Why Do Many Producers Fail?

[HoosierLife]

Folks fail out for all the reasons mentioned: lack of training, no leads, won't buy leads, not coachable etc.

But what I've personally seen, the two main reasons agents fail out are poor work ethic and poor money management skills.

Sometimes the two go hand in hand. An agent has just enough money to get on the direct mail program, but they HAVE to make some sales or they're going to fail out.

This is a recipe for disaster. They have commission breath walking into every house and I'm convinced the prospects read their body language and tone incorrectly and the commission breath makes them look/sound shady, so the prospect doesn't trust them and the agent doesn't make sales.

Then instead of overcoming that with a good work ethic, they get depressed and go home for the day after a few NOs.

Then there are those that just can't seem to manage their money. I had no mentor, other than the forum, when I first got into this biz, but I was able to look at potential for chargebacks and make the decision to save 20% of all my sales into a savings account.

You would be surprised at how often you need to spell something like that out for new agents. Too many have a 9-5 mentality. We are entrepreneurs. This is a business. Treat it as such, have enough cash flow to make it through the first few months, work hard and follow your mentors advice and it would be difficult to NOT be successful at Final Expense.

 

[TwiLight]

I Like what Hoosier said about a big reason of Failure is poor money management skills..... Too Many agents do not treat this thing we do as a BUSINESS. Business owners have to watch expenses/revenue and not treat this as a J.O.B.

With that said. I believe that the main reason agents fail in the first year (95% has been floated on this thread) is that they join an MLM organization rather than a producer oriented IMO/MGA.

MLM's are excellent recruiters, with their fancy videos and big room recruiting centers/meetings and sell each agent on the pipe dream of getting rich from recruiting...... What a crock of sh......t....

MLM's promote people that barely sold an insurance policy and you are expected to get quality training from someone who just got a license and does not know one thing about selling...... this is the Blind leading the Blind....

How can you expect not to fail under these circumstances.....

Skipper.

 

[nfl72]

I believe a person who makes it in this business probably has at least a little innate ability to sell. Being a type A personality certainly can help.

Hard work will only carry you so far. Of course if your in a booming industry like the mortgage business was 15 years ago, a brain dead alcoholic on drugs could make a good living by just plain hard work.

I do not believe the FE industry is like that anymore. I believe it is getting tougher and tougher all the time. In fact I would be quite happy if about 50% of the weak ass agents in Michigan would quit tomorrow!

 

[MaxReaver]

Thanks everyone for the participation and feedback.

 

[noah]

Driving those distances because you want to vs believing you have to is a different conversation.

Isn't it kind of a natural thing for sales superstars to have a "do whatever it takes " to be ultra successful ?

Saturation,lead debt,and burnout are major factors for agent failure,right?

So what's wrong with a guy leaving an area where he lives that's pulling 1% or less,average for FE DM and sending cards into an area that pulls much better ?

Like you have said,youwork in an area where there are no large cities,metro areas.
Don't you think agents living in Miami,Atlanta,Las Vegas will have a completely different feel for this business ?

Those places have had seen every type of hustle for decades.

A far cry from what you see day in day out in central Kentucky.

I wonder how you would do if you lived in Miami ?

Not many "garden growing folks" around there.

How much mail would you need to drop to equal the success you have had in this business?

Would you work right there or drive out a few hours to find an area that was better for FE ?

I'm in North Florida and many gents from down south travel up here to write FE.

 

[jdeasy]

Isn't it kind of a natural thing for sales superstars to have a "do whatever it takes " to be ultra successful ?

Saturation,lead debt,and burnout are major factors for agent failure,right?

So what's wrong with a guy leaving an area where he lives that's pulling 1% or less,average for FE DM and sending cards into an area that pulls much better ?

Like you have said,youwork in an area where there are no large cities,metro areas.
Don't you think agents living in Miami,Atlanta,Las Vegas will have a completely different feel for this business ?

Those places have had seen every type of hustle for decades.

A far cry from what you see day in day out in central Kentucky.

I wonder how you would do if you lived in Miami ?

Not many "garden growing folks" around there.

How much mail would you need to drop to equal the success you have had in this business?

Would you work right there or drive out a few hours to find an area that was better for FE ?

I'm in North Florida and many gents from down south travel up here to write FE.

I could sell FE wherever people are sending in FE reply cards.

There might be areas where I wouldn't want to work?

