The insurance industry can be ruthless, but it is incredibly rewarding. Insurance is one of the few industries with the big four career advantages: you can be your own boss, control your income, gain a huge income, and help people better their lives.

But industries with these benefits often come with ample opportunities to fail. Here is some common reasons why you may struggle to gain footing in this tough industry.

You are easily discouraged

Do not overthink a bad week or a failed interaction as long as you did everything in your power to be successful. Sometimes the ball just does not roll your direction. Take a tough week to the chin and keep moving forward, success will come soon enough. 

Just a reminder, most agents are rejected by prospects more often than they gain clients, that’s why agents must cast a wide net. If you experience more success than rejection, maybe it’s time to start keynote speaking.

You’re playing the lottery.

Success never happens overnight. Planning, organizing, strategizing and educating must first occur before success. A successful salesperson or insurance agent sees their own light at the end of the tunnel and completes what they can from day-to-day. Opportunities for success are only maximized when day-to-day work is optimized.

Unorganized time

A salesperson’s success does not stem from one aspect of their career, but everything they do as a whole. Spending too much time on one area is like “feeding a fed horse”—it’s redundant and only takes away time from other areas that need improvement. 

Maybe you love networking but hate prospecting, but a successful agent is well rounded in all their areas. Sure, every agent has a specific area where they excel, but you will only go as far as your weakest trait will let you.

You stop prospecting.

This often intertwines with rejection, but even the most successful agent makes routine, calculated efforts to prospect. Much of sales is a do-it-yourself job and you must put yourself out there to gain new clients.

You avoid marketing.

Agents often focus significantly more on the sales process than marketing. But clients and business owners have a financial incentive and insurance is vital to their success. They need a better reason than “they are nice” to purchase a product.

Marketing and sales go hand-in-hand in the sales funnel. But, recently, there has been a shift in the sales funnel, where marketing plays an increased role. Clients and prospects can and will research your company, policies and alternative options before and after your meeting. Your marketing job is to make sure they love what they find.

You do not innovate/grow.

What worked 40 years ago probably doesn’t work now. The world is ever-changing, and technology only multiplies the speed of innovation. As society evolves, so do insurance needs, technology and trends. Successful agents must stay ahead of the learning curve if they want to succeed. New technology and trends may seem excessive or unnecessary at first, but an agent will likely reap the benefits of these changes once they understand them.

The internet provides agents with multiple avenues to market themselves and find useful educational tools. For instance, blogs are a great way to establish authority. Social networks, such as LinkedIn, can help agents spread their message. As a bonus, providing content on social networks can be a foot in the door to a potential referral. A client can share your content with a friend at the click of a button.

You focus on the bottom line, not the service.

Getting the sale is only the first of many steps. While you focus on your own bottom line and sales numbers, the clients focus on the services they purchased. No one appreciates bad service, and sales numbers will quickly crumble, along with your reputation and success, if the top priority is your bottom line and not the service you provide for your clients.

You’re not taking advantage of MIAA tools.

MIAA provides members with a variety of tools to get ahead of the competition. From carrier representation to agency automation and vendor partners to larger and new market access. When you succeed MIAA succeeds.