Originally Posted by retread
I beg your pardon, but I am contracted with over a dozen carriers, yet only one
FMO for a few of them (and I contacted that
FMO on a referral).... how are you going to convince me you spend over $100K a year recruiting agents? I never heard of you before. Where is your advertising?
From your post I can guarantee you I will never consider your firm. I do appreciate your leaving your name and address so I will know who to avoid. So this is how you recruit?
You guys seem to be all alike... You don't pay a salary, yet you think you have the right to bind an agent to a one-sided contract. I happen to like my
FMO, but then again, he does absolutely nothing for me. All he does is provide a website that allows me to download carrier info that I can get directly from the carrier site. It is a small convenience, but one I can live without easily. He does provide a sales seminar twice a year where he pitches the carriers he sells. Big deal... he does the same thing I do, and that is make sales pitches. He recruits agents to get an override on their sales efforts. I recruit clients to make a commission that he gets a share of. I certainly don't get any money from him, the carrier pays me. Talk about one-sided!!!
Most of us on this board are INDEPENDENTS not captives. You can't rope us into submission to be your slaves. Find another forum, cowboy.
Where do you think you hear about New Products? From Advertising (mostly by IMOs).
Do any of you regularly receive any trade magazines, card packs, email blasts, flyers in the mail, or any more of the various ways the marketing force receives notification of new or existing products? What pays for these publications? Advertising. If a company waited or tried to afford all the advertising to announce their product, it would be obsolete before a lot of agents heard about it.
IMO's prospect for agents just like agents prospect for clients (by the way, I do both). I worked as a one-man show for about 8-9 years in this business as only a "ground-pounding" agent. I still make 6 figures of commissions on personal production. By the way, I love this business, and most of the people in it.
I see it from both sides, and I have NO PROBLEMS with the distribution network. We have many other IMOs making an override on some of our contracts, and I have no problems with their overrides as long as I am making a decent commission. I am just glad some of the other IMOs brought the products to my attention, so I could offer them to other agents and the public; and make some money off of them.
Do you guys that are making such an issue with this resent an insurance company making a profit off of your efforts? I don't, I want them to be profitable, so they can keep on doing what they are doing by helping me make a decent living.
As an
IMO, I loved some of the news an insurance company gave us this week. An agent who would have never been hired by the company due to credit problems (we gave him an opportunity the company would not), has lost his license and we are responsible for his $3,500 debit balance. In the past years, we have paid off many agents debit balances, and this money has to come from somewhere. Being an
IMO is not all peaches and cream, and waiting around to see when your tee time is.
As far as Kansas, we probably only have 4-5 agents in Kansas, but had an email blast go out Tuesday of this week in KS,
MO, IN, and IL. Next week we will be blasting KY, VA, WV, and TN. This email blast was to announce a new easier underwritten final expense product. Kansas and other states agents can get top commissions through us, and we wanted everybody to know it was available. If you guys waiting on finding out about it from the home office, it may be this time next year.
Kansas has never been a focus for until this new potential dynamite product. And, by the way, an
IMO can spend $100,000 a year just recruiting in one state.
Bash me, cuss me, accuse me of blowing smoke up your ..., accuse me of being dishonest, avoid me; it doesn't matter to me, we can always use more agents, but can also probably survive without a new one. It just shows me that someone doesn't understand the system. But, the
IMO marketing methods work, are efficient for companies, mean more commissions for agents, and are here to stay.
If the
IMO comes out at the end of the year with a profit, I have no problems with that. Even if I am a selling agent, I want my
IMO to be profitable. I hope my
IMO keeps getting great contracts; so I can continue to make more commissions from this efficient method of marketing.
Joe Moore
National Senior Benefits
Asurco Insurance Marketing
PO Box 1954
Morristown, TN 37816
1-800-226-1004
joe@asurco.com
www.asurco.com
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