Pros
- The agents that work make a lot of money consistently and its very motivating to see week after week. You literally get out what you put in. - High commissions, with weekly payouts. - 8 month advances on sales. - Total freedom with the schedule (although if you don't put in 40+ hours, you'll earn nothing). - Bonuses, incentives and awards. - Culture of helpfulness and encouragement.
Cons
- Expensive. After the licensing class, licensing exam, fingerprinting, notary, license application, and background check, I was out a whole lot of money before I could even start selling. - Useless leads. Once I could sell, I discovered that the starter leads were always exhausted and overworked, which meant weeks of work before making a single dime. Basically the "free" leads were useless because they were never exclusive. - Poor Training. First you must learn general insurance laws to get the license, then you must learn the company's products, which seemed to be entirely unrelated to the licensing information. There is a whole lot to learn about the product and it can be extremely overwhelming. - The training materials are outdated and incredibly boring to absorb. The certification videos are the worst. - There are a lot of certification exams that you must pass before you can even quote someone. All exams must be passed with a 90%+ which is very annoying. - The product certification exams do not always match the material covered in the training video. Because of this, it is hard to get the 90% passing score. The solution offered by management is to just cheat by recording the correct answers and then taking the test again. - You must have a current laptop and cellphone to do this job. Unlimited talk and text is recommended. - Realistically, expect to spend about $450 up front, and earn zilch for at least 2 months. - Glory is very short lived. No matter how great this week was, you're back to being nobody if the next week isn't better. A constant battle to write more, more, more.
