Insurance Agent Forum

[healthagent]

Well since a lot of the agents I know who obviously passed the test are a boil on the ass of the insurance world I don't think passing means much.

[arnguy]

If you think the insurance exams are difficult, try the Series 7 for a Stockbroker license. It's a full day test and hard enough to frost your b*lls! When I was captive at New England Life (remember them) passing that exam was a requirement.

P.S. I studied hard and did pass it, but the portion on stock options still puzzles me somewhat.

[LaffAgent]

Making money is a way of keeping score. Most salespeople ... actually I'll just talk for me to avoid broadbushing ... Ihave a lot of ego wrapped up in my career and when the money scorecard looks good, it makes me feel good. It also makes me feel good when I do the right thing. When I can do the right thing and make a good living doing it, it's a double win.

I won't do the wrong thing to make money, I won't cheat lie or steal. I won't hard sell, if anything I get accused of being too much of a soft sell. But I work hard and am definitely motivated by the money.

This thread started on advice for the test. The test checks knowledge, not ability or talent or aptitude. In order to succeed in this business you have to have the basic knowledge, but after that aptitude and personality will have a much greater impact on your success (no matter how you define it) than the knowledge the test covers.

If you haven't done so already, take a test preperation crash course and then take the test right after, a day or two at most.

[healthagent]

Not wanting to make a lot of money and being in sales is a bit like wanting to own a McDonalds when you're a vegetarian. Where's the excitement?

[somarco]

"The ability to sell has nothing to do with being a professional agent." this is in direct conflict with the definition of the term professional.

According to whom, or what rules?

One of the great general agents in this town was a plodder. I recall hearing him speak at a meeting years ago where he reflected on his career. He told the story of entering the life insurance business in 1933 and earning a grand total of $350 that year.

A young agent stated that $350 must have been a lot of money in 1933.

His response was, $350 was never a lot of money.

Bill was not the flashiest guy in the room. If anything, you would hardly know he was there except for the folks who eventually clustered around him as time went on, leaning on his every word and soaking it all in as if they were a thirsty sponge.

He stayed with the business and eventually became the GA for Home Life. The career shop he built had some of the top agents in this town. Eventually he retired from management but never retired from the business until his health got the best of him late in his 70's.

He was a class act, all the way to the end. Many successful agents still in business owe their success to his encouragement, training and the ability to take complex things & make them simple.

You can measure success in a lot of different ways. This guy left behind numerous clients who were never pressured into buying something they did not need, countless agents who learned what it means to be a pro, and a lot of folks who wanted to be just like him. He lived in the same house in the same neighborhood for over 30 years and always drove Buick's that were at least 5 years old.

He is missed.

Slick, you (and others) have a lot to learn about our business. If you stick around long enough, you may be blessed to see some of the truly great ones work their magic.

[healthagent]

Well that's touching and almost brought a tear to my eye, but I hold in higher regard ethical agents who also bust their ass and work extremely hard. Maybe Bill can count himself lucky that someone with more drive wasn't in the same town to put him out of business.

[somarco]

Money is one way to keep score, Laff, but not the only way.

No one (including me) ever said the test was a measure of ability, aptitude or success. Any idiot can sell our products if given a slick presentation. To truly understand the complexity of the industry in a way as to be able to help others takes more than a slap on the back and shoving a pen in someone's hand to sign the app.

Would you let someone who could not pass a drivers test get on the road? Would you want a doctor who could not pass the licensing exam treat you?

The test is a gatekeeper. Sometimes it keeps the good ones out, sometimes it let's bum's in.

The test is like the old joke. How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Practice, practice, practice.

Same thing here.

Bottom line is, there is no trick to passing the exam. Either you can or you can't. If you can't it really doesn't matter how much you know (or think you know) or how well (or poorly) you will perform as an agent.

If you can't pass the test, you will not be an agent. Maybe someone is trying to tell you this is not where you need to be.

[Slick]

somarco, you are still confusing professionalism and ethics. These links should help clear up your confusion.
professionalism
ethics

Slick, you (and others) have a lot to learn about our business. If you stick around long enough, you may be blessed to see some of the truly great ones work their magic.

A very presumptuous statement, are you referring to professionalism or ethics?
Magic only exists for entertainment and has no place in insurance.

[LaffAgent]

Originally Posted by somarco

Would you let someone who could not pass a drivers test get on the road? Would you want a doctor who could not pass the licensing exam treat you?

