Selling life insurance with no experience

[dev1nsan]

I recently passed the life and health exam and I'm not sure which direction to go. I've been running a P&C agency for about 6 years now, we mostly sell non-standard auto insurance. I want to start selling life insurance but I'm not sure if should go with a wholesale broker or a captive company (specifically New York Life). I would probably choose the broker as I like having the freedom to choose what products I want to push and just the whole being independent side of things but since I don't have any experience maybe it would be a better idea to start at NYL and get thorough training and learn all the products of one company to fully understand what I'm selling.

Any advice is appreciated.

[d's insurance store]

You're about to embark on a insurance journey that many others have taken, most have failed at, and a few rise to the top with perserverence and patience to carve out a decent career.

Know in advance what the obsticles are...that you're selling a product that very few prospects want to talk about or buy, and that once you've plowed through lots and lots of blind contacts to get to a prospect that will have a conversation with you, you're still a long ways away from a commission check. Pure, plain and simple, selling life and financial products is a numbers game, and if you take every rejection personally, you'll go coo-koo very quickly. Unlike the personal lines side of the business, where prospects HAVE to legally have your offerings, Life and Financial products are purely optional.

I don't see anything wrong with sucking up your ego and going through the NY Life training process. They'll pay you to learn and you can make mistakes on their dime, while learning a great deal. If it's not working for you...either they'll let you know and release you, or you'll get that inner feeling that you can succeed, if only you didn't have their rules, regulations and products hindering you.

Success in this area comes when you've been able to last long enough to where those uninterested prospects finally get into a position to apply and buy and you're still around to take their call. Thicken your skin and this just might be a long term career choice.

Good luck.

[justthere]

I started with New York Life in the 1980's and they gave me a great foundation. To this day, I still use some of the tools they brought up. If you have that opportunity, consider it. NYLIC is known as the company who trains the industry.

Also, on another note, you do not have to have your securities licence to sell Annuities if you are only selling fixed-interest rate products. I would advise that you get the licensing because the potential marketplace is much more enhanced by having that ability to sell more products.

[wlunday]

Now that you are committed to the life and health business as well as the P/C... Join NAIFA and sign up for an LUTC course. These courses are in-depth, on-the-job training and will work very well with any other formal training you'll get from NYLIC or any other carrier. In fact, most of the good agency managers for the big companies like NYLIC will actively encourage the LUTC courses.

For someone that wants to also stay in P/C, I'd recommend LUTC's Multiline Sales course as the first one. then, go into the Personal Life and Business Life courses, maybe followed by the DI course and, of course, Ethics. You'll learn a lot, get energized and really do your career a great service. Good luck with it!

NAIFA, at the local level will provide the opportunity for mentorship as well as networking with professionals in your field.

Wayne Lunday, LUTCF, CLU, ChFC

[Rainmaker]

I think Wayne Lunday's advice is excellent if you are actually intending to make a career switch away from P/C to life insurance. I myself attended LUTC courses 20+ years ago and LOVED them - great format, great everything. In fact, some elements of our producer coaching program's model adopts the content, action items, etc., that were part of that very effective curriculum.

However, I get the sense that since you've been doing p/c for 6 years, you'd like to cross sell those clients with life insurance products. So I am postulating that you are trying to do that effectively yet remain focused or concentrated in your core business. If that's correct, I would encourage you to consider an STP capability with multiple carriers, a call center, and an advanced underwriting resource. This will provide a good partner for you with multiple carriers, great comp, a call center and an advanced underwriting resource - really a great way to go and you won't be tied to one carrier and all the issues that come with that.

We have identified several vendors that fit into this category - we're happy to point you in the right direction if you wish to pursue.

Good luck!

[chizcurlz]

I agree, training would help you a lot. There are lots of online schools or universities all over the web that offer free courses for different type of insurance such as life and health, property and casualty, and a lot more.

