At the start of this my fear was simple; I'd get next to no business if I wasn't doing some form of cold-calling - B to B or telemarketing and trying to go local would result in the business being too sporatic.
Now I can say that if I keep this up over the next several months I'll be hiring agents to help me keep up with the business. Health insurance is simply incredibally sought-after and as I theorized, most savvy people simply don't make a move because they don't know where to start nor do they trust "telephone agents."
My phone was ringing today - which to me is insane since I really haven't done much. But I can't tell you how pleasurable it is to pick up the phone and hear "I'd like some help with health insurance." I was running quotes literally all day.
The bottom line is I'd never be able to handle the business my locality is capable of generating. Health insurance is such a huge problem for everyone and where would the normal person go? You might think "they'd hit the internet net." You'd be wrong. Most people simply suck it up. They pay that $700 a month rate and think "it is what it is." That is, until they know there's a local health insurance agent who's established in the community that they can trust.
Tomorrow is the art & crafts fair and more of my flyers go out. I'm in the next chamber of commerce publication and have 5 more chamber events over the next 4 weeks. I met an Allstate agent yesterday and we talked today for a while. He told me he has never solicited a client - ever. 100% of his business is calls from the community and referrals.
I'd say within 6 months I'll have a physical location, staff, and a few agents on salary+ and be literally the place to get health insurance in my area. At that point I might think of expanding state wide. I can't believe if you throw a rock you'd hit 4 P&C agencies but no one's applied this to health.
Gotta love all these mistakes companies make. I wonder if there's ever an error where a client owes $1,500 and the bill comes for $0. Doubtful.
My phone just rang and my not-at-all-happy client laid into me. She just got a lab bill stating there was insufficient information to process her claim, which means it didn't get the network discounts applied or count toward the deductible. Obviously stuff like this can rattle people because it appears they don't have insurance.
So I had her fax me the bill and call Assurant claims. Turns out the her social security number goes next to ID Number and her policy number goes next to group ID. Labcorp put "PPO" next to the group number and the claims person says Labcorp knows better.
So I called Labcorp and they admitted they are already aware of the mistake and how to fix it and now it's being submitted properly.
The last thing to note is don't pawn any of this off on your client. This is your job. Don't ever say "here's the number to claims - let me know how it goes." Your client shouldn't have to spend their time and energy on crap like this.
I had my breakfast meeting today for the chamber of commerce. I was overwhelmingly impressed! The people who run this really understand a lot about social events and it was very well structured.
Most times you attend social events you end up with little gaggles of people who know each other and you have to find a way to fit in. Also, if you're like me you're not the kind of person who's just gonna walk up to a group of people and start talking about what you do.
There were about 120 biz owners at the breakfast and we are all at tables of 8. Everyone got 60 seconds to pitch what they did and hand out cards to everyone - then we had to switch tables. So by the end every person there got my card and heard a short speil about what I do. I was also the only person at the event who sold health insurace.
So far today since I've been home I've received 8 calls from people who want health insurance or want to lower their rates. Phenominal - and I got a buffet breakfast. We're not supposed to directly solicit people after the event - no one wants 100 small biz owners calling them over the next few days, but emails are fine. So today I spent some time loading all their email addresses from their biz cards into Constant Contact.
Also, I had a client call me today who was supposed to fill out an Aetna app a few days ago. I assumed she flaked since I never got the verification link. She called me to today to get an update. I was like "what update?" She did the app three days ago using my link - shows me as the broker. Called Aetna and of course the entire broker support deparment was in a meeting until 3:30. That's top notch service!
Finally got ahold of someone around 4pm - she couldn't figure out why it wasn't assigned to me. Must be a "snag." Yep....great snag that gives them the business while cutting me out at the broker. Now I have to fax in the last page of the hand written app and they'll switch the deal back into my name. Thanks Aetna - I appreciate that!
Did a Golden Rule app today, a state plan and simply have a ton of stuff working. This is like a different life for me then a few months ago. I'm really starting to get busy - as in very busy.
I have the chamber of commerce breakfast tomorrow at 7:30am. I'm really looking forward to that! Then on Saturday I have the arts & crafts fair where I can promote my business.
I have to say the improvement in general quality of life is just fantastic. This has nothing to do with motivation like "Jeffrey Gitomer," "Zig Ziglar" stuff. This has to do with simply working an 8 hour day just like I would if I was on salary for some company. In fact, if I was making in salary what I'm currently making in commish I'd likely be working 50 to 60 hours a week with some company.
And I posted this before but it's also the "objects in motion..." rule where when I get going I simply stay going. The opposite is true when you're doing nothing and trying to psych yourself into some kind of action.
I would have been happy today with two, but got three with a referral signing up tomorrow. Got an Assurant, Aetna and Carefirst Blue Cross (can't screen shot Carefirst because we did a paper app.)
This is going to be one of my real 1st weeks. Not only am I simply working full days but I have very modest advertising out that's pulling a few leads a day, I have my chamber of commerce breakfast Thursday morning and I'm volunteering at my chamber's art & crafts fair on Saturday. Because of that I get to put a marketing piece into a grab bag everyone gets when they walk in.
This is simply what I should have been doing from the start. There was nothing at all wrong with buying leads when I started but I should have supplemented it with community marketing and community involvement.
