Should I stay a captive agent or go independent?
I have been thinking about this for a little while now, maybe about a month. With my current job I'm an agent that is forced to an hourly schedule and paid as a W2 employee, but with the "commission" they pay us for getting sales feels so unmotivating.
I remember seeing a post mentioning how with their job, they pool all the commission pay from everyone's sales and pay you out based on how many sales you made from the last month. I think this is likely the same situation I'm in, because for example I recently had 3 sales that totaled to a 5k ANP. If I was an independent that would've paid me at least several thousand, but based on the employment, only counting those 3 sales, I'd be paid like $9 each.
Some of the pros of working here is that I don't pay for any leads and that all the calls done are on an automated system, also since it's hourly it's completely stable income.
Some of the cons are the constant QA reviews, being forced to an uncomfortable schedule, no extension so people I worked hard on can't call me back directly and there's no agent to agent transfer except for spanish. The "coachings" and lectures, the company can't stop changing scripts and processes.
But with going independent, I worry about leads, buying good leads might be too expensive for me, but I'll have my own schedule to control, bigger payouts when I do make a sale, and a direct line. If I go independent and start selling for the insurance company directly instead of through the agency I work at I worry about the whole list of pros and cons.
What advice would you guys have on staying as a captive or going independent? And to clarify, the field I'm in at the moment is life insurance.