I am a 23 year old male
I got hired for a homeowners insurance brokerage company back in November of 2022 (south florida). I got the job from a buddy who recommended me from the car dealership we used to work at. I got hired 2 weeks after he did. It was a small company doing around 500k in premium every month. I was hired at 36k base and 3% commission of what ever I sold.
When him and I joined we rocked the boat. Started selling more than everyone there. Making the top performers get worried because we were doing as much as they were with no experience. Then they started pulling the lower performers into offices telling them if they do not pick it up they will be let go.
Fast forward to now we are now doing 2.5M in premium a month. Everyone else started picking up the pace. And they started hiring more guys. They decided to hire virtual assistants over seas in the Philippines to increase the amount of leads they could take a day and have us top closers only closing deals. Which sounds great on the outside.
We were promised that the virtual assistants would take us from our average monthly premium as an individual agent from 200k monthly to 400-500k. Promoted to the title of “closing agent”. The catch was, that since they were going to help us reach that amount of premium they had to pay the virtual assistants. They had us sign a contract saying that we had to reduce our commission down to 2% (no base increase) since we were expected to be making double the premium.
The people who are not closing agents got the option to get lowered down to 2% now, and keep it that way when they become a closing agent. If they did not accept the 2%, they would stay at 3% until they became a closing agent but then get dropped down to 1.5% once they did for not accepting the offer early. Mostly everyone took it and believed the vision, including my self. Only 2 out of 10 did not accept.
The premium increase did not happen, we tried it for 3-4 months. We sold the same amount as we did before the pay cut (200k). They were poorly trained. Would take the call, and I would spend more time undoing there F ups than it would have taken me to get to that point they transferred me the call to close the deal. We were wasting way more leads and close rate went down because people suspected we were scammers.
After the plug was pulled on this project. We had discussions on what was going to happen moving forward. Me and my buddy who demoed the program wanted our original pay plan back at 3% commission. We were denied the request. I even brought in another buddy to this start up company a few months ago that is up there with us in performance. Had him move in with me, sit next to me, and trained him myself. I asked our manager what about the people who stayed at 3%? He said they will have to accept 2% or they will be let go that they can replace them.
Now we are stuck at 2% selling the same amount we did before. The reason that they gave us that they are not giving us our old pay plan back was, “because it is not sustainable for the company”. There was no clause that said we would stay at 2% on the contract if this did not work. They are looking to increase the amount of sales people from 10 guys to 50 guys within the next year. Our manager told us that he will need 6 managers once that happens and promised us both a spot if “we keep doing what we are doing”. And they have to pay managers somehow to fit it into the budget (150k/yr) I am making 2 grand less a month doing the same work I did 3 months ago. With the promise of hopefully becoming a manger in 6 months to a year.
The other reason was “because of cash flow” the company was selling much less before last year at this time, so they are in the hole waiting for the renewals to come in. Which I do not see a penny of.
He is telling me to stop thinking like an employee and start thinking like a manager.
It seems like to me they cut everyone’s pay so that they can hire more guys. The original plan was to hire new hires at 2% and the people at 3% are grandfathered in for being in early with the company. But they cut us all down to 2%.
No base increase either I have asked for a raise increase in base. The manager told me he would talk to the owner. That it was not a yes but is also was not a no. It has been 2 weeks since that conversation. I have not heard anything.
If we left the company me my buddy who got me the job and my friend who I brought in it would seriously cripple the company and set them back 6 months to a years time.
That would mean loosing 200k from me
200k from my buddy that got me the job
200k from my buddy I brought in
200k from the guy they want to let go for staying at 3%
100k from the other guy who they want to let go for keeping 3%. That is 900k a month in premium they would be missing, almost half there sales floor.
Note: they owe us all for 3 months of commission that the company has not gotten paid for yet. That I feel like they could use that as leverage. And not pay us or just short us on what we should be getting.
Do I stay in hopes of becoming a manager and keep my head down and shut up for now. Or do I start a revolution?
Any advise will be greatly appreciated.