Rural Areas or Big Cities?

[SPUR CITY]

I've worked Chicago, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, NW Indiana, Milwaukee and MANY other places. There is only 1 area that gave me problems and that was inner-city Chicago. Any other hood in any other city was home to me BUT Chicago is a different animal all together. I did MUCH better in the burbs there. That being said I believe a local agent from the inside, meaning from the hood itself would do tremendous there. I was an outsider and had outsider written all over me. Also, there were large pockets of Polish, Korean and other ethnicities that are near impossible to sell if you are not of their race. Tough market there but all around in the burbs is nice!

Chicago hoods are most certainly the roughest I've worked but not too much different than Houston's hoods. What made it harder was parking, drive-time, buzzers to get in, snow, large pockets of diff ethnicities in the same zip...shall I go on?

Also this is HEAVY union area. That didn't do any favors.

City or rural doesn't matter much to me. I feel I can adapt to most any environments. I do believe certain agents need to stay in certain areas. In order to maximize your potential, as previously stated, you should work where you feel most comfortable. Work wherever you feel you can relate to your clients more.

 

[mh5918a]

I do a lot of door knocking, and at first glance people from rural communities initially seem nicer.

However, and this is a big if, maybe it's just me but what I've found is that if you are not from that community/area or live that lifestyle, you are going to run into a bit of trouble when you ask for that initial check. Very often in those small tight-knit communities, they just don't trust you enough, being an out-of-towner, to really want to do business, although they very often will at least initially let you set a meeting with them. (Again, it could just be me.)

So I do most of my business in cities and working in Washington D.C., get a very positive response from places most would term 'hoods.'

Problem is, you just aren't making that much money working their, which is why I like up-and-coming suburbs with a growing middle class. That is my sweet spot.

In many of those towns, even folks in nicer homes are more open to speaking with you, because it seems like they may be impressed that someone is willing to come out to their area.

I'll take it a step further and tell you I most often get a stronger and more positive response speaking with black folks than white. Not at all looking to generalize, everyone is of course different, just something I've noticed for FE.

 

[HoosierLife]

I've been working the hoods of Indianapolis for the last year. It's worked out well for me but Rearden is right the persistency and no-shows are very high. I have to sometimes scheduled 10 to 13 appointments a day to run 5 to 6. I've worked mostly telemarketing leads so working the city has made sure that I have a consistent lead flow, but I am transitioning over to direct mail as we speak so that I can run the more rural areas. We will see how it goes...

 

[WinoBlues]

I know people say that but I don't get it. The projects are my people. I get more referrals in the projects and I don't any difference in persistency in the projects than I do for the rural areas.

Of course I'm working the same demographic in the woods as I am the hoods. You can't get more rural than I've been working this week. People getting their TV from antennas. No cell phones as there is no service there anyway. Wouldn't know what a computer was if you sat it on the porch. Half of them didn't have ac so we had to do business under the shade tree out front.

The kind of homes that most agents would just keep on driving by and throw the lead card away.

Those are my people. You can't tell me that those people will be more diligent in paying than the people living in the projects on the same income.

Now, if you can't relate to the people in those two extremes in the same manner then you will have problems.

Fortunately I'm at home in either place. The only difference is that I get more referrals in the black projects than in the white ones or the rural areas.

Same here. I was on 14 ave in Oakland last week writing a policy on a referral that I can trace back almost thirty years. It was in the 90s, hot for the Bay Area, so everyone was on the porches. Gangsters and Grandmas. Wrote that policy then had two other people show up with their policies and asked if I would please review them. Fed me cool tuna and cucumber sandwiches and iced tea. I was there something like 2 hours. Laughing, joking and telling stories.

 

[xrac]

The near west side of Chicago is hell-on-earth.

I do not disagree!....................

 

[MPCFinPlan]

I ran into this problem a few weeks a ago. I was wondering why my no show rate was so high. The next couple of weeks I switched to a more rural area and my no show rate improved dramatically.

No to sure on the persistency as I'm not, but no show rates in the city are horrible.

After the upcoming week or two I will be staying in the more rural areas. Hitting Houston next week.

 

[SPUR CITY]

I do not disagree!....................

They don't call it CHIraq for no reason!

 

[WinoBlues]

JD, I wouldn't feel comfortable there at night and would definitely want to be packing. However, I have been to some places in Chicago where I was afraid to stop at a street light at 10:00 in the morning. I do not feel that way any place I have ever been here.

I grew up different than a lot of people here. I was shot at the first time at about 16, had a knife at my throat at about 13. I started in this business running my upper middle class debit by day and a skinny little White collage kid's East Oakland and Richmond debit at night. He was to scared to go there by day. This was in the mid 80s PoPo cruised the streets 2 and 3 cars strong. I have walked through yards with Crips or Bloods drinking or Tiny Rascals having a wake for a fallen thug (TRGs are fn crazy). I have walked the back streets of ghettos in the PI to Shi Lanka. Spend a couple months in a Marine corp Brig in the Aleutian islands. Not to many places scared me. All that said, I took one of my sons for a boot camp graduation dinner someplace between Great Lakes and Chicago. Old guy, a sailor in new Whites and a scared pregnant girl in a small rental car. (spells prey) I have a 2" folder on me. Scared the piss out of me. This was like 6 in the evening. Chicago looks crazy.

 

[HoosierLife]

Well this was my second day in a more rural setting in a long while. Today I'm 3 for 3 on shows and 4 apps. Going good so far

 

[Agentguy5]

I grew up different than a lot of people here. I was shot at the first time at about 16, had a knife at my throat at about 13. I started in this business running my upper middle class debit by day and a skinny little White collage kid's East Oakland and Richmond debit at night. He was to scared to go there by day. This was in the mid 80s PoPo cruised the streets 2 and 3 cars strong. I have walked through yards with Crips or Bloods drinking or Tiny Rascals having a wake for a fallen thug (TRGs are fn crazy). I have walked the back streets of ghettos in the PI to Shi Lanka. Spend a couple months in a Marine corp Brig in the Aleutian islands. Not to many places scared me. All that said, I took one of my sons for a boot camp graduation dinner someplace between Great Lakes and Chicago. Old guy, a sailor in new Whites and a scared pregnant girl in a small rental car. (spells prey) I have a 2" folder on me. Scared the piss out of me. This was like 6 in the evening. Chicago looks crazy.

Dude, you could totally make that a rap song!