New Agent - Is This a Good Business Plan?

[Robert_Brown]

Hello all, First let me say, I am so glad I have discovered this forum. It has answered many of my questions, and I know it will continue to help me throughout my new career.

I am soon going to be taking classes to get my insurance license. I am going to be selling Aflac. I have read a lot on here about people's opinions on Aflac, but I have my reasons, so please lets not make this a discussion about that.

This is my business plan, and I was hoping that some of you could review it and give me some advice on what could be added or improved. Thank you.

BUSINESS AND MARKETING PLAN​

Dream Goals:

1. Freedom (work when I want) (Be my own Boss)
2. Financial Stability (Debt Free) (High Income) (Buy what I want)
3. Vacation (When I want, Where I want, All paid for)
4. Early Retirement
5. Put a lot of money in savings (I want half a mil or more in savings within the next 10 years)


How to Reach those goals:

1. Get at least 3 solid referrals from every sale.

2. Cold Call at least 30 names or businesses a day.

3. Build a professional website and generate A LOT of traffic to it.

4. Get leads from website. (set up e-mail submission on site, and respond personally to lead e-mails)

5. Create a newsletter. Not just for sales, but for information to existing clients too.

6. Join as many organizations as you can. (Chamber of commerce, insurance organizations etc.)

7. Direct Mail to the right demographic (Businesses, Aged Leads, etc.) (make your message to the point, compelling, visually attractive, and personal.)

8. Buy leads from proven successful websites such as stellarprospects and affordablemarketinglists

9. Service your existing clients and continue to ask for referrals.

10. Stay confident. Read this plan every morning.


I cannot afford to fail. I have to go into this career with full force and success. I am going to put my heart into this and do whatever I have to. Any help is appreciated.

 

[The Rabbi]

It's sounds like the plan I had. I made it but it took 20 years longer. You shouldn't have any trouble with your enthusiasm and AFLAC is a well known name. While I've had my license for over 7 years I've always looked for the easiest way to make the most money. I question selling to businesses during a recession. Most agents, like me, have gone to the Medicare market. I tried all the other types of insurance, and Medicare, right now, is the hot spot.

You are welcome to contact me and learn how we work at home. Joel 954-428-4501

 

[Robert_Brown]

Thank you Joel. We'll probably talk soon.

Yes, I am going to be getting my License within the next 1-2 weeks. So, I am educating myself as much as possible. I want to know what works and what the successful agents are doing.

I am not going to fall into the "what now" phase. I don't have the time or money for that. I know that I have to hit the ground running and I have every intention to do so.

I am not new to sales, or commissioned sales for that matter, but insurance is a whole new ball game for me.

As for medicare. I don't know much about selling that, or any other insurance for that matter. But I am always interested in learning something new and beneficial.

I also heard that selling FE is a hot deal right now. Can anyone enlighten me on this?

 

[Glad2bHere]

Just thought I would add a thought, FWIW.

Your plan has a lot of energy, Bob. The only thing I would recommend is that you "behaviorally define" items absolutely wherever possible. For instance, concerning your website, you may want to talk with someone to find out what approaches and schemes seem to entice the greatest draw. Set a number for the population YOU want to see come through your website. Similarly, make a list of the organizations you want to join within a 15 minute driving distance of your office, and another at 30 minutes. See what I mean? Wherever possible work to state goals in clear behavioral terms.

Best Wishes,

Bruce

 

[Josh]

I think your biggest challenge is going to be too many good ideas. You should probably stick to just door knocking and/or cold calling or some other way of driving activity you have control over. At 30 calls/door knocks per day you're going to get hurt because you're not getting enough traffic. That's less than an hour of calling. If you wanted to set a goal of 300 calls per day and stuck with that for a few weeks you couldn't help but get some activity. I'm slightly biased because for years I've believed in telemarketing (which is why I now am a list broker), but the key to being successful is filling your pipeline and you'll starve to death before you fill your pipeline with website leads or probably even direct mail.

