Combined Insurance as well as many other insurance companies are a total scam for their agents. They make giant promises when you first meet with them about how much money you can make as well as the hours you will work. At first I was promised a salary that I never got and assured it would be no problem to soon approach an income of six figures.
Maybe there are 1 or 2 people in the country that make that much but they are managers with many agents working for them and they get a share of every sale they make. I stopped one time and figured it out at the average commission you would have to sell a policy every 20 minutes 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to even approach six figures. 70 percent of every dollar you make goes to expenses, you have to pay for your own gas, vehicle upkeep, insurance, food and health insurance that I had to pay full price for, $1,240.00 a month for my wife and I.
I was promised I would never have to travel more than a half an hour and would be home by 5:30 pm, soon after coming to work I was traveling 2-3 hours and since people don't get home until 5:30pm or 6:00pm your lucky if you make it home at 9:00 pm and then you have phone calls and paper work to do until 10:00pm at least. You also have to meet on Satudays to turn in your work all on your own time, you can't win.
I know that the vehicles people drive and the houses they live in are not the only indicator of what people make, but I couldn't help but notice that even the top producers drove junk cars (I mean really bad) and the house's they lived in were terrible and in horrible areas. Either expenses consumed their income or they just did not make the money we were lead to believe they made. Not every call you go on is a sale in fact it is more like one out of every 20 stops may result in a sale, imagine the travel time to visit 20 locations that may be in town or way out in the country.
Typically when your done with your expenses a good week, and I had my share, will result in $200,00 to $300.00 in your pocket, you could make more at a minimum wage job with none of the hassles. This is all after you go to sales school for two weeks for a complete brain washing in my case it was from long dead W. Clement Stone which the people at Combined hold in some type of demi-god status there are pictures of him all over headquarters and his teachings no matter how bazaar are the bible that you have to learn by memory.
Under the enhanced sales module that they recently enacted you are literally locked in a room making phone calls on your own time to schedule a minimum of 5 appoints a day for the next two or 3 days and you are not allowed to leave until you achieve this goal all from their leads after you have worked all day. It's almost impossible to always obtain this goal and if you don't meet their monthly sales requirements they just fire you. They bragged they had discharged an agent with 20 years seniority for going two weeks not meeting their sales minimum how is that for job security?
After leaving Combined I went to two other companies and found them very much the same in their requirements, expectations, promises and real life income potential. No benefits, low pay, long hours, terrible treatment what's not to like? Insurance is the least published, least known, biggest ripoff going.
If your smart you will run not walk away from these places, my last straw came when the district manager went into a 10 minute screaming filthy mouthed tirade over our lack of meeting some arbitrary goal that would put more bonus money in his pocket enough was enough. Why do you think that the want ads are always filled with agents needed ads. People learn quickly they can't make a living selling this type of insurance and leave.
Sam
Charlotte, Michigan
U.S.A.
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