The math of a new agent's first year: dials to contacts to policies

Numbers vary by market, lead source and product, so treat these as an example funnel to fill in with your own.

Say 100 dials produce 12 conversations. Of those, 4 agree to sit down or take a full presentation. Two apply. One and a half issue and stay on the books past the first draft. That's roughly 1.5 policies per 100 dials, so 300 dials a day, five days a week, lands somewhere around 20 issued policies a month on a good stretch.

Now the money side. If an average policy pays a first-year commission in the low four figures at your contract level, and you're advanced at 75 percent, the check looks great in month two and the chargebacks show up in month five when a few of those drafts bounce.

The point isn't the exact ratios. It's that every one of those steps is a number you can measure this week:

• Dials to contacts tells you about your list and your dial hours.
• Contacts to presentations tells you about your opener.
• Presentations to applications tells you about the presentation.
• Applications to issued tells you about field underwriting and draft verification.
• Issued to persisting tells you about who you're selling to.

Post your funnel, even a rough one, and say which step you're working on. The floor is good at spotting which number is broken.