Pros
Cannot think of one good reason to work there.
Cons
Executive Summary: My time was abused for no pay; in fact, losses. Training Didn’t Work Farmers had a "Career Agent Program". According to Farmers hyperbole, Training Magazine rated the program #1 among all training programs in America. We were expected to build a competitive agency during this program. It does not suffice to be in an ivory-tower classroom, learning stuff that didn't work. It turned out to be a flop. A case in point: I sold eight policies to one client. But I had no help understanding how to be competitive. Three policies concerned rental homes. In the end, I discovered ON MY OWN that client was only insuring for deprecated value, because rebuilding after a catastrophe like fire could no longer meet changed zoning rules. Nowhere in the training materials, and with no one among instructors or supervision, could I find any help figuring out the situation. Then, Farmers sent an inspector, and tried to cancel the sale. It was insulting to my client, who once owned 70 properties, and who was a home inspector himself! I convinced the client to make minor repairs, and the sale did succeed in the end. But it taught me two things: 1) Farmers had a bias to "cherry pick"; and, 2) Farmers' process wasn’t worth agents’ effort. To the latter point, the commissions I earned for all that trouble were about $900 for about 60 hours focused only on that one deal. On top of that, it was the only deal coming from about 50 hours of solicitation. Reputation Wows You Before joining Farmers, based on my own shopping, I knew 21st Century Auto policies were most competitive in the area, and that Farmers acquired that company. Farmers boasted about that acquisition, and it inferred Farmers offered something that clearly differentiated the company. Farmers was a Fortune 500 insurer touting their rank in the “top 3” property and casualty insurers in USA, so a person would easily believe in Farmers as a company. Misbegotten, Ineffective Cold Calling Initially, I was expected to fulfill quota mainly by attracting clients thru phone solicitation. The phone list came from consumers responding to 21st Century's TV ads. 21st Century responded before Farmers agents got the leads. (And Farmers agents were prohibited from upsetting any 21st Century policies.) However, from the consumer's point of view, it was a "cold call" because the consumer had already concluded their decision with 21st Century, and because the consumers were not aware of 21st Century’s connection with Farmers. In four months, I could only sell about 10 policies that way, which hardly approached quotas. Uncompetitive Policies Because Farmers sold other kinds of insurance, it would seem that further solicitation made sense. But, Farmers’ other auto insurance lines were not as competitive as 21st Century’s. Sadly, other kinds of insurance (like home/fire policies) were also uncompetitive in most areas. That became evident after months of quoting. Agents Turned Into Loan Customers Now, the agent contract included a mandatory business loan arrangement. The loan was doled out month-by-month to subsidize the new agent during training and agency building times. The loan would be forgiven when agency achieved stated milestone quantities of in-force insurance policies according to a long-term schedule on the order of a dozen years. Agents were expected to start selling insurance policies from the start, and were terminated early if quota missed. Conflict with Supervision How does a quota make sense BEFORE being qualified by training? Supervision did not help me at all. In fact, I only remember about five appointments with my sales manager in the whole experience with this company. I remember one with a potential customer. The rest were monthly reviews that were terrible. For each review, I had to complete forms which called the subsidy loans "income to agency". Loans aren't income. The forms also tallied activity data. But the numbers weren't significant enough to infer anything. Then, all the sales manager did in the review was berating me. He never offered ANY actionable helpful direction. It was just constant miserable conflict. Looking back, my sales manager may have tried to force me to quit for my own good. He pointed out that the loans just put agents deeper and deeper in debt. However, to take that attitude meant that a seasoned man must have felt the program ineffective. Because, if the “Career Agent Program” were effective, why would a manager sabotage contractor success from the very start? Costs You Wouldn’t Expect The whole experience was a struggle, even with loans. The total amount monthly was just over $3000. That’s not much to live on. Benefits like health insurance were provided to contractor agents like me on a group plan basis, but we had to fully pay for it ourselves. On top of that, marketing programs (direct mail for example) were paid by agents like me. Those costs amounted to about a third of the loan, making living difficult. The use of loan proceeds to pay those costs was not revealed beforehand of contract sign-off. Serious Consequences Upon resignation, local supervision did not take any “exit” action at all. They just let the loan continue to accumulate until contract provisions automatically stopped it. Farmers subsequently demanded repayment on the loan with a substantial initial repayment (at least 20% if recalled correctly). This overwhelming debt and demand caused financial catastrophe, the repercussions of which were severe, but are not germane to this review. Since the loan paid for out-of-pocket direct marketing services, that implies those services were out of my pocket. Q.E.D.: I incurred losses, on top of no pay for my time, as purported in the Executive Summary (first line above).