Northwestern Mutual Interview
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Don’t make them up. The reality is that the market surveys are very close to what you will be doing on the job. You’ll be calling people for the purpose of having a conversation with them. After having a conversation, you will want to get the names of other people with whom you can have a conversation. If you can do this, and actually spend your time doing this every day, you will make a very nice living.
It's very simple. It's not easy.I second that. When I had to do these surveys about a month ago, I thought it was a real pain. In hindsight, it was a great way to really size up the job before you sign on. A red flag should pop up if you feel really uncomfortable with the process (although I think everybody is a little apprehensive approaching their peers). At any rate, I wish you both the best of luck.
Doing the market surveys is a great low-pressure way to get in front of people you know and find out who is open to you coming back when you’re hired and who is not interested. The people you talk to doing the market surveys will be your first clients.
Interview 4 down. I feel like I basically have the job. My natural market is only 175 people and they want 250 before sales school. I didn’t understand the importance of the surveys and how they set up your business. I also didn’t understand that they have sales school entry requirements.
Before sales school I need 250 contacts or leads, and I need to have my licenses. I figure if sales school starts in October, I’d better start studying now which means that I’d better get a second/night job or side hustle if I am going to make this thing work (no real savings). That 90 day ramping up period is no joke I hear.
I guess that I have some thinking to do… and some praying to do.
Any advice? Thoughts? Opinions?
Of your 250 contacts, if you are respected, most will agree to meet with you. The key to your early success is going to hinge on your ability to get referrals from these people. You must learn to get referrals at a first meeting. If you don’t make a sale and don’t get a referral, you worked for free.
Let's say that you start with 250 people and 150 of them agree to meet with you. If you can get 3 referrals on average from them, you will have 450 new people to call plus most of the 100 that didn't meet with you plus most of the 150 who did meet with you. If you don't get referrals from them or don't get enough or think that you have to wait until you make a sale, you will quickly run out of people and have to survive on cold calling. Why cold call if you don't need to do so. In the insurance business, unlike the wirehouse model, cold calling is really optional. It shouldn't be done out of necessity. Rather, it can be done simply as a supplement or as a way to get into markets where you don't have an in......Your resume doesn't matter. They're willing to throw you against the wall to see if you stick.[quote=Still@jones]…I’m beginning to wonder if they even looked at my resume.
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All I'm saying is my resume says I met over #,### door-knocking prospects and they are telling me to fill out a survey "to see if I am comfortable doing this job". I didn't like getting their generic script.
Kinda like when my Edward Jones ATL called me and read duplicate questions from her script with no regard for my previous answers. She sounded like a high school freshman reading in class.
In order to succeed in this business, you have to be willing to do things that you don’t like doing. That’s why this job is very difficult and very profitable.
Your likes and dislikes of their recruiting process isn't relevant.Well I can and did roll with the punches, but I was pretty disappointed that the importance of these questionnaires was not explained to me. I was told that it was simply a survey. Today they are asking me about overcoming objections and such. This HR chick is trying to tell me which sales techniques I should have and could have used and coming from someone who has never closed a window I was like
If I had known that I was laying the groundwork for my eventual book, I would have handled it much differently. However, with little to no product knowledge, no license, and without a clear understanding of the exercise, I half-assed it. Oh well, I need 75 more names before I can go to sales school so I guess I’d better start doing more surveys.
[quote=anonymous]In order to succeed in this business, you have to be willing to do things that you don’t like doing. That’s why this job is very difficult and very profitable.
Your likes and dislikes of their recruiting process isn't relevant. [/quote]I think that is as well put as I've heard it.
I dislike door knocking but know it puts money in my pocket. Do I like money more than I dislike door knocking? My shoe should answer the question...
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Don’t sweat it. She only gets paid if she hires you. The chick is clueless if she doesn’t have the selling experience and she probably doesn’t.
What's laying the groundwork for your book at this point is to simply put together the biggest list that you possibly can of people who might be willing to meet with you if you called them. Your thoughts on their desire or ability to become decent clients is not important.[quote=voltmoie]
I think that is as well put as I’ve heard it.