I will stress that no single activity will generate enough business to make a living. I know agents who just joing groups like BNI and that's their sole marketing source aside from pestering friends and family. Won't work. The deals are too sporatic. It's local advertising, doing local events, (fairs/trade shows)chamber of commerce, and telemarketing.
I'm committed to simply knocking out full days. Until I have enough cash for a lot of local marketing and doing local events it's simply all day contacting old leads, generating new ones, running appointments and phone sales. The days of 2 or 3 hours a gone. Things are simply habits or they're not. I have not been in the habit of a full 40 hour week.
The results are dramatic. I've spent the entire day on the phone and sent 8 solid quotes out today all with tomorrow follow-ups. All of them are qualified for health and money. If I just closed 2 of them what I'd show myself is a full day of work would be 2 deals a day. I won't even run the math on 10 deals a week - the commish is staggering.
The bottom line is there are all sorts of mental tricks we all use to fool ourselves into working when we're not. The interenet is obviously a dangerous thing to have around if you're into work-avoidance. It's like a fat man trying to lose weight while being locked in a room all day with 20 bags of potato chips. The will power needed is insane.
The irony is the internet was supposed to make your business "explode" with the ability to buy leads, generate leads and sell online. However, in reality the internet is directly responsible for most agents failing. Shared leads are simply horrid, it costs a fortune to generate enough leads through your website to make great money and most agents (98%) don't have either the experience and skills necessary to sell online. Without the net all agents would be on "old school" sales techniques and doing much better.
If you want to lose weight, don't buy the chips. Only have healthy snacks in the house. That's my trick. If I want a snack we have grapes and apples. If I wanted Oreos I'd have to drive to the store - so guess what I eat.
Same with the stupid internet - between email, message boards and the net in general it's just too easy to avoid putting in a full day at work. So today the browser was shut down and the only thing on my screen was prospects and quote software.
When I first got into this biz in 2003 placing flyers, ie: B to B was my main source of business. I didn't have a website, didn't even know Goleads existed for telemarketing and also didn't know about internet leads. For some reason UGA (Mega Life) didn't want their newer agents purchasing shared leads. I've attached a link to my flyer at the end of this post.
If you're a new agent you absolutely need to generate your own leads. The most effective choice is telemarketing however putting out flyers can be a good supplement if you simply need a break from making calls or it can be your main source of lead generation if you live in an area with a large business population.
Flyer placing for weenies: Put on jeans and a t-shirt, walk into a business and say "I'd just like to leave you with this flyer, have a nice day." They pull 2% and you can place 40 an hour. Hitting small office buildings is great - stay away from large ones with security.
2 hours a day is 400 per week which is 8 leads and absolutely a deal - if not two. Closing percentage is very high. The problem with this method is you need to stick to it. The 2% return is not immediate and only realized after a lot of flyers are placed.
This can also be a great supplement to shared leads. You might only be getting 20 or so leads per week which means you're only working 2 to 3 hours a day. When you're done calling all of your prospects go out and place some flyers. The question is not "what will the return be?" - the question is "what will the return be if I don't place them, don't make calls and just sit in my office?
Flyer placing for those with guts: This is direct engagement. Walk into a business and ask for the owner. If the owner's in simply introduce yourself, hand them the flyer, state what you do, and ask if they would be interested in seeing if they can lower their rate. This obviously results in a lot more deals. Dress business casual - you don't need a tie but absolutely no jeans.
One of my independent friends in 2004 answered and ad to work for United Healthcare - $35K base, health, dental, 401K and take a wild guess at the job details; B to B all day.
I still get a fair amount of emails talking about the upcoming changes to health insurance so here's my take:
*I believe there will be significant changes to health care five years from now. Those changes, however, will not be a gov't run single payer system. How do I know that? Even Hillary isn't dumb enough to have a gov't run platform. Her latest plan, in her words, is "reality based" - meaning she knows it's impossible to get a bill passed for a Canadian-like or UK-like system. As it stands right now it looks like Hillary vs Giuliani and although I'm a Republican I think Hillary would clean his clock. I'm a realist. If Hillary gets in she will not rest until health care reform happens.
*Most likely we'll have employer-mandated coverage - meaning employers will simply have to cover all of their employees if they have a business over a certain size.
*Individual coverage will be available on the market like it is now, but will be guaranteed issue and costs will be offset by the gov't and probably a 5% tax increase.
*Commissions will likely fall - probably the 5% to 10% range which will basically put most independent agents out of business. That being said, it certainly won't put top health agents under. They will simply ramp up business and focus more on cross-selling life and DI. It will still be possible to make six figs selling individual health.
My take? If you're struggling now as an independent most likely you'll be out of business 5+ years from now. Here's my time line:
2008 - elections 2009 - new prez sworn in. Doesn't matter who - all off them want health reform 2010 - legislation introduced and passed for health care reform 2011 - health insurance companies submit their rates for GI plans - implementation starts 2012 - new changes fully implemented
Again, I see it in five years from concept to implementation. Whether or not I'm correct, I don't think it would be a fantastic long-term plan to ignore the potential changes. If I were you, I'd be lining up a plan B now.
This is what I'm doing. I'm going for a strong community presence and basically making a lot of money over the next several years. If changes happen the way I think they will, I'd like to already be established in the community.
