Insurance Agent Forum

[healthagent]

I have an idea to generate some modest revenue for the board. All the experts on this board, and there are many, could each write a comprehensive short manual on their area of expertise.

For each field of life, health, senior market and annuities it would include:

*List of companies to get appointed with
*Commission structures of those companies
*Marketing strategies that work and the ones to avoid
*Proven closing techniques

This could all be compiled in one "how to start selling insurance" booklet and Sam could set a price and charge for it. The money is used to off-set costs of running the board.

You can't possibly imagine the number of agents who come to this board and are simply lost. They also have to troll through hundreds of posts to find the info they need. In many cases new agent don't even know which companies to contact or even how commissions work.

Because of the lack of information many simply end up with bad contracts or with "turn and burn" captive companies. They're also paying "$150" to download garbage programs that are little more than motivational books.

Thoughts? What would the price be?

Good idea John.

The real estate investing field is littered with "courses" on how to get rich in real estate that cost $150-$1500. Most of them are not worth the paper they are printed on.
We could compile a worthy manual that would provide real direction for people in the insurance field that would be well worth a small investment.

The price should be set after completing the manual--it will depend on the detail of its content.

I think it would generate a lot more income than you might think though--it would do much more than offest this site's costs.

[healthagent]

The price of the manual would be made up by selling one deal. I talked to an agent not to long ago who got a 10% Assurant deal, doesn't own his business and was promised "all the leads he could handle." He actually got 5 shared leads a day. After two weeks he didn't close a deal and his GA stopped sending him leads saying that he needs to close a deal first - recommended that he start cold-calling. And he's trapped under that deal for 6 months - simply didn't know any better.

Even if he had written a deal:

$3,500 X 10% = $350 commish

Or

$3,500 X 20% = $700 commish

How much would it have been worth for him to find out all the scoop before signing a contract? I'm not suggesting at all that the price would be $350. I'm simply trying to show the value.

[James]

Monte Zucker, a famous portrait/wedding photography has established the standard in photography forums as we would all like to see this one do for the Insurance Field. What Monte did was rather interesting, kind of in the line you are talking about and it has been a great success from what I understand, you can check out the site at Zuga.net. Now his site is well established and he been at it for some 10 years plus it seems?

Now what you can do there is view instructions on what he calls his "Stars", they offer trailers, say the first 5 minutes of the video instruction course (Weddings, Portraits, Commercial, Food, Nature, Scenics etc etc a long list of specialties) and then the viewer can decide to purchase more. From what I understand, Zuga takes a cut and the artist gets a cut, everyone makes money and the viewer knows that the artist offering the course is Monte Zucker approved. Now Monte has been awarded life time achievements from places such as the UN and Nobel Committee, known as a great guy by all that know him!

While video courses would be great, I simply don't see many here having the ability, maybe more than I suspect but I really doubt it. Yet though it wouldn't be hard, well wouldn't think it would be difficult for this site to have a second home page that one could view "Courses Free and Premium" and than they could see the first section, maybe the first chapter and than decide to buy in to get the whole book. This way any poster that the site approves and maybe for a charge can post Chapters or Books for purchase or offered for free, whichever the author and the site agrees on.

[James]

Now at Zuga the posters on the forum generally give thumbs up or down about the varying clips. That way any prospective customer thinking about buying a course or video can go to the forums and see what others think of any given course.

[natem2112]

I think that this not only a good idea....but something that should happen.

I, along with JohnP, Sti and others have all had the pleasure of learning from our mistakes, most new agents enter in to this industry having no clear idea of what they really are doing. The training for new agents out there is not even close to what it should be, a stocker at the local Piggly Wiggly gets more focused training before actually getting on the job.

I went to a meeting a few weeks ago with one of the brokers that I do business with, there was this new agent next to me, a 30 year old single mom, who had just left the UGA trap. ( I just cringed when I heard that)

She was telling me what all she was doing, how she was spending here money, asking me if she should get this website package for $300.00 a month, was that a good price? ect.

She didn't have a clue...and hadn't written business in over 3 months.

I offered her practical advice and told here where to start, focus on Assurant and Golden Rule first and so on.

