Combined Insurance Professionalism isn't in their vocabulary! Are they a cult or just a sham? Chicago Illinois, Jeff City Springfield Missouri

   I am sorry but anyone who is going to bash a company or employees of a company, based on meeting them once and for only a few short hours...is showing how unprofessional they are.  This personal based on what he heard is making assumptions about most everything, the only factual part of his long story is that he is full of BS (must have been why his BS radar was going off so much-lol).  Now being that I spent over 10 yrs with CICA, I know that the work is not easy and it involves a lot of dedication, hard work and sacrafices.  Many of the the posts I have read, while I can not testify they did not occur, I am pretty certain most have a hefty portion of exageration put in their by the person posting.

What they oftern times are forgetting to input into their story is that they refused to follow the systems that CICA has in place...I know from first hand experience that if followed they work flawlessly.  Not that you will sell every person, but if your in the right activity you can NOT make sales (unless you are a tard).  I do know for a fact, that the so called "walk by" has not been taught by CICA as a means of entering a customers place of business or home in 10 yrs now...now some old timers may still be using this technique but it is not approved by CICA as a appropriate means of entering a customers place. 

Bottomline, is like any commission sales position it takes a strong work ethic, total dedication, and a self disciplined person to be successful...while Combined tries to provide good training, quality products, and a Company cultured focused around positive thinking...YOUR success is still left up to you and if YOU fail then look in the mirror if YOU want to know why. 

   I am sorry but anyone who is going to bash a company or employees of a company, based on meeting them once and for only a few short hours...is showing how unprofessional they are.  This personal based on what he heard is making assumptions about most everything, the only factual part of his long story is that he is full of BS (must have been why his BS radar was going off so much-lol).  Now being that I spent over 10 yrs with CICA, I know that the work is not easy and it involves a lot of dedication, hard work and sacrafices...just as I know the rewards are there also.  I also know that Combined insurance is not a perfect company and the reality of it is a lot of new sales people do fail...but that is a reality in all commission sales jobs.  Many of the the posts I have read, while I can not testify they did not occur, I am pretty certain most have a hefty portion of exageration is being put in their by the person posting.

What they oftern times are forgetting to input into their story is that they refused to follow the systems that CICA has in place...I know from first hand experience that if followed they work flawlessly.  Not that you will sell every person, but if your in the right activity you can NOT make sales (unless you are a tard).  I do know for a fact, that the so called "walk by" has not been taught by CICA as a means of entering a customers place of business or home in 10 yrs now...now some old timers may still be using this technique but it is not approved by CICA as a appropriate means of entering a customers place. 

Bottomline, is like any commission sales position it takes a strong work ethic, total dedication, and a self disciplined person to be successful...while Combined tries to provide good training, quality products, and a Company cultured focused around positive thinking...YOUR success is still left up to you and if YOU fail then look in the mirror if YOU want to know why.  I can also tell you that in all my experience with Combined insurance I was never asked or instructed (nor was ever implied) to do anything that was unethical, immoral, or against the laws of man or God.

   Well reading your points, was kind of funny in someways. I am an employee of combined and I admit some things they do I dont like in terms of how they would like you to work no matter what.

But there are some things wrong,

1. I do have an office to go to each morning, alot of the times our company does interviews on the road with people in small towns way outside of the city, and that is why sometimes they do interviews in the hotel.

2. I'm from life health not 7E, people can complain all they want about work and money but the bottom line is if you suck well you dont make any money. There is alot of young guys in the company because the company is being restructured and we are actually now owned by "ACE" not "AON" anymore. A large majority of the higher ups are retiring, and they will need people to fill there spots.

3. Yes you work in an area for the week but first off you should be averaging 2000 in commission annually per week and about 1500 upfront each week. If you are GOOD the key word being if you are GOOD alot of people hired by combined have no sales experience because they like to give people a chance. I have a lady in my office who had no sales background and now shes one of the top in Canada because she followed the system.

