Skip navigation

Mutual Insurance Company Reps

or Register to post new content in the forum

20 RepliesJump to last post

 

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Jul 11, 2009 6:41 pm

I recently joined a mutual insurance company at the beginning of this year and have cleared about 33k in FYC so far from cold calling, cold canvassing, natural market and referrals. It's been about half a month since I have been in production and I am crapping a brick as I think about where the future of my business is going. Maybe I have been lucky? Maybe by chance, I have found some clients that just wrote my big premioums and trusted me with rollovers. Maybe I am not even really that good? I think I am having these doubts because as of late (the past few weeks) have not found any good prospects thru cold calling or just wanting to see me.

I was wondering how you other mutual insurance reps are doing in this economy? How you've built your practice and took it to the next level, year after year. I feel that with gathering assets at a wirehouse, you will always keep getting commission off the 1% fee PLUS the public would trust a huge brand name backing you up like Morgan Stanley, UBS, Wells fargo, etc. But since I am at an insurance firm, on cold calls business owners will immediately deny me the appt because they think it's ONLY about "life insurance." 
Jul 11, 2009 6:46 pm

Don’t kid yourself. It’s never about the “name” behind you. It’s not Prudential, it’s not ML, it’s not SB or EDJ.



It’s you. It’s always you and it will always be you. You might not be able to be duplicate a great start immediately but ultimately it’s following a pattern and realizing it’s about time in the business. Good luck and congratulations.

Jul 11, 2009 6:50 pm

See people or fight to see people from 9-4.

  Ask for referrals from those existing clients.   Do joint work with every suspect that you turn into a prospect.   Be a student of the game.  Read every book you can find on how insurance and investments work.   Locate a local Sandler franchise and check out a few classes, especially the Cold Calling Bootcamp.   It's simple.  Not easy, but simple. 
Jul 11, 2009 9:39 pm

[quote=ChrisVarick]

I recently joined a mutual insurance company at the beginning of this year and have cleared about 33k in FYC so far from cold calling, cold canvassing, natural market and referrals. It’s been about half a month since I have been in production and I am crapping a brick as I think about where the future of my business is going. Maybe I have been lucky? Maybe by chance, I have found some clients that just wrote my big premioums and trusted me with rollovers. Maybe I am not even really that good? I think I am having these doubts because as of late (the past few weeks) have not found any good prospects thru cold calling or just wanting to see me.

I was wondering how you other mutual insurance reps are doing in this economy? How you've built your practice and took it to the next level, year after year. I feel that with gathering assets at a wirehouse, you will always keep getting commission off the 1% fee PLUS the public would trust a huge brand name backing you up like Morgan Stanley, UBS, Wells fargo, etc. But since I am at an insurance firm, on cold calls business owners will immediately deny me the appt because they think it's ONLY about "life insurance." [/quote]

Good for you.  It sounds like you're off to a great start.  You WILL ALWAYS have people with the preconception that you're out to sell insurance (which you are of course) but do what you can to differentiate yourself from the pack.  You have a trusted name behind you, something a lot of other Reps DON'T have in this day and age.  Call your business owners to talk to them about health insurance, use it as a door opener, the investments will come later once they've seen how you're different.  Talk to them about business overhead expense.

Business owners may or may not want to talk investments in this day and age, I think alot of them have figured out (and rightfully so) that their business is the best investment they can make, not stuffing money into wrap accounts with some clown broker.  They need our insurance products more than they need our investment products.  Show them how to better protect what they have and you'll have a field day.

We have the advantage.  The second MSSB, Merril, Jones, Wells, UBS calls they think it's about investments, and a lot of business owners don't want to talk about that right now.
Jul 12, 2009 7:17 am

Is the wirehouse’s investment department that much more sophisticated than ours at the insurance side?

Jul 12, 2009 2:26 pm

Chris,



Keep your head down and keep plugging along. As long as you are prospecting, the numbers will continue to work. The more people you contact, the more appointments you will make…leading to more closed business. Everything else like product, company name…etc. means very little in most cases.



As a new Advisor, you will doubt yourself, your company, and make a million excuses why you should quit and take an easy desk job. Don’t do that, just tough it out and keep working hard. The few that understand that concept will be rewarded over time.



Good Luck!

Jul 12, 2009 4:14 pm

[quote=ChrisVarick]Is the wirehouse’s investment department that much more sophisticated than ours at the insurance side?[/quote]

Sure they are.  They have a lot of things our clients don’t want or need. 

