Job Responsibilities
My primary focus is on Agent development, improving agent
retention and increasing life sales within the General Office or
Field Office. My primary functions are to provide sales support,
skill development, sales promotion, support the recruiting
process and support for administrative staff in product training.
The first year you're in training to acquire the knowledge,
guidance and opportunity to develop the skills needed to move to
the next level. Days are long, varied and hectic but never
boring. You have to be able to manage your time effectively and
move from one task or project to a one-on-meeting with an agent
or manager thne to a group meeting or classroom setting -
sometimes all in one day. It's fast-paced, sometimes stressful
but sometimes fun as well. However, it's stress you can control
most of the time because you are running your own training
department if you are the only sales development manager (SDM) in
a field office otherwise there may be senior SDMs in a multi-SDM
office.
A typical day begins between 6am-8am and ends between 6pm - 9pm.
Classes are usually 3 hours long with a small break midway and a
lunch break of 1 hour. One or two days a week is spent in the
classroom training on product knowledge, skills, habits and
discussing real-life cases. Some days you have a morning class
and the rest of the day one-on-one meetings with agents that can
last from few minutes to a one or two hours. One or two evenings
per week you may even accompany an agent on an appointment.
Generally your weekends are free unless there is a very big case
to be worked on or deadline reports to submit. This is
definitely a career and you have to love learning and love
people. You're bombarded with lots of information so it helps if
you enjoy working with information as well. You're required to
work towards professional designations such as the CLU and ChFc
or Chartered Life Underwriter and Chartered Financial Consultant
designations. There is minimal traveling (one or two trips per
year generally) or if you enjoy traveling you can specialize in a
particular area that will require traveling a little more. In
order to be considered for management you have to first
demonstrate tangible success as an insurance agent and be
properly licensed as well as show good relationship skills and
team player skills. The work can be very rewarding because you
see how you impact on the success of individual agents and the
entire office. Also, the compensation and benefits package is
excellent as can be expected working for a top tier Fortune 100
company.
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Job Requirements
Bachelors or above is desired but not required for what I
understand. Life and Health licenses as well as series 6 and 63
or series 7 thoug series 7 is not required. Professional courses
are 100% reimbursable.
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Uppers
Lots of people interaction, lots of variety, a great deal of opportunity to
learn about the insurance and financial services field. A good, rewarding
feeling from helping others and helping others succeed. Classroom work can be
fun sometimes. Sales promotion work requires you to be creative. Travel is
minimal but you stay at nice hotels and eat delicious food.
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Downers
If you are in a one-SDM (Sales Development Manager) office the
sheer quantity of your responsibilities can make the work
stressful especially if you are in training. There are many
aspects of the position so sometimes you have many balls in the
air and the need to multi-task. You have to be many things to
many people. Long hours can leave you exhausted at the end of
the day.
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Lifestyle
In field offices dress code is business the vast majority of the time becauses
clients come to the office at all hours - weekdays, weeknights and weekends.
Your field office will generally reflect the immediate demographics of the
surrounding neighborhood. Therefore, there is a great deal of diversity
throughout the company which is good on the one hand. On the other hand, you
have to be more careful and sensitive because you are dealing with people from
different religious, ethnic, racial, class and national backgrounds. For
example, some field offices may have a majority of one type of ethnic group or
even a preponderance of one gender whether female or male. This is more the case
in diverse, heterogenous, urban neighborhoods as oppposed to more homogenous
rural neighborhoods or fairly homogenous high-income suburban neighborhoods just
to use an example. This country is very different and sometimes radically
different depending on which part of the country to go to.
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Compensation
Because NYLife is a private mutual life insurance company there
are stock options but otherwise very generous benefits. Most
recently domestic partnership benefits were added. The SDM has a
formulaic compensation made up of a variety of factors set up to
ensure you do what you're supposed to do and to focus on your
most important responsibilities.
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Advice to Jobseekers
This is a great industry to go into. Contrary to what most people
think the insurance field is a very exciting field because it's
no longer about insurance alone - it's also about many different
types of insurance and financial products as well as investments.
The life insurance industry will do well regardless of whether
the economy does well or not. Everyone needs life insurance
because everyone is going to die at some point or other and the
best insurance to have is the kind you own and you control
because your insurability can become endangered if you suffer
from a serious illness or if your employer lays you off or fired
you will be left without insurance perhaps at a time when you may
have become uninsurable. Life insurance is a priviledge that
should not be taken for granted. Also, everyone is at different
stages with regards to achieving their financial goals. With the
Baby Boomer moving through the economy, there is no shortage of
business. Indeed, one of the most lucrative fields to be in right
now is the insurance and financial services field. Whether you
want to be an entrepreneur and run your own practice or enter
management the outlook is very bright!
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