Stay Independent or Go with Senior Life Services?

[addison2008]

I am independently contracted with Life4Diabetes and Christopher Westfall. Just getting back into the business after a year of teaching school. I did not do that great last time, due to a high level of chargebacks and the fact that working alone at home can be hard for me. Senior Life Services is interviewing me. Is it worth it to take such low commissions for free leads? Are their leads really just for RX cards and not for FE? I am so confused, running out of money, and really don't want to teach high school again. I so want to be successful, but I am so tired of cold calling. Senior Life Services looks great on paper, but I still feel hesitent.

 

[jacobtn]

I am independently contracted with Life4Diabetes and Christopher Westfall. Just getting back into the business after a year of teaching school. I did not do that great last time, due to a high level of chargebacks and the fact that working alone at home can be hard for me. Senior Life Services is interviewing me. Is it worth it to take such low commissions for free leads? Are their leads really just for RX cards and not for FE? I am so confused, running out of money, and really don't want to teach high school again. I so want to be successful, but I am so tired of cold calling. Senior Life Services looks great on paper, but I still feel hesitent.

I wouldn't fool with them. Free leads aren't free, as you have discovered.

 

[Rearden]

I am independently contracted with Life4Diabetes and Christopher Westfall. Just getting back into the business after a year of teaching school. I did not do that great last time, due to a high level of chargebacks and the fact that working alone at home can be hard for me. Senior Life Services is interviewing me. Is it worth it to take such low commissions for free leads? Are their leads really just for RX cards and not for FE? I am so confused, running out of money, and really don't want to teach high school again. I so want to be successful, but I am so tired of cold calling. Senior Life Services looks great on paper, but I still feel hesitent.

Wait and save up $5000 for leads, and move into the field on a part-time basis if at all possible.

You'll have commission-breath if you don't wait, and a much lower threshold for the swings all agents experience.

 

[onefastpony]

I am independently contracted with Life4Diabetes and Christopher Westfall. Just getting back into the business after a year of teaching school. I did not do that great last time, due to a high level of chargebacks and the fact that working alone at home can be hard for me. Senior Life Services is interviewing me. Is it worth it to take such low commissions for free leads? Are their leads really just for RX cards and not for FE? I am so confused, running out of money, and really don't want to teach high school again. I so want to be successful, but I am so tired of cold calling. Senior Life Services looks great on paper, but I still feel hesitent.

Where are you located? Are you referring to the Insurance company Senior Life or the IMO out of South Florida called Senior Life Services?

Either one I would stay clear of BTW.

What Rearden says it GREAT if you have the extra income to save the 5K. I didn't!! When I started I was DEAD BROKE. I was worried my cars were going to get repo'd, lights shut off. I had my water turned off once, my cell phones shut off twice. So if I had waited to save 5K, I wouldn't out in the BLACK like I am right now.

When I started I cold knocked lower middle class neighborhoods on the weekend. Once I made a few sales there I bought some aged leads. Once I sold some of those I bought new leads. If I still had those old leads though I bet I could still go back and make some more sales from them because I've been through the learning curve. Not to say that I know everything, I'm always learning new things and staying up to date. But knowing how to handle objections now, I've refined my presentation, it all takes time.

You should focus on a place that will give you some serious training. You should have an upline that is just a phone call away and will answer your call. Now, if you listen to the right upline and follow instruction you will beat the learning curve.

 

[Daytona_Guy]

I did not do that great last time, due to a high level of chargebacks and the fact that working alone at home can be hard for me.

No system, program, promise, or opportunity will meet your need without changing your thinking first.

You can run from opportunity to opportunity with the greener grass syndrome, with the thinking that "if I just find the right program with free...leads, appointments, sales-already-written-for-me."

It won't happen, because you first have to change your thinking.

Think - Act - Get

What you think impacts how you act.

How you act determines what you get.

If working alone is a problem, go work for a local agency that will hold you accountable (if you do not want to deal with the underlying cause, yet.)

You can have results or you can have excuses, but you cannot have both.
Before pausing in the fight to fill out another contract, or listen to another agency pitch, I strongly encourage you to get serious about changing your perception of the opportunity that is squarely in front of you, right now.

There will not be a perfect program, and you will never be perfect, either. But what you can do is work on the personal development that will keep you in the game until you succeed.

Your biggest breakthrough will be where you currently say that it is painful for you. If prospecting is "hard" or you don't like being alone, then do the painful thing first until it is part of your routine. If you take a personal accounting of where your strengths and weaknesses are, then focus directly on where you are weakest, you will improve.

The first step, though, is to focus inward instead of looking outside of you and your current program for a miracle grand opportunity.

Every agent has their own personal obstacle that hinders them from achieving what they are capable of doing.

Here, you've pointed out that you do not like prospecting and you do not like working alone.

Both can be overcome with a decision to do the hard thing.
You can either embrace the pain you are feeling with the failure, and decide to change, or you can quit. Anything other than facing it will lead to the quitting when you get finally tired of hearing continous promises of glory elsewhere.

It does not stay hard, but the habit formed by doing the hard thing when you otherwise do not want to becomes the habit that separates you from the tire kicking, opportunity-hoppers that our industry does not need any more of.

You can change your life if you change your thinking.

It is not enough for a new agent in this chosen profession to have a contract, an opportunity, and a pen.
They must work on themselves every single day to become the person that deserves the desired outcome.

You do that by improving yourself.

Think - Act - Get

The most successful agents I work with are those who have taken this advice for the truth that it contains and have changed course. They now succeed beyond what they thought, originally, that they were capable of doing.

Others can choose to become offended, defensive and reactionary, failing to see the intention in which this was offered, and continue about their way with a negative opinion at my attempt to help.

This is not a trial run or a rough draft.
This is the real deal. It's time we get about the business of fixing the root issue behind the lack of success and get about making the necessary internal changes.

I highly recommend this read for anyone feeling frustrated with their business at this stage:

How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling

 

[jdjinsguy]

great post Chris... It sounds like captain obvious but it is very true. You can't chase marketers promises just get up and go to work, no magic, do the things others don't want to and you will have success. Best wishes for prosperity, JJ

 

[argar5]

I am independently contracted with Life4Diabetes and Christopher Westfall. Just getting back into the business after a year of teaching school. I did not do that great last time, due to a high level of chargebacks and the fact that working alone at home can be hard for me. Senior Life Services is interviewing me. Is it worth it to take such low commissions for free leads? Are their leads really just for RX cards and not for FE? I am so confused, running out of money, and really don't want to teach high school again. I so want to be successful, but I am so tired of cold calling. Senior Life Services looks great on paper, but I still feel hesitent.

I am not with Senior but I herd from 2 agents it's a no no.