Proof of Production for Contract Levels

[PA Bill]

I wouldn't say most IMOs are at those levels. Especially the ones that spread their business around to 10+ companies.

Do they exist, yes, but only the most elite of IMOs hit those contract levels.

Rule of thumb, if you call an IMO, and the owner always answers, they 're likely not at that level.

Really. You'd have to put just about all your business with one company to play at that level. So a producer shouldn't be worried about getting locked down as all they'd need to do is find one company to take them on at that level.

There's a guy in North Jersey who has gotten rich having built a large captive agency (50% contracts, "free" leads, good training). All they sell is Columbian! Columbian seems to have a good support system for those who can commit to and produce for them on an agency level.

Point is if worse comes to worse, you could always get rich partnering with Columbian as it doesn't seem EFES, FEX, Ben Boman, Todd King, Doug, Dave, Spur, etc. have too many agents locked down with them.

 

[BoJax]

Really. You'd have to put just about all your business with one company to play at that level. So a producer shouldn't be worried about getting locked down as all they'd need to do is find one company to take them on at that level.

There's a guy in North Jersey who has gotten rich having built a large captive agency (50% contracts, "free" leads, good training). All they sell is Columbian! Columbian seems to have a good support system for those who can commit to and produce for them on an agency level.

Point is if worse comes to worse, you could always get rich partnering with Columbian as it doesn't seem EFES, FEX, Ben Boman, Todd King, Doug, Dave, Spur, etc. have too many agents locked down with them.

Dont all IMO's do this? Efes prefers americo, fex's go to is kskj, squad's is snl. Isnt that smart? Difference is the gut in jersey is going all out with columbian, where the guys here have other carriers to stay competitive. I may be wrong, but i see this as a way of gaining leverage and building a business.

 

[PA Bill]

Dont all IMO's do this? Efes prefers americo, fex's go to is kskj, squad's is snl. Isnt that smart? Difference is the gut in jersey is going all out with columbian, where the guys here have other carriers to stay competitive. I may be wrong, but i see this as a way of gaining leverage and building a business.

Absolutely. Better for all involved to "maximize your contracts" as much as possible.

 

[Newby]

I wouldn't say most IMOs are at those levels. Especially the ones that spread their business around to 10+ companies.

Do they exist, yes, but only the most elite of IMOs hit those contract levels.

Rule of thumb, if you call an IMO, and the owner always answers, they 're likely not at that level.

It's not hard to be at 150 IF you want to commit your production to very limited companies. If you look at YIG's model for example. They only sell a handful of companies but I know for a fact they are 150 or above because of the levels we have under them.

We choose to be a level down with those contracts rather than grab a 150 ourselves. The freedom of having all the variety of letting our agents sell any company they want to rather than force them to focus on specific (usually less competitive) companies has worked best for us.

You see right in this thread that Ben is at 145 or better with (I could be wrong on this) but isn't he putting his agency's production between 2 to 3 million? That's pretty close to a 150 and that's a VERY obtainable level of production for a small agency. EFES is obviously at 150 or more on those contracts but they are a pretty large agency.

Another way any decent sized agency can obtain those top contracts is to join one of the groups where you pay a monthly membership fee and they pool the production. We have entertained offers from a couple of those and the commission levels can be mind blowing. Plus you get huge levels on all the non-FE stuff too.

Maybe someday. But when things are going great I'm reluctant to change them. If I was putting ALL my production to one product the way you guys do I would definitely want the 150+ deal if it exists on the product you want to sell. I don't know if AmAm goes to that but they likely do. The only reason to take less is for the freedom to spread it around though isn't it?

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Really. You'd have to put just about all your business with one company to play at that level. So a producer shouldn't be worried about getting locked down as all they'd need to do is find one company to take them on at that level.

There's a guy in North Jersey who has gotten rich having built a large captive agency (50% contracts, "free" leads, good training). All they sell is Columbian! Columbian seems to have a good support system for those who can commit to and produce for them on an agency level.

Point is if worse comes to worse, you could always get rich partnering with Columbian as it doesn't seem EFES, FEX, Ben Boman, Todd King, Doug, Dave, Spur, etc. have too many agents locked down with them.

You are correct. Colombian is aggressively trying to add agencies and will offer high contracts. But they want you focused on them. They do not want to compete within your agency with more competitive products.

Could be attractive to some. But it's the opposite model from us and the others you mentioned. If you are a small agency breaking away from LH or SL for instance they could be a perfect fit.

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Dont all IMO's do this? Efes prefers americo, fex's go to is kskj, squad's is snl. Isnt that smart? Difference is the gut in jersey is going all out with columbian, where the guys here have other carriers to stay competitive. I may be wrong, but i see this as a way of gaining leverage and building a business.

You are correct that Fex is KSKJ's top producing agency. But we are also in the top two (last time I checked) with SNL, Trinity/Family Benefit, Oxford and Cincinnati Equitable.

Our agents write many companies and actually have less incentive (commission level wise) to put KSKJ over the other. They write them because KSKJ has great rates and approves cases. Not from pressure from us.

 

[BoJax]

Newby - I read a while ago jd saying efes does not offer as much companies as fex and they are missing some competitive carriers. Idk the legitimacy of that, but wouldnt that make more sense as to why efes has top commissions? At fex agents have the options of a dozen different companies, which has its perk, but it could limit the amount of business you push with a company.

