Insurance Agent Forum

[JaxGator]

I apologize for any rambling, mispelling or run-on sentences, but it is 3:15am. I have been reading this forum for a few hours.

I am on my second long job(both sales) since I left college early due to sickness(not drugs) and immaturity when I was 20.

I recently turned 30 and recently relocated to the greater Jacksonville, Florida area from Orlando.

I relocated with my current company, but I feel as if the financial troubles they are having will effect my status with them.

I have been searching for a career for the last couple of weeks.

I was contacted by an insurance company that has a extremely poor reputation on this board. I have pride in myself and want to sleep at night. I will not be contacting them back.

Here are my questions for everyone.

I see a lot of agents are independent, but I am not prepared to take a risk like that initially.

How do I find a job with a local insurance office(Nationwide, Allstate, State Farm, etc)?

I have searched up and down on Monster, Careerbuilder, Hotjobs, agents websites(when available) and insurance company websites. Is there some magical website I have not found?

Should I just walk in and ask for the person on the sign outside?

Are these types of sales positions rare?

Would working for a office based established agent be beneficial to my career?

I appreciate any advice that you can give me.

[mswebb06]

Well, for starters what kinda of insurance are you interested in selling? P&C, Life, Health? Do you wanna work in the senior market?

If you are leaning more towards life insurance, I would contact your local New York life office, they can offer you some great trainning until you are ready to go independent.

[saieddie]

If I didn't know anything about insurance or anyone in the insurance industry, I'd call my personal insurance agent and tell him I'm interested in selling insurance. He should be able to start you off. If not, I'd walk into the most successful looking agency and talk to the manager/director/owner.

[JaxGator]

Is it best to offer numerous types of insurance?

The town I live in has a large population of seniors.

There is a large Allstate office in town, I will contact them.

Any other brilliant nuggets of wisdom?

[mswebb06]

If you live in a town with a high senior population I would look at getting into the senior market, especially with Medicare season right around the corner. You will probaly see some ad's in Sunday's paper about companies recruting for the up and coming medicare season.

[GPaq17]

If you haven't already, get your license and get appointed with all the companies that that offer the products in your area (Secure Horizons, HealthNet, Etc.). Because if you do plan on hitting the senior market, this process takes some time and if your not ready by Nov, your missing a huge opportunity. The best way to find all the plans in your area is medicare.gov. Look through it and research all the plans and pick all the best plans available and get appointed with those companies. I made the mistake my 1st year and wasn't ready in time and was kicking myself in the butt.

[myinsurebiz]

Although I am a BullDog fan - I'll hook you up.

We have a Call Center going into Jax in 3 weeks.

We can give you contracts with or without leads.

This is a "Life" only call center - but, you can get appointed with Health carriers and get Health leads if you wish.

If you want great support and quality leads and make a few contract points less - call me. If you want above average contracts and will buy your own leads - call me . . .

Tom