Do you want to become an insurance agent from home and increase your success rate? If YES, here are top 10 reasons why insurance agents or brokers fail. The insurance industry offers huge career opportunities for those who are smart enough to seize them. And for insurance agents and brokers, the potential for success is particularly huge.
On realizing the financial and other advantages of being an insurance agent or broker, many people flock in to take up these positions. While some of these new agents and brokers go on to enjoy professional success, most of them fail and quit the business soon, unable to meet the demands of both the industry and the competition. Now, the question is, why do so many insurance agents and brokers fail? Here are 10 common reasons.
Top 10 Reasons Insurance Brokers or Agents Fail to Succeed
1. Failure to work hard
Whether a new insurance agent or broker will be successful in the long term or not depends on how hardworking they are. New agents or brokers need to be enthusiastic, extremely hardworking, and able to communicate effectively. All these will help them interact with consumers, assess their needs, and generate more sales.
For some, the traits required to succeed—such as effective communication and marketing skills—must be learned. Insurance agents and brokers who really want to succeed must be ready to improve on these skills—even if that requires much more of their time.
2. Failure to keep abreast of trends
Many new insurance agents and brokers fail because they don’t keep abreast of current trends in their market and industry. Successful agents and brokers, on the other hand, dedicate some time and effort into studying market and industry trends. This helps them make strategic decisions that can enhance their chances of success. In addition, insurance agents and brokers should always keep a tab on the competition—to avoid being left behind.
3. Failure to adopt the use of new technology
Technology keeps changing the face of businesses. For example, the internet has changed the way many insurance professionals find prospects and market their businesses. Agents and brokers who are not using the internet and other current technologies to their advantage are not likely to succeed.
Through the internet, more and more insurance brokers and agents are using effective online marketing strategies such as blogging, paid advertisements, search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, and so on to attract more customers. One of the reasons many agents and brokers fail is that they don’t incorporate new technology into their business practices.
4. Failure to network
Many insurance agents and brokers have failed because they downplayed networking. And when they come across built networks, they don’t take advantage of them. Successful agents and brokers form strong networks with other businesses that cater to their potential customers.
This will open the door to referrals. Even past and current customers can be networked with and encouraged to market the services of an insurance agent or broker through word-of-mouth. This alone can reach far distances and generate huge sales and profits.
5. Failure to take the role as a business
Many people get into the insurance business thinking of it as a job. But in reality, it’s not a job. It’s a business, which requires solid planning and money to invest in for success to be achieved. When insurance agents or brokers see their role as a business, they will be able to work smartly and grab opportunities for growth and advancement as they come.
The success of any insurance broker or agent in the market hinges largely on how good they are at marketing. They may be good communicators. They may be good at networking. But being good at marketing is what will really help them generate sales and amass profits.
Marketing skills include knowing how and when to attract potential clients, how and when to pitch offers, and how and when to be proactive. Agents and brokers who mix these up are bound to fail and quit early.
7. Having big expectations from the start
Many new insurance agents and brokers are of the “see it, want it, and have it” philosophy. They see the huge potential in the insurance business, and they want to start amassing the profits right away. They feel motivated whenever they look at successful people and want to be like them.
But they forget that successful people have worked their tails off for several years. And the results of this hard work seems like an overnight success to newbies. With the expectation that they can achieve similar success within weeks to months, they plunge into business, only to face the harsh realities and quit very soon.
8. Lack of quality training and education
Another reason why many new insurance agents and brokers fail is they don’t have the quality training and education required to weather the challenges of the insurance market. They were simply given a phone, a computer, and maybe a lead sheet with no training or mentorship.
They don’t even have first-hand information of the products they are selling, and therefore cannot educate clients on the need for specific insurance products. Of course, they are going to fail. It’s like taking someone who has never learned how to swim to the pool to catch some fun. He will drown.
9. Wrong focus
The primary focus of every business owner must be to offer value, not to make money. Many new insurance agents and brokers get this simple fact wrong, and they fail. Anyone going into the insurance business with the sole aim of making money is bound to fail.
10. Not learning from mistakes
Mistakes are meant to be made so that lessons can be learned from them. Repeating them carelessly is a recipe for failure. And it’s the reason why many insurance agents and brokers fail.