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Have you considered quitting your day job to start your own business and become your own boss? Or have you thought about making some extra money on the side? Selling insurance can be a rewarding career for anyone looking for either of those options. Sure, it takes hard work, but the payoff can be well worth it.
As an insurance agent, you get to help people find policies that protect them and their families. There's something incredibly satisfying about that, but you might be hesitant to get started because you're unsure how things will turn out. You may not be willing to quit your full-time job to start something new without a guarantee that you'll be successful.
The good news is that you don't have to jump into selling insurance full time to succeed. As a part-time agent, you can use your time to learn the ropes without the stress that usually comes with a commission-dependent job.
While being a part-time insurance agent does have its perks, most insurance companies aren't looking to hire people on a part-time basis — or maybe just not during the hours you want to sell insurance. So how do you make it work? In this article, we'll go over what it takes to succeed at selling insurance part time.
First of all, you may be wondering whether or not selling insurance part time can even work. In short, yes. According to ZipRecruiter, most part-time insurance agents make between $31,000 and $103,000 a year. The nationwide average for part-time insurance agents sits at just over $72,5000.
The salary possibilities for a part-time insurance agent vary significantly. ZipRecruiter also reported salaries as low as $19,000 and as high as $250,000. What you're able to make depends heavily on your mentality and efforts. You don't have as much time to sell insurance when you're a part-time agent, so there's less room for mistakes. If you want to be successful, it's that much more important to ensure you're doing everything right.
So, what does it take to succeed as a part-time insurance agent? Here are a few tips to help you chart a course.
When you start selling insurance, your mindset will set the tone for your success. It's the same for anything you do. To be successful, you have to think like a successful person. If you go in with a pessimistic mindset, you're more likely to fail.
Avoid the idea that you're "just dabbling" in selling insurance. That may lead to a lack of motivation. I'm just trying it out, so why put in a lot of effort? After all, I still have my full-time job. The truth is that being inconsistent with generating leads or not working hard to meet with clients often leads to failure.
Instead, get in the mindset of putting in a full-time effort on a part-time schedule. Commit to a set amount of production and lead generation each week to get consistent results.
As with any other profession, insurance sales requires a particular skill set. To be successful, you'll want to master those skills and stay up to date with the insurance industry. What's important here is that you never stop learning.
Reading books and attending webinars are two great ways to learn and grow your sales skills and knowledge of the industry continuously. There are several books available that can help you reach your full potential selling insurance from home part time. Consider picking up a few and taking the time to read them.
Insurance is a huge industry, and there are all sorts of segments within it. When you're feeling it out as a part-time agent, it's a great time to get to know what's happening and make connections that could serve you well for years.
You'll want to find out not only what types of products are out there (more on that next), but also what the licensing requirements are, how commissions work, what kinds of marketing are effective, and more. Research the industry online, join groups on social media, and go to events to start networking and learning the ropes.
Before you get started with part-time insurance sales, you'll need to decide what kind of insurance you want to sell. There are two major buckets: property and casualty (P&C) and life and health (L&H). But there are many niches within these two major categories.
When you're looking for great insurance products to sell part time, it helps to start with ones that many people need. Classic car insurance may sound interesting, but will you really have the time to hunt down those niche leads on a part-time schedule? Standard auto insurance policies, basic life insurance, homeowners insurance, health insurance, and Medicare policies are all popular and easier to sell on a part-time basis.
No matter what you decide to sell, you'll have your ups and downs. It all comes down to what kinds of products you can see yourself helping people navigate. You can always try out a few areas before you narrow down your specialties — but it's probably wise to choose either P&C or L&H and explore options within those buckets, as each has different licensing requirements.
As a part-time insurance agent, a carefully thought-out plan and schedule are vital. If you don't make a commitment from the start, you may quickly fall behind on your expectations and grow unsatisfied with your results. Part of your success mindset should be making a plan, creating a schedule, and sticking to both.
Take a look at your current calendar and find consistent gaps that you can dedicate to selling insurance. While working evenings and weekends might not sound like fun, you'll have to put in the effort during your spare time to establish yourself as a part-time insurance agent. Saturdays and Sundays have been shown as one of the best times to sell insurance, so that's a great time to put in the work.
Part of your scheduling strategy should involve aligning your target market with your availability. For instance, if you're able to work during the daytime, seniors may be the ideal demographic. If that's the case, Medicare products or final expense life insurance may be a good choice.
On the other hand, if your free time falls in the evenings, your ideal demographic might be younger, working adults. These individuals may not have time to go over their insurance options during normal business hours. Being available after regular working hours can give you a competitive edge.
