Post: #26

(12-06-2014 05:23 PM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:  Dude, I don't want to see my insurance salesman friend fail.

But I sure as hell don't want to meet him because I know he'll try to peddle me some insurance to make money every single time we meet. If he's a newbie, then he won't know any better that he's selling some crappy insurance. And if he's experience, then he knows he's selling some shitty product.

Read the previous posts, those of us who knew people working in insurance cut bridges with them because they 1 - would peddle their products non-stop 2 - ask us for leads every time.

There's a way of doing it without it being a 'hard sell.'

Post: #27

^ True words.

Mentioning your career once and not talking about it anymore is a good idea. If I ever need insurance, I will think about my friend, and call him. Otherwise, don't bother me.

Post: #28

I work as a salesman for an external firm that does B2B sales. We have one of the largest commercial insurance brokers in Quebec as one of our customers. Of course when I'm representing this customer, what I do is sell commercial insurances. And where the broker makes money is mostly with liability insurance.

It's a very aggressive market, but there is good money to be made. Linkedin & straight up cold calling alone enabled me to book roughly 100 appointments since March, to businesses with premiums of minimum 10 000$, (with some premiums reaching 500 000$.)

Controllers, accountants, CFO's... they are used to getting solicitated for insurances and are practically waiting for it. They are used to shopping for their insurances every 2 years or so.

What I would do, and what I do... when I reach out to a lead or a prospect, I ask for his renewal date.
If you can stack up a few hundred renewal dates for ANY kind of insurance policies... you'll be in business.

It's very easy to close an appointement when the timing is right and the need is real. Keep that in mind when you are solicitating your friends and family. Grab those renewal dates and keep it dead until they are in the proper ''shopping time frame'' - likely 2-3 months before the renewal date.

Cheers

Post: #29

I forgot about this thread. I only lasted about 3 months.

It wasn't the worst gig, but I personally was not suited for it. Before going into detail, the two reasons I quit were the pay and expenses. Putting in 40+ hour weeks and not getting paid is extremely disheartening. I also found out that once I started making money, I'd have to pay a portion of the office rent, printer ink, buy a $2,000 laptop, etc. My manager lost money one month I was there. Commission only is rough unless you have a solid network before starting.

The day to day grind was pretty awful. I am a proud person so I found it hard to ask for referrals. I'm not the type to tell every person I interact with my company and business. Cold calling also sucks. The odds they teach you in training are 25 calls per day, reach 5 decision makers, and set 1 appointment. My stats were much lower.

My biggest issue was not believing in the product. The associates who were making big bucks were convinced that Aflac is the solution to health care reform. They were so convinced that supplemental health insurance was what would solve the healthcare crisis. I honestly felt that I was swindling people when I signed them up for a policy.

This job is best suited for someone who isn't red pill. The successful salesmen were more or less brainwashed by corporate. I made about eight hundred bucks in three months. I drained my savings and had to regroup after quitting. I gave it an honest chance but I feel my personality is the antithesis of a salesman. I flourish in management and entrepreneurship. I'm glad I took the dive because I learned a ton about myself. It was a rough few months full of sleepless nights, but I'm that much closer to who I'm supposed to be. I've been apprenticing under my brother-in-law who is a real estate mogul. I'm much better suited to that industry.

Post: #30

To be honest, that sounds fucking horrible. These kind of jobs shouldn't exist in a Western Country with a matured legislation relating to workers rights. Enough with that though.


You say you flourish in Management and Entrepreneurship? As someone who has been a manager, and someone who has been an entrepreneur let me tell you that EVERYTHING is sales when you start off in either of these fields and it always will remain a big part of it unless your brand or your persona becomes bigger than life. What I mean by that is you will bust your arse selling your idea, your brand and even yourself, it really is a 24 hour gig before you can on your feet. Sales Jobs are horrible but they equip the aspiring businessman with invaluable skills and lessons.

If you're into management, you need to mediate the needs from above with the people who make fulfilling those needs a possibility. You literally have to sell your ideas to both sides, on a daily basis, otherwise you find yourself dictating to your underlings or fighting with your bosses. Both scenarios usually end up with you being sacked or demoted.

If you have your own hustle, it's more than just an idea. It's the day to day grind of finding suppliers, customers, vendors and even financiers. The successful entrepreneurs do what you did in that insurance office, they get in early and they start making calls. Though the payoff is far, far greater and your personal network will, I guarantee, be far more supportive of your own idea than you peddling some corporations shitty policy. It's an entirely different perception. And judging by the fact you were actually paying your own way, the overhead might not be that much higher either.

You did the right thing by bouncing from that job, but take away every possible lesson you can because you obviously aspire to the higher echelons of business, that's how it starts.

Good luck man.

Post: #31

Thanks. I did learn a lot about sales and business though. I more or less consider it an unpaid internship since I ended up making about two bucks an hour.

It's a lot easier to wake up early and sell you passion than wake up early and sell an overpriced cancer policy. The hours and calls didn't bother me, it was trying to convince people they needed more insurance. Me and my buddy run a small online apparel company so I'm familiar with entrepreneurship, and any call related to that is completely different than convincing the owner of an auto shop or hair salon to let me sell to their employees.

Post: #32

Also, I don't want it to sound like I'm anti-sales now. A direct sales gig just isn't for me.