Is selling life insurance a good career path? Actually, selling life insurance is a tough way to make a living, and it's even more difficult to sustain a lucrative, long-lasting career. Some industry analysts report agents burning out within a year.

Life insurance agents face many challenges. The pay is usually straight commission. Finding qualified customers yoꩵurself is difficult, and t🗹he few leads that your company may give you have usually been contacted by agents already.

Still, selling life insuran☂ce has its advantage꧟s, too.

Read on to find out mo༒re about a career in life insurance s☂ales.

What Is Insurance Sales?

Insurance sales is selling people the various types of insurance that they need. This c�☂�an include life insurance, as well as car, health, disability, and home insurance. People who sell insurance policies are known as insurance agents or insurance brokers. Insurance agents might focus on different areas of insurance sales, such as selling to companies or to individuals.

Insurance agents can set up shop in a variety of wa♏ys. Some may work for larger brokerage firms or agencies, selling the different policies they offer. They might also work for individual insurance carriers or be self-employ🌱ed. It is more common for insurance agents to work on commission than to make a salary. This means that they make money when they make a sale.

Advantageꩵs and Disadvantages of Selling Life Iꦉnsurance

On the bright side, selling life insurance offers a few benefits that are difficult to find in other careers. First, life insurance sales jobs are abundant and easy to find. Second, commission percentages are very high compared to other insurance sales, such as health insuran♊ce.

Best of all, life insurance agents get paid commission renewals for as long as a sold policy is in force. This creates a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:passive income stream.

However, even when you locate a good prospect, the product itself is hard to sell. People are loathe to discuss or even acknowledge their own mortality. Moreover, unlike 🎉a new car or cellphone, life insurance provides none of the instant gratification that can cause people to make impul🐎se purchases.

Disadvantages Explained

Commission-Based Pay

The majority of life insurance companies classify their agents as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:independent contractors. They offer neither 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:base salaries nor benefits. This means an agent can work a full week, but if the agent puts no sales on the books, they go w🐼ithout a paycheck.

The upside to not being classified as an employee is th🐬e company cannot force you to work set hours. You set your own schedule. That said, life insurance sales, particularly during the first few years, requires working a ton of hoursꦍ if you want any chance at making a decent living. 

A few companies do offer employee status, which comes with a small base salary and benefits. Agents at these companies are held to rigid production quotas. Miss 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:your monthly sales target more than once or twice and you could be shown the d🐬oor.

Effort of Customer Acquisition

Finding qualified life insurance prospects is fraught with difficulty. Even with harnessing the power of the internet, good leads are hard to come by. Lead vendors abo🌳und online, but most of their leads are nonexclusive, meaning t💙hey get sold to multiple agents.

Exclusive leads, when you can find them, are very high in price. So with exclusive leads, your close rate—the percentage of leads you actually sell—ꦫhas to be phenomenal just to break even. And employers who provide leads almost 🉐always make you take a lower commission in return. 

For these reasons, many life insurance agents drum up business the old-fashioned way: cold-calling and door-knocking. These methods still work, even in the 21st century, but 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:being a successful insurance agent requires a lot of perseverance and 💛a very thick ski🌺n.

Difficult Sales Process

Even when pitching to the most-qualified prospect, do not assume you have an easy sell. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Life insurance is a very difficult product to sell. Simply getꦅting your prospect to acknowledge and discuss the fact they are going to die is a hard first step. When and if you clear that hurdle, your next task is creating urgency so they buy right away.

This is also difficult, because the product provides no instant gratifica꧟tion and leaving the appointment without signed paperwork almost always means you have lost that prospect forever.

On the flip side of all of these difficulties👍, there are benefi💞ts, too.

Advantages Explained

Many Job Prospects

Compared to most finance careers, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:becoming a life insurance agent is easy. No educational requirements exist beyond a high school diploma. Some states require you to take a licensing course and pass an exam, but these are quite manageableღ.

Jobs selling life insurance are everywhere. Online job search sites are full of them. Because most companies offer commission-based pay with no guaranteed income, they have no incentive to limit hiring. The🍒y offer jobs to anyone interested, and hope a small percentage of hires become productive agents.

Potential for a High Salary

By far, life insurance sales offer the largest commissions in the insurance industry. For example, most auto insurance salespeople earn a percentage of the policy that is purchased. With life insurance, you earn a percentage of the policy when it is sold, and then you get another commission each time it is renewed.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that insurance sales agents earn a wide range of salaries. The bottom 10% only earn an estimated $35,000 a year, but in the high range (90%) earn $134,000. The median salary comes in at over $59,000 a year.

In addition to high commissions, some life insurance companies advance their agents a specific amount of commission based on calculating the agent's earning potential rather than making them take it as earned, but others do not. So, for example, on a $100 per month policy, with a six-month advance, you 🃏♔would receive a check for $600 the day the policy is issued.

The downside occurs if the policy lapses within the first six months; if that happens, 🔯your employer charges back the unearned portion of your advance.

Renewal Commissions

The commissi꧃on you earn on a life insurance policy sale is no🌱t limited to the first year. Rather, you keep getting paid as long as the policy is in force. Your commission percentage on a policy drops after the first year, but you keep earning 5% to 10% as long as the policyholder pays their monthly premium. This is the passive income you receive each month without even having to get out of bed.

Most life insurance agents do not last a year in the bus🔯iness, and even fewer make it five years. The ones who persevere, however, are rewarded immensely with renewal commissions.

How to Excel at Insurance Sales

Selling insurance is a business that depends on developing good relationships with potential clients. This lea💝ds to more sales, as well as potential referrals down the line. There are several ♏ways to develop these professional relationships.

Learn About Customer Service

If you've worked in customer service already, those skills will translate directly to selling insurance. If not, you may want to find a course or interview successful agents to learn more about how to interact with customers.

Focus on Solving Problems

When a customer comes to you, they don't necessarily know what they want to buy, but they know they have a problem that needs to be solved. If you can demonstrate the ways your product can solve their problem, you're more likely to make a sale.

Build a Network

Even outside an office setting, you can build a professional network. It's important to focus on building relationships rather than sales. Connect with more experienced agents who may be able to mentor you or provide advice about starting your career. As you build your network, you will find that many of these relationships can help you expand your business.

Make a Professional Impression

If you're working in an office, it's easy to know how to make a professional impression. But if you're self-employed, meeting with clients at places other than an office, or connecting over the phone, it can be harder to do. Consider how you dress and communicate in order to present a professional appearance.

Play the Long Game

It will often take a lead multiple times of interacting with you before they are ready to make a purchase. Focus on developing a relationship and understanding their needs. If you are willing to be patient and play the long game, you are more likelꦛy to secure a long-term customer who is willing to refer you to other potential customers than if you are pushy or too focused on making a sale.

The Bottom Line

Life insurance agents make a living selling insurance policies to individuals and businesses. They are generally paid on commission and must find customer leads on their own. Being succeꦏssful in this type of career takes time and perseverance. However, once you build a professional network and start to acquire clients, life insurance sales can add up to passive income. Once you sell a policy, you can continue to earn a commission on 💧it as long as the owner continues to pay their monthly premiums.