As an insurance representative you just do not
gradually watch your income automatically climb year
after year. It is much more like entering a hurdle
race. If you fail to jump all hurdles your
insurance career is likely
ended
, well before you thought it
would.You may see many newspaper ads tying
to hypnotize a prospective agent stating how easy it
is to make $100,000. Moreover, they emphasize it can
be done in the first year. Please give me a nickel
for the 1,500,000 licensed life and health insurance
agents that cannot achieve that. ($75,000 if you are
calculating). Before $100,000 of income can be
reached, most agents must achieve at least the third
if not fourth level.
LEVEL ONE
This is the insurance trainee, just starting out
and continuing the first 12 months. This level is
actually more about survival than it is about
earnings. Many insurance trainee agents deplete
savings accounts, ask relatives for loan assistance,
and even take out a second mortgage on their house.
Either they should have never applied for the
position or the insurance agency has provided
inadequate assistance to ease the agent's burden. In
the majority of cases, it is the later. Only 20% of
agents struggle by, only to encounter another
enduring battle.
LEVEL TWO
This is the insurance rookie, who will be facing
three more years of uphill challenges. Again,
survival appears in the picture, along with enough
income to keep from going under. The life preserver
is based on both the agent's attitude and selling
skills. Selling skills start with finding the right
people to focus your attention on. People that fit
into your comfort zone and have a need for an
insurance product you are familiar enough selling.
This leads to giving a sufficient quantity of
appointments. However, company provided scripts are
a hard way to go when doing a presentation.. Of the
appointments made, can the still inexperienced agent
produce enough sales for a decent income? Only 8% of
the starting agents now remain.
LEVEL THREE
These are the insurance innovators with over 4
years experience and under 8. Why are they
innovators? To survive the have broken just about
all the career company rules of the plan to success.
First, they have tossed out the insurance company
presentation book, sometimes in favor of a plain
yellow legal pad. The company presentation speech
has been discarded in favor of a friendly
conversation. The insurance innovator uses a lead
acquisition system that quickly brings out the
highest qualified prospects. This agent has stopped
becoming an insurance seller. He now helps guide the
prospect to a tailored plan that turns the prospect
into a buyer. In addition, the insurance innovator
has a valuable base of built up clients for
additional sales.
As insurance is now officially a career, few of
these agents drop out. Many start to specialize in
selling fewer products. A lot now are
semi-independent and some even have their own firms.
For others they make take a new direction, with a
different company or firm that seems much more
promising. Incomes are often comparable or higher
than the national average.
LEVEL FOUR
The true insurance professionals. Numerous pros are
fully independent. They have often signed contracts
with six or more independent life insurance
carriers. Others are semi-independent, who have not
quite yet taken the final break away step. Do not
assume that all are financial planners exclusively
serving wealthy clientele. There are countless
professionals selling long-term care and medicare
plans to seniors, others are specially in writing
employee benefit plans to employer groups. The
typical income range is from $70,000 to $110,000.
In insurance, you do not go to college for 6 to
10 years to become a specialist. You learn through
trial and error and your intuition. There are no
books to study, only some continuing education
courses that are product based. You progress with
self-learned selling skills plus the severe
determination few salespeople possess.
It is an
insurance career path without shortcuts.
