Cold sales are very hard and few people have the mindset to handle the continual rejection. Those with a unique skillset can do well but most don't have what it takes. Other sales are easier because there is less convincing required but there is still usually a quota to meet so lots of stress.
In reply to RichardSIA :
What lines would you be selling - just life insurance, or auto/home too? Or is it commercial? How well known is the company?
RichardSIA said:This company claims to have a lot of "Developed" leads.
Those are the folk who answered mass mailings and filled out some preliminary questions affirming they are interested in the insurance.
It would still be a lot of driving, but not a commute grind.
I'm really on the fence for committing the time and dollars to pursue this.
I smell danger. I'm reading a lot of this that sounds like Primerica, one of the more well known pyramid insurance schemes.
First, even with "developed leads" it is a very hard business. Only 1 out of 10 that you talk to will make an appointment and a lot fewer will keep the appointment. Fewer still will qualify and hand over cash.
Second, because of laws and regulations, insurance and financial opportunities violate my "rule number 1 of business"... if you are in business and someone else is telling you how to run your business then you are an employee. You can't advertise without approval from the compliance department. You can't meet with a group without approval from the compliance department. You can't set up a booth at an event without approval from the compliance department. But, you run your own business (?).
That said, there are people that make a lot of money doing this.
Another concern, you say you are "out in the middle of nowhere", is there a customer base within your area? Or will the average appointment involve 50 to 75 miles each way?
In reply to Mndsm :
Primerica never had developed leads of any kind, it was a way to mine friends and family of the agent, and worse, was presented as financial services... the "I-word" was never used, it was "protection".
I've found insurance sales to be a long term commitment. Many years of planting seeds to get fruit down the road.
You mention fees - does that mean the company wants money to "train" you? I would suspect that that could be their real business model then.
One other concern, given that I know the general area you live in (lived in Carson City until last year) - it's not what I would call a really affluent area (no offense), which means that even if this is completely above board, you're pretty likely to putting a lot of effort into making not a lot of money, because the people who buy the life insurance from you will end up with relatively small policies and you'll end up with small commissions.
The other part I'd look into first is what sort of life insurance you'd be selling - straight level term pays hardly any commissions from what I hear, so you might be selling a high cost policy with some investment component.
In my late 20's (now 50) I looked at an opportunity with MetLife. I looked pretty long and hard. I ultimately passed and never starting when something better came along. The understanding I has was that it was generally running your own business and that came with all the long hours of building something from nearly nothing. The real strength didn't come until you had some additional people selling under you.
That was generally how I was coming in, as young-buck coming in to work with an established rep in his late 40's. I gained a sense that they churned through a lot of "new-hires" and many failed. I might have beat the odds and succeeded but it wasn't going to be easy. It certainly wasn't going to start as high wage and there were plenty of things that were going to be "expenses" taking even more from the wage.
A college friend of mine went straight into State Farm after college. He is still at it and seems to have beat the odds and had a good run. I do know however that like commented above, there are a lot of elements where like an employee, he does not have a lot of personal control over his fate. I guess at the end of the day, its still work and has the pitfulls of most work.
For you, at 64 yr old, if it were the example like I saw from MetLife, your only going to experience the "building years" and never get to the "sustainable stride years".
In reply to BoxheadTim :
I’m curious about something. You know much more about insurance sales than I...
You implied it is difficult to sell to less affluent people. But aren’t there different models that DO work for lower income people?
I spent a lot of years working in low income neighborhoods. I noticed at one point that there was this guy who came around regularly knocking on doors- every Friday. He was easy to see... he was the only other white guy.
So I asked some of the people in the neighborhood who had become my friends- “Who’s the white guy?” They told me he was their insurance salesman.
Turns out it was really common in that neighborhood for people to buy life insurance policies in small amounts like $15K. Basic burial policies. The salesman was also the bill collector. He came by every week to collect their premiums ($7 per week).
I was really turned off by this. They were paying $364 per year for a policy that only paid a $15000 benefit. Meanwhile, I had a $500,000 term life insurance policy that I was paying $280 per year. It seemed really abusive that they were taking advantage of people like that.
But it also seemed like a really smart business model. The customers could not pay large increments, and had a cultural fear of not being able to properly bury their loved ones.
