American General Life & Accident

abcd

New Member
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I am new to the insurance industry and do not have a license at the moment. Is there anyone that has worked or currently works for AGLA that could answer a series of questions for me?
1) is there a base salary + commission, or just solely commission? any more specific information is good.
2) what exactly is this validation that I have seen some people talking about, during training?
3) Are monthly quotas reasonable, and do they have a habit of bearing down on you if you don't meet them on occasion?
4) how easy is it really to sell life insurance, as it seems many folks get it through their employer, or they don't seem to see any need for it.
5) With all the AIG bailout mess going on in the news recently, do you find it difficult to sell products from a company that currently has a bad name? Is this making it hard to meet quotas just because of who your company is associated with?

Any other advice or notes you think are important for someone new to the industry that is considering a career with this company will be greatly appreciate. Thanks.
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I know I may have limited some responses by making it exclusive to the AGLA company. What I'm really asking is, honestly how hard is it to sell life insurance to most folks. They have been making me do survey's of some folks, most are 30+ years old that i've talked to. They all seem to already have life insurance or don't plan on ever getting it. They also don't want to change either. Because of that, i'm realizing that you should really be targeting the 20-30 crowd mainly, as well as new professionals/new families/newlyweds/new parents. Anyone agree or disagree with me on that, as the majority of your new clientele?
Does anyone have any advice to a person with no insurance sales experience whatsoever? I'm sure there are many questions I can't even think of right now :err:
 
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1. 17 wk base
2. match your 17wk base w/ commish
3. Yes, and depending on local office "culture", probably not so much.
4. 2 kinds of sales: the easy one, and the one you don't get.
5. Not at all "so far". Barry may be a punk, AIG execs may be crooks, but AGLA is a fine company with fine products - it shines brightly as a well run subsidiary. Customers are very loyal. It is and will survive/thrive.

Ignore the *** box (TV). Keep it simple. Take advantage of the tools. Show the video (ABRs, DIR!). Ask how much they want. New, add, or replace. No? Next!

Still hung up on AIG? Go here: American General Life Companies

NEXT!!!!!! (hint)
 
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AIG is suppose to be trying to sell American General.
 
As long as it's to another well known large company, I actually wouldn't mind that at all. AIG is going to have to have 10+ years to get some americans to not want to spit on their name after what the execs did with bonuses.
 
"if they say they have enough insurance"

Ask them how much

and then say "You don't plan on being dead long?

only two things are going to happen if you live you'll need money and if you die your family will.

get books lots of them and study sales techniques and positive attitude.
take some phrases, stories and affirmations write them on a note card read them 20x/day. Plus cruise around this site.

then, Go to www.realfastservice.com and Rosenthalfiles.com and read everything it's an excellent resource its Marks Rosenthal's site.
 
What I'm really asking is, honestly how hard is it to sell life insurance to most folks. They have been making me do survey's of some folks, most are 30+ years old that i've talked to. They all seem to already have life insurance or don't plan on ever getting it. They also don't want to change either. Because of that, i'm realizing that you should really be targeting the 20-30 crowd mainly, as well as new professionals/new families/newlyweds/new parents. Anyone agree or disagree with me on that, as the majority of your new clientele?
Does anyone have any advice to a person with no insurance sales experience whatsoever? I'm sure there are many questions I can't even think of right now :err:

Talking to an unmarried 20 something with no dependants will probably be a tough sale. People having life changing events can be more open to the life insurance discussion. Just got married, had a baby, bought a house, started a business etc....also I like to think of people a super heros...in your 20's your suit is clean and your indistructible as you age into your 30's you slow down some the cape gets tarnished but you still feel like there will be many more years in your 40's and 50's you've had friends, parents, siblings die you realize this super hero analogy is crazy etc....I focus on the 40-50 crowd for 2 reasons they know they need it most of the time they are replacing older term coverage that for some reason isn't covering the need and oh yeah the #1 reason I like the 40-50 crowd is because there older the premiums are higher I make more money can service less people meaning I have more time to spend on each prospect as opposed to selling some 21 year old a 20 year term policy for $120 /year with a $60 noncommissionable policy fee :)
 
I started at American General in 99. You had to validate your contract at intervals. Commission was about 50-55% of 12 month advance on life ACH mode. ex. 50.00 monthly premium x 12 = 600 @050% =300.00 x 50% in Accumulation fund 50% in paycheck or 150.00.
But you couldn't make more than your contract until the validation period is up. If they pay you 500.00 a week all your commission goes into your ACF. 4 weeks later they adjust your pay up or down according to your production, 4 weeks later they do it again. If you have to cover a debit agency be careful that your manager doesn't have you collecting money for the first month and not showing you how to sell. You need to validate that contract no matter what. They also take out any license and training money they paid on your behalf. Beware of them transferring policies on the lapse sheet because they add or deduct the life progress from your ACF. Unfortunately my manager had no clue when I started and we spent the first three weeks trying to catch up on policies on a lapse sheet. My pay dropped from 500.00 to 320.00 the 5th week. After they deducted for license and a few other classes I was almost working for free for the first 17 weeks no matter what I did. Whole life policies got issued fairly quickly but term was always hung up in the pipeline for some reason. Good learning but I rather be independent any day of the week!
 
I am new to the insurance industry and do not have a license at the moment........What I'm really asking is, honestly how hard is it to sell life insurance to most folks. They have been making me do survey's of some folks, most are 30+ years old that i've talked to. They all seem to already have life insurance or don't plan on ever getting it. They also don't want to change either......


This is not an easy business. It is why probably all but about 25% wash out in the first year. If you think it will be easy don't get licensed. The others are right that there are only two kind of sales: easy sales and no sales. However, what they didn't say is that the hard work is the prospecting required to find the easy sales. It takes a lot of time and talking to a lot of people.
 
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