Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:32 am Post subject: Independent agent vs. captive agent?
Hello,
I prefer to become an independent agent versus a captive one because that's the only way I would enjoy selling insurance. It would seem one could sell more insurance having a variety of policy choices/prices and maybe the possibility of contracting with companies having no or low quotas as opposed to captive companies. Are there any drawbacks being an independent? I really can't understand why anyone would want to be captive unless it's the company benefits offered or possibly making income faster from captive company leads/ marketing.
Thank you for any direction, positive or negative. I would just like to know the facts.
Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:27 pm Post subject: Independent Agent vs Captive
Hi Mike,
I started in the insurance business as a captive agent and found that working for one insurance company with a specific portfolio of insurance products allowed me to focus and learn those products very well. The training was excellent and I made a very good income and yes, there is a but . . .
I consider myself to be a good salesman and it became very difficult to leave a home or business without making a sale because I did not offer the insurance product the people wanted. In a situation like this, I just had to refer the prospect to some other insurance company.
So I decided to go independent to allow me to offer any insurance product that anyone would need or want.
Here's the catch - working for many insurance companies with each company offering a different product portfolio is very confusing. Don't make the mistake of trying to be "everything" to "everyone". You may be an exception, but most agents can't do it successfully.
Let's say you are contracted with 5 insurance companies and each company offers 10 products - that's 50 insurance products you must learn from top to bottom, on top of learning the different underwriting practices and rules of 5 different insurance companies. That's just an enormous task.
So, if you decide to go "independent", I would advise you to focus on one or two areas of insurance, i. e. life and health or life and disability, etc.
If you must spend all of your time learning products, you will never have time to sell anything and if you don't know your products, your prospect will know it in the first 5 minutes.