Aren't there similar things now?
One of my wife's friends that currently live back in San Diego sells life insurance. She makes pretty damn good money, even for San Diego standards, but doesn't get much free time though. She's also one of the lucky ones who's been able to make it. A lot of people will get burned out.
I got another buddy that has worked for State Farm since college and now runs his own agency in Chicago. He's mid 20s and makes an absolute killing. Tbh, makes me interested in getting in to insurance as well, but being 30 I really wouldn't wanna take a massive hit to my salary in order to maybe get lucky and buy a book from a guy who's retiring in 10-15 years.
My wife on the other hand is strictly Personal lines and very rarely Commercial and does mainly the servicing. Rarely does she ever sell, but she still gets a bonus for when she does. Makes decent money; in a pretty nice area
Anyways. Side-tracked. We're all in relatively big cities, so insurance is something that isn't "hard". You being in the middle of nowhere would force you to either move or to commute a hell of a distance every day, regardless of what the recruiter says. Their developed leads might just be someone who's filled in a questionnaire on their website or requested information, neither of which would guarantee you anything.
Daughters boyfriend dad is State Farm Rep. With Allstate you own the accounts and sell them when you retire. With SF it goes back to SF.
An older guy I know spent his career selling Allstate when he bought out his dads accounts as he too was a lifelong Allstate rep. He said he only gets his insurance now using a broker, not Allstate? He laughs.
I have 7 years experience in selling-both account management (farming) and new business development (hunting), albeit not insurance.
My advice is to run like hell. The churn among entry-level insurance reps is brutal-even in the context of professional sales.
But if you are set on sales then take an entry level position for some sort of technology company who offers remote work, or look for a company that is selling something related to your previous experience. I.e if you were a teacher at one point, look to sell text books, etc.
In reply to RichardSIA :I'm a lifelong ( started at age 5 ) very successful salesman who came from a family of salesmen
The numbers I constantly saw were one in a hundred is making a living selling after 5 years. One in 1000 will make a good living after 5 years.
After the 2008 recession I along with 22 million other people were tossed on unemployment even though I was their top salesman.
Following that I was desperate to go to work. I took any job that would have me at over 60 in spite of a really impressive resume. Jobs were rare. Insurance was always eager to hire me but careful perusal of the job told me no. I asked the ones I had policies with and was told that if I was successful it likely would take me 5 years to make enough to cover my living and working expenses without a dime of fun money.
Eventually after 4 years of looking I found a job Selling hail damage repairs ( we followed storms and drove to whatever city suffered, usually overnight). Dozens sometimes hundreds of similarly desperate men would descend on small towns and the poor homeowners would get 6-8- 12 salesmen a day knocking on their doors. The same pitch. All covered by your insurance. We're the best, You have one year sign up now while we can be sure to fit you in.
That job cost me over $400.
The next job was selling wind generators to farmers. The ones who got the wind generators really were making a profit off of them and were great advertisement. But we oversold what we had access to. Instead of taking a year like the contract said it was taking longer, much longer to deliver them. Manufactures couldn't make them fast enough. That job cost me $1200 In short
In short sales is a long hard nasty grind that is likely to destroy your soul. Once you make it, it looks really easy, a sweet life. Like a duck on water. But just don't look under the water.
I'd say pass on it. I've been approached by agents in the past with opportunities like this and wasn't worth the hassle.
RichardSIA said:The company is Equis Financial/PSI Groups.
No fee's to them, a minor $60.00 fee to a training company. (Probably owned by them?)
They claim 170 "developed" leads in my county alone, a high number for such a small county.
The main focus here is life insurance, other forms of insurance/annuities may become available to sell once I've had additional training/cert's.
Any sales calls outside my own town are going to be a longish drive.
Once I get the state license ($185.00) I may sell anywhere in the state.
Demographics are changing here, Tesla indirectly forced me out of my old location but they have brought a lot of (Temporary?) wealth to the area.
Lake Tahoe is full of rich folk, but they probably have "People" to handle their insurance.
Douglas county is where the folk who left the lake go, but I know the guy who has that area pretty well sewn up.
For a reasonable drive that still leaves me a pretty large area including Carson City and Reno.
