A day in the life of an insurance agent can be a challenging one. While there are many reasons we joined the insurance profession, freedom of schedule without giving up income was an important one for me.
Like some of you, I was not always an agent. My working life began in the restaurant industry where to make a solid living meant working around 60 hrs. a week and most every holiday unless the restaurant was closed. Even though I was more or less a workaholic, that took a toll both on my family and me physically.
Similar to many of you I swallowed the Kool-Aid with the promise of high income and freedom of schedule joining a captive company. It did not take me long to realize that those promises were severely lacking on all points. There had to be something better out there that could deliver on my goals of high income while freeing up time to spend with family.
Moving to becoming an independent life insurance agent was the answer. Having the ability to increase my income based on my work ethic and proficiency. It turns out this was the best decision I could have made.
That’s not to say there were no bumps along the way, there were. One of those was realizing that I needed to set a schedule for myself that my family and I could live with while maximizing income potential.
This led me to also, look for lead generation that could work in the background while I focused on selling without breaking the bank. I tried appointment setters, but finding the right person proved an almost impossible task. The adage of “No one sets an appointment better than the agent” is so true.
I found a life insurance lead generation company that used digital leads but, put those prospects though a funnel starting out with sending a text message within seconds of them completing a form with my contact information and the opportunity to schedule an appointment with me directly.
All that without me doing anything. It’s worked out great, allowing me to focus on sales without having the drop everything to reach out to the client with a text.
The leads were far less expensive than directmail which has seen a steady decline in returns year over year for the last several years. After working out my financial plan and determining my lead budget, I went to work.
My schedule now looks something like this:
Monday:
- What appointments do I have already set for the week?
- Review the good and not-so-good from the previous week
- What phone calls do I need to make to meet my appointment goals?
- Review submitted business for outstanding requirements.
- Deliver inforce policies – in-person, snail mail, or electronically – whichever is applicable.
Tuesday:
- Sales day – running appointments (can be either face-to-face or over the phone/Zoom)
Wednesday:
- Review what has been written so far?
- Determine how many more apps I need to reach my minimum financial goal.
- How many more appointments do I have set?
- How many more appointments do I need?
- Run any appointments scheduled for today
Thursday:
- Sales day – running appointments (can be either face-to-face or over the phone/Zoom)
Friday:
- How did the week go?
- How many appointments do I have for next week (I like to have 7 or 8 appointments set for the following week)
- Do I need to set appointments for Saturday? (If I missed my minimum financial goal, the answer is always yes)
- Run any appointments scheduled for today
I’ve worked this schedule week after week for over a dozen years, and I can honestly say this has met and exceeded my expectations of high income and schedule freedom. Remember, an object in motion tends to stay in motion.
