What a Virtual Life Insurance Sales Job Actually Looks Like

“Virtual insurance sales” gets used for a lot of different jobs. Here is the plain version of the work, what you need to do it from home, and how to size up any team that is recruiting you, including ours.

The job in one paragraph

The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts it simply: insurance sales agents contact potential customers and sell one or more types of insurance. They explain policies and help clients choose the plans that suit them. Life insurance agents specialize in policies that pay beneficiaries when the policyholder dies. Virtual means you do all of it over the phone and video instead of across a kitchen table.

Source: BLS, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Insurance Sales Agents

What the day is made of

BLS lists the core duties, and they map cleanly onto a remote day:

• Contacting potential clients to build your own customer base
• Interviewing clients about their financial situation and existing coverage
• Explaining the features of different policies
• Reviewing a client's current coverage and suggesting changes
• Handling sales and renewals, and keeping client records

In practice that is blocks of calls, scheduled appointments, follow up, and training. The people who do well protect those blocks like appointments with their future.

The setup

• A state producer license for every state you sell in. Agents must be licensed in the states where they work.
• A laptop, a headset, and an internet connection you trust.
• A quiet place to take calls. Clients can hear a TV in the background.
• A calendar you actually follow.

Who does well

Experience helps less than you would think. BLS notes that agents learn many of their duties on the job, including by shadowing an experienced agent. What separates people is simpler: they show up at the same time every day, they take coaching without taking it personally, and they make the calls on the days they do not feel like it.

Questions to ask any team before you join

• How exactly am I paid, and when?
• Does anything cost me money, now or later?
• Where do clients come from, and who pays for that?
• What does training look like in my first 30 days?
• What is expected of me each week?

A good team answers every one of those without flinching. Ask us all of them. Apply and bring the list to your interview.