[general88]

I did a lot of research and went to some Companies selling webinars. I also visited www.bestquoteinc.com/
and read those articles blogs. Everything helps but getting in front of that 1st person is most important and getting the butterflies out of your stomach. Positive thinking goes a long way in selling insurance.

[Swymmer]

Would be interesting to see where dev1nsan is today... How has the addition of Life products affected your career?

[Travis Price]

I know a lot of people are pushing the LUTC, I would not worry about that currently. Instead, I would focus on three things:

What type of life insurance do you want to sell? Final Expense? Term? UL?
Who do you want to market to? (Niche down as much as possible without being so specific that you don't have an audience)
How do you plan to market?

I've been reading this book by Jeff Root, "The Digital Life Insurance Agent." He also has a podcast at www.selltermlife.com that really focuses on niche websites to drive leads to you. I check the websites that people say they're getting traffic/leads because I market solely online as well. Some of them have 400-600 visits per month (with a 2% conversion rate you're looking at about 12 leads.)

However, I have found a few that have over 11k a month in traffic. That means they're pounding out around 220 leads a month. Reasonably, with a 20% closing, they're putting some big premium numbers.

Again, I run a website, www.ifixmedicare.com that focuses just on Medicare, obviously. It's a lot of upfront work without a lot of views, but in L/H vs P&C, you're spending more time on marketing vs sales. I tell you this because you don't get a lot of calls for quotes like in P&C.

After you figure out what and who, it's time to find an IMO.

I like Dave Duford. He's a genuine guy that really works with new agents. You can check him out here: https://davidduford.com/

[jeffrosecfp]

I can vouch for Jeff Root. He was instrumental in helping me figure out how to attract and convert online leads. For several years I was gathering leads to my own site, https://lifeinsurancebyjeff.com/ (which now redirects to my other personal financial blog, https://www.goodfinancialcents.com/.).

I've had a chance to talk with several agents that have followed his advice and have also achieved some amazing results. But, like anything, it does take time and a TON of hard work.

[dmitchell]

Same here. Jeff has been great. I started my website http://www.insurancequotes2day.com with Jeff's help 4 years ago. It takes some time but we get daily leads and sales now. Good Luck!

[pageltd]

stay independent. there are lots of ways to educate yourself on the market/products, etc

[MikeKruzich]

I also started my first website with JR's help. My most recent one is https://www.mikekruzich.com.

Very thankful.

[ross-quade]

I've been around long enough and through so many facets of insurance marketing it's all kind of a blur. I started selling home and auto insurance after booking night time appointments with American Family Insurance when I was a teenager. After mastering cold calling at the young age I stuck with it and interviewed with StateFarm and AmericanFamily but then got called up with the Army and deployed with Operation Enduring Freedom after 9/11. When I returned, the telemarketing laws were changing and that put a damper on my local agency business plans. Fortunately I connected with Kevin Knutson out of Burnsville, MN and his https://mnhealthnetwork.com. He was doing a great amount of health insurance with his online marketing and I learned so much I opted to duplicate his efforts in return for helping me and I setup campaigns and websites in the surrounding 5 state region. We did a lot of business together but I got burnt out and needed a change. Seth Kravitz from InsuranceAgents.com called me up and I ran their affiliate program out of Chicago where I grew their program up to over 1,000 leads a day. Now some 23 years later I still have my life insurance license. After talking about COVID-19 with Jeff Root from https://digitalbga.com here in Austin, I decided to put more time and effort into selling burial and final expense over the phone and recently relaunched https://finalexpenseinsurance.com as a full-time agent. While the business is slow, it is growing. I've been continuing my education and reading a lot from David Duford. He is right, persistence is key as is committing to the fundamentals. Don't give up, just be honest and sincere and you'll do just fine!

[old man insurance]

There are alot of good replies here. You may benefit from speaking to a call center that sells final expense coverage. Here is there site: https://northstaria.com/ .

Also, I'd highly suggest you speak to some niche marketers in the insurance industry. Chris westfall does this at https://medicareagenttraining.com/blog-updates/ and Jason at https://diabeteslifesolutions.com/