The Truth About
Primerica
If you're looking into a Primerica
opportunity, then you'll find this article very helpful in your
doing your research. Because I've spent over 10 years there and
was a Regional Vice President, and have made money there. I'm
not with the company anymore and in this article I'd like to
share with you how the system works.
First of all it's not a scam, it is a real
company, and yes they do have lots of people who make a six
figure income. But the more important question you should ask
yourself is whether it's the right opportunity for you?
There are 2 sides to that business. One is
the product side and the other is the opportunity.
Now the concept of teaching people to save
money, buy the right kind of life insurance, and get out of debt
is right and is very much needed today. Most people who come
into Primerica, including myself are completely new to the
financial services industry, so the on the surface it seems that
everything the company does is great. However, if you stick
around and actually produce and start developing clients and
enhancing your financial education, you start realizing the
although the concept is right, the products are limited.
In other words as financial services
professional, shouldn't you and your clients have the best
choices for financial vehicles, when it comes to insurance,
saving, and loans?
Of course, but in Primerica, it is limited
to what the company allows you to have, and you cannot go
outside of that. Now you can make money with that, but the
question becomes, are you doing the best for your clients, by
offering them only what you have available?
And in the long run you're shooting
yourself in the foot, because when some of your clients discover
other choices they will leave and you lose credibility with
them.
Now let's talk about the opportunity. The
structure of Primerica's compensation is based on a network
marketing and multi-level marketing model. And there's
absolutely nothing wrong with that. You can recruit agents and
if they produce the make money and you make money.
It's a very similar concept that is used
in every single real estate office, a mortgage company, an
insurance agency, and any sales business.
When you buy a house from a realtor, the
agent you bought from makes a commission, the associate broker,
if there's one also get a cut, called an override, and the
broker get's his or her override, or share of the commission.
When you get a mortgage, the same thing
happens. If you go buy carpet, or furniture, or a car at a
dealership, the sales person makes a commission, the assistant
manager gets an override, the manager of the store or a
dealership gets an override. Sometimes if the company has
multiple locations, they have area managers or regional vice
presidents and they all get a cut of that sale.
So this structure is what sales really is
all about. The challenge with the Primerica system, is not the
compensation, but the mere fact that in order for you to make
big money you have to build an organization. In other words you
have to recruit people.
Can you make money without recruiting?
Yes, but you won't get promoted to a
higher level of compensation, and more importantly you have to
be a salesman, selling the products and services of that company
to make any money. There's no marketing or lead generation plan,
so you're on your own, as far as finding clients, getting
referrals, etc... And even then, if that's for you, keep in mind
the product side of the business we just went over.
Going back to recruiting. Now that's a
whole different animal. I don't care what marketing business
you're in, IF you can find a number of good quality people, you
will make money.
What do I mean by good quality? And
remember I'm speaking from 15 years of experience, almost 11
years with Primerica.
They have to be self-motivated, very
driven, coachable, have lots of desire. They have to be willing
to go through lots of personal development, learn how to sell,
learn how to market, think like an entrepreneur and not an
employee, become a leader, be an optimist, not afraid to fail,
and most importantly not quit when faced with setbacks that WILL
absolutely happen.
Ok, so we just eliminated about 97% of the
people out there. That's right you read that correctly, ONLY
about 2 or 3% of the people possess or are willing to acquire
these qualities. And the rest of the 97% are simply wishing to
become rich, but will never do anything.
This is the cold hard truth. So can you
make it with only 3%?
Absolutely, IF, and this is a BIG IF, you
can find them. And it's not 3 out of every 100 people. You might
need to talk to 5,000 or 10,000 to find them. Really. Because if
it was 3 out of every 100, everybody would be rich. Right?
So the most important question you need to
ask yourself when evaluating a business opportunity, is this:
Does it have a proven marketing plan to
find these people? Because if it doesn't then how in the world
will you find them?
Sure there are traditional methods, which
you will be presented with:
- Make a list of people you know
- Put up fliers
- Cold call
- Meet people in shopping malls
All these, and I can list a dozen others
like that, will require you to go through MASSIVE rejection.
These methods may have worked in the 80's
and early 90's but you're not going to find too many successful
people today, who used these methods in the last 5 to 10 years
and gotten anywhere with them.
And even if you're tough as nails and
willing to do that, do you think the people you'll find will be
willing to do the same, and how long do you think they'll last?
The only other way to find good quality
people, is to have a marketing system that can attract, sift,
and sort through lots of people. I spent 10 years calling people
and doing all the manual labor to get in front of prospects.
The bottom line is that you either have to
have a marketing system that can do the work for you OR you have
to personally do the work yourself. And only you can decide
which road is right for you.