The worst case scenario is I'm dead wrong, years from now we have a single payer gov't run system and we're all basically out of business selling health insurance. However, I wouldn't mind having a lot of money floating around in the bank if that happens and not in a position where I need immediate pay.
Being my family's sole income source, I reached a comfort level a while ago based on simply what I need to make the pay the bills and have some left over for fun. It's odd how once I hit that level I slack off.
What I've accomplished over the last 2 months is simply trading cold-calling and paying telemarketers for generating my own business locally. I'm still making about the exact same amount but now but it's local marketing and referrals. I've whittled the rest of my day away on "research" for marketing ideas and costs. I can do all the marketing research I want but without the extra cash it's a pipe dream.
I'm at a stale mate. Yes, I'm making enough to live and also generating my own local business but not making enough to really launch into advertising or prep for a store location next year. What I need to be doing over the next few months is double up.
I need to generate local business like I've been doing - go to my chamber events, local marketing groups, referrals and handle leads coming in through my website but I also need to hit the phones myself and call Goleads an hour or two a day to bring in those extra two deals per week I need to expand on advertising.
I've been having a great day on the phones setting appointments and now just got another deal I put in yesterday issued. This was allergies, on daily Singulair and cold-weather induced asthma - needs Albuterol during the winter months. Aetna's out of the range in the 1st place, then add a 25% rate increase, GR would rider out allergies, asthma and the meds - not an option - and BCSC and Coventry would decline.
Assurant to the rescue yet again with a condition specific deductible. No rate ups, no riders, all meds covered, all treatment covered and re-priced and only an additional $1,500 for any major event. Oh, and approved in a day.
Just crazy - app I put in yesterday, three meds between husband/wife w/previous surgery already approved and active. I build the rate increases into the quote so it went to counter-offer then active. When you use EASE and note conditions like HBP the online form forces agents to put in every last detail about the condition. Because of that there's never any missing info, no reason to call clients, no reason for an APS. This is active and they already printed out their cards. It's simply an embarrassment that other companies don't have this type of system.
The lesson here for me is not to limit myself. Pizza Hut is the number 1 pizza franchise in MD followed by Dominoes and Little Caesars bringing up the rear.
Pizza Hut: Delivers, can also pick up and also eat in their restaurant for a wider menu.
Dominoes: Delivers, can pick up but no capacity to sit in and eat.
Little Ceasars: Doesn't deliver, can't eat in, pick-up only.
The lesson is obvious; don't limit the ways you do business. We have "Little Ceasars" agents who only use one business model; they will only do business by phone or only do business in person. They are unwilling to mix two and leave a lot of business on the table.
We have "Dominoes" agents. They will do phones sales but also meet with clients, however they have no office location. Clients cannot come in, sit down and talk about a varity of insurance products and build a community presence.
Then we have the "Pizza Hut" agents. These are your State Farm, Nationwide and Allstate agents - also agency owners who have physical locations. They can sell online, meeting with clients but also have the ability to be known in their area and much more opportunity for cross-selling.
Basically, I've run Little Caesars where all clients had to come to me; ie - all phone sales. I'm running Dominoes now where they can come to be or I come to them - much more money running a Dominoes. Now it's off to the Pizza Hut concept.
It's no accident that Little Caesers in MD comes in dead last for pizza franchises. Anytime you limit the ways you do busienss you're always going to make far less.
Woke up this morning, punched into my Adwords and they disabled all of my keywords saying I either have to improve the "quality" - meaning I had to add "health insurance" to my keywords or bump my bid to $5 per click. No dice. I don't want to generate internet leads.
So where do you put a 55 year old husband, HBP on Norvacs, 55 year old wife 5.6 180 pounds HBP on Lotrel and Benicar - hospitalized for a week with a urinary tract infection in 2003, currently has Mega, doesn't want anything excluded, owns a construction biz and horse farm and has money all over the place and wants everyone covered while being under $400 a month?
You guessed it.
Interesting deal. She was happy to be under $1,000 yesterday until I sent her the Assurant alt. quote chart that listed all the rates. Then she wanted the $10,000 deductible. I thought that was kinda high and she comes back with "listen, we could pay a $20,000 or even $50,000 bill without a problem. We just want cataclysmic coverage but we also want all of our current conditions covered." Done. Very savvy lady - knows the deductible really doesn't matter, only what the plan actually covers.
Interesting to note that I brought up how she had a GR plan in the past; 180 pounds, 2 HBP meds, UTI hospitalization? She told me her "agent" (have to use the term loosely) told her he'd "help her out" and listed her weight at 150, and only noted 1 HBP med. What a guy!
Ok, I got caught. A few posts down you'll see I ran local town searches on Google and noticed hardly anyone advertised so I figured I'd get some free or cheap exposure - bid 10 cents a click just to get my ad placed. Well, give it to Google to be just a tad smarter than me:-)
Two days ago they made my keywords inactive and made me bump most to 50 cent minimum bids. Then tragedy - I started getting some clicks and leads. I actually got 5 leads yesterday and Google only charged me 36 cents per click. Well...they certainly weren't gonna let me get away with that.
Obviously their mega super-brain computer realized I'm advertising for health insurance. For that one keyword I got just a few clicks, (I have 30 different keyword searches) made it inactive and now want $5.00 per click! Basically, they charged me 36 cents per click for people clicking to get health quotes when their system knows they're getting $5.00+ per click from people advertising health insurance.
