Regardless of how smart you might be or how much business or sales experience you may have had, if you are new to the insurance business I would encourage you to find someone to mentor you. Like any new industry you enter, the insurance business has it own language and acronyms. Each category of the insurance business, whether it’s property & casualty, or life & health, has its own idiosyncrasies. Besides the obvious product differences, each company has their own forms and processes. There is so much someone new has to learn and the learning curve is so long, a mentor is crucial to helping you to focus on what’s most necessary.
GO IT ALONE OR JOIN AN AGENCY
This is strictly a personal choice. As I said in the introduction, I initially joined an agency. However I realized very quickly that wasn't my style. I found it too confining and restrictive for the way I work best. However, that first organization is where I met the person who taught me the basics of the health insurance business. During those first few months I learned enough to be dangerous not only to my self but to my clients. In an agency environment you should expect to get the initial training that will be the foundation for everything else you learn in the future. Your fixed costs will be covered i.e. phones, copying, office supplies, etc. It’s my opinion that you should stay away from captive agreements. Those are agencies or companies that mandate that you only offer their products to your clients. Those arrangements restrict your market too dramatically and whatever they are offering (leads, stock options, etc) the trade off is NEVER worth it. Additionally, you won't get the well rounded experience needed to build up your own online agency.
CHOOSING A MENTOR
If I were starting today new in the insurance industry, and knowing what I've learned. I would choose to be independent, work from my home office, represent multiple carriers for both health and life products, leverage the internet for both marketing and sales and find a mentor to teach me how to do it right! A mentor in this business, will not only save you a fortune in both time and money, but will make you a fortune as a result of what they can teach you that you might NEVER learn on your own. Your mentor should be someone that overrides (makes commission) from your sales. You might initially make a lower commission percentage but the time shaved off the learning curve and increased sales will make up for it. In my college math class we learned that 80% of $10,000 is more than 100% of $2000 and that is very close to the ratio difference a good mentor can make. You will most likely end up with more than one mentor during your career. I have had 3 mentors (so far) during my career. One mentor taught me the basics of the health insurance business, including HSA's and how to sell them. My second mentor taught me the strategy of layering multiple products and how to free up health insurance money to fund life insurance. And my third mentor taught me how to recruit and train agents. It can be a lonely business working on your own from home based office so you’ll need to create relationships that will enhance both individual’s efforts. A mentor can show you how to do just that. Find someone that you think has a business and strategy you would like to emulate. Make a working arrangement where they can override your production if they will teach you how to duplicate what they are doing. In short, you will make more money learning from a mentor.
In 2008 Rick Liuag co-founded Integrated Resources. A company created to train and mentor insurance agents on how to market & increase insurance sales online. In 2009 he authored "How to Build Your Own Online Insurance Agency", an interactive training manual teaching which web based tools and strategies work best for agents to succeed in the new internet economy. Learn more about the ebook at http://www.Theautomaticagency.biz or blog http://www.theautomaticagency.biz/blog
