Packs of Lies, Half truths and Weasel Words. Avoid at all Costs
Pros
Ability to make lots of money (If you are lucky and have the right clients and charm) Friendly atmosphere (Fellow agents are like family. I enjoyed every moment being around them) Given Leads when released from training, ability to get more Union leads if you sell to more Union members (the target demographic of AIL). Good Commission rate Lots of bonuses Part of your paycheck goes towards a 'bucket' to protect you from people who cancel(although it really only goes into effect later down your career)
Cons
Schedules are not Flexible in any ways shape or form.- Even if you need to see the dentist, or come in a little late management will get mad with you. Schedules are so 'flexible' that you'll be in the office 20 hours a week, then invest another 50 hours in driving atleast an hour away to sell insurance. And if you don't sell enough you will have to come in Sundays to schedule for the rest of the week. That's the 'flexibility' of AIL. On top of that they really downplay the amount of time you will be investing. We where lead to believe that coming in to the office at 8am and leaving by 1-3pm was an easy thing to do. Just another lie. A large majority of the agents came in at 10:30am and left when we legally weren't allowed to call, 9 pm Do not expect to make the $60k-$80k a year they promise. Only a few in our agency actually made a consistent $2200 ALP a week (annualized life premium). On top of that, many of the people canceled their policies the next day, or gave out bogus bank info, or didn't have enough money in their account. Which then, if AIL pays you, and the people cancel, you have to pay AIL back(I believe this is a fair practice, however you still have bills that need to be paid). And if you are lucky, you will have clients that can actually afford insurance. I've sold to mainly lower income families, a good number where on disability, and some of which used their oven to heat their house/apartment. There are Mandatory meetings, our office had to drive 2-3 hours away for essentially a prep rally every month. Granted, it was a car pool and people pitched in for gas. But it still took time away from your life or even time you could be selling. There are then 2 weekly meeting that you have to attend. One was a meeting you could really just ignore. The other was another prep rally, except this time you get a bonus check and don't have to drive anywhere. But it still took 2 hours away from calling for appointments. These are required, which brings us to the next point, you are treated like a W-2. Do not be expected to be treated like the 1099 Independent Contractor. They treat you like a W-2. Management has this mentality that they are literally your boss, and can just order you around. Unlike an actual 1099 where you don't work for a firm, you do work for the firm. It is a part telemarketing, cold calling thing (which at interview we where told there is no cold calling...another lie.) You have to call to schedule appointments. Sometimes you only need to call a lead once a day, sometimes you'll get through your lead book and call the same people twice a day. At appointments you have to squeeze leads out of them. Friends, family, work members whom they know. You then cold call all of the new leads trying to set appointments. 90% of the time they will not know who you are, or why your calling (it's 'warm calling' because the original lead was supposed to tell their friends/family that you are going to call, but they never do). Then you set appointments with friends/family of those references and the cycle continues. If you don't have enough appointments in a day you have to call everyone back and reschedule to another day. Which annoys a lot of clients. You are also expected to have back to back appointments, and you will be late or skip a lot of appointments because you are at an appointment you where supposed to be at an hour before. Which really, really annoys clients. The 'make as much as you want' isn't really as true as they imply. Sure, book more appointments, sell more and you will make more. Still doesn't negate the fact that you have to do the sales presentation the same way every time (takes about an hour) and you can only fit in so many appointments into a day. Managers love to use weasel words, and promote things you didn't say. So in summery, No flexible schedules The compensation they promise is not true Most of the clients (in our offices experience, anyway) cancel their policies There are mandatory weekly meetings (Even as a 1099 Independent contractor) You are not treated like the 'be your own boss' 1099, instead they treat you like a W-2 Most of what you do is cold calling (on office days). Or on Field Days you will be doing a lot of driving, your own vehicle, your own gas. And you can only write off either the mileage or gas expense on your taxes. They really downplay the amount of time you will invest. Managers act like sharks in a sea of goldfish. Very manipulative in communication with agents and clients alike to fish(no pun intended) for a 'yes' or to 'force' them to buy the insurance (nothing illegal like coercion, just weasel words and putting words in clients mouths so they agree to buy) Other than that, I agree with every Con point made by the Regional Manager on Sept 2, 2014.