For now I think I am going to peruse whatever free training video's are available in the hope of at least learning what questions I really need to ask.
Cannot do anything until after the holiday in any case.
Would be nice to have less physical work, my arthritic shoulder now bothers me more than my long term back issues.
Hard pass based on the following:
Google "Equis Financial Scam" and do some reading
$60 training fee - no job should EVER charge you for training. Any job that does - you are the product.
170 leads in your county - that means your county is well past the saturation point. That is why pyramid schemes such as this don't work. You are competing with 170 other people selling the same stuff to the same people. I bet there are not 170 gas stations in your county or 170 fast food restaurants and those all have something much more universally needed they are selling.
Sorry to say but companies like this prey on people like you. You will make more money as a greeter at Wal-Mart. At least they train for free.
If you reaalllyyy wanna get in to insurance selling, just go State Farm.
You'll an hourly wage, usually around $14/hr depending on your area, commission, and the agent will usually pay for your training and licensing.
From there, you can get in to independent agencies where you will likely be 100% commission.
Equis is a pyramid scheme.
I don't think sales is something you want to try to break into at age 64.
Is see now that the answers are coming in that this is a scam and I am inclined to agree.
I am not familiar with Equis but if you are still unsure, ask yourself what it is that made you qualify for this job? If they were investing into you, they would want to weed out the poor fitting candidates. If they are really a scam then they will just take anyone who can fog a mirror; anyone living and breathing.
As has been commented above, they just hope that you will hand over a few customers (yourself, your loved ones, your neighbors.) That often is the hope. Convince one person and then get that person to convince a few of their confidants.
In reply to RichardSIA :
How can they be desperate for help if it is so easy to make so much money? One would think they'd have a full time job just turning down applicants, no?
RichardSIA said:If they are looking for my circle of friends, relatives, and myself to become customers they are wasting their time.
So far they have not asked for that in any way, the claim is that they are a bit desperate for live human salespeople as they have more active prospects than current reps can handle.
Claim is that about 50% of their leads will result in a sale, I doubt that, maybe 20% if I'm really good?
One a week would give me an income at the claimed average $1,000 sale.
Two a week and I'm golden
Honestly, asking for numbers at this point is just trolling. The people trying to scam you will already have excuses or fake reports and you will believe the lies. You won't be the first person to ask for facts and you wont be the first person they have to lie to. If they truly needed more people to handle the volume, ask them to float you the $60 for training and you will pay them $120 in $20 increments after every sale. If the statements made above are truthful, thats an easy $60 for the person who floats you the cash, if they hesitate, run away!
Sounds like you have your mind made up, so I just came here to say "Atodaso"
Never forget the first time I graduated form University and a lot of my fellow Bachelor of Arts friends were looking for work. The insurance company recruiters were thick on the ground and your application required a resume and a list of 100 people that you knew.
If they hired you, they gave you a base salary and a "portfolio" of accounts and expected you to mine your contacts and cold- call new clients fast enough to become profitable to them in the first year. Very few made a second year. Whatever clients they had recruited went on to become the seed portfolio for the next hire. Pyramid scheme? Aren't all sales jobs? Not sure , but it is a tough nut to crack until you have enough clients to live on the yearly renewals. Real estate seems to be about the same.
Pete
I can't imagine anything harder than selling life insurance. If you are willing to work a territory and make cold calls, sell literally anything else. You like cars, why not work for an oil company or auto parts supplier? You like working on cars, work for a tool company or equipment supplier. Garage doors, industrial scales, pumps, fittings, fabrics, hoses, bolts...the list of things that are sold in a territory never ends.
Datsun310Guy said:Daughters boyfriend dad is State Farm Rep. With Allstate you own the accounts and sell them when you retire. With SF it goes back to SF.
An older guy I know spent his career selling Allstate when he bought out his dads accounts as he too was a lifelong Allstate rep. He said he only gets his insurance now using a broker, not Allstate? He laughs.
I very good friend of mine sold for Allstate most of his adult life. He had his insurance elsewhere. I believe he continued to benefit from policies he sold even after he retired.
My green-eyed blond daughter tried to sell insurance to Hawaiians. Those peoples are racist.
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