Originally Posted by texaslady
Hi guys,
I am brand new into the insurance business, I haven't even written a policy yet! I joined NAA (I know, I know, but I didn't know any better), and after reading tons of posts, I am looking for something better. I would like to sell term products as well as universal products and annuities, but I would also like to sell health over the internet. I was recommended UandIWIN, and I even called and spoke to a representative. I was told to stay with NAA and get some experience before I decide to do anything else. After reading some posts about NAA, I really want to find something else fast! I am afraid if I don't get out now, I won't get a "release" for a while. I have awesome sales skills, and I'm confident that I will succeed in the right atmosphere. The problem I have with NAA is that I don't feel like I'm doing the "right" thing for the client sometimes. I get the feeling that I'm ripping people off, that's why I haven't written any business! I think insurance should be about helping people, and I don't like the "one product fits all" mentality of NAA. Does anybody have any suggestions of where I should go? Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Unlike most of the folks that post here, my NAA experience was not an unfavorable one. I first got into insurance a little over 4 years ago due to budget cuts at my long tme employer. I first got with American General and was supposed to get trained by them. Their training consisted of helping me get my license. No product training and, more importantly, no leads. They were paying me a salary during my "training", but, once I was licensed, I was to go out selling their products, which I knew nothing about, to prospects that I had to find on my own.
I did stay long enough to get licensed in case I might need it in a future endeavor. I was done with insurance, so I thought. While looking for a job, I found an ad for NAA. They promised leads and a system. I really didn't want to do it, but, I inquired and just happened to get with one of the better NAA managers. I was so skeptical that he gave me free leads to show they worked. He started me at a 65% contract instead of 55%. Why, I don't know, I was green as a gourd.
I followed the "Hudgen's System" to the letter. I did the "tie down", the "I love you" and the "think about it". I listened to all the audio tapes. I attended the boot camp for new agents. It worked great for me. I did $12,000 ap in my first month and it was all issued. I never did less than $12,000 ap after that first month. I worked my way to a 70%, then 75% and finally to an 80% contract. After that first month, I started buying 5 leads a week. and did that thru the end of '04. Starting in '05, I went to 10 leads per week.
After a few months I had tweaked the Hudgen's system more to my style. For the year of 2005, my first full year in insurance, I did $257,000 ap and was a top 15 NAA agent. This was on 10 leads per week. I was never in it to build a team and I wasn't into the rah-rah meetings. Those 2 things starting afffecting my getting leads in the middle of '06. I still did over $200,000 ap on '06, but, the leads were getting more scarce and they were preferencing the agents that did buy into the rah-rah and were building teams.
I got into doing
MA's in the fall of '06 and added final expense in '07.
One of the guys that got me into doing
MA's was another NAA agent. He says that NAA was the worst experience of his insurance career. I wouldn't do now what I did then because I know better now. I didn't know then that a 65% contract was bad. Hell, I didn't even know that my 80% was bad. I always wrote what I felt was best for the client. I did a lot of fully underwritten policies and was never called on the carpet for it. I preferred Shenandoah over OM/F&G and Foresters once they got them. Most of my business in '06 was with Shenandoah. That caused a problem near the end of '06 when they told me to stop writing so much Shenandoah.
For me, it was a great learning experience. I still send an occasional app thru NAA. I did a Homecertain 2 weeks ago. The reason was because he was an underground coal miner and chews tobacco. He could get standard with Homecertain and that was less costly for him than any underwritten policy I could find. I did a Foresters last week on a 74 year old lady that wanted $100,000 coverage and didn't want to pay for permanent coverage. Forester's 10 year term fit her budget for the coverage she wanted.
As I said, I got with one of the better
GA's. He has a fulltime agent trainer on his staff. There were some of the ones that I met later and had I got signed up with them, I wouldn't have made it. That Fritz or Fitz or something like that in Texas is one that comes to mind. I could not work for that guy. However, he was at a meeting in Lousiville, Ky in '06 and he said that "any new agent that was willing to sign up with him and work a 40 hour week and do exactly as he said for that 40 hours per week, he would guarantee that they would make $100,000 their first year or he would pay it himself". He said he had no takers. If I had been a new agent, I would found out if he was bluffing or not. Still, I doubt I could have stood to be around him full time.
I wouldn't trade my experience with NAA for anything. But, I wouldn't go back to working for them fulltime or buy their leads again, either.
Newbie looking for IMO help!
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