New Agent From GA needs to hit the ground running

fiveandfive · 08-12-2008, 03:20 PM

Hello,

I am a newly licensed L&H agent here in Georgia. I have been a CFO/COO for the last 18 years and have found myself suddenly out of a job.

I am considering focusing initially on selling life insurance (mainly term - via phone) from self-generated contact center leads. I am also looking into the possibility of doing the same for individual health insurance.

For the life insurance, I am planning to contract with West Coast Life, RBC, Guarantee Trust Life, HSBC. For the individual health insurance market, I am considering United Healthcare/Goldenrule.

If anyone has any experience or advice they would like to share with me concerning these companies or my proposed plan, I would be appreciative.

I have been reading this forum for the past several months and have received a great deal of useful information.

Thanks again.

"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."

TheSalesWolf · 08-13-2008, 11:08 AM

Just curious how did you chose only those carriers?

Life Insurance you will definitely want AIG.

Health Insurance you want to get appointed through many carriers - IN GA you will want Aetna, Humana, Assurant, Golden Rule and BCBS.

somarco · 08-13-2008, 11:26 AM

Suggest you find a good MGA for life. Agency Services in Memphis is good and provides access to many carriers.

Selling life over the phone is tough. Heck, selling anything over the phone is tough but life even more so. There are folks out there who claim to have a "system" for lead generation and selling by phone but most of them are simply out to pick your pocket.

There are also guys here who do it and will freely share if you ask. Ned (Bluemarlin) comes to mind as one who has been successful selling life by phone.

Life insurance is mostly about the rate (initially) and underwriting. What may be preferred with one carrier may be standard with another and super preferred with an even different one. You can only go so far on pre-screen for life. Many times the final offer is dependent on what happens with the lab work.

Unless you are very good, or lucky, or both, you will have to sell and re-sell the life policy again once the underwriters do their deed.

Health insurance is a bit more predictable . . . if you do your homework. Fewer surprises (at least that has been my experience), but you must know exactly what to look for and how to pre-sell the final offer.

Otherwise you will lose out.

BX doesn't contract rookie agents in GA. They want you to be liscensed for a year (or maybe 2). Doesn't matter that much since they have almost nothing worth offering in GA right now even with the new product lines.

Time (AKA Assurant) is also pretty much out of the market.

Depending on where you are in GA, the more competitive carriers now are Humana and Golden Rule. Coventry is also competitive out of the box but their underwriting will kill a lot of deals and they don't pre-screen. Their customer service is among the worst I have seen anywhere.

KP is good in Atlanta, but it has to be a fit.

Aetna also has area's where they are strong, mostly in the HSA. Their copay plans leave much to be desired.

There are some second tier carriers like World, Celtic and GTL that are not worth looking at unless you have a lot of time on your hands.

myinsurebiz · 08-13-2008, 01:41 PM

Nice post Bob.

Except - selling life via phone / net is actually easy with the right lead generation program. We do nothing but healthy people with one carrier non-med and with another carrier - we can write an easy issue term w/rop or whole life that isn't the most competitive - but is non-med and quick as well.

If you target the right data - writing the 5' 2" 285 pound smoker is easy and they have been told they can't get it elsewhere - so it's a slam dunk.

For the healthy ones - it's all about price and closing the deal. It's easy on the phone / net and with fewer expenses.

It's all about the leads.

Health? Well - it's more difficult than life - but not impossible. Just depends on the shopper. We only do healthy young people and small group. Clients with problems we run upline and take a share in the commission.

I'd rather sell Life anyday over Health - but, our agents need both to be competitive and stay busy.

Just got a call today from an FMO that has Med Supps that are sold over the phone - no paper. Even better - the agent 3 ways the client in with the carrier and the carrier does the app, gets the bank info and basically handles it all but the close. But - I can't stand marketing to old people and most of them have health problems to boot . . .

I'm never ever using a paper app or visiting a home again - never . . .

Tom

fiveandfive · 08-14-2008, 04:57 PM

I chose those carriers because I thought (and maybe incorrectly)that they were more condusive to over-the-phone sales.

I appreciate the advice on the other carrier recomendations.

fiveandfive · 08-14-2008, 05:43 PM

Do you have any advice on leads providers? I have researched literally dozens of companies (many based on posts I've read here).

Some of the ones that I have looked into include: leads4agents, asap quotes, prospect zone, benepath, producer pipeline, leadco, etc. I have also, looked into to live transfer programs that offer leads for less than $5/pop.

Any advice from past experiences would appreciated.

Invain15 · 08-14-2008, 10:55 PM

Shoot me an email. I hate writing novels on these forums.

somarco · 08-15-2008, 07:49 AM

leads4agents, asap quotes, prospect zone, benepath, producer pipeline, leadco, etc. I have also, looked into to live transfer programs that offer leads for less than $5/pop.

Of the ones listed I would cross off PZ. You can do a search for lead info on this site.

I have had experience with all of those except Leads4agents and ASAP.

$5 for live transfer leads? Something smells.

Call me if you want to talk further.

dmiller90 · 08-15-2008, 08:01 AM

Originally Posted by somarco

Of the ones listed I would cross off PZ. You can do a search for lead info on this site.

I have had experience with all of those except Leads4agents and ASAP.

$5 for live transfer leads? Something smells.

Call me if you want to talk further.

Exclusive Asap Leads, No Affiliate--Night and Day on Quality of clients--just stay away from affiliate lead sources. Every lead vendor you have mentioned above, except for Benepath/ASAP/Leads4Agents---use affiliate vendors--horrible quality compared to non-affiliate.

Two Very Important points on the Top Three--Two do not provide instant quotes, (Which is a good thing) and both require more information to be submitted.

asapquotes · 08-15-2008, 09:02 AM

Thank you so much for the kind words. We try really hard to get our agents good leads. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me. Carla Weaver 866-456-0905 or email: cweaver@asapquotes.com