What are life insurance agents like as people?

Why would you assume they are different than anyone else?

well, as i explained above.. everyone’s different because of their different experiences. for example, cab drivers and couriers know the city better than most people. a lot of the engineers i know live very information rich lives, excellent researchers for even the smallest things or they are more curious about gadgetry and specs.

every job, every experience, gives you some sort of useless knowledge and/or personality quirks.

right now, i’m considering an insurance job and i just want the inside scoop.

When they are successful at hiding that extra head and the pointed tail – they are fine. Nobody would notice that they are different.

Why do you ask? Is your life insurance due for renewal or are you thinking about marrying one?

heh, i’m thinking about becoming one.

It seems like they consider everyone a potential customer. I know/knew one. I didn’t know he was selling until he asked some personal questions and express what I thought was real concern. Then it popped up. If he was so “personally” concerned about me not having insurance then he should offer to give it to me free as a friend. That did not happen and I didn’t expect it to. I was just another potential customer.
My mother used to say “A party is not a party if they try to make you buy things.”
She did not go to Tupperware parties.

My Dad sold life as well as other kinds of insurance. Yes, he was a salesman – we never left a restaurant without him staying behind for him to talk to the owner about his insurance. But he truly, truly believed that what he was providing for people was something they needed and it was. He would not sell someone more insurance than they could afford. Insurance agents get a bad rap (sometimes for very valid reasons), but one can certainly work as one and maintain one’s dignity and ethics – if you are certain you are working for an ethical company. And that’s my stump speech for today! :-)

They are just like anyone else who works in commissioned sales. You have some that are sleazy, some that are pushy, and some that are simply persuasive. Those who can’t sell wash out of the business.

My company does its level best to purge the unethical ones, although the products we make don’t have much of a sleaze factor. Around 90% of our business is dividend-paying whole life insurance, which is sometimes called “traditional” life because it’s a little old-fashioned and not hard to understand. Companies that produce variable products, especially variable annuities, give the rest of the industry a black eye, and those are the products being pushed by the sleazebags.

Life insurance agents that are any good are salesmen. Thus, successful ones have those qualities.

My former brother-in-law has been in the business his whole career. He is charming, easygoing, likable, appears sincere.

Salesmen are usually “people persons.” There are two kinds—those who are smooth and slick and use high-pressure sales tactics—and those who are concerned about a long term relationship with the customer, and take time to really understand the customer’s need.

You have to be willing to talk to strangers, and approach people anywhere and everywhere. You have to be able to explain a complicated product.

Of course, in private time, many salespeople are probably always “on.” Always trying to entertain or be the life of the party. They might be workaholics, and maybe don’t spend as much time with family, on average, compared to folks in other jobs.

As it happens, my insurance agent does not fit these generalizations. He is really family oriented, and the whole family participates in the business. Private and public life seem very mixed up for them. They send a family Christmas letter to all their customers. I guess it’s a workaholic, outgoing way to remain connected with family.

They are good, caring, nice and fun people.

But they are ALWAYS salesman.