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NASFA
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Welcome TICA Agents
This section of NASFA's web site is for agents working
under the TICA Agent's Agreement. We want to hear from
TICA agents and offer them the benefit of our members'
many years of experience.
Click here to visit our forum and exchange ideas.
Click
here to send us your story.
Here is one agent's story.
Debt and Disappointment
I’ve been an agent for three and a half years now and
like others I have heard and read about, I’m still
waiting to make some money. I too, was told that hard
work, strategic thinking and a willingness to be
flexible and customer-focused would pay big dividends.
While I know I’m not perfect, I feel I’ve done a good
job in those areas. The frustration and disappointment I
feel is based on a couple of things.
First – the illustration I signed prior to opening my
doors showed that I’d have a book of business with about
800 autos and about 850 fire policies. When I started, I
looked at the numbers and was horrified to realize that
I was really only starting with about 660 autos and 685
fire policies. My income was negative for the first 6
months. In other words, I was using my own funds to make
rent and payroll. I didn’t break even in terms of
meeting the office expenses until the 7th month, and
even then it was
only because I had to fire the part time my DAFC
recommended and the full time, experienced person that I
had.
The second thing that has been disappointing is that I
realized that in order to make any money these first few
years, you have to max out the scorecard. That takes
either a super-human, a robot, a sales genie, or a very
skilled and focused team. I soon realized that I’m not
super human.
I can only do so much and work so many hours. I also
realized that it is incredibly hard to train a team
while you’re trying to sell and grow a business and it’s
very expensive to hire the seasoned veterans that it
would take to help you service and sell the way you need
to do.
The third, most disappointing thing is the amount of
money I have had to invest in this thing. They told us
we would need about $50,000 to invest in our business to
get it going. I’m several multiples higher than that. I
now have so much debt that I wonder if I’ll ever be able
to pay it off.
It’s depressing – literally. I’m so swamped with bills
that I feel deflated, demotivated, and somewhat
apathetic. It’s a challenge to go in to the office,
facing another 12-14 hour day, with enthusiasm when you
wonder if it’s going to do any good because your debts
are growing faster than you can possibly grow the
business. And all the while the only coaching I get is
“sell more”. Other than that, when I tell my story to
the Field Leadership, I see glazed eyes and a blank
stare, followed by, “Well, if you hit your life numbers
that will help with the bonus. You gotta be on that
trip!”
I hear similar stories from other agents that started
around the same time. I don’t know what we can do. State
Farm has realized their mistake and fixed the contract
for the newer agents, including adding an additional
$12k bonus when they sign their permanent contract. I
wish they’d do that for me. That would eliminate at
least some of my credit card debt! But no, my generation
of agents has been left for dead at the side of the
State Farm highway.
Road Kill
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