But my point is that there are thousands just like her, there is a huge need for a practical guide for newbies.

I believe the burden is on us if we don't help them.

I would help wit this in any way.

[healthagent]

We're also getting into "watch what we wish for" territory with this board. With internet exposure from the major engines we could very well be in a postion of having a ton of newbies on the board. Posts could soon be clogged with new agents asking for the same advice over and over. It's simply to hard to search all the posts to find the info you need.

A lot of newbies also won't join since they know they're not a part of "the club." However, those same newbies might purchase the guides if they were marketed correctly.

I also think this is something that we should do. All we need is to organize it and simply get it done.

[al3]

I own a book publishing company...

http://www.adams-blake.com

... and MIGHT be willing to publish it and sell it to the trade if it is any good (and of any length) and pay a royalty back to the board (or to the individual authors as done on college texts where there are multiple conributors.... or both.)

If I like the manuscript my company would put up ALL the money to design, edit, print, and distribute it... probably close to $15,000 (but it can be done for less... depends on length of book... paper is not cheap!).

Traditional royalty publishing pays author 10% of net... net being defined as cash publisher receives (not profit). Most books are sold by publisher at a 40 to 60 % discount from list price. A $10 book will probably sell to Barns/Noble for 4 or $5 and the author would get 10% or forty or fifty cents. Sound low? Well, author takes zero financial risk... and still owns rights to the book.

Or we could do a co-publishing deal as well where everyone pays and takes risk but shares in profits. In co-pub there are contractural arrangements of who pays what and who gets what.... it can become a mess... lawyers get involved, but with the high risk of doing books these days these deals are becomming more common.

I'd like to publish to the insurance agent/agency sector. If any of you write a manuscript, please send it to me. However, we do not pay an advance on an un-finished ms. and usually don't pay for a completed one either unless you are a known (sellable) author.

Just a thought.

Al

[salpro22]

Having a book available for newbies is a great idea. I would have gladly spent money on a start-up guide versus taking 2+ weeks to read this entire forum.

[healthagent]

Well, you could kick it up a notch and this industry is SCREAMING for an unbiased "tell all" book on the ABCs of breaking into the insurance business. A "Selling Insurance for Dummies" actually could go on the shelves of major book chains.

If done correctly and marketed correction someone could really make a lot of money.

[aufan]

John, I think that is an excellent idea. As a fairly new agent (3 yrs in the industry) I just now am figuring out what works and what doesn't. One of the disadvantages for agents that come into this industry that even with the training that captive companies provide, there still is a lot of "trial and error" for the inexperienced agent.

I think the concept of "Insurance selling for dummies" is really right at the pulse of what newbies need the most. I would like to think of the "baby steps" that any agent has to do to get a firm grip on how to go from prospecting to appointment to closing. I know that for me it was very frustrating knowing how to find your market or niche and from there develop a strategy of how to build a client base.

There is a multitude of "get rich quick" schemes and supposedly "experts" that tell you how you're gonna get rich selling insurance. Reality says that it takes systematic daily activities that build confidence, self esteem, discipline among many others that build success in this busines.

Question is....how do we make this work? I'm more than willing to contribute to this cause with no personal or monetary gain. I don't desire nor have the intestinal fortitude to put something like that together on my own, but more than willing to share my experiences and strategies i've used in my own career.

[healthagent]

"BUY MY PROGRAM AND I'LL SHOW YOU HOW TO BECOME RICH SELLING INSURANCE!"

[helpful_agent]

Al3 wrote: "I'd like to publish to the insurance agent/agency sector."

As a new agent, I'd recommend a broader market. Speaking from recent experience, there's a huge, untapped segment out there. It probably falls into three categories:

#1 - The "What Color Is My Parachute?" variety: I can't begin to count the number of friends and former coworkers who are seeking an independent career path -- in anything -- to avoid the corporate grind. They haven't even taken the first steps to getting into the business.

