Re: Ninety-Two Percent of All Agents Fail - Why?Go to Top
Well that's the problem - too many people look at the exception instead of the rule. That's why people are going with what they know and what they love and instead are buying "get rich quick" schemes on 1am infomercials.
I will admit I got into health insurance for the money but found very quickly that I truly enjoyed selling it.
Re: Ninety-Two Percent of All Agents Fail - Why?Go to Top
My Dad always says:
"Worry about taking care of the customer and you'll never have to worry about the money, it takes care of itself!"
Originally Posted by healthagent
Well that's the problem - too many people look at the exception instead of the rule. That's why people are going with what they know and what they love and instead are buying "get rich quick" schemes on 1am infomercials.
I will admit I got into health insurance for the money but found very quickly that I truly enjoyed selling it.
Re: Ninety-Two Percent of All Agents Fail - Why?Go to Top
My personal production and sales management experience is restricted to life insurance sales only. These comments are meant to pertain to life insurance. Any relevance to any other form of insurance sales may or may not exist.
The reasons so many life insurance agents fail can be grouped into two categories, the life insurance industry itself and the agent in particular.
The life insurance industry is comprised of hundreds of thousands of life insurance agents, working for hundreds of insurance companies, offering essentially the same thing. Look at the yellow pages, look at the mail box of those who just closed on a home mortgage and look at the mail box of people reaching a certain age.
The problem is finding someone to sell to. This is especially true in the life insurance industry where the product is almost always sold rather than bought.
Even when a marketing plan (direct mail, phone solicitation, and/or purchased leads, etc) actually provides a solution to the problem of finding someone to sell to, the limitations and shortcomings of the individual agent come into play.
There are many similar characteristics among that group of agents who fail. There is also a very common characteristic among those agents who succeed and that characteristic is what to focus on. The successful agents discovered what desire existed when the prospect responded to the marketing plan and satisfied that desire.
The problem is that most agents try to sell what the prospect needs and not what they want. People very rarely buy motivated by logic and almost always buy motivated by emotions. This is evidenced by the homes we live in, the cars we drive and the clothes we wear.
LIMRA statistics show that only about 61% of adults have any life insurance and about 50% of those that do only have a group policy where they work. These levels are below where they were before the Trade Towers fell.
In a family of four, the need (logic) for life insurance seldom takes precedence in the family’s budget over the desire (emotion) for cable television and/or high speed interenet.
High commission contracts, competitive pricing and superior training actually only give the life insurance agent a “tool box”. A marketing program that produces interested prospects only produces “leads”. The agent who can focus the prospect on the emotion that triggered the response will result in a family being protected which is the win-win result that produces success.
Re: Ninety-Two Percent of All Agents Fail - Why?Go to Top
Great post and I'd like to add this as it confirms the piece of your text below.
People want two things when they make a purchase:
1. Expert service
2. Value
So the service part of it will set you apart from the other agents, be an expert!
And learn to build value in what you offer.
Originally Posted by agentexhorter
The life insurance industry is comprised of hundreds of thousands of life insurance agents, working for hundreds of insurance companies, offering essentially the same thing. Look at the yellow pages, look at the mail box of those who just closed on a home mortgage and look at the mail box of people reaching a certain age.
Re: Ninety-Two Percent of All Agents Fail - Why?Go to Top
LIMRA statistics show that only about 61% of adults have any life insurance and about 50% of those that do only have a group policy where they work. These levels are below where they were before the Trade Towers fell.
Interesting statistic. I wonder if people figure that the government will take care of them if something happens? Or if there is no connection?
Between donations and the government payment to the families, most of these families 'did okay' financially from this event. I don't want to imply that they took advantage of anything, just curious if it had an impact on the mindset of Americans.
Re: Ninety-Two Percent of All Agents Fail - Why?Go to Top
"In a family of four, the need (logic) for life insurance seldom takes precedence in the family’s budget over the desire (emotion) for cable television and/or high speed interenet."
And there you have the conundrum. Fantastic post by the way, should be required reading.
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[COLOR=blue]Don't steal - the government hates competition.[/COLOR]
Re: Ninety-Two Percent of All Agents Fail - Why?Go to Top
[COLOR=black]AgentExhorter wrote, in part:[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]“The problem is that most agents try to sell what the prospect needs and not what they want. People very rarely buy motivated by logic and almost always buy motivated by emotions. This is evidenced by the homes we live in, the cars we drive and the clothes we wear.”[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]As in the rest of his post, he is entirely correct. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]So, if people only buy what they want, why do almost all agents spend their time and resources with prospects who are merely “interested?” Oops, that is a Rhetorical question. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Here are reasons that I think most agents do that.[/COLOR]
They don’t believe there really are prospects who already want to buy insurance.
They only know how to cold-call, direct market, and network, to find “interested” prospects.
They don’t know how to find and make appointments with “High Probability Prospects.”
Re: Ninety-Two Percent of All Agents Fail - Why?Go to Top
Originally Posted by robliano
There are many who disqualify clients instead of qualifying them.
Very often a consumer is a potential client but are passed by, during a disqualification process.
I'm with you on that one, but fortunately, most agents will let them slip by, and that's where we come in.
I probably wouldn't be alive today, if it weren't for my willingness to qualify new clients for something.
There are little things that you can do to make $$ instead of running away from it. I picked up two non resident state appts. last year, not because I wanted to, but because I have referrals in those states that wanted to do biz with me.
One of the appts. resulted in $3k in commission and the other $2.5K. Not a fortune, but why walk away from it. You can't make any money being a lazy jerk in this biz.
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No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition.
Re: Ninety-Two Percent of All Agents Fail - Why?Go to Top
There are a lot of good reasons to attempt to disqualify all prospects.
The simplest, and one of the most important reasons, is that high probability prospects will not allow themselves to be disqualified. Therefore, you spend almost all of your selling time with prospects who will buy.
Re: Ninety-Two Percent of All Agents Fail - Why?Go to Top
Jacques, I thought that "High Probability Selling" is most successfully used with cold calling, not with $7 a pop internet leads.
Am I right?
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Mark
"Corner Bar"---Independent Agent Anthem
My credit score's fallen like the New York Mets
There ain't a debt collector that ain't called yet
They say, "Money don't talk, it only swears"
And got me cussing in my underwear
Re: Ninety-Two Percent of All Agents Fail - Why?Go to Top
I read somewhere that High Probability Selling by cold calling in insurance doesn't create good numbers. Has anyone used this method and been successful?
Re: Ninety-Two Percent of All Agents Fail - Why?Go to Top
Originally Posted by JacquesWerth
Here are a few reasons that most agents fail. Feel free to add your own.
Many agents think that they really are agents. Look up the legal definition of "agent." Then realize you are a “salesperson.” The only thing that you get paid to do is to sell.
The way that most insurance companies and their agencies teach agents to sell benefits the companies and their managers far more than it benefits the agents.
You frequently hear about top producers who earn huge commissions. What you are not told is that, with the exception of managers, the average gross earnings of all agents is about $45,000 per year. So, after struggling for four or five years it is unlikely that most agents that survive will be highly successful.
You also are not told that most really successful agents have spent their own money on excellent sales training and have years of sales experience.
Most agents who fail never learn a complete, modern sales process. So they get stuck doing ineffective things like cold-calling, need analyses, showing prospects their pain, preparing proposals, persuading, and convincing. All that, while trying to get poorly qualified prospects to buy.
By the time most agents realize that they need sales training, they have no ability to pay for it.
Re: Ninety-Two Percent of All Agents Fail - Why?
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