Insurance Forum

[lg0612]

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I am thinking about pursuing an insurance career. I currently carry and have been contacted by Farmers Insurance about becoming an agent. Does anyone have agent experince with them? I have gotten good service from my Farmers agent and he has suggested I look into selling for them also.

[HomeService]

UFAA Home go to "publications" and read some of the "voice" archived stuff.

[DenverINS]

Could u give more explanation of that UFAA website? Other than having the word Farmers what is the relationship?

Here are a few things I can tell you:

First, find out what companies in your market are the most competitive in both auto and home insurance. The auto insurance is what really brings people in the door. In Colorado, Farmers is very good with home insurance but often not competitive with the auto. Talk to multiple agents from all of the major companies and ask if they feel their pricing is competitive.

There are likely multiple district offices in your area so check them all out. They are the ones that will be your main support and some will obviously be better than others.

For me, the training at Farmers was almost non-existent. There is a little product knowledge and virtually no sales training. Thats totally backwards.

From speaking to other agents it sounds like Allstate and State Farm have far superior training, but they are also going to exert more control over your operations. Thats annoying, but they are on your arse because they know what works. Farmers = more freedom, less support and training.

My district's entire philosophy of bringing in business has been to just buy internet leads. Its very expensive and you its not the way you want to build a long term business. Depending on how Farmers is in your market those kind of leads might pay off or they might not.

So the way it works here is you blow a ton of money on expensive leads, $10-$25 a pop, and get maybe a 5% conversion to sales. So typically you spend $200-400 per customer which is likely the entire year's commission. But if you last a few years the renewals kick in. If you make decent sales they throw in matching commissions to keep you afloat through 2 years after which you should have enough renewals. Keep in mind if you quit down the road they will ask you to pay back the matching commissions.

Basically plan to be broke for 3-6 months, then poor through another 18 months, but it is doable. It might be a similar story at all the major carriers, so chime in if you are from Allstate, etc...

[HomeService]

Well, I signed up under a Farmers agent to sell life ins. for his office and that UFAA newsletter showed up in my mail. In reading it, it appeared to be an activist organization that was dead set on keeping the Farmers agents from getting screwed. They covered topics such as captivity, commissions, chargebacks, etc. Very infomative. That's why I said to go back and read archived material.

[HomeService]

Oh, and BTW, I have no idea what the relationship is between them and Farmers { the Company} ...but it seems they are there to help agents, which can't be a bad thing, I guess. Unless they are there just to spam agents and sell them stuff, which is possible, but in reading through it, it did not seem like the sole purpose was to just sell agents stuff.

[Insurance Phoenix]

Originally Posted by lg0612

I am thinking about pursuing an insurance career. I currently carry and have been contacted by Farmers Insurance about becoming an agent. Does anyone have agent experince with them? I have gotten good service from my Farmers agent and he has suggested I look into selling for them also.

Run.

Read Farmers Blogs about others who have gone to work for them. Do a Google search and do your reading in advance.