Another potential agent is concerned about what we have to say and his future

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Hi,

I have read much of your site and I am very concerned since I was considering getting into the insurance business right out of college; what recommendations do you for somebody like me. I have no experience, but I have a CA life/health and was planning to work on the property/casualty license next and get some product training with Farmers Insurance. I don’t think State Farm has any interest in inexperienced agents. Is the answer to my question already on your site somewhere? Does this appear to be a bad time to be getting into this business?

Regards,

(name witheld)

Response: Hello!

That depends on a few things.  How much time do you have?  Meaning do you have resources to last 12-24 months without making enough money to pay bills?  How receptive are you to hearing the word no?

If you answer, little time or you cant last 1 month before running out of cash or you arent fairly confident being told no on a frequent basis  This is definitely not the time to make the move yet.

Insurance is a great business to be in if you have a longer horizon to make real money.  The it could take as many as 3 years before you can start to earn enough money to make all your bill payments, this is assuming a home and car payment.  If you dont have bills then you can certainly shorten that timeframe significantly.

If you have 3 months you can toss to the wind.  I recommend going through the first stages of the Farmers Reserve Program.  There is a work ethic that becomes instilled into new agents that is unparalleled in the independent agent side.  Because it is so difficult to sell the Farmers Product.  Dont take it too seriously and dont invest any money into it.  Just listen to what they have to say.  Nod your head and soak in the info.  After your done you can take that experience and move on.  What ever you do, stay clear of any commitment to getting your Series 6 and 63 licenses.  They will burn up your time and waste lots of money.

Now the 2nd thing you should do is hook up with an Independent Agency.  Smaller ones tend to be better for your situation.  You should without a problem, be able to get an appointment with them as a producer.  Last a year in this position and you will have enough experience to move on to whatever you want to do.  If you do well in this timeframe, you will be absolutely golden on your path to becomming a huge success.

I want to warn you though.  If you continue to take the traning sessions with Farmers, be extremely careful that you do not become brainwashed into thinking its going to work.  They have some training points that will help you quite a bit when you leave.  Do not sell any Farmers Products to your friends and family, only sell to strangers.  This will help you get what you really need to know.  Part of the Farmers Program is to suck in persons such as yourself and write up all the business of your friends and family, especially the Life Insurance, then they keep it when you leave.  You will get asked and people you know will offer to give you a shot, but just let them know that you will let them know when you are "confident" enough to take care of their Insurance Needs.  Which will be when you are Independent and can offer real options.

Hope this helps you out!

-farmers-online.com

PS: If you end up going through a few months, keep any materials you have for us. We've long ago tossed them in the trash but need program data for informational purposes. Also if you get any promises of future income, get them to send it to you in an email or in writing (which is highly doubtful) if possible.