 

[xrac]

..................................
How to Reach those goals:

1. Get at least 3 solid referrals from every sale.

2. Cold Call at least 30 names or businesses a day.

3. Build a professional website and generate A LOT of traffic to it.

This is probably not very useful if you are just selling AFLAC. Your target is business that will let you in the door and very few business are on line looking for voluntary benefit providers.

4. Get leads from website. (set up e-mail submission on site, and respond personally to lead e-mails)

Unlikely to generate leads this way if all your are selling is AFLAC. Your target is business that will let you in the door and very few business are on line looking for voluntary benefit providers.


5. Create a newsletter. Not just for sales, but for information to existing clients too.

6. Join as many organizations as you can. (Chamber of commerce, insurance organizations etc.)

7. Direct Mail to the right demographic (Businesses, Aged Leads, etc.) (make your message to the point, compelling, visually attractive, and personal.)

Expensive. Not affordable if all your are selling is AFLAC. This will work with mortgage leads, FE, or Med Supps. This approach doesn't fit what the DUCK is as does.


8. Buy leads from proven successful websites such as stellarprospects and affordablemarketinglists.

Expensive. See answer above.

9. Service your existing clients and continue to ask for referrals.

10. Stay confident. Read this plan every morning.

I cannot afford to fail. I have to go into this career with full force and success. I am going to put my heart into this and do whatever I have to. Any help is appreciated.

You have a lot of good ideas and energy. You should do fine once you understand the business a little better. If you start with AFLAC I think you will soon understand why some of these ideas aren't practical.

 

[oicu812nbama]

not sure bout your area but in mine its hard to find a business that doesn't have aflac. transamerica has the same products, lower prices, and higher commissions

 

[djs]

Any business plan should define what market you are going after and how you will approach that market. Also, define what value you bring to the table, since this helps focus your efforts.

I'll say it outloud. Website traffic is way overrated. Its great, but its not a case of you build a website and people beat your door down clicking on it. You have to have a way to drive people to the site that won't bankrupt you first. This is where it gets hard. If it was easy, everyone would be successful at it.

Also, just to be honest, when you are self-employed, working when you want usually means you get to pick what 6 hours a day that you don't work. If you want to be successful quickly, the other 18 will belong to your business and marketing efforts. Over time, you can slow down a bit and only put in 12 hour days and maybe only 6 days a week.

And yes, I might be overstating this a bit, but not as much as your boss will have you think.

Dan

 

[rousemark]

Read Xrac's comments carefully.. He is on the money when it comes to some of your proposed actions. The AFLAC products has a general rule will not generate enough commission per sale to justify direct mail. Think about it.. How many direct mail pieces promoting just cancer or accident insurance have you ever received.. If it would be generally profitable, AFLAC would be flooding the market with them.

You have decided on a company.. Now decide on your lead product.. Following that, figure the average commission per sale and then try to come up with prospecting methods that will give you a decent ROI.

I don't know if AFLAC encourages one on one sales these days but I quit focusing on payroll for cancer and went to individual. Works better for me in the long run.

 

[Frank Stastny]

I'll say it outloud. Website traffic is way overrated. Its great, but its not a case of you build a website and people beat your door down clicking on it. You have to have a way to drive people to the site that won't bankrupt you first. This is where it gets hard. If it was easy, everyone would be successful at it.

Also, just to be honest, when you are self-employed, working when you want usually means you get to pick what 6 hours a day that you don't work. If you want to be successful quickly, the other 18 will belong to your business and marketing efforts. Over time, you can slow down a bit and only put in 12 hour days and maybe only 6 days a week.

And yes, I might be overstating this a bit, but not as much as your boss will have you think.

Dan

Truer words were never spoken. For one who wants to build a business and be successful I don't think you are overstating it a bit.

Being self employed, especially in the beginning, means you will work twice as hard and long for yourself than you would ever work for an employer. Saturdays, Sundays and holidays will become just another day of the week. When you aren't prospecting or selling you will be doing administrative work in the non prospecting/selling hours.

Vacations are taking a few hours off to get a haircut.

$500,000 in savings in ten years is a very lofty goal. It may take 11 or 12. Someone once said, "Income never rises to meet expenses".