Am I the Catch I Think I Am?

[insurance1822]

1,000 names to call through is nothing. Back in my captive days my telemarketer would burn through 1,500 names in a week. I had a mortgage guy say the same thing (his magic number was 1,500 past clients.) He was so gung hoe how much business he would write & he fizzled out in a month.

I wouldn't put too much weight on those clients. You'll have a better converstion ratio for quotes compared to cold lists, but still nothing of real substance.

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Being new to P&C myself, I can only guess. Although, I know what Todd proposed definitely seems too rich.

Ins1822 raises perfectly good points as well. I think ultimately it depends on how long the arrangement continues.

Wait you got into P&C? What's up w/ that?

 

[VolAgent]

1,000 names to call through is nothing. Back in my captive days my telemarketer would burn through 1,500 names in a week. I had a mortgage guy say the same thing (his magic number was 1,500 past clients.) He was so gung hoe how much business he would write & he fizzled out in a month.

I wouldn't put too much weight on those clients. You'll have a better converstion ratio for quotes compared to cold lists, but still nothing of real substance.

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Wait you got into P&C? What's up w/ that?

Decided to do it. I sent you a PM some time ago, I was going to ask you about SIAA.

 

[Alston]

This is eye opening. Thanks for all your input.

I think that I can make a deal with an agency that was founded when Coolidge was president. The third generation wants to be more aggressive now and stop resting on their laurels.

(The agency head is a friend from my church and until a few days ago I forgot that she was even in the insurance business. She just called me back today and sounded very positive about working with me.)

She and thinks that my programming and marketing skills could help them. I think I will become their de facto CTO (Chief Technology Officer) and SEO guy in exchange for a sweeter deal.

Helping someone else grow their business should be fun.

I don't have a signed deal yet, so I would appreciate more input. I want to know what the market would offer me (without my other skill sets) whether or not we do decide to work together.

If we are to reach an agreement I want it to be fair. I don't want to take advantage of a friend by taking a deal I don't deserve.

Thanks again for all your input.

 

[Gulfman]

1,000 names to call through is nothing. Back in my captive days my telemarketer would burn through 1,500 names in a week. I had a mortgage guy say the same thing (his magic number was 1,500 past clients.) He was so gung hoe how much business he would write & he fizzled out in a month.

Huh...

• 
  former mtg.broker/agent had 1500 names in his data-base and couldn't make it???

?

 

[indienoise]

This is eye opening. Thanks for all your input.

I think that I can make a deal with an agency that was founded when Coolidge was president. The third generation wants to be more aggressive now and stop resting on their laurels.

(The agency head is a friend from my church and until a few days ago I forgot that she was even in the insurance business. She just called me back today and sounded very positive about working with me.)

She and thinks that my programming and marketing skills could help them. I think I will become their de facto CTO (Chief Technology Officer) and SEO guy in exchange for a sweeter deal.

Helping someone else grow their business should be fun.

I don't have a signed deal yet, so I would appreciate more input. I want to know what the market would offer me (without my other skill sets) whether or not we do decide to work together.

If we are to reach an agreement I want it to be fair. I don't want to take advantage of a friend by taking a deal I don't deserve.

Thanks again for all your input.

Good move, imo. An agency that old typically has all the appointments the newer agencies still can't get. You're likely to once again be in a position of not will you make the sale, but which carrier?

 

[KenP]

I'm a servicer/producer at an independent P&C agency that has a few guys that do exactly what you're talking about.

My agency lets them write under our appointments and strategic alliance networks. They get a spot in the office, bu no salary (naturally), just split commissions down the middle.

The biggest difference is our office didn't and doesn't have to train them on anything, they already knew the business. They basically just get the office space and ability to write under our office and otherwise do their own thing.

So with that, if you've got a personal relationship that is willing to show you some of the ropes and then offer similar benefits to you, take that and kill it. It might be messy trying to find an agency cold that would be willing to take that on.

 

[Alston]

Like I said, this is a real eye opener. I'm so confident that I can write 300 cases this year that I thought that a lot of doors would be open to me.

I know how to market. I have 30,000 valid email addresses on my email list. 3,000 current and former clients on my mailing list. At least 1,000 have spoken with me in the last year.

And I know how to sell health insurance. Life insurance and P&C are different animals, but I think selling health insurance is similar to selling P&C. (But maybe I'm wrong.)

I need to be trained, but I have my own home office. I even have the 1 800 insurance number for the state.

I'm way too motivated to replace my income to fail even if I were a newbie with fewer resources.

This time I just needed to make one sale.

The agency head believes in me and so do I. That's all I need.

I'm going to learn some new stuff and have a great 2017 (and use my marketing experience to help her do the same).

 

[KenP]

Like I said, this is a real eye opener. I'm so confident that I can write 300 cases this year that I thought that a lot of doors would be open to me.

I know how to market. I have 30,000 valid email addresses on my email list. 3,000 current and former clients on my mailing list. At least 1,000 have spoken with me in the last year.

And I know how to sell health insurance. Life insurance and P&C are different animals, but I think selling health insurance is similar to selling P&C. (But maybe I'm wrong.)

I need to be trained, but I have my own home office. I even have the 1 800 insurance number for the state.

I'm way too motivated to replace my income to fail even if I were a newbie with fewer resources.

This time I just needed to make one sale.

The agency head believes in me and so do I. That's all I need.

I'm going to learn some new stuff and have a great 2017 (and use my marketing experience to help her do the same).

I'm the inverse, don't know squat about health, but P&C is my wheelhouse. I can say that P&C is usually takeaway, so if you're independent and you can be competitive on price, a lot of the work is done for you. Saving people money for the same or better coverage is a pretty easy sell

 

[Alston]

I'm the inverse, don't know squat about health, but P&C is my wheelhouse. I can say that P&C is usually takeaway, so if you're independent and you can be competitive on price, a lot of the work is done for you. Saving people money for the same or better coverage is a pretty easy sell

I sold P&C a very long time ago (1980s) but I think health is a similar sale aside from the underwriting. People walk in the door on their own (sort of - they have done a search online) and will probably buy something from somebody although it may not be from me. With other products like life or DI, we need to pull them into the door and they may or may not buy anything from anybody.

The other difference is that health is a much more complicated product. Even if it is technically as less complex, since it is a lot less standardized we have to make a lot more apples to oranges comparisons.

But once a client understands their choices, at the end of the day price drives the sale more often than not.

 

[KenP]

I sold P&C a very long time ago (1980s) but I think health is a similar sale aside from the underwriting. People walk in the door on their own (sort of - they have done a search online) and will probably buy something from somebody although it may not be from me. With other products like life or DI, we need to pull them into the door and they may or may not buy anything from anybody.

The other difference is that health is a much more complicated product. Even if it is technically as less complex, since it is a lot less standardized we have to make a lot more apples to oranges comparisons.

But once a client understands their choices, at the end of the day price drives the sale more often than not.

Not sure how it was in your P&C days, but as you get back into it you'll find that auto policies are very, very well standardized. You can make very confident, clear apples-to-apples comparisons and it makes things easier for you and simpler for the client to have faith in that they're getting the same coverage. Best of luck!