Jul 12, 2009 5:59 pm

“I recently joined a mutual insurance company at the beginning of this year and have cleared about 33k in FYC so far from cold calling, cold canvassing, natural market and referrals.”

  This is pretty meaningless.  If this a total of 5 lives and one was 28K from your dad, you are close to failure.  On the otherhand, if this from 70 different pocketbooks and they are all young professionals with good potential, you are doing a phenomenal job.  In the beginning the only production number that I think matters is "new pocketbooks".  The only one's of these that count are the ones that have the potential to be decent clients in the future.
Jul 12, 2009 6:50 pm

[quote=anonymous]“I recently joined a mutual insurance company at the beginning of this year and have cleared about 33k in FYC so far from cold calling, cold canvassing, natural market and referrals.”

  This is pretty meaningless.  If this a total of 5 lives and one was 28K from your dad, you are close to failure.  On the otherhand, if this from 70 different pocketbooks and they are all young professionals with good potential, you are doing a phenomenal job.  In the beginning the only production number that I think matters is "new pocketbooks".  The only one's of these that count are the ones that have the potential to be decent clients in the future.[/quote]

Every policyholder has the potential to be a decent client someday.  Things have a way of changing, people marry, change jobs, inherit money, etc.

I have a client in her 60s who I sold a small burial WL policy to 3yrs ago, and she had nothing to her name but a paid for house and a railroad pension from her divorced husband.  I've kept up with her as time has gone by and seen her twice when I've been in her area since she bought the policy.  Well, I called on her this winter to see if she needed a med supp since she was turning 65 and she had already chosen the local HMO plan.  Long story short, she inherited a $450k brokerage account at WFC from her mother last fall.  I don't know if we'll ever get that account, but she likes the SPIA concept we showed her for part of her inheritance.

Bottomline is you just never know.  Keep in front of your policyholders and investment clients and when good things happen for them, good things can happen for you.
Jul 12, 2009 9:12 pm

BerkshireBull, it’s about playing the odds.   Every client with great potential won’t pan out as imagined.  Every client without potential won’t fail to give future business.

  The agent who sells 70 supplemental DI policies to first year attorneys is going to make a mint from these clients in the future.  The agent who sells 70 final expense policies to divorced old ladies is going to slowly starve if he tries to give good service to them in the future.      Here's some good advice to newbies.  When you meet with someone and they don't become a client, what should you do?   Think about the practice that you want to have five years from now.  Are they the kind of client that you will want?  If not, throw their file in the trash and never call on them again.   Sure, their situation might improve, but play the odds and call someone else.  
Jul 18, 2009 6:10 pm

33k FYC, about 33.5 paid cases (not the 70 paid cases). Not too bad, not the greatest.

Jul 18, 2009 7:12 pm

Is a "case" a life or is a "case" a household?  I'm assuming that each case is a life.  33 new households in half a year would be very good.  33 lives is not. 

Ex. Jim has sold 33 lives and has 33K FYC.  Those lives are from 7 households.  His typical sale consisted of a WL and term policy on the husband and a WL and term policy on the wife and a DI policy on the husband.   Charlie has also sold 33 lives and has 33K FYC.  Those lives are from 25 households.  His typical sale is a term policy on the husband and a few times he has also sold a 2nd policy.   Charlie has 18 more households from which he can pick up future sales and will ultimately do much better than Jim.   The point is that the # of households is more important than the # of lives.  More households will lead to more lives and more commissions.
Jul 18, 2009 8:00 pm

[quote=anonymous]

Is a “case” a life or is a “case” a household?  I’m assuming that each case is a life.  33 new households in half a year would be very good.  33 lives is not. 

Ex. Jim has sold 33 lives and has 33K FYC.  Those lives are from 7 households.  His typical sale consisted of a WL and term policy on the husband and a WL and term policy on the wife and a DI policy on the husband.   Charlie has also sold 33 lives and has 33K FYC.  Those lives are from 25 households.  His typical sale is a term policy on the husband and a few times he has also sold a 2nd policy.   Charlie has 18 more households from which he can pick up future sales and will ultimately do much better than Jim.   The point is that the # of households is more important than the # of lives.  More households will lead to more lives and more commissions.[/quote]

Jim is doing a good job fact-finding, building trust and building deep relationships.  Charlie is buying leads and peddling product.  Jim is seen as a financial professional and Charlie is seen as a life insurance agent.  Jim will get each and every piece of business from his households as time goes on while Charlie will have to compete with them shopping the internet and other local agents everytime his customers need something.