4. Now I can also admit the hours you people talk about 9-9pm each day and saturdays and sundays lil far fetched in my opinion, when you first start off you need to put in the time to learn the system. Once you get good at it your hours reduce greatly because you can reach your goals in days rather then the full week. I tend to work 3pm-9pm mon-thurs and take the rest of the week off.  

5. Combined has treated me well I do have some complaints about the job sometimes when i think about it but they are minor, in reality i do get to choose my own hours i do make excellent money and I understand they ask alot from you but dont take everything to heart. What company is perfect??? everyone will have some issue with something at any job. Like you have to always recruit all the time when you go out no thats not what they mean.

Ex. If a client says "i lost my job" and im looking for anything and they happened to be nice or you can see they know how to communicate you can offer them a job and if they get it you get "money" very simple. They dont mean go looking for people to hire while you work.

If you actually stick it out for the first couple of months it becomes a very easy job and the money pays out good and if you get people cancelling on you well then I have to say you should know when a client wants something and when they dont and you should not try to force them into a sale. MANY of you sales people out there think you're hot shit and force people or push on them for sales and MANY of those people get the comission cut backs.

If you do quality business you will sell well,  and make large amounts of money you can stick with your 35k  a year jobs fine by me. I'm a college graduate from marketing, my income is well over 6 figures and i'm 24, so if your making more money then me then great keep it up. But if you cant hack it and need to complain dont bash a company. Till you put in the time and suck it up.

I cant speak for the whole company I understand there are bad agents and managers out there but when i started out my meals were covered by my sales manager and I was also given a $500 a week draw incase i didnt sell anything for the first 7 weeks.

I have to say, if you are talented at selling and have the ability to help others and can do quality business without forcing people to buy something that they cant not afford and or do not want and you know it, then take on this job.

It requires time if you put in the time the job becomes easy, for example i just got back from a BYT "blow your top" i just made $3000 upfront for 5 days work and i worked a total of hmm let me think here 25 hours? which works to being 120 an hour.

I see new agents come and go because they dont want to put in the time many of my co workers who are 6 months plus with the company they make sales and the job becomes easy to them.  

So MIKE i will say this if you're a professional then you should be able to hack it, if not then I wouldnt call yourself a professional.

"sorry for the spelling just wrote this up fast"

Eric

Have a good day and good luck to anyone.

Go to any sales meeting in any city in any country where CI has snuck into. The employees be it a new agent or a DM all drive broken down cars. They all look tired and woren out and their pathetic techniques never change. I worked for CI for close to 1 year in 1992. I can't believe they still use the same techniques with those outdated flipcharts. I distinctly remember a DM or some other slimey piece of dung showing us the same "trick", of shoving past someone as you shake their hand.

CI does not value anyone, never has and never will. I noticed that many customers cancelled their policies after trying to collect on them. If combined is so great I have some questions?

   1) Why is their such a high turnover rate? (please spare me the old they had no PMA or some other answer they have you memorize.)

   2) Any reputable company will pay your expenses. Why does every expense come out out of the employees pocket? Really doesn't build your PMA, when you pay for everything.

   3) Why does CI tolerate DM's who lie, steal and cheat?

   4) Why don't they ever change their commission structure? 17 years ago they paid that same pathetic rate of 14% on renewals etc.. Let's see gas prices have soared, food prices have risen dramatically ... Yet CI still has that same great comission structure!!! That also must really build PMA!!!

Sorry no one makes over 100k working for CI. Maybe some of the CEO's or TM, but go into any CI conference and you will meet a bunch of desperate people all chasing an empty dream. I survived, but I was young and had no dependants and I lived with my parents. Half of everything you make will go to your expenses. In this day an age it is sad that companies like CI still exist, but I think as the economy gets worse it will choke CI into extinction. Get out, go back to school or if you must do comission sales only sell large items. Sell homes, motor-homes, cars ... you work just as hard, but make liveable comissons.