Why 90% Of All New Life Insurance Agents Fail And How To Make Sure You're Not One Of Them (2024)

In 2022, 5,738 people obtained a license to sell life insurance in North Carolina. The statistics show that 90% of them will fail within the first year, most of the rest will fail before their 5th year. Why are so many failing?

In most cases, it's a combination of things. Most employers or leaders will put blame on the agent and the agents will put blame on everything from the leads, the managers, the organization, the hours and even the clients. It's actually a combination of things and the answer isn't so simple. The agent does carry responsibility as does the leadership, I would argue that poor or inexperienced leadership accounts for most of that 90%.

First, let's look at the most common reasons new agents fail in the first year:

• Inadequate training - Many IMOs will give a new agent a crash course in selling insurance. They do not work to understand the agent as an individual in order to know the strengths and weaknesses of the agent. They do not nurture the strengths and strengthen the weaknesses.
• Lack of support - They usually do not get the tools needed to make their job simple and efficient. In Many cases, they are not trained on a sales process that is designed to prevent the agent from missing the sales he/she should be making.
• Poor lead quality - Some IMOs will push agents to spend thousands on leads that are several years old and have been worked and even sold by agents that showed up to the house years earlier.
• Laziness - This is a big one. Agents are self-employed 1099 in commission based insurance sales. They do not act like driven business owners but more so like people making excuses as to why they couldn't work. They say they are working but in many cases do very little activity that will produce income.
• Unrealistic expectations - Agents are sold by the IMOs that they will make six figures in year one and are told how easy it is to do so. While you can make a six figure income in the first year, most do not. In fact, the knowledge of how to make six figures selling life insurance is something that needs to be taught to most agents

While these are just 5 reason for failure, they are among the most common. Here is a list of actions you can take to increase your odds of success:

• Choose the right company to partner with - Speak with people at different IMOs and see what they bring to the table. If they make promises of making six figures in the first year, run.
• Be a business owner - As a 1099 self employed agent, you are a business owner. Act like one, learn the business, attend the trainings and work like your future depends on it.
• Learn the sales process - The IMO should have a sales process, if it doesn't then run fast. Ask your leader for a copy of the sales process, study it and memorize the approach and presentation. Practice at home dozens of time prior to hitting the field.
• Buy NEW leads - Your leader should provide you with some aged leads to get you making money but you NEED to get new exclusive leads. New leads will make a big difference in how often you sell and how much you make. If your leader doesn't give you some free aged leads with no commission cut, run.
• Goals - Sounds simple enough, right? Well it's not. Many do not understand the importance of goals. Goals will give you a target to shoot for but should also give you the instructions to achieve them. Create your daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly goals. Include instructions on what you need to do to achieve them and follow it. As you learn, you may need to adjust the instructions but the goals should not be changed under any circ*mstances. Share your goals with your leader and ask him/her to help hold you accountable to them.
• Grow - After you have had success selling life insurance, you will need to start thinking about growth. While your immediate riches will come from writing new business with your own pen, your long term growth will come from building an agency. Your leader should be able to tell you when you're ready and even help you recruit, train and support your new agents.

There is so much more that simply cannot fit inside a little newsletter. These are the basics and if you follow them, you should stand a better chance at success.

Most agents do not understand success regardless of how much money they make. Success, in large part, is based in trial and error, following systems and processes religiously and to a large degree …. luck. You read that right, LUCK!

With that being said, you need to increase your activity. Whether it be knocking on doors, going to trainings, listening to training calls, working leads, calling clients or meeting random people. The more connections you have, the better your odds of getting lucky. Its all about right place, right time.

Questions about this article? robert@theappelteam.com