I know it's none of my business, but i really am just curious. I'm in my early 30's and would like to eventually build an agency within the next 5 or so years. Ive been selling for a little over a year and enjoy it. My 1st year I netted almost 60k after all expenses. Which is less than the 100k pitch i was expecting, but my problem was i should have increased my lead orders. I worked wuth caution and should have worked a little more aggressive.
Though my question has no bearing on my business today, it just gives me a better understanding of growth for the future.

Thanks in advance.

 

[billyb]

Just received an e-mail from Northstar Insurance Advisors. Never heard of them. They provide leads, but it seems their cut is excessive. Says you make from $250 to $300 per policy. My average premium is around $700 and my average FYC is 120% so that means I make $840 per policy. I don't think their guidance is worth $500+ per policy. They would be making more than I did.

They title of the e-mail states that you could earn $100,000+ a year. You would have to sell 400 policies to make that. If I sold 400 polices a year I would make $336,000. How many agents sell 400 policies a year? Not me and I would guess very few.

 

[HoosierLife]

Just received an e-mail from Northstar Insurance Advisors. Never heard of them. They provide leads, but it seems their cut is excessive. Says you make from $250 to $300 per policy. My average premium is around $700 and my average FYC is 120% so that means I make $840 per policy. I don't think their guidance is worth $500+ per policy. They would be making more than I did.

That's NSHR's group isn't it? It's a telesales outfit. I just saw the Angelcare FE TV lead, which I believe they use, on tv this weekend while on vacation.

 

[Newby]

Newby - I read a while ago jd saying efes does not offer as much companies as fex and they are missing some competitive carriers. Idk the legitimacy of that, but wouldnt that make more sense as to why efes has top commissions? At fex agents have the options of a dozen different companies, which has its perk, but it could limit the amount of business you push with a company.

I know it's none of my business, but i really am just curious. I'm in my early 30's and would like to eventually build an agency within the next 5 or so years. Ive been selling for a little over a year and enjoy it. My 1st year I netted almost 60k after all expenses. Which is less than the 100k pitch i was expecting, but my problem was i should have increased my lead orders. I worked wuth caution and should have worked a little more aggressive.
Though my question has no bearing on my business today, it just gives me a better understanding of growth for the future.

Thanks in advance.

Your question wasn't real clear. I think what you are asking is where should you go if you want to build an agency in future years? Is that correct?

Like was said previously these agencies that we are tossing around are the creme of the crop. You can be successful with any of them. But directly to your question you are putting the cart before the horse. You need to focus on selling FE and making that profitable. Then if you still want to recruit later (most agents don't) you will have recruiting level contracts and can do that if you want to.

When guys in your position call me (under $100,000 producers) and they talk about wanting to get better and sell more and make a LOT more money, I know we are the right place for them. Travis has turned more decent agents into hugely successful agents than anyone I know. It's got to be in the agent though. And he has to be motivated to sell insurance. But if you have that in you he can get you selling over $200,000 and not working your azz off 6-days a week and not buying more than 20 to 30 leads per week.

But if that same guy keeps turning the conversation to recruiting I usually encourage the agent to go to NAA, Senior Life or often EFES where they are fine with new agents recruiting. In my opinion this is a flawed model. I don't put EFES in the same category as NAA because there are many people in good situations at EFES and an agent can avoid that whole pyramid stuff if he wants to. But in the past they have allowed entry to mid-level guys to put other guys under them at lower commissions.

With us Everyone is at street. We are too transparent for agents to stick guys lower unless they would be real clear why and how long. When Dave Duford was here I helped him come up with his model of set period of time and set amount of production to move up. That's the only way I could ever see that working here. And even then it didn't work well because he hadn't developed many of his training materials at that time so agents were confused about why they were getting less than the agents we trained directly. He's got a lot more stuff now than he did back then.

So basically we are the place for selling agents. There are better places for recruiters that want to recruit before they qualify for higher than our base commissions. I do hope that Ben or someone will come up with an increase chart that is acceptable to the carriers and everyone can sort of be more standardized as to where those increases occur.

As far as commission levels when agents build to several million in production? That's not a problem we've had to address yet. It would be a good one to have. We have several contracts under EFES. If they could not accommodate us with the margins we would possibly have to move them to get more. We did move one that was one of our main carriers and we needed the same level that EFES had. They had no issue with it. Travis is close with the owners at EFES and we like being partners with them but they would not stand in our way if we "capped out".

But the humor in this thread is we have $60,000 producers worrying about problems they will address when they have several million in production. My answer...very few of you will ever have that problem. Make sure you are with good people when you do.

 

[rousemark]

As far as commission levels when agents build to several million in production? That's not a problem we've had to address yet. It would be a good one to have. We have several contracts under EFES. If they could not accommodate us with the margins we would possibly have to move them to get more. We did move one that was one of our main carriers and we needed the same level that EFES had. They had no issue with it. Travis is close with the owners at EFES and we like being partners with them but they would not stand in our way if we "capped out".

Agents could well to learn from your agency's example.

 

[VolAgent]

Just received an e-mail from Northstar Insurance Advisors. Never heard of them. They provide leads, but it seems their cut is excessive. Says you make from $250 to $300 per policy. My average premium is around $700 and my average FYC is 120% so that means I make $840 per policy. I don't think their guidance is worth $500+ per policy. They would be making more than I did.

They title of the e-mail states that you could earn $100,000+ a year. You would have to sell 400 policies to make that. If I sold 400 polices a year I would make $336,000. How many agents sell 400 policies a year? Not me and I would guess very few.

Now, I don't say this to defend the program. However, there is one thing you are missing, leads. You pay for your leads, with Northstar you don't. Although I doubt you pay anywhere near $500 per policy in lead cost.