I emailed them yesterday and actually get a pretty prompt response; they want what I'm selling to be part of my keywords - ie; I need to put "health insurance" in my keywords. Oddly they've only targeted just that one city search and the rest of my campaign is fine.....for now. I'm guessing that within a few days Google will be demanding $5.00 per click for all of them, which is the going rate for "health insurance" keyword search. Oh well, I tried to be sneaky.
I just got a fantastic referal - lady owns a horse farm about 2 hours from me - wouldn't matter since the 1st words out of her mouth, even though I was referred, was "I don't want anyone coming over."
Ok, she's 55, husband 55 and son 23 but a college student. Wife w/HBP, husband w/HBP, daughter with allergies. Not really a biggie and they want to be under $1,000 a month. Wow, nice dealing with people who have money.
What do they have now? You guessed it - Mega Life. Obviously we don't need to talk about what happened there. Then she says "And absolutely no Golden Rule!" What happened there? An agent sold her a plan, everything was ridered and she claims she knew nothing about it. Meds for her, her husband and daughter, doctor visits, testing - denied. She fliped out saying agent never said anything about riders. GR told her to look in her policy - there they were.
Before that? Aetna nightmare. She had them for a few months - same story - no coverage for anything pre-ex and Aetna said she didn't have prior coverage that qualied since they had a break in previous coverage. This lady can't win - and can't find an agent to simply tell her the truth; GR rates are great - no pre-ex will be covered, Mega sucks, Aetna is horribly expensive and no pre-ex covered for 12 months.
And you guessed it - off to an Assurant HSA. Well under their price range and all meds, doctor visits and treatment of any pre-ex condition will count towards the deductible and more importantly, be re-priced. Nice deal.
For what it's worth we covered the rate difference between GR and Assurant's HSAs. What you'll find it people who aren't dead broke don't care - they want coverage for pre-ex conditons. GR was coming in over $200 a month cheaper. Her words, verbatim "I couldn't care less. I want everything covered."
This is not all about commissions. Yes, I obviously want to make money like everyone else but what keeps me in this line of business is being able to help other people. If you're a new agent you should be doing meticulous research on everything that's available to your prospects. Here are MD examples:
MCHIP: http://www.dhr.state.md.us/how/medical/mchip.htm Free health care for children under 19 and all pregnant women who fall into certain income guidelines. I get those leads - female 32 with two kids but instead of recommending a family of three plan, I see if she qualifies for MCHIP. If so, her kids get free healthcare and maybe she only needs a plan for herself.
County health department: http://www.aahealth.org/index.asp Free health screenings, free shots/immunizations for children and "one stop shopping" to see if you qualify to any type of assistance program.
Local hospital: http://www.aahs.org/ Offers a myriad of free screenings; blood pressure, prostate, breast exams, etc... on top of a ton of free programs and educational classes. It's also the place to contact if you don't have any insurance, don't qualify to any type of assistance but need some type of testing or even surgery. Most people don't know that in many cases you can negotiate the cost of some services and the hospital will absolutely let you know about any program available to help offset the medical costs.
State health department: http://www.dhmh.state.md.us/ The "one stop shopping" website for every program known to man for health in Maryland.
This is the kind of information I like to provide my clients who are lower income. One of the questions most agents don't ask their prospects is "what's your family income?" I do indeed prep that question by letting them know they are under no obligation to tell me how much they make, but most times I can guess and say "by the way, since you're 28 years old with two kids if you make under "X" amount per year you could qualify for A, B, and C programs.
I get a fair amount of emails from this blog which I appreciate and most have a common question. Here are my answers:
You could just continue telemarketing without all this added effort Not really. I'm meeting with my clients and I'm not gonna drive hours. With the available number of prospects within a reasonable driving distance I have 3 or 4 months of calls before the list is burnt. I'm also moving away from marketing tactics that most people simply hate. Internet lead leads hate getting called by 4 agents and most small biz owners hate getting telemarketed. To be an asset to the community people need to seek out my services.
You're going through all this effort then you'll go under when universal healthcare happens I don't run my business on what might or might not happen years from now. Worst case scenario? Elections in '08, new prez in '09, at least a full year to draft legislation and two more years to implement. Nothing's happening for at least five years. Doubtful it'll be single-payor system anyway. More likely it'll use private insurance companies and mirror what Mass. has implemented.
All you sell is Assurant I wrote two Assurant, one Coventry, one Aetna and one Blue Cross last week. All I talk about is Assurant since they're exciting to me. Nothing exciting about writing Blue Cross and getting $17.50 five months from now. Doesn't mean I don't sell 'em. I have a deal going today and it's Aetna. Nothing too exciting about 15% and I see my 1st commish in 3 months. I've also written 4 state plans in the past 3 weeks for $100 flat per app. Most agents don't spend 5 seconds on state plan clients.
I like your idea, but it won't work You mean you've tried a complete local focus with sponsorships, ads through several media outlets, member of the chamber of commerce, booking table/booth space at all local events and basically getting your business name everywhere and it didn't work? Or you have never tried something like that and are guessing.
More than likely you, like me, ran one or two ads - they didn't pull well and you said "this doesn't work." Or you joined one network group like BNI and got the occasional deal and said "well this doesn't work either." For my plan to work it needs a combination of everything. A very good friend of mine got sponsored to join the rotary club. That's it - just joined that club at $110 a month. He has yet to gain a single client.
