Unhappy Captive Agent

I'm at this weird age where all of my friends are getting married and having babies, and my DM claims, "They're great prospects! Now is the time to market!" Yeah, sure, when the time comes. But when a pregnant woman is bent over a toilet hurling up her guts for two days, she doesn't care about her auto insurance. When new parents aren't sleeping at all because of the newborn, they're too exhausted to talk about the importance of life insurance. When a friend is out of state for a week-long vacation, the talk can wait until she gets back. But the DM doesn't care. "Do it now," he demands. But I'm not going to strong-arm anyone into insurance when they clearly have other things going on--my friends aren't going there. We can chat about it later, on the weekend, or after a doctor's appointment, or when they get back into the state.
This attitude virtually assures failure. If you can't/won't change it....find another opportunity...outside insurance.
 
@Today93: Tolerable captive? I honestly wasn't expecting everything to be groovy to begin with, but the communication shut-down and blame game is what I had to deal with in typical employment. That's what I'm attempting to escape.

@todd02: The DM and I are clashing, and this leaves me less than optimistic about my future.

I was supposed to be working out of the DM's office: no book of business, pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, shaking hands, kissing babies. That sort of thing. The idea was that I got a desk, a phone, and a chair, but everything else is entirely up to me. He never hid that I'd be starting from scratch. That part is fine.

My first job I was self-employed for five years, and I'm no stranger to building referrals, hanging flyers, and passing around my phone number. We did good for a long time. I don't take issue with working as a self-employed business-owner, that part isn't stressing me out. It's the DM's attitude and the complete lack of information. The career-block is irritating.

@VolAgent: That was my fear with going independent.

During the initial interviews, the DM mentioned additional help outside of basic training. "We'll tell you which agents to speak with and which ones to avoid." "We'll be discussing marketing strategies and which ones have been successful for us. Don't gloss over ones that haven't been successful for us--they might be successful for you." He made himself out to be a cornerstone of knowledge.

@nyc2phi: Thank you! Will definitely look into the book.
 
Getting into the insurance business without any prior "Insurance sales" experience" is almost always a fail...work as a team member for a State Farm, Allstate, Liberty mutual, etc first for a few years to fully polish yourself. I laugh every time someone wants to be an insurance Agent instantly before even being a team member, you have no idea how much work and responsibility is involved to do well as an insurance agent. So my biggest recommendation to you is work for one of the companies i listed above for a few years to learn and sell insuranance "WELL", and then become an agent of your choosing. Team members make about 35-50k/yr if you're good at sales...this money is pretty good money for a 23 year old. think of it like paid college for 3 years then getting your real job after graduation...which by about 3 years, you'd be so efficient and polished that you can do very well with any insurance company as an actual AGENT. Farmers is an *** and scheme'ish trying to start people off as Agent/business owners right off the bat no matter what the background or capital to start.
 
There is some good advice here, but that doesn't mean that it is all right. You are going to have to do what you know is best for you. You said you have 5yrs of self-employment, but you didn't mention at what.

Your experience at knocking and hanging doors, cold calling and meeting new people will all help you in sales, but you have to have the drive to carry you through and a tough skin to handle all the "no's" that you will be getting. A lot of people can't, can you take it and keep going forward?

I'm 63, worked for myself all but 10 yrs of my working life which started at 12 when I was selling shoes and greeting cards door to door, did my stint in the Marine corps, owned a construction company and a communications installation company, was a Realtor, have retired twice and lost my retirement to the stock market both times, "stupid me, I trusted other people with my money".

Personally I think you are doing the right thing by not trying to sell all your family and friends insurance as a Captive Farmers Agent,that's just what the MLM companies do and if you don't make it, they have the Family & Friends business that you brought them, but that's just me.

You really should do some research with some captive agents that have been there longer than 10 yrs and some independents that were former captives, then make your decision on which way you want to go. You need to make that decision before the web gets to large, once you are in the Career Program it will be a lot harder to transition. Myself, I could not stay captive, just can't stand the hot breath down the back of my neck.

I agree that it might be best to produce for an agency for a couple of years before going out on your own, but if it was me I would look for an independent agency and work a deal with them to be able to keep your book if and when you want to move. You will have to be Contract Savvy or have an attorney look over the papers for you but it can be done.

Wishing you the best
 
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