Jim has clients, Charlie has customers.  Jim is referable, Charlie is not. 
Jul 18, 2009 8:17 pm

[quote=BerkshireBull] [quote=anonymous]

Is a "case" a life or is a "case" a household?  I'm assuming that each case is a life.  33 new households in half a year would be very good.  33 lives is not. 

Ex. Jim has sold 33 lives and has 33K FYC.  Those lives are from 7 households.  His typical sale consisted of a WL and term policy on the husband and a WL and term policy on the wife and a DI policy on the husband.   Charlie has also sold 33 lives and has 33K FYC.  Those lives are from 25 households.  His typical sale is a term policy on the husband and a few times he has also sold a 2nd policy.   Charlie has 18 more households from which he can pick up future sales and will ultimately do much better than Jim.   The point is that the # of households is more important than the # of lives.  More households will lead to more lives and more commissions.[/quote]

Jim is doing a good job fact-finding, building trust and building deep relationships.  Charlie is buying leads and peddling product.  Jim is seen as a financial professional and Charlie is seen as a life insurance agent.  Jim will get each and every piece of business from his households as time goes on while Charlie will have to compete with them shopping the internet and other local agents everytime his customers need something.

Jim has clients, Charlie has customers.  Jim is referable, Charlie is not. 
[/quote]   Nope.   The only thing that we know from my example is that Jim is doing more cross selling and Charlie is picking up more households.   Jim has 7 households from which to get future sales.  Charlie has 25.     It's close to impossible to get a large number of households and not have an income that grows every year.  Charlie has obviously left tons of sales on the table along with lots of premium dollars.  He'll figure out that part of the business with more experience.    My money would be on the rep getting 25 new pocketbooks in his first 6 months becoming a big producer.  My money would be on the rep getting 7 new pocketbooks in his first 6 months to be close to failure.
Jul 18, 2009 8:25 pm



Maybe Jim has his sales manager coming out to make the sales for him and that’s why he’s getting multiple sales and Charlie is doing it by himself.  Charlie will be more successful in the long run if this is the case.

Realistically even if you did $33k per YEAR in FYC on the insurance side you’d make a good living in this business.  Throw in production bonuses, bonus for persistency in writing high quality business that stays on the books and you’re probably making $50k per year.  If you can do investments for maybe half your policyholders you can probably add another $20k in commissions and trails on top of your insurance production and take home $70k per year.  Not bad cheddar if you have an insurance company that provides you a cube or office, phones, copier, printer, secretary to take messages if your policyholders call, inexpensive E&O, etc.

Jul 18, 2009 8:33 pm

 “If you can do investments for maybe half your policyholders”

  Half of 25 will beat half of 7.    "Charlie" will have an income that is double of "Jim" within 3 years.  
Jul 19, 2009 2:08 am

How many clients does a mutual insurance company rep need in a year to have a chance at making it? A Northwestern Mutual recuiter told me on an interview that you had to have 1200 leads a year to make it.  That seems like an insane amount, that's six new leads every day.  Is that realistic?  Those that have made it, how did you do it?

Jul 27, 2009 2:29 am

That is not true, although it would help a lot more if you did get 6 new referred leads a day. I'm not really sure how I did it, nor did I keep touch of how many openers/closers/appts I had a week. The main thing I focused on is ACTIVITY. Keep the ACTIVITY up and somewhere down the line, the pipeline and name flow just begins to pile up...

I step into the office at 7am, get all my paperwork/admin work done and at 8am start plugging away at the phones or be out cold walking business owners. Have not done as much residential homeowners yet, but I have done lots of cold walking with business owners. Cold call, cold walk, natural market referrals...a couple key ingredients to success. I'm not quite there yet, but I am giving it my everything and working 70 hr work weeks. I just hope everything eventually falls into place.
Jul 27, 2009 1:14 pm

[quote=ReadyFireAim]

How many clients does a mutual insurance company rep need in a year to have a chance at making it? A Northwestern Mutual recuiter told me on an interview that you had to have 1200 leads a year to make it.  That seems like an insane amount, that’s six new leads every day.  Is that realistic?  Those that have made it, how did you do it?

[/quote]

You need 15 appts per week.  Whatever it takes to get there.  Of those 6-8 should be new people each week.  1200 prospects is about 25 per week?  You’ll get appts with 25%-33% of them (some will be high-quality slam-dunk appts set and some you will have to chase) and that will give you your 6-8 new people each week.  Sounds about right.
Jul 27, 2009 11:16 pm

chris, which mutual company do you work for?