My local State Farm agent is in all local publications. He's also a chamber member, a member of my local community group and he has billboard on the major drag. I'm sure he does much more marketing. I would guess that's co-op money he splits with State Farm but again, I've run the numbers and they work out.
I'm very impressed with the direction this is going. I put in 5 deals last week with no cold-calling at all. Not only that but I have 6 appointments already set up for this week, four of which are from my community business group.
In the past I've avoided business groups and community activity because I didn't want to be "that guy." We all know "that guy" - he's the one you can't hold a conversation with without being pitched. He's a follower of the "three foot rule" which means anyone within three feet of you gets pitched. If you're in the grocery line "that guy" is gonna strike up some lame conversation then whip out his business card. I hate that guy.
But I don't have to turn into that wad. Business networking groups are just that and it's expected. I can be at community events and still not have to turn to the lady behind me in the grocery store and say "some weather, huh!" Case in point was my son's B-day party yesterday. Several parents came with their kids and decided to say. For over 2 hours we all talked and you couldn't have paid me to mention I sell health insurance. Basically, learn to turn it off. Now, there are people who would say I missed potential opportunity by not handing out my cards to the parents at my son's party. They are dildos and people will hate to be around you if you turn into one of those losers.
Instead - how 'bout this; how 'bout being so well known in the area that the lady in line behind you says "aren't you the guy who does health insurance? Can I have a card?" Now - that's what I'm talking about.
My goal (as pictured) next year is a store-front retail location. I've run the numbers and it works out. I mean, common...I did 5 deals last week, will absolutely do 5 this week, have spent a grand total of $70 so far ($25 on banner ads, $5 for Adwords and $35 to join my local chamber) and it's a deal a day. I haven't even attended my 1st chamber event - that's next week. I also haven't done a single community event yet.
The truth is simple; health insurance is an extremely high-demand insurance product but most people simply stick with what they have because they don't know who to contact. Most business owners wouldn't be caught dead typing in their personal info into a website, which is why I'm not concentrating on generating internet leads. My banner ad and Adwords campaign are merely out there for exposure. I really could care less if some 22 year old clicks my banner - I just want people to get used to seeing my name.
I think the market potential is huge. And I'm not talking about 10 or 15 deals a week "huge." I'm talking about over 100 deals a week and needing to hire agents on salary+ to handle the business.
First of all, did a nice Coventry app. I actually did it a few days ago but I just got it faxed back today. This was a referral, lady who wanted all copays - couldn't grasp deductibles (I tried my best) and with Coventry in MD almost everything is a copay and she can get an affordable rate with a low deductible. Coventry doesn't have online apps in MD yet.
Now....AdWords - tried it about two years ago - lacking results as a lead generation tool. Very expensive now to get 1st page ranking - over $4 a click and too much junk. That being said I did indeed make a profit off the campaign. You'll think you're getting exclusive leads but what you'll see is many people hit multiple sites. Also, unlike internet leads which can be returned for credit, you not only pay every time someone clicks your site, but all the quotes with no phone, no email or uninsurable.
This is something different. When I type in the names of local towns there's almost no ads. That's because people who advertise use the product's keyword - like "smithville maryland furniture." It's pretty expensive per click to run those targeted ads. You can try to plug in 10 cents but your account won't go active.
However, not hardly anyone's advertising just using "smithville maryland" keywords since it doesn't generate targeted traffic for their product. But I'm after the exposure. So now for 10 cents a click I'm on my town and all surrounding town's searches. This is exposure, not lead generation! If you want a little exposure in your locality just Google your city/town and see how many ads are on the page. In my town and surrounding towns it's zero to 2 ads. Because of that Google basically is taking what they can get, meaning it's very cheap.
All this will be is people searching their home towns and simply seeing my business name. I could care less if they click. If they don't I have free exposure - $5 to activate an AdWords account. If they click they click - at 10 cents per click I'm golden.
This kills PPC (pay-per-click) since you have to worry about competitor abuse - despite Google saying they have click fraud under control. Yeah....right. This can be clicked 1,000 times or none - $25 per month, over 50 different local cities and towns. It's just great exposure and one leg of advertising. Also goes to show just how cheap this can be. Again, this is more about building name recogintion then thinking my phone's gonna ring from these banners.
Also a missed opportunity. We have the Coffee News: http://coffeenewsbowie.com/ - which is just one large double-sided page with local events and happenings and it's put out free in a ton of businesses. I've seen it a hundred times and thought "I should stick an ad in there." Well, I called today and as you can see, my competitor certainly didn't wait. I called and they have a "no competitor" rule so I have to wait until they choose to stop advertising. (the circled ad says "Afforable Health Insurance" and they're independent. )
I had my community business network breakfast this morning - this wasn't the chamber of commerce - that breakfast is the 27th. I live in a very large community and they have their own group.
