Are You Solo or Do You Have Agents Working for You?

PANewbie · 10-13-2009, 12:38 AM

Hi All,

Thought it would be nice to know how many of you life salesmen have agents working for you, if so how many and is it worth looking into bringing a few good ones on. Do you 1099 them or hire them? In a 1099 scenario, is a 70-30 split good if I'm supplying an office and weekly leads?

Thanks,
Gary

Bob_The_Insurance_Guy · 10-13-2009, 12:39 AM

I fly solo. No copilot or stewardess.

CHUMPS FROM OXFORD · 10-13-2009, 01:00 AM

Same here.

WinoBlues · 10-13-2009, 01:07 AM

I mostly play with myself.

MedicarePlanSolutions · 10-13-2009, 03:39 AM

Originally Posted by PANewbie

Hi All,

Thought it would be nice to know how many of you life salesmen have agents working for you, if so how many and is it worth looking into bringing a few good ones on. Do you 1099 them or hire them? In a 1099 scenario, is a 70-30 split good if I'm supplying an office and weekly leads?

Thanks,
Gary

Most good to excellent life producers aren't cut out to run an agency. The skills it takes to be successful meeting with prospects and writing premium are all helpful for a sales manager, but being a sales manager requires another entire set of tools that most producers aren't familiar enough with to be successful. Don't mistake my statement to mean that I believe that no sales producer can recruit a couple of agents, train them to sell, give them leads and make a few bucks on overrides, but just because an agent is successful at producing doesn't mean it's in their best interest to get in the middle of hiring on more agents. More often than not, solid producers end up sacrificing some of their personal production to manage an agent or a handful of agents that will never replace that production in overrides. Unless you have experience recruiting and training agents and have the time an patience to manage that you're probably better off just doing your own thing.

TristanTLC · 10-13-2009, 03:46 AM

Originally Posted by MedicarePlanSolutions

Most good to excellent life producers aren't cut out to run an agency. The skills it takes to be successful meeting with prospects and writing premium are all helpful for a sales manager, but being a sales manager requires another entire set of tools that most producers aren't familiar enough with to be successful. Don't mistake my statement to mean that I believe that no sales producer can recruit a couple of agents, train them to sell, give them leads and make a few bucks on overrides, but just because an agent is successful at producing doesn't mean it's in their best interest to get in the middle of hiring on more agents. More often than not, solid producers end up sacrificing some of their personal production to manage an agent or a handful of agents that will never replace that production in overrides. Unless you have experience recruiting and training agents and have the time an patience to manage that you're probably better off just doing your own thing.

Yeah! What that guy said.

somarco · 10-13-2009, 03:54 AM

Those who can, sell. Those who can't, recruit.

Thatguy · 10-13-2009, 06:54 AM

I personally think that having agents produce under you is a great idea..... in theory. In practice, it's a little harder than one lets on. In theory, you can leverage your time and earn a small percent off of a large number of people, which works great. In practice, you have to train 10 agents to get 1 that will produce then by the time you have about 10 good producers, you've gone through 100 agents and have spent the effort to train them all. Then your 10 producers start to get wise and leave your team to go independent that the process continues with you having to train more producers. So you're spinning your wheels trying to train them, but it's hard to keep them unless you can offer them something that will keep them around.

MedicarePlanSolutions · 10-13-2009, 07:52 AM

Originally Posted by Thatguy

I personally think that having agents produce under you is a great idea..... in theory. In practice, it's a little harder than one lets on. In theory, you can leverage your time and earn a small percent off of a large number of people, which works great. In practice, you have to train 10 agents to get 1 that will produce then by the time you have about 10 good producers, you've gone through 100 agents and have spent the effort to train them all. Then your 10 producers start to get wise and leave your team to go independent that the process continues with you having to train more producers. So you're spinning your wheels trying to train them, but it's hard to keep them unless you can offer them something that will keep them around.

That's why I think the best way to recruit and keep top agents, as well as the decent ones, is to have a good lead program available and constantly be developing new ways to keep agents in front of prospects. There seems to be a tendency for recruiters to try to win by giving out the highest contracts, but without a steady supply of good leads agents will always be looking for something else.

Alston · 10-14-2009, 05:46 AM

Originally Posted by PANewbie

Hi All,

Thought it would be nice to know how many of you life salesmen have agents working for you, if so how many and is it worth looking into bringing a few good ones on. Do you 1099 them or hire them? In a 1099 scenario, is a 70-30 split good if I'm supplying an office and weekly leads?

Thanks,
Gary

My experience as an agency owner is with health and not life, so I my experience may not be relevant to your situation. Your closing ratio, client acquisition costs and your average client's lifetime value may be very different than mine.

70/30 is similar to a deal that I make with family members. I don't supply office space, but I pay for office equipment, postage and other supplies.

70/30 is close to break even for me - before I factor in my time.

If I hired experienced agents who didn't need any training or supervision, 70/30 might give me a small profit.

If you are genuinely going to give your agents the benefit of your experience by training them and helping them along the way, you deserve to be compensated. Make sure that you make a win-win deal.

Run your numbers and factor in the value of your time. Make sure that you give yourself a raise when you do so. If you are currently worth $xx an hour as an agent make sure that you factor in something greater than $xx when you do your calculations.

If you only make your current hourly rate, you're adding complexity to your life just to earn the same amount of money.

ABC · 10-15-2009, 12:06 AM

Originally Posted by MedicarePlanSolutions

That's why I think the best way to recruit and keep top agents, as well as the decent ones, is to have a good lead program available and constantly be developing new ways to keep agents in front of prospects. There seems to be a tendency for recruiters to try to win by giving out the highest contracts, but without a steady supply of good leads agents will always be looking for something else.

I like your idea of steady leads. Where are you going to get the leads from? How much will you spend on leads?

If your buying them off the web for x amount will you give your agent 30 leads a month? 60? 90?

MedicarePlanSolutions · 10-15-2009, 12:15 AM

Originally Posted by ABC

I like your idea of steady leads. Where are you going to get the leads from? How much will you spend on leads?

If your buying them off the web for x amount will you give your agent 30 leads a month? 60? 90?

Most folks do, the failure is in the implementation stage. I've never had much luck with internet leads, so I've tried a different strategy. I have overseas telemarketers and I have them cold call to generate leads off of scrubbed lists. It doesn't work everywhere, but in some areas it does a good job. I've had agents on reduced contracts and "free" leads, but the agents don't always work the leads as hard as they would if had skin in the game. What I do with them now is give out an 85-90 point contract and then let them use the telemarketing services for around $300-$400/week and they get every lead the caller generates. It's not for everyone, but it's something unique and it keeps me from having to rely on other companies to generate leads. It depends on what lines of insurance are being sold, some work much better than others. Send me an e-mail if you want more info or want to talk about getting a system like that setup for you and yours.