Please tell my why SF continues to pay agents?
What value are they - if you call them they are never around.
Claims - They are never involved. You call an 800 number to resolve.
When was the last time they called a policyholder? Please help me understand.
Yep, right on brother.
Customers come to State Farm or stay with State Farm for two reasons
That’s all. Nobody is here because they value underwriting, or billing, or a call center. Certainly not because they liove the advertising or the Executive Office.
Get rid of agents and you can only sell on price. And State Farm is far too financially conservative to ever live on price.
Yeah, they don’t even have to do that. At the rate the older agents and even though a 97‘s are retiring within a 5 to 10 year time span the majority of agents will be on the new contract anyway. I doubt they’re going to go to war over it at that point. Time will tell, whatever the case, most agents are prepared to parachute out anyway. As a 35 your agent, I’ve made more money at this than I ever thought possible, but I’ve saved a tremendous amount also. I say bring it if that’s what They wanna do, we can survive without the company, question is can the company survive without us?
The difference has been the agent’s option to keep their current contract or take the new one. There are at least 4 and maybe 5 (depends on whether a couple of 90 year old agents are still alive) contracts in play. The next one will replace all existing contracts and be the sole choice. This will definitely create an exodus for some. Plans take that into consideration.
Hell State Farm has been cutting agent commissions for well over 20 years, basically every time they roll out a new contract. You got a point or just sht stirring?
https://www.crainsnewyork.com/insurance/allstate-angers-agents-sudden-pay-cut
Looks like Allstate cutting commissions State Farm not far behind
I’m sure you are exceptionally brilliant and know exactly what you need, you are the exception. Most people are too fkkn lazy to do the research to even educate themselves as to what they need on even a basic insurance product. Plan there own retirement? Create their own life ins plan? Purchase their own health plan? No, that would take too much time to research. These same people will spend weeks researching the best vacation spot however. Agents will be around a while longer.
Regarding the comment on car dealerships and salesmen.....you can now buy a car without going through the salesman. CARVANA and other places are doing this. For that matter so are the mainline dealerships.
I can buy home, life, auto, mutual funds, etc online. Why do I need an agent?
Just amazing to hear the cubicle creatures telling agents how to adapt and earn a living. Agency is nothing except adapting to make a living. And there are thousands of agents who once dwelled in State Farm cubicles but decided that getting off their butts and actually creating something made a lot more sense.
Shore up income from mutual funds, mtgs, life,health. Not here is a poster that truly has no clue how agency works. The average agent makes less than 5% of his net on that c-ap, you can’t sell enough of it to make up for the type of lost income you guys are talking about, in addition there is very little renewal commissions on that stuff, why do you think it gets so little attention from agents? My severance plan? Let the company service my book in the call centers if it come to that, it should take 3-5 years for my book to run off then I will simply close the doors. Multiply that scenario by 19000 plus agents and you don’t have much left or much need for internal employees for that matter. Some other second rank company comes in and buys whatever is left over and the rest of the internal employees are done also. Oh well it was a sweet hundred years right?
Maybe so, doubt any of the kids posting here are on the inside track for that info. One thing is for certain, if that becomes reality, and it certainly could, all internals best have your resumes in order as a large percentage of you will be applying for jobs at the next business the agents own, maybe a McDonald’s. You think your jobs blows now try doing it in a paper hat and polyester uniform complete with plastic name badge. Most agents I know will be just fine, they have never had a safety net and in general are prepared for whatever comes down the line, most have pretty lucrative side gigs as it is. My real estate portfolio nets me far more than my agency as it is. Bring it, I wont look back.
Going to be half the agents going forward. Compensation will be highly structured towards new business, little service work most will need to shore up income from financial services Mortgages, Mutual Funds, Life and Health.
Agents com in half once policyholder center goes live. 24 hr CRC, billing and claims handle by company. Do they really think we are going to pay renewals compensation. They should have plan for this with retirement resources is that not what they are suppose to be doing? Gotta keep yourself relevant most couldn’t run a McDonalds.
Right. Takes more than two years to implement a computer system for just a single branch of the company, but they’re going to eliminate agents in less than one year. Without an announcement. While our sales leaders are begging us for names of people who might want to be agents. Uh huh.
It was said by Dr Troll. He earlier stated the pension is going away in November of 2017 , and the CEO was being fired March 2018.
None by 2021? Who said that
Plan is no agents by 2021.
4hdo - I never read where he said it was impossible, just unlikely the educated high net client would be purchasing a high face value policy from SF. I agree with him.