I was very pleasantly surprised. It was nothing I feared it would be. Everyone was just fantastic. We had nine people show and all of them ran home-based businesses; lady who made wedding and b-day cakes, photographer/videographer, dog walking/sitting service, personal training coach, etc...The highlight was the lady who ran a pole dancing business. That's right, she books a party at your house - girls only - brings a pole and they have a "girl's night out" pole party. Now....that alone was worth it to show up:-)
Basically, everyone shot the shit. We all have kids and we mainly talked about schools, sports and our kids. Very low-key, very relaxed, very fun. Everyone got 5 minutes to talk about their business. I was second to last and after I talked about what I did it was a 30 minute conversation. I now have 4 appointments from the nine who showed up. Not bad. I also booked the photographer since the last family portrait we had done was when my son was 4 - he's 6 now. Oh, and a real estate agent was there an announced that she desperately needed some part-time home-based admin help. So now her and my wife are talking - looks like a done deal. All nine of them told me I should run a seminar at the community center. I'll call today to see how I'd set that up.
Gets better. The chairman of the Piney Orchard (my community) HOA was there and talked about the monthly newsletter for all 2,500 residents and the lack of ads. What ads? We didn't know we could put ads in the newsletter! Yep....a whopping $20 gets an ad in monthly community newsletter. That's a done deal. See...this is the kind of stuff I just would never know about unless I got active. Plus, what else am I doing at 7:30am anyway? I'm up at 6am every day so it's no skin off my nose.
In other news, I got a lovely email today from the HOA of Piney Orchard Millersville - about 15 minutes from me. I put up doorhangers about a month ago and now that's all banned. It most certainly wasn't banned when I put them out and I just got off the phone with them. Everyone's fine and despite what the letter said, no specific complaints were directed at me and I do NOT put flyers on mailboxes! They knew that. However, from now on, as the letter states, no more anything on doors or a nice little fine will occur. Not a problem at all. It's not just me - no pizza menus, Chinese food menus, or anything on the door at all.
I don't know of a single independent agent who advertises. I know a few (very few) financially successful agents who either buy shared leads or telemarketed leads. That being said, I'm sure there are many independent agents out there who are advertising. Why don't we hear from them? Probably because they're actually busy.
I've done some ads and local stuff in the past; ran a small ad for $250 in a regional paper - got about 6 calls and closed a deal. I didn't run the ad again. Why? I made around $500 off that deal and netted $250. I not only should have renewed, I should have placed it in three more papers. Over time that ad would have pulled more and more. Our problem? We are looking for immediate return.
I did a health fair in 2004 - ran about 4 hours and got around 5 deals from it. The table cost $150 and I made around $4,000 off it - but I got those deals over the course of the next six weeks so psychologically it didn't appear as if it was successful. I'd say $150 returning $4,000 is successful. But at the time my focus was on tomorrow; get me leads today that will result in deals tomorrow. Basically, a short-sighted marketing plan. Here are things I've been heavily researching:
Advertising
*Local ads are cheap. Stay local. Regional and states ads are very expensive and your ad gets lost with the other 100 ads and has no impact.
*Advertise on all your local websites. Search "your town" on Google and chances are your town or city has pages you can put links or ads. In my area they are very cheap. On top of getting some leads you're building name recognition.
*Look for advertising opportunities in local businesses. Local restaurants might have ad space, in my area you can advertise on shopping carts, etc...
What you're looking for is the "compounding" factor. It's not that one ad in the local paper, it's not the ad on the shopping cart or the ad on your community website - it's finally people putting it together: "Oh...so this is where I go for health insurance." Or you're talking with a prospect and they say "Oh! I just saw your ad!"
The irony is you can do all this for less than a lot of agents spend on leads. I know agents spending $500 a week on leads. That same money could go extremely far in your locality.
I think what it all comes down to is fear. Fear that you'll have ads everywhere and no calls, no business. What you're failing to realize is health insurance is a huge concern. And article I read last year said health insurance is one of the top three concerns among small business owners.
Issues with turning prospects into clients are mainly trust and legitimacy. Once those two issues are solved I personally believe business will explode. You solve both by having a strong community presence backed up by a good ad campaign. Word spreads by servicing your clients well. You think you're getting referrals from someone you pressured? You think they want their friends and family to go through that?
The only people who will refer you are people who "buy" from you, not people you "sold." This is why I think referrals in this biz are very lacking. They are nowhere near the levels they should be. Agents in this biz after 5 years should be able to live just off referrals. They obviously don't because they must "sell" their clients. Prospects didn't seek them out - they were hunted down. The problem? Most agents must sell their prospects to make a living because they are not in contact with enough people who simply want to buy.
Got back from my appointment a little bit ago - very smooth. She owns a home-based child care business and we had a great meeting. She signed up and it already instantly approved. I'm also stunned that the deal I put in this morning is already approved! That was technically a standard issue since the surgery that corrected the endometriosis was just over three years ago (which is standard according to the guidelines) and hypothyroidism which is standard.
So we have a nice busy day, ran two closed two, both business owners and $6,540 in AV for $1,635 in commish today.
Could I have just done this all in my office? Maybe....maybe not. The point is this: Would you work a nice solid day, meet with your clients with none of them being over a 20 minute drive for $1,635? I would. I'm done today - been done for over an hour, wife is downstairs making dinner and tonight's spent with my family. No phone calls, no following up, no emails, no nothing. Call people, set an appointments, go meet 'em.
Anyone reading along, this is just my system. You can do what you like and if it ain't broke don't fix it. For newer agents or for agents who who are trying to make this work for them:
*Only work exclusive leads. Generate them B to B, flyers, telemarketing, community involvement, trade shows, fairs.
