** can figure out the insurance part, eventually. Goillini52 is proof of that
If you can sell, you will probably eventually figure out the insurance part.
If you've already figured out the insurance part, but don't know how to sell, that part may or may not ever come.
If you want to be an agent/producer/broker, the most important thing, big picture, is knowing how to sell.
Almost any *** can figure out the insurance part, eventually. Goillini52 is proof of that
