The Truth About Primerica – Scam Or Real?

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, should not 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 can not 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 will not 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 do not 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 does not 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.

If you'd like to find out more about the marketing systems I personally use, go to my website for more information.