I dislike door knocking but know it puts money in my pocket. Do I like money more than I dislike door knocking? My shoe should answer the question…
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With those size 7 1/2 Keds, no wonder housewives are willing to talk to you…
They don’t feel like they need to have their guard up!
Zzzzzzzing!!!
That may be true, but the idea isn't to get hired. The idea is to succeed. If something holds someone back from doing the surveys, they may not have what it takes to succeed.They’ll hire you w/o the surveys, don’t worry.
[quote=Still@jones]
[quote=voltmoie]
I think that is as well put as I’ve heard it.
I dislike door knocking but know it puts money in my pocket. Do I like money more than I dislike door knocking? My shoe should answer the question…
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With those size 7 1/2 Keds, no wonder housewives are willing to talk to you…
They don’t feel like they need to have their guard up!
Zzzzzzzing!!!
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I wish, I’ve got boat like 12s.
[quote=svm21] How insightful. He already got 175 surveys. That says enough. He’ll do fine.
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I appreciate the vote of confidence but I have 175 people in my natural market. I only completed 7 surveys and got 9 referrals. They want me to have 250 names or people in my natural market before sales school in October. So that means more surveys, or just making a list of names. I will do both.
That looks like a rough alley, Voltmoie, don’t flash your expensive camera phone around in those parts or some high school kids will likely beat you up and take it as well as your American Funds pens and keychains.
If this is going to work I have to get some sort of 2nd job, or my wife will have to go back to work part time for a while. Either way, I need to understand the hours expectation of this job to find the appropriate side gig. What I know so far is that you come in in the mornings around 730am, dial and set up appointments for the day. Then you’re out on your own seeing clients and all that which could be scheduled for any time. Is this accurate?
The 20-something fresh out of college HR girl I interviewed with was probably way too forthcoming. She just came out and told me that not everyone follows Granum or does any of that 10-3-1 stuff that I have read about. She said that some guys go home, go see friends, etc and just generally slack off. Everyone has to hit their goals, but it sounded like it wasn’t too strict there whereas everything I read made it sound like Granum was the 11th commandment.
Maybe they just aren’t big on accountability, but it seems like you make your own schedule after the morning meetings and morning calls. Is this the norm?
What can I expect hours-wise in this job? I need to know so I can get/find an appropriate side hustle.
DO NOT get a side hustle. It's true that not everybody doesn't follow Granum which is why most people fail. The number one thing with Granum is his "Rule #1". If I recall correctly, it is, "From 9:00-4:00 do nothing except see people or fight to see them."
If you want to succeed, make Granum the 11th commandment. If you follow "Rule #1" and do most of your work jointly, you'll be pulling in decent money within 100 days. Why can't you have a 2nd gig? This job is a little strange. The more work that you do, the more work that you create for yourself. Compare someone who meets with 4 people a day to someone who meets with 2 people a day. When you meet with someone, a successful meeting creates follow up work for you to do. That means that someone who sees 4 people has twice as much work to do, but only half the time to do it since he can't do the work when he has an appointment. Following Rule #1 will very quickly lead to a packed schedule. This will leads to lots of work that needs to be done. The only time that you have to get the work done is after 4:00 (but you'll probably have some evening appointments) and weekends. What happens if you have a side gig? If you try to follow "Rule #1", you can't get your work done. Therefore, you will spend during the day doing work instead of seeing people or fighting to see them. This will most likely lead to failure. The best case scenario is that this will lead to success that is much delayed.I believe that in order to be successful, you find the most successful guy and emulate what he does. Granum works and has worked like clockwork for many from what I have read (this article is what sold me on Granum). I most definitely intend to make it my 11th commandment.
However, a series of unfortunate events has made it so that my savings are all but exhausted and I don’t know if I can survive the “ramping up” period. I have been told more than once by a great many people that I should not expect to make crap for 90 days due to the natural sales process, underwriting, etc.
So after my wonderful $4k during sales school, I would be essentially broke for 90 days after that. Broke is not an option. So either this opportunity is shelved until I can build back my resources, or I take a job at night or on weekends to make it through.