GL
Winchester,#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Tue, July 11, 2006
She did an excellant job of explaining the process through which an independant agent goes about contracting with insurance companies which use indy agents to sell some or all of their product lines. Many companies go this route. Many other insurance companies structure their sales forces the way companies in most other fields do it; they rely on a highly trained company supported sales force who exclusively sell the products of that one company. Combined Ins Company of America (CICA) takes the later route. Its sales reps are part of a deadicated sales force which sells only CICA products. For agents, the choice of whether to go indy or be part of a deadicated sales team is mostly a matter of temperment. Each has its advantages. Among the advantages available to the agent who signs on to represent CICA is being the recipient of a sizeable comapany investment in training, structure, established customer base and lead system, and opportunities for growth within the company. When people understand the investment companies using deadicated sales forces make in each new hire (keeping in mind that these deadicated agents are employees of the company, not indy agents with a contract to sell the company's products) they generally understand why the selection process is as in depth as it is. When I joined CICA in VA they were experiementing with the Wonderlic test as an assessment tool. The test is the product of Wonderlic International. Wonderlic provides pre employment and other testing services to many Fortune 500 companies. I don't know why anyone would find it odd that CICA might want to take advantage of the same tests that have proven value across many other fields. I understand the arguement that passing a state ins exam establishes the person as having the mental hardware to do the job, but William's post made it clear that he wasn't in the field, and didn't have a state liscense. If CICA hired him they'd foot much of the bill for helping him prepare for and pass the exam. Many of the reps hired for CICA's Accident Indemnity Divison come from other fields and obtain their liscense as CICA reps. Because of this, CICA doesn't have the advantage of being able to cherry pick among liscensed ins agents who've proven a certain level of intellect by virture of holding a state liscense. CICA needs ways to get a quantified sense of what the person has going on upstairs before sinking bucks into trying to prepare some bozo for a test he has no chance in Hades of passing. As for William's post . . . in my view CICA was extremely forethcoming with him and gave him a very fair assessment of what a career with the company would entail. His demo involved a great deal of travel, certainly no window dressing went on there. He actually covered more miles getting to his demo territory than I ever covered getting to the furtherest corner of my territory when I sold for the company. I was also stunned that he was paired with a rep who was underperforming and probably on his way out of the company. Talking with a rep who hadn't been able to ramp up during his first months in the field and was relying on his spouse's income to make ends meet tells me that there was no attempt to hide the struggles that many new sales reps encounter. These struggles befall reps in all fields, not just CICA. There are also huge sucesses who apply everything they're taught and make big numbers from their first day. I would have advocated teaming William with someone who was selling like a madman in order to give him a taste of what he could also achieve by working CICA's proven system, as it is its quite possible that the NMA dude he was paired with discuraged him rather than enlightened him. Either way, there wasn't any attempt to mislead him about the ease of making big dollars with CICA. As for the manager's heart hearted attempts to answer William's questions. Yes, they were lame, but they tell me that the manager had already decided that William didn't fit his mold of the types of career changers who flurish with CICA. As such, the manager gets no fault here by not trying harder to sell William on a postion he wouldn't have been happy or highly productive in.
Sue
USA,#3Consumer Suggestion
Sat, May 20, 2006
I am a Pa. licensed health agent and you state the name of the company is Combined Insurance. There is a Combined Insurance Company of America that is licensed in the state of Pa. Is that the same company you worked for? It's true that an agent must pay their own expenses such as gas as they are self employed but as for the others things you mentioned such as taking tests for interviews and driving that far so is not normal. I am appointed with major health and life companies that are licensed across the country and I've never had those experiences you've had. You give a company your state license number, your e/o coverage and sometimes you pay a small appointment fee such as 15.00 and that is it. If you complete your state approved education and pass that exam and then pass the state exam and are cleared by the FBI and are appointed by the state and have your license a company should realize that you already know enough that you shouldn't have to take a cognitive ability test! I've never heard of such a thing! As for the commissions of 33% percent, that sounds out of wack also and most likely they would have been much less especially your first year. You did the right thing by not staying with this company. There's several complaints about that company on this site and probably for a good reason!