Insurance Agent Forum

[squeed]

I spoke to a 25 year veteran at an IMO today that I was introduced to via a friend. So the conversation was "off the record" so not what you might typically expect when talking to an IMO.

He told me that if 10 people start from scratch as Indy's 1 might survive the year in the business. And that it's likely that the 1 was a former captive that was trained.

Basically saying that if you start from scratch as an Indy, and you aren't in the insurance business, it's beyond hard, it's impossible to succeed.

Thoughts on this opinion ?

-S

[healthagent]

Yes, very high failure rate. I'm not exactly sure it just pertains to insurance. 3 out of 4 restaurants don't make it past 3 years.

I think the failure rate has a few factors regardless of the business you're starting:

1) Going in undercapitalized
2) Inability to motivate yourself
3) Not doing what you love

[djs]

Hmmm, honesty is sometimes hard to swallow.

A few observations:
1 might succeed with that IMO, not clear that another one won't switch and succeed elsewhere.

On ANY career with minimal barrier to entry, an 80-90% failure rate is probably realistic. Let's be honest, how many Mary Kay sales associates make it into their second year? And their barrier to entry is slightly higher than insurance.....

I wonder if the captive thing is really because of training or if it's because of realistic expectations? I remember years ago MEGA promising me an easy $100K a year income. It took me about 2 seconds to realize that there was nothing behind that promise....

Being self-employed requires more self-discipline than most people have. It's to easy to get caught up in the 'I'll do it tomorrow' mentality.

My guess is that only about 20-30% of ANY small business makes it past a year. I don't know what the current statistics are, but I do know it's pretty low. Probably really low right now.

Bottom line: The stats are probably a bit better if you isolate some areas of insurance. For instance, captive P&C agents probably have a higher percentage of success since the screening is a bit more intense and the carrier prefers people to not fail. Companies like Aflac will go through people who want a chance and hope something sticks to the wall.

This is a business that you can make out of it what you want. Most people don't want to work.....

Dan

[al3]

Originally Posted by squeed

Basically saying that if you start from scratch as an Indy, and you aren't in the insurance business, it's beyond hard, it's impossible to succeed.

Thoughts on this opinion ?

-S

I would slightly amend your analysis and say that if you have never had any sales and prospecting training or experience you will fail in this business. I think just about any "thing" or any service on the planet is easier to sell than insurance. Coming into this industry with no experience selling the "easy" stuff, and being successful is going to be hard as hell. It's not impossible, of course, but damn hard... which is why the attrition rate is what it is.

Al

[Frank Stastny]

Originally Posted by squeed

I spoke to a 25 year veteran at an IMO today that I was introduced to via a friend. So the conversation was "off the record" so not what you might typically expect when talking to an IMO.

He told me that if 10 people start from scratch as Indy's 1 might survive the year in the business. And that it's likely that the 1 was a former captive that was trained.

Basically saying that if you start from scratch as an Indy, and you aren't in the insurance business, it's beyond hard, it's impossible to succeed.

Thoughts on this opinion ?

-S

I'm an "IMO" as well as an agent with 16 years experience in the Med Supp market. I'll answer any questions you have, "on the record" and I won't even have to shoot you after I tell you.

Maybe 10 our of 100 but even that is somewhat questionable especially if you are talking about successful agents as opposed to those who are "just holding on". It doesn't matter if they are captive or independent.

I know a lot of agents who started independent and with proper training and support have become very successful.

There are a lot of agents who start captive because of promises of training and support and it never happens.

[Markingriffin]

The agents that don't make it want someone to blame for them not working hard or putting everything into this.

Most new agents refuse to read the underwriting guide, agent guide, or even do their own quotes.

A lot of people should have not become insurance agents to start with. They didn't become an agent for the right reason.

This is not a get rich fast business. This is a lot of hard work.

WOrking for yourself is hard, but it can be done. How bad do you want it?

Most of the new agents that fail, have things in common. Like they don't go out and try and find people orthey want someone else to do all their work for them.