The test is a gatekeeper. Sometimes it keeps the good ones out, sometimes it let's bum's in.

I agree wholeheartedly. My point was that someone should not be deterred from pursuing this career because they are having a hard time passing the test. With study and practice, you can learn what you need to know to pass the test. The same goes for the practical information you need in order to be an insurance professional, some people learn it faster than others, but most anyone can learn it if they put in the effort.

However, there is something genetic about being a salesperson and, in the end, that is what we are. You've either got it, or you don't (my opinion). Give me a successful car salesman or Avon Rep. or real estate agent or whatever kind of sales person, and they can be taught the fundamentals of insurance and they will succeed.

However, give me a great test taker or photographic reader or mensa member who can learn the fundamentals of insurance in a couple of days but doesn't have the genetic skills of a salesman, and he won't make it. You simply can't teach that to somebody who doesn't have the gene.

[somarco]

someone should not be deterred from pursuing this career because they are having a hard time passing the test

The only deterrent is the DOI.

Until you convince the DOI you are capable of passing their exam, you will not be permitted to play the game.

there is something genetic about being a salesperson

Yes, and no.

Some folks have a natural talent for sales, or acting, or playing sports. Others have to cultivate something that may not be so obvious.

Even "natural born" sales people can still learn and hone their skills.

Give me a successful car salesman or Avon Rep. or real estate agent or whatever kind of sales person, and they can be taught the fundamentals of insurance and they will succeed.

Yes, and no.

Selling an intangible is much different from tangible sales. This is especially so in discussing the life insurance sale. One who purchases life insurance is motivated by a need to take care of those left behind. There is something totally unselfish about buying life insurance.

Buying a car, or cosmetics is more about ego and different buttons must be pushed in selling cars over insurance.

Most tangibles are wants, not needs. You may need a car but will a $15,000 car get you where you need to go as well as a $150,000 car?

When you buy insurance it is usually because you realize a need to protect your assets. This is usually not ego driven.

[healthagent]

I think it's much easier to sell insurance products over tangible items:

1) There's no negotiation on price. Clients understand that the rates are firm. Most products sold by commissions salespeople are negotiable leading the client to want to shop many places. Cars are a perfect example where 3 dealerships all have three different prices for the same car.

2) Most salepeople selling something tangible are captive. Using cars again, you cannot work for Ford, Chevy and Toyota at the same time. When you're independent you can represent every company in the market and clients can just stick with you - much like a real estate agent. Imagine if a car salesman could take a client to a Toyota lot, then Ford then BMW.

3) In an overwhemling majority of sales professions your client has to credit qualify for the product - from car sales to home improvement. I'll take health qualification over credit any day of the week. People's credit is absolutely trashed. People with fantastic credit are savvy shoppers and rarely do you make a dime off them. No so in insurance where my commission is fixed.

4) Unlike "luxury" items most people believe insurance is something they simply must have.

And like tangible products, you're simply looking to take enough clients so you find people who have interest and qualify.

[LaffAgent]

The difference between selling tangible and intangible products is no greater than the difference between selling life and selling p & c. (I'm a life guy, by the way)

Sure the technicalities are different, but the root skill is the same. Think about it this way: You can be the most knowledgable person in the world about human anatomy. You can have watched a thousand operations. But if you don't have a steady hand, you can't be a surgeon. Maybe ...MAYBE... you can practice and make your hand slightly more steady, but if you're a shaker you're a shaker and you're never gonna be a surgeon.

If you don't have the sales gene, you don't have it.

[senior-advisor-indiana]

If you don't have the sales gene, you don't have it

I don't believe that at all. Insurance is a numbers game and people buy from people with different personalities. A prospect might not buy from a obnoxious bullshitter but buy the same product from a shy guy. I think you just hahve to be a likeable person that knows the product. People like diffferent people.

[CHRISTINASPARKS]

try www.license2go.com i studied off of it and i passed my first time. good luck

[LaffAgent]

Originally Posted by senior-advisor-indiana

I don't believe that at all. Insurance is a numbers game and people buy from people with different personalities. A prospect might not buy from a obnoxious bullshitter but buy the same product from a shy guy. I think you just hahve to be a likeable person that knows the product. People like diffferent people.

I couldn't agree more. However, I think by definition an obnoxious bullshitter lacks the sales gene.