Insurance Agent Forum

[Dave]

New to the insurance business, actually am going to take my second L&H test shortly. If you guys had a choice wuld you sell life over the internet or supplemental to businesses?

Who enjoys the better profit margin?

[djs]

My choice:
None of the above.

Sell a mainstream product, like health insurance, it's easier to make a decent living at, unless you are in California, then have fun with supplementals to businesses

Dan

P.S. There is no real answer to this question. It's a matter of personal choice and what you are comfortable with. You have to come across as an expert, somebody a person should trust with their business. What you sell should match you, something that is hard for someone to tell you over the forum. That said, selling life via the internet has to be a tough way to make a living!

[salpro22]

Originally Posted by djs

My choice:
None of the above.

Sell a mainstream product, like health insurance, it's easier to make a decent living at, unless you are in California, then have fun with supplementals to businesses

Dan

P.S. There is no real answer to this question. It's a matter of personal choice and what you are comfortable with. You have to come across as an expert, somebody a person should trust with their business. What you sell should match you, something that is hard for someone to tell you over the forum. That said, selling life via the internet has to be a tough way to make a living!

Agreed. One thing you have to keep in mind that experience will tell you after some time is whether you want to be the infamous underwear agent or an office agent, which by my estimates are far and few between. Working at home sounds great until you actually do it! Personally, I've done it for 2+ years and will be getting an office this year as I'm fed up with working out of my house and aim to go in a different direction.

I'd stick with health to start and have a back up in case California decides to make all the plans GI issues and 99% of agents get into another field or quit.

Welcome to the board.

[Agent Jeff]

Originally Posted by djs

My choice:
None of the above.

Sell a mainstream product, like health insurance, it's easier to make a decent living at, unless you are in California, then have fun with supplementals to businesses

Dan, are you saying that it's harder to sell health insurance in CA than in other states, or rather that it is easier to sell supplemental life than in other states, or or rather that it is just relatively easier to sell supplemental life ins than health in CA?

[James]

[COLOR=darkred]Sell a mainstream product, like health insurance, it's easier to make a decent living at, unless you are in California, then have fun with supplementals to businesses[/COLOR]

Sell a mainstream product like Health? What Life or DI are not mainstream products? Geepers, have I fallen into the twighlight zone or what!

I would suggest going to businesses but, instead of concentrating on Supplemental products you also offer Life and DI, as in the owners and well compensated employees and also supplementals to fill in gaps and for lower wage employees.

[Amber Scherloz]

Life would be fine with me but it just needs a little push. Then maybe give a little sideline on the supplemental products.

[Markingriffin]

Why not sell life face to face?

[Full Throttle]

Why not sell life face to face?

How many reasons do you want?

Gas
Need to dress professionally
People say no
Not a "people person"
Need to stand up and get out of chair

In all seriousness, I would think selling life online would be extremely tough. It's not that you couldn't make sales, you're just putting in the sweat equity for not much reward:

1. You're probably selling term with little to no renewals.
2. Viewed as transactional, not all bad, but a tough way to make a living without renewals.
3. Term insurance only in general is difficult way to make a decent living unless you're doing HUGE volume.
4. The "renewals" for a life insurance agent are term conversions down the road, this will likely be slim to none when selling online.
5. Developing a relationship will be more difficult. With health, you have a reason to call every year to shop their options, not so much with life insurance. This will hamper cross selling and repeat sales.

To succeed selling online in spite of all the negatives above, you would have to be doing substantial volume, especially if buying internet leads. The big producers in life insurance aren't selling online, I can tell you that much.