Attention: CA P&C Agency Owners with small books of business
There comes a time when you know you are a Professional Salesperson, no one has to tell you, you just know.
When that day comes, you look around, and say to yourself, what is the next step?
The vast majority of Professional Salespersons decide to open their own shop, which is a good decision for some, but not all.
As a matter of fact, many look back and say It may have been the right decision at the time, but now that I have employees, computers, office space, health insurance, pension plans, telephones, E and O, and all the other overhead to deal with, I wish I could go back to a simpler time, and have more time to do the the one thing I love to do, be a Professional Salesperson.
Professional Salespersons love to sell, A good friend of mine once said, it’s all about the “thrill of the kill” He was talking about finding the prospects, doing the research and closing the deals, That is what he loved about insurance.
What If...
- You could just be a Professional Salesperson.
- No responsibility of running an agency
- Taking off as much time as you like
- No service work to think about
- No renewals to think about, because others are doing it for you.
- No Useless Meetings.
- No Constant Search to finding markets.
- No need to train anyone.
- YOU always own your book of business
- No Quotas to Meet because no one needs to tell you how much money you want to make.
- When you decide to retire (If Ever) you have a buyer to buy at an agreed price.
- If you retire and died early, your book of business commissions goes to your spouse (Or whoever you choose)
- If I retire and die before my book of commission is all paid to me, my spouse (Or whoever you choose) gets the money till paid in full.
- How much time I spend selling and How much money I make is entirely up to me.
And the Icing on the Cake…
Make more money than running an agency!!!
Professional Salespersons Program
Q. Who are We?
A. We are a retail agency that has been in business for 42 years. 25 years ago, we started working with 2 producers, who are still with us to this day. Highly successful Professional salesman who have thrived under our system.
Q. I currently own an agency, how do I make this type of move?
A. You would become a salesperson for our agency, a 1099 salesperson. You would inform your current clients that you are moving to our agency, and from a specific date forward, our agency would handle all service requests and renewals. Our staff would handle all your service and accounting needs.
Q. What if one of my clients wants to speak to me?
A. No problem, many insureds think the producer does the service work, our staff is trained to ask if they can help with the request, if the insured insists, they want to speak to you only, fine, we will take the message and contact you via, mail, email, or text.
Q. I don’t have a computer system, do you work with paper files?
A. Our office is 100% paperless, once we come to an agreement, we take all your paper lies, input your customers into our system, scan all your files into our system. Your customers are assigned a producer code (you) so you get paid on any transactions relating to your customers. Naturally you get a copy of your list of customers.
Q. How do I tell my customers?
A. Once we input your customers into our system, we can write a letter to each one of your customers to inform them of the change. Since we have 800 numbers, your customers will never have to pay a price to call us for new business, renewals or service.
Q. Who owns the Book of Business?
A. You own your book of business.
Q. What If I make the change and then change my mind?
A. No problem, you own your book of business, you are free to leave and take your customers with you.
Q. Do you offer office space in your office?
A. No, I am not offering office space, phones, scanners, laptops, etc. If you want to come into the office to speak to us and would like to use a desk while you are there, fine.
A. Do you offer Leads?
A. No, I do not offer leads. However, if you have a proven way of getting leads, we can work out something between us.
Q. How do I get paid?
A. Each Month, you get an itemized statement for all new business, renewals, audits, endorsements, and a check attached, or you can choose direct deposit.
Q. How do I know the statement is accurate?
A. Our accounting is open for you, if you think something is wrong, just tell us and we show you all the accounting until you are satisfied.
Q. Am I a W2 employee?
A. No you are paid on a 1099 basis, Independent contractor, we do not deduct any taxes from your commissions. We report your 1099 income at the end of the year.
Q. Can I enroll in your company health plan?
A. No, you are not an employee of ours, so you do not qualify.
Q. If a client of mine calls in and adds a vehicle, needs an endorsement, asks for higher limits, etc., basically asking for something that will generate income, will I get paid?
A. Absolutely. Anything our staff does for your clients that generate income goes to you.
Q. How does the accounting work?
A. As an agency, we get paid in many ways, direct bill, agency bill, etc. Our software knows which accounts are yours and your customers are coded as “your clients”, when a transaction of any kind is made, an income producing transaction or a negative transaction (cancellation, or perhaps a vehicle being dropped) all the transactions are done using your code. All transactions will be shown in the statement you get at the end of each month.