OK, you can win this argument with you awesomeness. Afterwhile I just kind of get tired of banging my head against the wall trying to convince people to save them selves when they have no interest in doing that. Quite frankly, I feel no sense of guilt when a client is diagnosed with a terminal disease or gets hit hit on by a semi, I figure my job is to offer the products and their job is to make a decision. One of us did our job.
@4hvp.......and yet, we DO keep making those sales. Even though you say it’s not possible. It’s also supposedly aerodynamically impossible for bumblebees to fly. But I guess bumblebees are a persistent bunch who don’t care about that either.
The problem is the ones who are sophisticated enough to do that after very little research find out our products in particular the life portfolio are c-ap. I myself felt embarrassed to go to select quote and purchase my 20 year term insurance policies, but I did it and it was an easy process. Do you wanna know why? Because they were third of the cost of State Farm’s policies. Now granted these were higher face value couple million dollar term policies but the savings was thousands of dollars a year. Again the greatest sales person in the world is not going to make that sale.
@4owl....and after 32 years I agree to an extent. Probably 3 or 4 out of 100 will act on an agent’s advice. But approximately zero out of 100 will act unless they are contacted by an agent who makes the effort to approach them. Nobody....ever, goes online to buy those policies. That’s why many aren’t even available online.
And I am far from beyond a natural or great sales person. But I can be persistent and keep plugging away.
Actually it takes a consumer who actually gives a sht about there financial future and security that has the $ and is willing to part with it in exchange for that security. After 35 years as an agent I can say with confidence that 3 or 4 out of 100 are willing to do that. I don’t really care how great of a salesman you think you are that is a fact.
@4ybg......Try to keep up. People buy c-ap, minimum limits policies online that don’t protect them and don’t ever contribute to the company bottom line. It takes an agent to sell a real policy, or a liability umbrella, or a life insurance policy that saves a family when they really need it. And then deliver the check when it happens. Very few people sitting in a cubicle and leaving the instant the clock says they can, will ever understand that.
Who said anything about high-quality insurance policies? This is the state farm thread are you lost?
Because high quality insurance policies aren’t bought. They have to be sold.
Well......Allstate is shutting down Esurance and Encompass. Seems they get low volume, poor risk business that doesn’t stick. Allstate said their volume, quality, and persistency are much better through the agency delivery system.
And ours has always been better than theirs.
I am an employee not an agent. That said, it is irrefutable that agents, past and present, have played a major role in the success of the SF Company in its 97 year history. For many customers they and their staff are the face of SF. It is also clear that SF has been blessed with some very talented, hard working and loyal employees throughout its existence. Change is inevitable-competitors, technology and customers are always drivers. Agents will always have a role with SF, albeit different than what it was 10,20, or 30 years ago. The successful ones won’t just survive, they will thrive-same for employees. Less successful will cast blame at leadership, co-workers, fellow agents, the economy, political parties or people just different than themselves. Our Company has thrived through the Great Depression, two World Wars, the Korean War, Vietnam, Middle East conflicts, multiple recessions, politics, and too many societal issues to even enumerate. The competition is the best it has ever been, but It would be naive or even foolish to bet against this nearly 100 year Company.
To sell mutual funds
the SF commercials ARE the worst in the industry.....just embarrassing
Because it is an extremely cost effective way to sell our sub par product. We all would be better off if we quit trying to be #1 in the industry and settled on being a very profitable #2or #3, that would allow us to rightsize this BTCH and drop another 10-15000 employees. You would then be able to move your sorry hide on down the road to something more suitable to your skill set.
Your kidding right? Agents are the ONLY reason this sht show is still in business, you should get up EVERY day and thank an agent for keeping you employed.
Without agents, and all the staff the agents pay for, we’d have lost the #1 position long ago. And newer agents are dropping like flies because it costs so much to get this thing moving today. That gravy train some refer to is more like the bankruptcy express now.
@nsc - Well put. The Aaron Rodgers agent commercials are incredibly unfunny. Even though those are fictional it makes me wonder why Rodgers allows an id–t to represent him. Not a good message. The Allstate Mayhem commercials are great because they get the point across and Dean Winters is good in everything.
Same reason car dealerships have salesmen. Somebody has to peddle the sh–. Somebody has to sell them upgrades they don’t need. Salesmen sell, the more you buy the more they make. Sure everything is moving to online sales but when the salesmen disappear the gaudy profits tank.
The real question is, why are State Farm commercials so bad? Worst in the industry. Let’s demonize sports agents to resemble Allstate’s Mayhem and make the SF agent sniff Aaron Rogers and Steph Curry’s jock straps. They’re absolutely cringeworthy commercials. At least The General accepts their commercials are as low budget as their insurance. “For a great low rate you can get online, go to The General and save some time!”