by Guest » Tue Oct 14, 2008 04:52 pm
In this bad economy, I've been downsized. I'm a marketing communications veteran with 17 years experience but will be out of work in 2 weeks.
At the gym a friend who is an agent told me I really should consider insurance as it is recession proof. So here I am, doing my due diligence.
I think I could do well in the field--I know sales, I know targeting prospect needs, my career has been built on finding that nuance and building the message around it.
I am educated (grad school), polished, comfortable with people, and people seem comfortable with me (always joke I should have been a psychologist as I get people to open up). I am also organized, diligent, a tad ambitious, and a great communicator.
My own experience as a client of insurance is simple--I have had the same auto and property agent for 2o plus eyars Health insurance on the other hand has been regulated by who was offering the best package (easily visible online). And in terms of life insurance, I saw how it impacted my family when my father passed away unexpectedly (and how important his decision was to have it and how poorly the representative handled herself when we filed the claim).
I'm in the process of trying to figure out what I want. It's simple, I think. I want to make a comfortable six figure income. Not to sound greedy, but NJ is expensive and I need that income for survival. I want work that has me involved socially. And I want to service people's needs in a way true to my character. I also want room to have a life.
I'm intending on asking my gym friend if I can shadow her for a day and ask her all sorts of questions. She has recommended someone in need of reps and I'll be calling that person next week. I'm also scouring the job boards to see what's out there.
I'm sure I will have a ton of questions, so please bear with me. But let's start here. If there's any advice you'd like to offer, I'm all ears.
I'm thinking I'm interested in property/auto/life. I am unsure about the variety of brands out there as State Farm has been my comfort zone.
...I'm happy to share more, so ask me anything you want...
At the gym a friend who is an agent told me I really should consider insurance as it is recession proof. So here I am, doing my due diligence.
I think I could do well in the field--I know sales, I know targeting prospect needs, my career has been built on finding that nuance and building the message around it.
I am educated (grad school), polished, comfortable with people, and people seem comfortable with me (always joke I should have been a psychologist as I get people to open up). I am also organized, diligent, a tad ambitious, and a great communicator.
My own experience as a client of insurance is simple--I have had the same auto and property agent for 2o plus eyars Health insurance on the other hand has been regulated by who was offering the best package (easily visible online). And in terms of life insurance, I saw how it impacted my family when my father passed away unexpectedly (and how important his decision was to have it and how poorly the representative handled herself when we filed the claim).
I'm in the process of trying to figure out what I want. It's simple, I think. I want to make a comfortable six figure income. Not to sound greedy, but NJ is expensive and I need that income for survival. I want work that has me involved socially. And I want to service people's needs in a way true to my character. I also want room to have a life.
I'm intending on asking my gym friend if I can shadow her for a day and ask her all sorts of questions. She has recommended someone in need of reps and I'll be calling that person next week. I'm also scouring the job boards to see what's out there.
I'm sure I will have a ton of questions, so please bear with me. But let's start here. If there's any advice you'd like to offer, I'm all ears.
I'm thinking I'm interested in property/auto/life. I am unsure about the variety of brands out there as State Farm has been my comfort zone.
...I'm happy to share more, so ask me anything you want...
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 04:50 am Post Subject:
Seems that we have diverse opinion on whether or not we can consider the insurance business as recession proof. However, IMO it may all depend upon the behaviour of the market in the coming days. If the situation goes worse and the per capita income of the population goes down, we would experience curtail in the household expenses towards insurance upto a magnitude irrespective of home, health or life.
However, I'd like to echo jonnypop's view that unless and until you have a quite a large number of friends and relatives, who will be ready to offer you the initial support, venturing into the field of insurance may not fetch the desired result.
Regards,
Juanita
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 06:52 am Post Subject:
First and foremost, insurance is a necessity. People need insurance, if they don't buy now, they may buy later.
In any business, either it is good time or bad time, there are always two groups of people: those who do well and those who do poorly.
Recession is only a state of mind. What is more important is our belief in our products and our business.
With or without recession, accidents still happen. Either you like it or not, our household bills are always on the rise. Either it is boom or doom, there are people admitted to hospital everyday.
There ar always opportunities in crisis. While they are people leaving the industry, there are also people joining the business. Only those who are tough can stand the test of time.
Tough time never last but tough people do.
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 01:57 pm Post Subject:
Obviously there are a lot of opinions about this. This is good actually - will give you something to think about. People's experience, location, insurance specialty, etc..all have input in our opinions.
I'm in the process of trying to figure out what I want. It's simple, I think. I want to make a comfortable six figure income. Not to sound greedy, but NJ is expensive and I need that income for survival. I want work that has me involved socially. And I want to service people's needs in a way true to my character. I also want room to have a life.
To do all that you want, I would think that being an agent is what you need to do. My biggest concern about your thought process is thinking you are going to get 100K the first year. It's very, very, VERY doubtful you will generate that kind of income - the first year. I purchased an existing book of business (still have loads of debt) but it took several years before my "paycheck" equalled six figures. Hard work - it can be done...but right out the door, you probably wont' see that.
Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 09:55 am Post Subject:
I'm with AmeriPlan. Even though I'm personally not an Insurance Agent, I have a lot of them on my team.
They do really well because they already have prospects coming in and they just have one more service to offer them. I think it really works out great for them since if you are working with someone that will not quailify or simply can not afford the monthly premium you'd then be able to present AmeriPlan.
Being licensed and selling life/health insurance is very profitable...its also very expensive to purchase leads, continuing education, etc. Things that are very hard to maintain if you are just starting out, you don't make a profit initially. AmeriPlan is different considering the monthly maintenance fee and the marketing is very affordable.
AmeriPlan offers daily pay, weekly bonuses, monthly residual income, awesome and easily attainable commission plan, bonus builder overrides etc.
Just thought I would share that for those looking to add a product line to your exisiting portfolio and in turn increasing your income.
Much success to you all!
~TaVona
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