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Crucial Knowledge From an Experienced Insurance Agent

Insights from My Personal 28 Year Journey: Looking back, I never dreamed that one day I would be earning the kind of income that the insurance industry has provided my family and I with today! My desire is to help other insurance agents do as well in the insurance industry as we have been blessed to do. The following are some basic insights to those who are just starting out in insurance sales or maybe considering an insurance sales career. Here are some important truths most licensed insurance agents are not told when they start their careers in insurance sales.

• The average insurance agents’ income in our industry is around $34,000 per year.
• Most insurance agents will never build up enough renewal income to retire on.
• 80%-90% who start an insurance career in insurance sales will not make it in the insurance business beyond five years.
• Mastering prospecting and marketing, not necessarily selling (although selling skills are very important) is the key to succeeding long term in insurance sales.
• Most Career or Captive contracts take years to become 100% vested on your own sales. Many agents sign up under contracts that never offer vesting rights.
• Independent Insurance Agent contracts can provide immediate 100% vesting rights and usually pay higher commissions.
• Having the ability to pick and choose the companies you would like to sell products for allows you to be more flexible and offer more solutions to your prospective clients.

Had I searched out the advice and wisdom of someone who had been down the road I was heading first, it would have had a significant impact with the time it took to become successful in insurance sales. If I only knew then in 1981 when I started my career in insurance sales what I know now after many years of trial and error, learning things the hard way, testing many different sales, prospecting and marketing techniques, some that worked and many that didn’t, I would have been able to eliminate ten plus years of frustration and slower growth.

Let me emphasize that insurance sales can be one of the most rewarding, exciting, challenging and fulfilling careers for anyone who is self motivated, goal oriented, has good work habits, loves challenges and wants to be in control of their own destiny. The most important lesson I’ve learned over and over is that there is no new formula to becoming successful. Although there have been some great advancements in technology and the internet has created some exciting new ways to find prospects and market your products. Success in the insurance industry still requires the development of certain traits and habits that continually propel you forward towards your goals. Some of the tools we use to get there have changed but the personal ingredients needed have remained the same.

Many insurance agents excel well beyond our industries average income mentioned above. However, the chances of becoming one of the industries failing statistics are much higher, especially if you are not starting from a position of knowledge and available resources. Seek out the knowledge of someone who has traveled the road before you. Understand the differences between what an Independent Insurance Agent contract offers and a Career or Captive contract offers. Get a feel for the type of support and resources you will need to have the best chance for success as you move forward. There are many good quality Agency support systems you can plug into. You will want to find an agency system that provides a good size product portfolio, product training, lead and prospecting support as well as growth opportunities that allow you to reach General Agent commission levels.

If you’re someone who has a willingness to learn and the desire to succeed, if you enjoy working with and helping others, I truly believe an insurance sales career can be all you dream it could be. My reality has grown much larger than what my dreams were when I started my insurance sales career. So I encourage you to dream big dreams, step out and move forward to make them a reality too.

If you are interested in a agent support system that provides all the tools, support, and resources you will need to either become successful in insurance sales and/or build your own agency, visit the links or call 1-800-359-0980 (ask for Dan or Scott) to help you decide what’s best for you!

Thank you and make it a great career,

Daniel B. Hagy
President

About the Author

My name is Dan Hagy. I am the President and sole owner of National Marketing Group Inc. Located in Flint, MI. National Marketing Group is an Insurance Marketing Agency that was established in January 1991. The Agency is currently licensed to market Health, Life, Annuity, LTC, Medicare Supplement, Medicare Advantage and Supplemental insurance products through Independent Insurance Agents in 33 states. National Marketing has contracted in excess of 2000 Independent Insurance agents since our inception. Our company mission statement is “To Provide The Independent Insurance Agent a Platform To Succeed In Insurance Sales…

career in Sales? I am considering changing careers, and got some wonderful advise and suggestions.?

