New State Addition

I learned a very valuable lesson today. I need to ensure that I prep potential clients about what is going to happen when I schedule a first-in appointment and we both determine that it is best to look at all the options. My biggest pet peeve is when people don't return my phone calls or e-mails. I'm the type of guy that prefers closure one way or another. I rather somebody tell me to hit the road so I don't have to analyze things as much. I haven't done a face to face appointment in a while and my lack of preparedness showed. I won't make that mistake again.

I was able to salvage the appointment I missed yesterday due to helping a client fill out an application. Unfortunately, or should I say, fortunately for me the prospect told me that she applied for state assistance today. HaHa, that's not a good sign. She thought it would be a good idea to wait a few weeks until she gets a response and I couldn't have agreed more with her. I had a feeling she wasn't a strong prospect from the get go, but I like to "know for sure" so I don't experience the.........I should have done this or that that crop up into my mind.

On a positive note I have made plans to add a new state to my territory, as well as a few contract changes. After talking back in forth with a Regional Director at BlueCross BlueShield down in South Carolina and her superiors I have been given the green light to get a non-resident appointment with the company. In order to keep the contract I need to submit 40 deals by May 2008, which is 1.5 deals a week if I start next week. I talked to a good friend about this opportunity and he conveyed that might be difficult considering my current production or 2-3 deals a week. All I could say is that I will find a way to make it work. BCBS in my humble opinion is one of the easier insurance carriers to sell due to their name brand recognition. I look at it like this. I consider BCBS to be the honda civic of insurance. Quality product that is affordable and well known to the public. My primary carrier is in the Ferrari class due to being the most expensive, not having the name brand recognition, but they have GREAT VALUE and I'm not the "I can beat that rate type of guy." I don't like price shoppers because they are the first to complain about something.......

The importance of becoming appointed with BCBS in SC is that I OWN THE BUSINESS, they pay great commissions, the plans are good overall and they have strong name brand recognition. I would have had to go through a brokerage had it non been to working out this deal and I was not willing to do that since I'm a control freak and I don't trust working with brokerages because my experience is that they are a pain in the ass, but more importantly, they own the business should I decide to leave. "Ok, so let me get this right.....I work my ass off, move down to SC and get my contact, but the brokerage keeps my renewals and have the opportunity to switch my clients over to another carrier." No dice!

So, that brings the tally up to 4 states that I sell in (MD, VA, PA and SC). I was told the top rep last year sold 500 applications, which is very impressive. 500 X $3000 AV (My average AV level) yields $1,500,000 AV per year. At 20% annualized I'd net $300,000.
I know that I can successfully obtain 10-20 applications a week myself and I look forward to sharing my success with all of you throughout the next year!

I have also decided that I'm going to get all my own contracts now with the top three carriers (Golden Rule, Assurant and BCBS, followed by Aetna and Unicare when applicable) and I'm in the process of putting together a training manual that I should have had when I started, to help me focus my efforts and prepare things accordingly when I decide to take on agents. I'm still going to be doing business as usual up here in good ole MD, but I need something to motivate me outside of my normal channels and I LOVE training.

I'm off to get some reading done. Have a good night folks and thanks for reading my blog...........Livin La Vida Loca!!!!!!