Pros
- They do a great job of "putting money in your pocket" the first three months. - Bankers will take care of the financial cost of licensing. - They allow a flexible schedule, but performance is based off numbers and production alone.
Cons
- It is a 100% commission job, and after the first three months, new agents are left to sink or swim. - Chargebacks WILL negatively affect your salary, and the company can come for you financially even after you leave the company. - While you pay for leads, the leads are not assigned fairly, better leads often go to favorited agents. - Toxic work environment, other agents will steal clients, and talk negatively about co-workers in order to achieve this favorite agent status. - Training sessions are stale, and often full of narcissism, in a recent regional training session, they made jokes about cancer and stroke victims. - Many agents do not use the CRM properly, and there is no training on how to use it, leading to a lot of confusion when prospecting or working with existing clients. - Borderline ethical concerns with the treatment of people of color, especially with how leads are assigned. - Contests for agents are often poorly designed, and questionably organized. Recently, agents have had to "pick a hand" after qualifying for the contest, winning the randomized spin, one would expect to win. Instead they have started pitting two "winners" against each other to pick a hand, often with 100s of dollars on the line. - At the Richmond location, the branch manager is also the HR director, creating a very confusing organizational flow. - Many of the managers have active disputes with one another, or will waste little time sharing private or condemning information about other managers or agents. - The turnover rate is over 50% in the first six months, new agents come and go, often without any notification. This has happened to the point where many veteran agents are unwilling to work with new agents. Since starting 3 years ago, only 4 agents out of well over 50 have stuck around. - The bonus structure is confusing. Vet agents are encouraged financially to help new agents, but this does not apply towards your bonus, while chargebacks DO affect your bonus. - Work/life balance is very poor, agents are encouraged to work 10+ hour days on Mondays and Thursdays, while running 15 appointments throughout the state of Virginia. While agents are 1099, the leads are seemingly distributed based off work performance. Managers are unwilling to share, or are unaware of how leads are distributed. - While you can write off mileage and other expenses, almost the entire cost of the sales process falls to agents. You are responsible to pay for: gas, car repairs, office supplies/leads, business cards, computer or technological costs, and any other costs associated with working at Bankers Life. - As we are 100% commission, many agents have to work at part-time jobs when sales are slow to make ends meet. - Questionable and uncomfortable methods of prospecting.