Now I am specifically asking about sales. A woman in late 50’s, do not like working in a store or waitressing, but thinking sales. Selling health insurance, cars, jewelry, real estate or matches what works best? What has a good return and how hard is it to get into this type of work. I have a high school degree, extensive computer experience, love riding horses, motor cycles and sewing. Any suggestions from you guys about what worked for you?

You are brave to change careers at the age you are now.
There is too much discrimination in any job where you meet
the public. Companies want younger people to call on
customers, clients and in general, to represent their company.
I experienced it, and my friends have experienced it also.
Many companies encourage retirement early, or demote, or
anything they can think of to give you a back seat position.
As for health insurance, that’s pretty much a mans field.
And there are some companies that observe tactics barely
within the law. Taking advantage of seniors with faulty mem-
ories not remembering if they had made their payments al-
ready, for one. My husband was left in the lurch once while thinking he still worked for a company focusing on health insurance.The owner took the money and cleared out. What a shock that was. And the Christmas season was upon us. That put us into a fast spiral downhill fast. Leaving us with a bad outcome. He worked at another insurance place, and sold ‘term’ insurance. And he barely ecked out a living.
He sold cars for several years as a middle aged man, and
there was one woman who was in sales. She did alright, but
she had a certain look about her, that garnered her sales.
That is generally a mans vocation, and the guys are back
stabbers. Generally they get only minimum wage when cars
aren’t selling well. Like this time of the year, through February.
Real estate is bad most everywhere now. Many states had
over building going on, and now homes are being auctioned
off, because they can’t be sold. More is owed in payments,
than what they can now get for them. I’ve read this on line
in news commentary, as well as seeing this subject discussed on the TV news. So real estate and car sales are
fields to avoid for the present. That is, unless you live in
North Carolina, where I’ve read that is booming right now.
People are moving there for cheaper real estate. That’s how
it was here in the northwest not too many years ago. And
builders over built homes and condos’ and apartments.
Now many are sitting vacant. And construction workers are
out of work this Christmas season. I know of three different
men who’re in this position. One started driving a medical
shuttle car to pick up just enough to live on. Sales won’t
be picking up til probably March. Just from my husband
working a lifetime in retail sales, I know this to be true.
I have a friend, who just quit to retire from telephone sales
for a leading manufacturer of in home exercise equipment.
She was one of their top sellers. And she makes enough
in her SS to live comfortably. And that’s what it’s all about.
Making enough while working to ensure a decent monthly
check with SS later. So few of us don’t. As for jewelry sales,
that would be working for independant stores, and without
past experience, those jobs would start you at the bottom
most probably. Since jewelry is a luxury and not a necessity,
it would be ‘feast of famine’ in that line. So your best bet, is
looking into a job that requires extensive computer experience and then hope you aren’t ‘over qualified’. You
might try property management. Working in the office of
a rental property community. Our daughter did that line of
work for a few years to learn more computer programs.
It might involve showing vacant apartments also. She
worked for two different properties and excelled enough
to become a property manager. So she got a free apt.
and only had to pay for utilities. And she got a decent salary
each month. But she was very young then. And dressed
well for greeting the public. It’s definately about image, when
you represent companies these days.
You might very well be stuck in the line you’ve been working
for awhile. Retail sales will be nil for the next two months at
least. So you have to consider that.
Only you know what you’d be the most comfortable doing.
And then see what those jobs pay. Real estate, by the way,
requires you go to real estate school. Then you have to pay
to get your license and have to pass the test to get one.
In car or any type of sales, you have to be a good ‘closer’.
Someone who can cinch a sale, by persuasive means and
a great personality usually. Here again tho, they want people
with experience in that field. And they want a certain age
bracket. When my husband thought about working in car
sales again before he retired, he applied at two locations
and each manager indicated they were interested in young
men in their 20’s or 30’s who were ‘eager beavers’. And
my husband was in his late 50’s then. It didn’t matter that he
had alot of car sales experience or that he’d even been in
management. Young ages, make you more hireable.
So I wish you luck and success in finding what you are
looking for in the new year.

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