Complaint Review: HealthMarkets Cornerstone America

As a public service to those considering a position at the local office I worked for, I think it is only fair to warn you that under the RSL, who is great, there are two DSL's. You will be assigned to one of their teams and I can almost guarantee that if you end up on the one I was on, you'll have little chance of making it.

On my team, I saw many people come and go and right at the end when I left I could see that even the better agents on my team were starting to get depressed and it was showing in their numbers. We were constantly under inordinate amounts of pressure to perform beyond our means, then made to feel worthless when we were unable to meet our DSL's unrealistic expectations.

Currently, on the team there are two people I know will be leaving soon and are waiting for the right time and there are two more newbies that I seriously doubt will stick around for long.

In sharp contrast, the other DSL produces winners. His approach to training is better, his support is better and I have a sneaking suspicion he is giving his agents a competitive edge by purchasing more leads and distributing them fairly between his group of agents.

Below I am going to copy and paste the last two emails I got from my leader........take heed, for this is what you should expect if you accept a position within the office I was at if you end up on the team I just left:

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Subject: 2007-Race for the record year

This was originally sent at the end of last year. I have modified a few points and felt like this was a good time to re-send it. We are moving into a new office this weekend and with that comes higher expectations out of us as a team. Let's rise to the challenge. I know you can.


People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them,
make them.
- George Bernard Shaw


Mediocrity will not be accepted. In the year 2007 I intend for us to grow as a team and personally to new heights. I will no longer accept mediocrity as the norm. I will NOT be the only one in the top 100! We will grow our team with or without you as an individual. Personally, I would like to see you all hit new heights for yourself. We were all hired to make sales, lots of sales, not just a few. As we bring new people on board, they need to see and feel the excitement of what we can and will accomplish as a team.

( ??? ) has very high expectations of his team in 2007. Do we want to finish in second place again?! I THINK NOT!! The only way to challange his team is for you all to individually surpass all of your personal goals. I want to know who will be our ( ???? ) Is he that superior to all of you?! Not at all. He has, however, found the passion to do this and excel at it. He now refuses to accept mediocrity in himself. I commend him for that. Who on our team will step up to that same plate? Who will give him an honest Race for the Record?



Currently we are #56 for YTD Team production. My goal is the Top 25 for our team. We have half the year still to go and we can do this.

On Friday I will set up a time to sit with each of you individually next week and review this past quarter and a half and your business plan for the rest of the year. Remember what your job is: Sell as much as you can; collect as much free stock as you can; take as many trips as you can; and have a good time doing it!!

I am here for each and every one of you. I want to see you succeed perhaps more than you do yourself. I saw something special in each of you and that's why you're here and on my team. Don't let us down. Stand up and be counted. Today's the Day!


-------Then later that same day......--------
Subject: May Madness Contest

We need 40-50K this week to have a chance at winning. Pull together team! You can do it!!
We have until a 4:30 Saturday fedex to make it.

Everybody writes!!


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To anyone who DOES accept the position, I expect to see your commentary here shortly. Good luck }; P

I started with Cornerstone a little less than a year ago. At the time I thought it was the answer to all of my problems so I paid the fees for the background check, the course and state licensing so I could sell insurance legally and I was on my way. I had been told that I would get 10-15 leads per week and they gave me a list of other ways I could advertise/market myself. The math was simple.....50-60 leads= 10-12 interested prospects= 7-8 appointments= 4-5 sales= average of $1000. - $1,500. weekly income.

I had three days of actual training and three days of field training which was basically my assigned team leader saying " Here. Read this, do this and call these people. Could you leave my office, I need to make a call". At first I called the A and B leads they gave me and lo and behold I sold a few per week but never really made more than about $500 per week, every other week.

Then I began walk and talking ( stopping into businesses to hand out your card and solicit business ), handed out fliers, bought leads from internet lead sites at $10 a pop, hung pull tabs on public buletin boards, posted ads on online classifieds, created a google pay per click campaign to direct traffic to my website to generate more leads, and ran myself ragged. Every penny I earned went towards paying my piling late household bills and marketing costs, hoping to grow my business.

If you have money to invest when you start...great, you have a fighting chance of succeeding. If not, you'll wind up like me. I'm now about $3,000 in the hole and just took out a title loan against my vehicle at 158% just to pay last weeks bills so I could work this week. This week I had two appointments where they couldn't afford the policy and another that lied and ended up not being qualified for insurance because of a preexhisting condition.

This marks my 7th week without a paycheck and after not turning in business an 8th week, the company kicks you to the curb, owing them the money they paid you in advances. Your commission is all advanced 5 or 6 months...I can't remember which because any time I asked about the pay structure I got some wierd song and dance, and until they have remained on the books for that length of time, you owe the company the remaining months of commission.

Between the deals that cancelled and the ones who haven't been on the books that long, I probably owe them a few thousand dollars. Sad as it is...it is a great opportunity and I have seen people have success and not long after starting, however, I have only witnessed that happen with single people who have the flexibility to work 50-60 hours, including evenings and weekends, which is the optimum time to be able to catch people able to talk on the phone or to have an appointment.

Think about it...most people have day jobs, which means you have to meet with them and call them when they're not working. If you have children to feed, as I do.......you'd better have free childcare and someone willing to watch the kids in the evenings and weekends or you are going to go broke just like me. I am currently looking to take the license I obtained in this venture and find more stable employment elsewhere since after next week ( my 8th week of no business ) I will be unceremoniously kicked to the curb after doing all but donate blood to make it work and leave owing THEM money !! I can't say that I will miss the high pressure from managment to SELL, SELL, SELL !!!!!

In fact, the last email I got from my team leader said quote " I will not accept mediocrity. You were hired to sell a lot of policies, not a few. I have high goals for this year and I will reach them with or without you ". Gee, thanks for the support....you're a great leader and you inspire such devotion and instill a strong desire to help you meet your goals.....NOT!!!!

Truth be told, the leads they give you are crap because management takes the first pick, then the highest producers get the next best and so on down the line until the newest people get their few leads, almost all of which are dumb, broke or unqualified...or the occasional blessing of being all three. This is why you need to have money to invest from the start. You also need to join a marketing group so you can get a trickle of referrals from them because it can mean the difference between having gas money that week or not.

I also won't miss having the weekly shame and torture meeting where each person has to call out how many sales they had that week and how much money they earned, etc......because heaven forbit you have a bad week or are going through the occasional drought ( perhaps due to the crappy leads and you ran out of money to market yourself ) you will be looked upon as someone who has a sales plague and they are terrified of catching it. If three people are having a bad week you can almost see them panic because the "plague" is spreading.

In fact, the few people in the office doing well are those in managment because not only do they get the top pick of cherry leads, but they also earn some kind of money off of each agent's sales and get bigger bonuses, and a handful of people without children who are well connected to other business professionals who refer business to them regularly.

Oddly enough, since starting here, the decision to leave is the only one that has brought me peace. I am going to post my resume' on Monster.com and I'm sure that I'll get that same automated offer from Cornerstone America for a great sales position, you know, the one that I accepted foolishly almost a year ago. What an ironic ending to my career with them.