Ideal Concepts Inc

Josh_P

New Member
1
Good morning everyone. I am a brand new agent to the field. While I've been licensed for a year and have health insurance experience, I am a noob to sales.

I am appointed with a health & life carrier and was working part time with a CGA. Since I am still working a fulltime job until I can build the capital to leave it, I can't write health due to "conflict of interest."

I won't bore everyone with the details, but I am looking for a much needed change.

I received a job lead with a company called Ideal Concepts. They're touting that they provide the leads - something I've struggled with trying to do this part time.

So. Had anyone heard of this place? Arr they a good operation? Waste of time?

Thank you in advance.
 
Good morning everyone. I am a brand new agent to the field. While I've been licensed for a year and have health insurance experience, I am a noob to sales.

I am appointed with a health & life carrier and was working part time with a CGA. Since I am still working a fulltime job until I can build the capital to leave it, I can't write health due to "conflict of interest."

I won't bore everyone with the details, but I am looking for a much needed change.

I received a job lead with a company called Ideal Concepts. They're touting that they provide the leads - something I've struggled with trying to do this part time.

So. Had anyone heard of this place? Arr they a good operation? Waste of time?

Thank you in advance.

I've worked for Ideal Concepts for over year! Great company, good commissions, and yes, they provide leads. Some days are better than others. You'll have days where you get connected to 25 brand new leads and then anpther where you get only 10 and then a bunch of old leads. Old leads as in, a couple days old. The one thing is that you have to be full time and work 40 hour weeks on average and you're captive so you have to sell their products. But its a brokerage, so you have almost every product and carrier to work with. I'd say apply and talk to whoever calls you to ask for more info. Totally worth a look to see if it fits you!
 
salesgirl, I phone screened with them back in November but you had to train onsite there for a month. I live in an hour away from their Allentown, PA office so I'm not sure how they train their agents across the country?
 
I think they hire remote agents if you're experienced. I'm in PA too but not within driving distance. I'm not positive what their exact policy is, but I know they have agents all over the country. My friend is signed with them too and he lives in Miami. We've both been selling health, life and medicare for a couple years- he's the one who got me into the business and the one who referred me to Ideal Concepts.
 
Um "FREE" means "No cost".

Not sure what you're asking. They provide free leads, no costs. Obviously you're a contactor, you're responsible for all the costs of your business. Licenses, appointment fees, computer, E&O insurance, etc. Nothing is ever paid to the company though.
 
Um "FREE" means "No cost".

Not sure what you're asking. They provide free leads, no costs. Obviously you're a contactor, you're responsible for all the costs of your business. Licenses, appointment fees, computer, E&O insurance, etc. Nothing is ever paid to the company though.

Nothing worthwhile is Ever free, How much below street is commission.how long do you keep resids, do they own your book of buiz?
 
The commission levels are actually right at street or directly below. For instance, I know with UnitedHealthcare I was getting 5% writing direct. Or at least, that's what their street level went down to, I think I left before the 2014-2015 commissions went into effect. Right now, I make 5% with United. I have friends in Arizona that were making 4% with United and they actually got a bump up in commissions with my company! I think Humana and Aetna are right around the same.

The commission cut is peanuts compared to the leads. I mean, I was spending maybe $1500 a month on buying leads- and they were crappy leads. Ideal Concepts spends on average $3-$4K a month per agent on leads. That's over $40K in leads per year- well above the commission cut.

Where you do lose money is on renewals. (They do the full first year of residuals, no second year.) But if you actually took a look at your second year renewals, I bet they are considerably lower than they were before healthcare reform- clients just don't keep their plans as long as they used to. My renewals before I switched were maybe $20K if I was lucky and worked my butt off to keep them on plans. So with some simple math, you can do what I did, add my marketing costs to my renewals costs and you'd see it's still substantially lower than the $40K they give me in free leads. In addition to that, I am closing literally 3 TIMES THE AMOUNT of business I was closing before. Seriously. Because they have a predictive dialer, because of sheer amount of leads they provide, because I'm not keeping track of clients or anything, I'm just selling. No more driving to appointments, no more 2 hour meetings, just sell sell sell on the phone. My last year as an indepedent agent I brought home just over $50K. I've now been here over a year and I tracked over $100K my first year- I totally expect to make $130,000 this year. (And this is ASTOUNDING to me. I'm not college educated, I was happy to be making $50K before, and now I make more than my friend who is a physical therapist and went to school for like 7 years!)

Obviously, you don't own your book, you're not getting renewals. But I remember spending so much time trying to keep old clients for a measly 2% and now I can just spend that time selling a brand new client at 5%. Plus, the supplementary products are where you make all your money. TONS of short term outside of OEP, dental, accident, critical illness, etc.

This type of captive position is not for everyone. You have the freedom to set your own hours, but you have to be working full time. You get free leads, free technology, (dialer and CRM) and fair commissions, but you can't sell any none approved health or life products. I'm not sure why people are so skeptical or talk badly about companies they know nothing about. Again, it may not be the right choice for everyone, but I am extremely happy here. I was never good at lead generation, or networking or cold calling or door knocking. But I excel at sales, and that's all I'm doing now.

Keep talking negatively but I suggest you do your research first. I don't benefit from bringing new agents on (no typical FMO structure of recruitment) and in fact, why would I want more competition? But I hate hearing people talk badly about a company that has been such a blessing to me, especially when they have no idea what they're talking about!

P.S. To the guy who said they cut commissions? EVERYONE is cutting commissions. Every single year carriers cut their commissions. So does Ideal Concepts, once a year, in line with the industry. Duh. And there is only two sales managers- who have nothing to do with you after training. It's not like they're doling out leads- if my sales manager doesn't like me, there is nothing he can do to me. How could he "play favorites"?? He doesn't set commissions or bonus programs or trip rewards.
 
One other thing- they do still have an independent sales platform. Those agents don't get free leads but they do get higher than street rates. For instance, the top level agents make 8% on United vs. my 5%. But again, no leads, no dialer. Not sure what the production requirements for that highest level. The difference on supplementary products is much less. For example, Short term, I make 20%, the highest level agent makes 22% on the independent platform (their lowest level agent makes 18%, btw. Two points less than me and I get free leads!)
 
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