As for your question, I would work within an hour to an hour and half, (tops), drive of where I live. If that's not sustainable then I would do something else.

I don't understand the being scared of the city. The more people, the more opportunities to sell to our market.

Almost 2 years ago Dave Duford was trying to give away some leads in a bad section of Louisville. Seems like it was 6 leads?

He asked me if I knew anyone that would work them. Louisville is 2 and half hours from me and an hour time difference so I didn't want to work them.

One of them was a complete lay down. Just had to show up and take the app.

I couldn't get anyone to work them. They all said that area was too rough.

I felt obligated to Dave since I had told him I would find someone to work them so I just went to Louisville one day and worked them myself. By the time I did that the leads were 6 months old.

The lay down was in the projects. A high rise HUD apartment in downtown Louisville. But it was a laydown. It was about $60/mo. I made one other appointment and DK'ed the rest. Wrote a little over $4K that day.

There is business everywhere. One of the agents that turned those down was really struggling with FE at the time and lived about 45 minutes from them. He just wouldn't go to them.

We have just as many agents wash out here as they do in the big cities. One thing that's not different is the excuses. "It's the leads, the people, the neighborhoods, the saturation, etc."

 

[noah]

I could sell FE wherever people are sending in FE reply cards.

There might be areas where I wouldn't want to work?

As for your question, I would work within an hour to an hour and half, (tops), drive of where I live. If that's not sustainable then I would do something else.

I don't understand the being scared of the city. The more people, the more opportunities to sell to our market.

Almost 2 years ago Dave Duford was trying to give away some leads in a bad section of Louisville. Seems like it was 6 leads?

He asked me if I knew anyone that would work them. Louisville is 2 and half hours from me and an hour time difference so I didn't want to work them.

One of them was a complete lay down. Just had to show up and take the app.

I couldn't get anyone to work them. They all said that area was too rough.

I felt obligated to Dave since I had told him I would find someone to work them so I just went to Louisville one day and worked them myself. By the time I did that the leads were 6 months old.

The lay down was in the projects. A high rise HUD apartment in downtown Louisville. But it was a laydown. It was about $60/mo. I made one other appointment and DK'ed the rest. Wrote a little over $4K that day.

There is business everywhere. One of the agents that turned those down was really struggling with FE at the time and lived about 45 minutes from them. He just wouldn't go to them.

We have just as many agents wash out here as they do in the big cities. One thing that's not different is the excuses. "It's the leads, the people, the neighborhoods, the saturation, etc."

So let's say you were sending out cards one and a half hours of where you live. You are not on price per lead. Your home area is pulling 1%.

You wanted to do better.

You took a shot and dropped an area 4 hours away to see what you could get and the area pulled 2% consistently for you and other agents you personally know.

Are you saying you would reluctantly work them then find something else to do because that's too far for you to go to do better ?

 

[jdeasy]

So let's say you were sending out cards one and a half hours of where you live. You are not on price per lead. Your home area is pulling 1%.

You wanted to do better.

You took a shot and dropped an area 4 hours away to see what you could get and the area pulled 2% consistently for you and other agents you personally know.

Are you saying you would reluctantly work them then find something else to do because that's too far for you to go to do better ?

Let's suppose the sky is falling. Let's suppose that this email I got from a prince in England is real and all I have to do is provide my bank account number so he can deposit $7 mil.

Let's suppose I'm willing to carry on this silly discussion.

 

[noah]

Let's suppose the sky is falling. Let's suppose that this email I got from a prince in England is real and all I have to do is provide my bank account number so he can deposit $7 mil.

Let's suppose I'm willing to carry on this silly discussion.

Lol.....

Well we know 2 things for sure.

1.You won't door knock.

2.You won't drive more than 90 minutes to run appointments.

Todd's on the Royal Neighbors trip in Mexico this week,figured you'd be there ?

 

[Gooner]

Lol.....

Well we know 2 things for sure.

1.You won't door knock.

2.You won't drive more than 90 minutes to run appointments.

Todd's on the Royal Neighbors trip in Mexico this week,figured you'd be there ?

JD door knocks...what are you smoking? I'm one of the Atlanta agents...I made a great living selling FE until I bought another business...there is an EFES agent that works downtown Atlanta....i think he did close to 300k last year.

So if it's mail drop percentage...may e you need a price per lead program...that is if your credit is finally cleared up.