*See all of your clients
If you do those two things you'll have a very nice life. If you try to to figure out a lazier way to make it work then:
*You'll spend your days chasing down people who don't want to talk to you.
*You'll constantly be defending yourself and have to warn clients about competitors
*Years from now you'll be at your computer waiting for your next batch of leads to come in.....that is, if they're still affordable or if that one "good" source you're using doesn't go under
Almost 4 years into this biz and I was definitely in a rut. I simply work best when I'm extremely busy - kinda the "objects in motion..." thing. I also do poorly when I find myself bored. And let's face it - are any of us gonna do marketing tasks we simply don't enjoy? I'll telemarket if I have do, but it's nothing I looking forward to. Is it effective? Sure. Same with internet leads - they're also effective. I always wrote business off leads but again, not a task I really enjoyed.
I'm not a fan of hunting people down who don't want to hear from me. I'm less of a fan of talking to prospects who aren't business owners. That doesn't mean all of my clients will be owners. But if you're not, then you can pick up the phone and call me. I'm not hunting you down. On a scale of 1 to 10 my patience is -2 for people who really don't want to use my services.
But now that I've shifted gears I find myself getting very busy and my attitude has picked up significantly. I met with and signed up the owners of the auto repair place this morning. I had that meeting last week but they rescheduled. Because I went there I was introduced to two of their employees who also want coverage. Also, not a shot in the world I'd have signed them up online. Husband 50, wife 47, both smoke, wife on a med, recent surgery and recovered endometriosis. We went over plans for 30 minutes. Now I'm outta here around 3:30 today to sign up the owner of a day care.
I know the local focus will work however that assumes you have a very large community. I'm not sure what I'm doing could be pulled off in "small town" America - maybe. I'm between Baltimore and Wash DC and the business community is simply huge.
The title of is is branding an agency starting with $200. I have yet to spend that. I had some marketers and only one logged in any real amount of hours - not $200 worth. Aside from that I've been telemarketing and quite honestly, working on old leads. These were people I tried to sign up online who I'm now scheduling meetings with. That will pull me through nicely on top of referrals and chamber of commerce events until I get into advertising and renting space at local events.
I had an offer I couldn't refuse to try out an internet leads source - basically free leads. Still, I said no twice but they called me and I gave in. What the heck...some free leads. Well....here we go, typical junk. Basically, all young girls, almost calls straight to voicemail and it wouldn't matter anyway to end up closing that very sough-after $88 a month premium. I actually have two of these working, then will promptly cancel the leads. What an insane waste of time to call people all day and hit voicemail.
These are: *Not business owners *Not looking for health insurance (looking for quotes which is much different)*Under 30 years old
Now for the polar opposite, I got listed today in my chamber's directory and got a call. Very nice lady ownes a travel agency (above pic) and her rate is through the roof - she's 63 and paying over $1,200 a month for coverage with decent health. So we compare a bevy of leads coming in which are junk and I have to hunt them down or my phone ringing from a business owner who wants health insurance. Hmmmmmmm. Toughie.
I also signed on as a volunteer today to help man the art & crafts booth my chamber is holding on the Sat. the 29th. After I signed up I was told that I can bring a flyer or any give-away to put in a bag that everyone gets when they enter the fair. Very cool! I also signed up for a business newtorking breakfast at 7:30 on the 27th.
And for all of you who are following along who are still hooked on the idea of 100% of your business coming from shared leads, my question is - what will you be doing in 5 years? Most likely, the same thing I'm doing; kicking myself in the ass that I didn't create a strong local presence years ago.
Great day! Did an Aetna, Assurant and Blue Cross app. Two were leads I telemarketed, one was a referral. It's very refreshing to devote my entire day to insurance activities and furthering my business and as of now I think I'm really on the right track to be a recognized local agency. Of course the big step doesn't come until early next year when I rent store-front space.
Actually, the next big step is a half or full-page ad in local publications which is over a month away. The great thing about local ad rates is they're cheap. I can get a half-page ad in one of my city's local papers for $150 a week. This beats trying to put a 1/16th of a page ad in some huge 100 page newspaper that frankly no one would see - has no impact at all.
I'm looking great next week - five appointments set already and all before Wednesday. Also starting next week I'll be involved in local business meetings. I have business breakfast for my community and I have another breakfast for the chamber of commerce. That one I'm especially looking forward to since new members get to introduce themselves and tell everyone what we do.
Oh, and I got my DOI trade name for Maryland Health Plans today so I can officially go by that name! I think this is important since my agency name basically states what I do - "Health Solutions" did not.
I'll tell ya, it's nice to have a plan, and in my case, theory, and see it start to work out. I joined my community business association which got me a listing on the website and already, here's what I hoped would happen; people seeking out health insurance coming to me.
My theory is simple; Out of 10 people at least 6 would happily change something about their coverage. Most of these people simply do nothing thinking "it is what it is." Others do nothing because they simply don't know where to start. If an agency had a high profile in the area and became well known I think the amount of possible business would be amazing.
We are busy chasing down leads submitting by people who don't live close to us and in the meantime countless people in our community have no faint clue as to who to contact for health insurance.
I guess two things to note: 1) Join your local Chamber. 2) If your client is close, go see them. I had an appointment with a Century 21 real estate agent literally 5 minutes from me - debated about doing it online. That would have been a mistake.
