The exclusive 2010 Insurance Journal Young Agents Survey asked independent agents 40 years old and younger what they like least about being an independent agent. Here’s what some of the 631 agents who responded had to say:
1 Prospecting new business and cold calling is probably the only bad part about this job.
2 Insurance is a very negative business. Clients are never happy about having to pay for their insurance and they rarely are thankful for what we offer to them as their broker unless we just save them lots of money on their premium. Also, in many cases you have to sell the risk twice, first to the underwriter which can be very difficult and second to the client.
3 Seeing clients or prospects forced by the economy to result to bottom line as a means for choosing an insurance partner. Price will always be important, but when an extra 2 percent means keeping the lights on for another couple of months, you have to understand. Often the bitterness of poor quality will always last longer than the sweetness of obtaining the lowest price.
4 Paperwork, but it is a necessary evil that requires your upmost attention.
5 This is a job that has consequences. Sometimes major consequences. I’m reminded of that several times throughout the year and that gets stressful.
6 Politics and difficulty in getting internal resources.
7 The uncertainty of income.
8 Keeping up with the many companies underwriting and guidelines.
9 The hours.
10 The amount of service work. It’s draining.
11 Sometime I feel you can never become a true expert. The industry is constantly changing and new products come out on a regular basis. The fluid nature of the business is an aspect I love but at times can hate.
12 Getting it going.
13 The stress, dealing with employees and turnover. Dealing with the companies ever-changing rules and rates. Not having complete control over my business.
14 Sales pressures in a down economy. The disconnect of carriers in understanding agency life. Arrogance of some carriers and the sometimes unwillingness to work to retain accounts.
15 Being seen only as an insurance salesman.
16 My biggest challenge is the lack of good mentoring/leadership. While my father has been able to achieve success he, self-admittedly, isn’t very good at training others. I believe in the mentoring system but have yet to experience it with insurance. Everything that I’ve learned has had to be self-taught or by distantly observing others.
17 Hiring staff.
18 The ambiguity in the insurance contracts when dealing with claims.
19 The economy puts more pressure on agents to go out and sell when there’s less help in servicing the account. Much more on our plates to handle. Too much more. More work hours, less commission dollars coming in.
20 Not much at this point.
21 Lousy compensation and lack of room for advancement.
22 Client behavior, carrier inflexibility, paperwork.
23 I don’t like the fact that you can never really learn everything. So much is constantly changing and there are so many different markets that it’s really hard to keep track of who is doing what!
24 The salesman reputation the industry holds. We get thrown in as a commodity product or as someone who’s only after commission when nothing could be further from the truth. Accountants and lawyers most often get a built-in trust factor, but the investments we protect with our knowledge of coverage still come across as pushing a product for money.
25 Prospects who are not honest.
26 Ignorance. You come across a lot of people in insurance that know nothing about the product they sell and have no desire to learn. They are an injustice to those that they insure and the companies they represent. It is impossible to know everything, but you must be willing to say you don’t know and follow up.
27 Highly regulated, too structured.
28 Supplemental applications … difficult to place risks … I seem to be a magnet for both! I am also concerned that while our industry is attracting people to the sales side of the house, I don’t see the same influx of applicants to the account manager/customer service rep arena.
29 Lack of structure.
30 Prospecting and finding quality leads.
31 The soft market and unethical competitors.
32 Cold calling.
33 Image – we are like used car salesmen!
34 Antiquated business practices, software, etc.
35 Commission-based sales.
36 Honestly, the paperwork! But, I also understand the importance of it.
37 Slow sales months.
38 Time away from my family spent traveling to trade shows, seminars, working late, etc.
39 Short months, paying my own lead bills and potential customers who are stuck in their ways and don’t want anything else but mom and dad’s old insurance agent that has been over charging them for years!
40 Difficulty of companies in writing business. They have certain questions and information they request to write it, but once it is issued they come back with more questions. Ask upfront or let us know upfront so that we do not look bad to the clients.
41 The thing I like least is when a customer does not have enough money to pay their insurance premiums.
42 I really do not like the public opinion of insurance. The perception of people is hard to overcome.
43 The amount of work involved in getting new business.
44 The starvation during this soft market. I have lost weight.
45 The old people in the industry who do not understand that if you impede technology you impede success. Technology is not just electronics, it’s what separates us from primates. It is something that allows a man to do a job easier than the next.
46 Administrative workload that inevitably still falls to detail-oriented younger team members; I’d rather be selling!
47 I work in a small market and find the expansion into specialty areas is difficult because of our location. Also, companies require too much volume for us to represent all of them, so we’ve considered general agent and cluster opportunitities to help us grow organically. Also, in an agency of five people, you have to service customers as well as find new ones. The balance can sometimes be frustrating.
48 There are many mouths to feed. All of the carriers want you to keep up your production numbers and want a piece of the pie. Also, sometimes too many options can cost you time and cause you to lose the prospect.
49 Clients who shop their business every year just based on price. No loyalty a lot of the time.
50 I have concerns every night I go home about the personal insurance side and the loss of marketshare to GEICO and other direct writers. I wish our independent carriers would step up the marketing efforts. I also wish we (as an industry) would hire a great PR firm to change the perception of the industry as a benefit to the consumers.
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