#2 - The "I Think Insurance Looks Good" variety: They're considering quitting their corporate jobs and go into business for themselves, and for whatever reason, they think insurance might be a good gig. When I was in this position last summer, I scoured bookstores and libraries for good texts on how to become an agent, what the working conditions were actually like, and whether it was worth trying. If I'd stumbled upon a book like you're considering, I'd have gladly paid $20 or more retail for it.

#3 - The "I Just Got Licensed, Now What?" variety. They don't have a GA. They don't know anyone in the business except the licensing school lady who took $225 to "train" them. They're lost, and they need direction. It seems like that's where most of the "newbies" fall here on the forum.

#4 - The "I Got Jipped by NASE" variety. They quit their corporate jobs, got licensed, and excitedly joined whoever recruited them first. They don't know what independent means, let alone how to go about it. They're scarred by their experiences with bad carriers / uplines and need a fresh outlook.

My point is that targeting up & running agents who have intricate underwriting questions is a great idea, but I'd also try to hit people who are seeking a new, independent career path and are just at the "researching the options stage." With more layoffs / early retirements and employers demanding more for less, this segment will continue to grow. And, I'd also add that the book should take a no-holds-barred, honest approach. No candy-coating. It should be like "Boot Camp for Prospective Agents."

Just my $0.02!

[/i]

[healthagent]

It would have to be a collaborative effort. No single agent knows enough about all areas of insurance to write a comprehensive "how do" book.

Plus, most books are still generalizations. I'd like something with specifics:

"Look, here's how to contract with Assurant, Golden Rule, Unicare and Blue Cross and here's what they pay."

And now we run into another problem; compliance. Blue Cross might not want you writing about their commission structure in a book and claim you can't do it - same with Assurant, Golden Rule or Aetna - especially if it ends up painting them in bad light.

Ironically, someone without a license could write that book almost without any problems. A licensed agent would most likely get a phone call from "ABC company's" legal dep't saying "who authorized you to write about us in a book?"

Many people have asked my why I haven't written something about health insurance. First, I don't have the time. Secondly, you can't even mention the name of an insurance company without getting authorization. If they found out I was selling a book, a company like Assurant could claim that I'm advertising them without their permission. I could lose my appointment. There are many things companies don't really want to become common knowlege - like the difference between the MGA and RSD channels. And if I write a book promoting the RSD channel just imagine if that book became extremely popular to the point that the MGA channel was harmed. Not I'm in a world of crap.

[Melmunch3]

I have a few comments to make about this idea.

1. I think that it is a great idea to package some of the already discussed information into articles or chapters that people can read without wading through all of the old threads.

2. I think that a complete compilation is a great idea and harnessing the expertise and experience of all of the board members is a great idea.

3. I think that charging for such a book is fraught with perils. Whenever there is money at stake, there will be disagreements and problems.

4. I certainly did not foresee how much money I would put into the forum, but ultimately, we are not talking about millions of dollars here. I don't envision the need for a constant stream of income for the forum, just a small amount for upkeep and growth.

5. That photography forum has a lot of nice features, and it is my dream to have a similar infrastructure, where there will be articles and resources available besides the forum, and the forum can function at it's best as a hub for NEW ideas, instead of constantly rehashing the old ones. One idea I have been toying with is enabling google adsense ads to support the programming costs. The forum software has a possible feature whereby the ads will only show to guests, but not to signed in members. That way, those who are stopping by will help support the costs and those who are contributing won't be annoyed by them. I doubt that it would produce much income, but it might pay for hosting costs.

In short, I think that it is a great idea to make a collaborative work for new agents, but I really don't love the idea of charging for it. I think that we all enjoy the positive feelings of helping out new agents, and we can accomplish that without making them buy something. Not that it wouldn't be worth their while to pay for it, but I think there are easier ways of supporting the costs of the forum.
In addition, I think that people will be even more generous with their time and expertise by writing articles/chapters that they are experts on, if they know that no one is going to get rich on the back of their hard work!

[healthagent]

We at least need stickies on each folder that gives the basic "ABCs." Very soon a lot of us are going to find that we're giving the same advice over and over and over. I empathize with people who are new to the board and industry so I don't mind replying to their posts and emails. But I'd much rather say "just read the sticky under health insurance."