It’s estimated that 90% of insurance agents fail within a year. I went from being a Marine, to a General Contractor, to a SALESMAN!? I was a complete introvert with zero experience. My wife told me I was crazy and that there was no way I would be good doing door to door sales and to be fair, she had every reason to believe that. I was not a social person and definitely never pictured myself going door to door.
I decided to get into insurance because I saw the financial opportunity and saw that 10% of people were succeeding. I didn’t care if I had to work day and night, I knew that I could be in the top 1% of that 10% that where making it. I went in with the mentality that it was going to be difficult. The Marine in me enjoys the struggle so I was up for the challenge. Here are three components that led me to make over six figures my first year in insurance, and if you follow them you can too.
The first one is consistency, the insurance industry is all a numbers game. If you work consistent hours, talk to a consistent amount of people, buy a consistent amount of leads, and put a consistent amount of time into self-development, you will make consistent money. I had a goal to have at least twenty leads going into everyday. I knew out of those twenty, ten people would be home. Five of those ten people would allow me in to do a presentation and out of those five, I would be able to close two deals. Two deals a day would most certainly earn me six figures my first year. Some days I surpassed that goal and others I fell short, but in the end having those numbers as a baseline led to my success.
The second is GRIT. You will get told no more then you get told yes. You will feel like stopping the day early when it’s 2pm and you’ve sold nothing. You will have a massive amount of self-doubt. GRIT will get you through that. It’s not the best salesman that writes the most insurance, its the individual that can get kicked in the teeth and keep going that becomes a top producer. I remember when I went two days straight with no sales, and on top of that had a previous client cancel a MASSIVE policy the same week. I owed 3k back to the insurance carrier for that cancellation, and just struck out the past two days. I was faced with a choice. I could allow self-doubt to overtake me or I could rise up, keep fighting, and push on. I took the later choice, and set a goal to out-write that debt within one week. A week and a half later I had sold enough insurance to pay back that debt and to profit another 2k. GRIT always wins.
The last but not least is to have a servant mentality. I go into every sales presentation with the attitude that I am there to serve the client. I do not think about commissions or what I gain from the interaction. My sole purpose is to be there to help someone. The client requested information, and it’s my job to identify a need and to provide them value. I view each person I meet with as a new family member, not a customer. It doesn’t matter to me whether they buy a $5/month policy or a $500/month, they all get the same respect and service. Having a servant attitude can be hard when you haven’t sold anything and are having a rough day. An agent’s ability to put those feelings aside will lead to their success.
-Ryan Wimmer