Q. What happens when one of my customers calls in or email the agency for a Certificate of Insurance?
A. Not a problem, our staff handles all Certificates of Insurance.
Q. How is a call asking for me handled?
A. Our staff is trained to ask the customer if there is anything she can do? Many times, customers think they need to speak to the producer to get service work done. As we both know, most producers are not very good at service work. If the insured insists on speaking to you, our staff will take a message and get it to you immediately via phone, email or text
Q. What if my customer wants to buy more insurance, or a different line of insurance.
A. Our staff will get a little info, and pass on the information to you via phone call or email or text.
Q. Do I operate under my own name?
A. You will have to operate under our agency name.
Q. Who pays for Errors and Omissions?
A. All producers operate under the agencies policy, and an annual charge is assessed based on the amount of business you have with us.
Q. Do you provide me with a company email account?
A. Yes, we do
Q. What Happens if I die?
A. In advance, we come up with a formula to use in the event of your death. Whatever the formula works out to be, we will pay your commissions to the person you designate as your heir.
Q. What happens when I want to retire?
A. No problem, we come up with a formula to use in the event you want to retire, and we use the formula to buy out your interest in your book of business. We reserve the right of first refusal if you decide to retire. If we do not meet your price for your book of business, you can take you book and sell it to another agency.
Q. What Happens if I want to leave at some point.
A. You can leave anytime you want and take your customers with you.
Q. What happens to my book of business if I decide to leave?
A. It’s your book, you can take it with you.
Q. Do I have access to all your markets?
A. Absolutely
Q. What if I want to write Personal Lines?
A. We have personal Lines Markets (The commission split may be different on personal lines) We will come up with a number before you start.
Q. Do I have to pay for the staff in addition to the commission split?
A. No, the staff is covered in the commissions split, ALL expenses are covered in the commission split except the E and O and we can work that out also.
Q. Other than the commission split, what other expenses am I responsible for?
A. Just the Errors and Omissions policy, and that can be negotiated in advance.
Q. What is the commission split?
A. The commercial business spilt is 50/50 New, renewal, endorsements, fees, etc.
Q. How are fees split?
A. Same as commissions 50/50.
Q. Do I get a % of any company bonus?
A. No
Q. Is a 50/50 spilt Fair?
A. PIA Studies and Big I studies show the average agency owner makes 25%. Consider your current income, minus all your expenses, employees, office space, payroll, computers, office furniture, payroll taxes, employee benefits (if any), Office supplies, stamps, Telephone, MVR reports, bank charges, computer software, etc. are you current making 50%?
Another big factor to Add is You become a Professional Salesperson, you do not have to think about running an agency.
Q. I am in Northern CA. how does that work?
A. Does not matter where in CA you are. You can work from anywhere in CA.
Q. What If I have a direct appointment to a market you do not have?
A. We can make arrangements for it to work.
Case Study: Jeff
In 1982 a guy shows up my office and asks to see me.
I let him in, and he introduced himself as Jeff, he said he wanted to meet me because I had just beat him on an account.
An unusual meeting to say the least, but we started talking and I could clearly see Jeff was a professional salesman.
He went on to tell me, he had a small office with two female employees, he did all the selling and his employees did the service work.
As we kept talking it was clear, he did not like being an employer, he wanted to sell insurance and nothing more. Make a sale and move on to the next sale.
Selling was the only part of insurance he enjoyed.
I thought about our conversation and called him in and make Jeff an offer.
I told him Jeff come and work with me, not work FOR me, work with me.
You sell insurance, my staff will do the rest.
Jeff has been working with me for 32 years, in those 32 years he has been a professional salesman, last year he worked 4 months!!
Jeff averages $300,000 a year in income, and he loves being a “professional salesman”
Case Study: Don
Don started out as a captive agent with Nationwide.
Don was a leading salesman for Nationwide, but he did not like the environment.
He started his own agency in 1985, expanded to 3 employees and soon realized a lot of his time was spend being an owner, not a salesman.
One day I was speaking to Jeff who told me about Don, I sat down with Don and quickly realized Don loved being a professional salesman.
Don could be an agency owner, but he did not like managing people, all he wanted to do was sell.
Don and I made a deal and have been working together ever since, 29 years.
Don averages $250,000 a year and still loves selling.
Don works about 7 months a year, the rest of the time he is hunting, fishing, or car racing.
Jeff and Don have been with me 25+ years, and in all that time, we never had a dispute, never had a commissions issue or any other issue that could be solved quickly.
I tried to think of all the questions you might have, but I am sure I did not cover all of the questions you may have.
If you are interested in being a Professional Salesperson and have more questions, or want to move forward, call me and let’s talk.
John Baccarella
[email protected]
877 687 6987
6864 Indiana Ave. #201, Riverside, CA 92506