Shmegegi
New Member
- 3
It's like I'm banging my head against a wall, and it feels about as productive.
About a month ago, I signed on with Farmers Insurance as a captive agent. I've no background in sales, and my last job was submitting health applications. It wasn't their first time contacting me, but I was giving it more and more thought as time passed. I wasn't happy with my job--no authority, no privacy, no autonomy, just a grunt making $14/hour who took the brunt of my bosses frustrations--and I wanted to be more...independent. Chatted it over with the fiancé, and we decided, well, we're young and broke anyway; maybe this way when we're not young, we won't be broke, either.
It's already lost its glamour.
The DMs idea of lead generation is Project 200, and I'm gathering from these forums that it's not a unique idea. The issue is that I don't have any living family. I have kept my friends close, but sans family, my Project 200 was looking a little...bare.
What they want me to do is harass my friends about buying insurance--calling them repeatedly, sending out mailers, treating them like any other lead--but I'm against it. I've spoken to all of them about my new agency and what I'm setting myself up for, and they're kind of interested, but I'm not going to spam them with calls multiple times a day.
I'm at this weird age where all of my friends are getting married and having babies, and my DM claims, "They're great prospects! Now is the time to market!" Yeah, sure, when the time comes. But when a pregnant woman is bent over a toilet hurling up her guts for two days, she doesn't care about her auto insurance. When new parents aren't sleeping at all because of the newborn, they're too exhausted to talk about the importance of life insurance. When a friend is out of state for a week-long vacation, the talk can wait until she gets back. But the DM doesn't care. "Do it now," he demands. But I'm not going to strong-arm anyone into insurance when they clearly have other things going on--my friends aren't going there. We can chat about it later, on the weekend, or after a doctor's appointment, or when they get back into the state.
Instead, I want to know: what can I do for external leads?
And the advice stops there.
Surely they have some idea of what to do?
Nothing.
The DM's office is accusing me of withholding from them--like I have friends and family members stashed in my attic or something--and have totally stopped helping me out. I'm brand new at this. Really green.
I knew it was going to be difficult, but now it's like the office is going out of their way to pile on. I've heard and read all sorts of awful things about the Friends and Family approach, and I can't help but think about the coincidental timing: once my Project 200 dried up, they just don't want me around anymore. I can't stand working in the DM's office, and their drama is stressing me out.
I like insurance. I know, it's not the most thrilling of careers that a 23-year old would be into, but I'm really happy with the career itself. The DM's office is another matter entirely.
Now I have all these doubts. Should I have tried to go independent instead? Is Farmers a good company to be appointed with? Can I distance myself from their drama long enough to really get started?
And I have questions: where are good places to generate leads from? Free leads; paid leads?
These are things my DM claimed he'd help me out with, but it's like his only idea was Project 200 then send me out the door. I'm just not willing to give up that easily.
Advice?
About a month ago, I signed on with Farmers Insurance as a captive agent. I've no background in sales, and my last job was submitting health applications. It wasn't their first time contacting me, but I was giving it more and more thought as time passed. I wasn't happy with my job--no authority, no privacy, no autonomy, just a grunt making $14/hour who took the brunt of my bosses frustrations--and I wanted to be more...independent. Chatted it over with the fiancé, and we decided, well, we're young and broke anyway; maybe this way when we're not young, we won't be broke, either.
It's already lost its glamour.
The DMs idea of lead generation is Project 200, and I'm gathering from these forums that it's not a unique idea. The issue is that I don't have any living family. I have kept my friends close, but sans family, my Project 200 was looking a little...bare.
What they want me to do is harass my friends about buying insurance--calling them repeatedly, sending out mailers, treating them like any other lead--but I'm against it. I've spoken to all of them about my new agency and what I'm setting myself up for, and they're kind of interested, but I'm not going to spam them with calls multiple times a day.
I'm at this weird age where all of my friends are getting married and having babies, and my DM claims, "They're great prospects! Now is the time to market!" Yeah, sure, when the time comes. But when a pregnant woman is bent over a toilet hurling up her guts for two days, she doesn't care about her auto insurance. When new parents aren't sleeping at all because of the newborn, they're too exhausted to talk about the importance of life insurance. When a friend is out of state for a week-long vacation, the talk can wait until she gets back. But the DM doesn't care. "Do it now," he demands. But I'm not going to strong-arm anyone into insurance when they clearly have other things going on--my friends aren't going there. We can chat about it later, on the weekend, or after a doctor's appointment, or when they get back into the state.
Instead, I want to know: what can I do for external leads?
And the advice stops there.
Surely they have some idea of what to do?
Nothing.
The DM's office is accusing me of withholding from them--like I have friends and family members stashed in my attic or something--and have totally stopped helping me out. I'm brand new at this. Really green.
I knew it was going to be difficult, but now it's like the office is going out of their way to pile on. I've heard and read all sorts of awful things about the Friends and Family approach, and I can't help but think about the coincidental timing: once my Project 200 dried up, they just don't want me around anymore. I can't stand working in the DM's office, and their drama is stressing me out.
I like insurance. I know, it's not the most thrilling of careers that a 23-year old would be into, but I'm really happy with the career itself. The DM's office is another matter entirely.
Now I have all these doubts. Should I have tried to go independent instead? Is Farmers a good company to be appointed with? Can I distance myself from their drama long enough to really get started?
And I have questions: where are good places to generate leads from? Free leads; paid leads?
These are things my DM claimed he'd help me out with, but it's like his only idea was Project 200 then send me out the door. I'm just not willing to give up that easily.
Advice?