Tag Archives: marketing

SAP 115: Begin with the End in Mind with YOUR Insurance Business!

As Stephen Covey famously said (in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People), “Begin with the End in Mind.”

What does this mean? Many things. In this context, if working in the Medicare niche, specifically, you should work to create a marketing model that can later be grown to scale. Once you find your marketing groove – something that works for you consistently – you can grow that marketing medium to double, triple, etc from what you did during your market testing.

Agents who do not have a marketing plan, or agents who are not having to answer the phones from their on-going marketing at all, often are swayed into spending the entire Annual Election Period (October 15 – December 7th) each year sitting in someone else’s business.

Like car salespeople, these Medicare agents have zero control over the marketing that will bring people by their table. They cannot overtly contact seniors walking by, even. Worse, they are limited to the brand(s) that they are there under contract with.

While it might yield some applications, I would argue that far better results can be obtained by having a marketing plan whereby people are responding TO YOU. You can remain independent. You can control the number of leads calling in. You can write what is truly in the best interest of these folks, rather than being bent toward only those carriers who you are contracted with for the purposes of manning their booth.

Many newer agents are told, “This is the way it’s done.” by their upline.
They are given a place to squat during this VALUABLE time, and told “Good luck.”
This is acting, for the FMO, as if you are a free employee. They do not pay you hourly, they just enjoy the very-generous overrides from the Advantage plans written. If it works, great. If it yields no applications, no worries.

Yes, there is a much better way.

I encourage you to be an independent agent – able to offer BOTH Medicare Supplements, Part D plans, and Medicare Advantage plans… Fully balanced in your approach and the offering to the senior based solely upon what their unique needs are. Being fully in control of your marketing means that you can create your perfect “avatar.”

That means you get to pick the income levels, interest levels, geography, etc. of the people you choose to target with your marketing. Yes, it is a good idea to actually INVEST in your business, if you choose to treat it like a business.

There are so many seniors during AEP that are desperate for individual attention that it is NOT difficult to get them to respond IF they are given the opportunity.

As always, for helpful agent information, visit MedicareAgentTraining.com. Listen below or watch here!

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SAP 113: Salespeople have to be HUNGRY, but not Desperate

How you do anything is how you do everything. If you have a consistent routine, every single day, where you are talking to seniors who could potentially help, you’re in the game. If you are doing ANYTHING other than talking with seniors consistently, you are fooling yourself into thinking you’re in the business.

Coming at any marketing business with an attitude of being hungry for results, in that it creates within you the drive to do what is necessary, means inevitable success. Whether it is selling Medicare insurance by phone, selling final expense insurance face-to-face, or selling anything to anyone – how you show up, or don’t show up, every day is what separates the superstars from those that barely get by or wash out of the industry.

As always, for helpful agent information, visit MedicareAgentTraining.com. Listen below or watch here!

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SAP 030: Best Marketing Practices for Insurance Success

Even the Pony Express only lasted 19 months before a better method of communication was found!
“During its 19 months of operation, it reduced the time for messages to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to about 10 days. From April 3, 1860 to October 1861, it became the West’s most direct means of east–west communication before the telegraph was established and was vital for tying the new state of California with the rest of the United States.”

What method have you settled on for the marketing and communication of your insurance proposal to clients? Are you still using the insurance version of the old Pony Express? Perhaps, if your horse is tired, it’s time to change horses – or better yet, change methods altogether?

For helpful agent information, visit MedicareAgentTraining.com

Listen below or watch here.

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SAP 026: Medicare Supplement Marketing Tips from the Fair

At the Coastal Carolina Fair in Charleston, SC, I saw some very interesting similarities between the marketing tactics employed by the fair and those used by some insurance agents in the Medicare Supplement market.

Captive agents think that, somehow, every person can fit within their plans. This is often like fitting a square peg into a round hole. It is not always a good idea to attempt it!

Independent Medicare agents find the best solution in any local market and provide full transparency in the process. This allows the senior client to trust that they not only have the BEST available plan in their market, but they also know that this agent can continue to shop the market in the future, if their rate increases get out of the norm with their chosen carrier.

For helpful agent information, visit MedicareAgentTraining.com

Listen below or watch here!

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