The point is to find the right product mix and schedule that will allow you to get started selling insurance from home part time without going overboard and trying to do too much. Plan ahead to set your schedule so you don't end up buried under two jobs.
Performing your regular full-time job and taking on insurance sales part time can get pretty hectic, so it's important to stay organized. Not only do you need to be organized when you start, but you also need to make sure you stay that way as you begin to take on clients and grow your business.
Because you'll be spending most of your day on a different job, it'll be easy to forget where you left off when you come back to your insurance business. You might forget details that were fresh on your mind when you were last working on a specific project. To prevent this and other issues that might arise while you transition from your day job to your part-time insurance sales job, establish a system for keeping track of detailed information.
You might consider a notebook in which you keep detailed notes, thoughts, important tasks, and similar information. Depending on your preferences, this might be a physical journal in which you write everything down or a spreadsheet document you keep on your computer.
If you have a budget, consider investing in a customer relationship management (CRM) sales system. An insurance CRM system provides agents with the features necessary to increase policy sales, manage marketing campaigns, simplify application processing, and strengthen customer relations. You can use this sales system to keep track of every prospect and customer so you can guide them through your sales pipeline smoothly.
No matter which method you choose to keep yourself organized, make sure it works for you. A system that's too complicated will be more challenging to maintain, leaving you more likely to abandon it. If you need to, test out a few different organizational methods to see which ones you like best for your part-time insurance business.
Whether you're a part-time or a full-time insurance agent, your clients shouldn't be able to tell the difference. To be successful, you need to be there for your clients when they need you. You might not be available during regular business hours, but that might not matter to your clients. After all, they have jobs, too. What matters is how you treat them, how quickly you respond, and the quality of service you provide.
To avoid issues, set expectations with your clients from the beginning. Let them know the best time(s) to call you — return their calls quickly when you miss them. In general, most people are reasonable enough not to expect you to answer a phone call immediately every time they call, as long as you set that expectation early.
That said, make every effort possible to take calls at every opportunity. That might be during lunch at your day job, during your breaks, or any other time you can pull yourself away. When you make the effort to communicate with your clients, they'll notice. And it'll make a world of difference.
You've made the commitment to selling insurance. You've already blocked off time on your calendar. You've figured out which type(s) of insurance you want to sell, you've got a system for sales and organization in place, and you're committed to delivering great service. Now comes the fun part — generating leads and getting clients. In other words, you need to hone your marketing strategies.
There are several ways to generate insurance leads. If you happen to have marketing experience, you can leverage your knowledge. You can go the more traditional route of direct mail, fliers, and local advertisements. If you have a great network within your community, you can also leverage that.
Beyond the traditional methods, you'll want to venture into digital marketing, too. Optimize your website for online searches by incorporating keywords throughout your pages, making the site easy to navigate, and ensuring it's mobile friendly. Creating valuable, relevant content and building a presence on social media can also be beneficial. You want to establish yourself as an authority and make sure your name shows up near the top of the search results when potential clients are looking for insurance in the areas you serve.
Marketing efforts like these can eat up a lot of time and energy, and they may not be your strong suit. To maximize your marketing efforts without spending too much time and money on the process, consider also buying insurance leads.
Typically, when buying insurance leads, you can choose from either aged leads, real-time leads, or live call transfers. Working with aged insurance leads isn't ideal as they're likely to be less interested (they may have even already purchased) by the time you contact them.
When you work with real-time leads or live call transfers you get connected with shoppers who are currently looking for insurance. Nectar can provide high-quality real-time leads to help you close more sales. When you receive real-time leads, you can be assured that the leads you're speaking with are pre-qualified and interested in finding the best coverage for the exact insurance product(s) you sell. Best of all, it's free to get started on the Nectar platform.
Just because you can't quit your full-time job, that doesn't mean you can't get started on a new career path. Being an independent, part-time insurance agent can be incredibly rewarding. You get to be your own boss and have your own company. If you stick with it and develop a decent client base, you'll also be building a book of referrals and renewals. With enough effort, you may eventually be able to switch to working as a full-time agent.
If you need leads to get your insurance business off the ground, Nectar is here to help. Sign up today to start talking to qualified insurance leads today.
This article reflects the features of Nectar as of the date of publication. Features are subject to change at any time. This article is meant for informational purposes only, it is not a guarantee that using Nectar will help you achieve specific business or financial results and is not intended to serve as the sole recommendation for any business financial decisions.