FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE PIG - Do Captive Agents Control Their Own Destiny?

We started Insurance Soup on December 28, 2015.

We started adding people to the group on 1/3/16.

In 5 years.

Not sure if you have noticed, but over the last couple of years...

Nationwide.

Allstate.

Farmers.

Liberty Mutual.

MOST of the largest captives.

...have done something substantial to rock the boat with their Agents.

Reduced commissions. Forced the use of a service center. Available to independents to sell now.. Contacting your clients behind your back to "help" (move) them. Contract changes.

You name it.

The list continues.

And every single time one of these giants make an announcement like this Career Insurance Agents receives an influx of Agents FINALLY ready to make the move they have been putting off for the last 2-5 years. FINALLY ready to go independent.

You know what has NOT happened ONCE since we started CIA?

We have not lost a SINGLE Agent to a conversation about how the captives just offer a better set up.

NOT A SINGLE ONE.

The bottom line is this... carriers do what carriers do. They consistently look for ways to improve margins at the cost of their sales force.

How long until they realize they can put some monkeys on the phone in a call center and pay them 35% - no renewals - and continue along without the need of the local Agent?

BUT MIKE, BUT MIKE... I love (insert carrier name here) and I drink ALLLLLLL their Kool Aid and let me tell you it is DEEEEEELICIOUS.

We know.

We have watched you try and share the same Kool Aid any time your carriers name gets brought up in here in a negative light. Looks decent but honestly Kool Aid is a kid's drink being given to you because that's precisely how they treat you. Like parents who owe you no explanation for what they are doing because you're just a child and have no say.

But here's a Kool Aid.

Mystery flavor.

Guess it right and we will give you a $10 gift card to Chipotle or a free after hours pizza if your team smiles and dials for us.

But for the better part of 5 years now one... by one... by one, all these carriers who you guys are generally willing to go to war for when spoken poorly, they insult your intelligence. Mock your ambitions and roll their eyes at your dreams by making it increasingly more and more difficult to earn a good living.

And every single time they make an announcement... we obviously have conversation about it in Insurance Soup. It's kind of what we do. And there is always a solid 15% of the Agency force that reads the bad news and how corporate spins it to try and put lipstick on the massively large pig they just handed you.

And these Agents FALL IN LOVE WITH THE PIG.

They tell their peers that how these moves are AMAZING for them, and they literally never are.

Helps like 4% of the Agency force in the short term that can exploit something particular to their situation but 96% lose short term and 100% lose long term.

And every single time CIA catches dozens of Agents in the fall out.

And every single one of those Agents (we are literally at 100% conversion) go on to have way better first years independent than they did captive and then go on to have even better Agencies than they ever had captive shortly thereafter.

We have Agents that were captive for 3, 5, 8 years that wrote more their first year independent than they did their ENTIRE TIME as a captive.

And every single time we even try and point this stuff out, all the Kool Aid Kennys come to defend the mothership.

But heres the rub. They're not really there to defend the mothership. They are there because they feel as if their career choice, their career decision, the direction they chose to provide for and feed their family is being called into question. Is being painted in a bad light.

And THAT is what they are defending. The math is the math.

Higher closing percentages. Better commission rates. Better overrides. Better bonuses. More carriers. It all adds up to a significantly better situation.