I went to the office and she bought a plan. She grabbed her friend, got her in the office and she bought a plan! Then said I should talk to the owner since they don't offer health. While waiting for the owner (odd title since it's a pseudo-franchise type of arrangement) I noticed the Chamber plaque on the wall. We shook hands and I said I just joined and got approved. Complete attitude shift from what I've ever seen before; "So you're a chamber member?" We talked about some upcoming events we're both attending and it was an "owner to owner" conversation instead of "owner to pesky insurance agent." You know the normal drill - it would be "well that sounds great....have a card?"
Now he wants me to come in next week and do a presentation in front of the rest of the agents. He also said he can't wait to introduce me to several friends of his since health insurance comes up during conversations. There are five other insurance agencies in that local chamber - none of which offer heatlh. It's outfits like Allstate, Nationwide and other places that focues on P&C, life, disability and employee benefits.
Also, the chamber has a monthly newletter and for $20 to $40 per month you can buy rather large ad space. I'm in - got a 40 buck-er and it'll run next month - so that's every business owner seeing my ad for 40 whopping bucks.
It's worth noting the two agency owners I highly respected told me to go this route in 2004. But I was too smart for that - I'm gonna sign up 28 year-olds online and get rich.
Hey, anyone reading this don't get me wrong. Go buy leads all you want - but use it to supplement your business - don't make it your entire business. It should be one of many sources of business. If it's your exclusive source of business you'll find yourself chasing down leads 5 years from now. And if you stopped the leads on Tuesday, you're out of business on Wednesday.
I again re-visit the theme of this to remind those reading along that the goal is to establish a local agency where my business is based on local advertising and becoming part of the community. I also think there's a big difference between promoting "free quotes" and promoting your business. Any can drive quote traffic to their site and it's still people who don't want to be contacted. That's not what I'm after.
Picking up the phone and chasing down 20 quote requesters - 75% of whom are trying to avoid you is a lacking marketing plan. I will still offer quote requests but my quote page will be re-configured to let people know before filling out the form that they will be contacted by me and I'll want them to choose the best time. It won't be a perfect system but it will at least let people know they won't see instant quotes, and a video on that page will explain why. I see little value on showing people rates they can't get.
I've filled out applications for two local chambers of commerce and advertised on a few local websites. I'm meeting with a Yellow Pages ad rep next week so talk about local print and internet ads.
I put an ad out today to hire people to put up the residential postcard/flyers which I've done before with lacking results. The main problem was finding people to actually work and managing those who did work. However, now that my son's in school my wife is freed up to help me and that's all the difference.
The residential flyers pull .005 (half of 1%) and I've been slapping them up for about three years as a supplement to other marketing. It's not something that can be done in all areas since you need townhomes to make the math work.
Math: Flyers are 3 cents a piece 1,000 placed is 5 leads $12/hr for labor and 200 per hour placed Closing is 1 out of 5 - they are very high-quality leads
So a 10 hour week is $120 in pay, gets 2,000 flyers put up which cost $60 for a total expense of $180. It's 10 leads and two deals. Even if it was one deal it's still extremely worth it. Can I lose money? Not really. The entire box of 5,000 is $150 in cost and putting them up would require 25 man hours X $12/hr = $300 + the $150 = $450 total. I make twice that off one deal.
That breaks down to $18 per lead and internet leads are far cheaper....right?No.I get in contact with all 10 of those leads hence the 1/5 closing ratio. When you get 20 leads you only get in contact with around 30% of them. So at $8 per shared lead X 20 leads = $160 however if you only spoke with 6 those leads now it's 6 into $160 or $26 per lead! So it's $26 to speak with someone and then 3 or 4 others agents also get a crack. Ummmmm, no.
8am: I set an appointment at the end of last week for 8:30am - owners of a auto repair shop about 20 minutes from me. They were closed yesterday so I couldn't confirm. There are those out there who teach to never confirm - just run the appointment. The theory is if you call that gives 'em a chance to back out. First of all, if the deal is so weak that just calling them to confirm leads to them back out then good; just saved me a lot of time. However, in this case they're still interested but when I called only the husband was in. The wife had an issue at home and isn't gonna be in until 10am. So I'd have done the whole suit and tie thing, driven out there and likely been trapped into doing a one-legger.
12:30: Set two more appointments this week, re-set this morning's for Thursday and scrubbed a 4pm I had today. I called to confirm and I could just tell by the conversation it would be a wasted trip. His words: "Well you can still come but right now we're still deciding what to do and we'll be looking more into it next month." Errrr! People can get excited sometimes when you set up a time to meet, but then husband and wife sit down and simply decide they're not at the right time to make a move. I respect that. However, running those appointments is uncomfortable at best. I do not like "closing" anyone and hate that kind of tension. People purchase plans from me - I do not "sell" them and there's a difference. In any case, I let him off the hook and I could how upbeat he got. Why "force" people to meet with you. It's just a waste of everyone's time.
Well I got a list of the businesses that will be at my community network breakfast next week and was interested to see Nationwide and Allstate. This is what these guys do - they are simply involved in the community, not cold-calling all day.
Although I'm excited to get involved in local events and the chamber of commerce it's not all about just getting business. It's really about being a part of my community and not just leeching off it it. You can cold-call or buy leads but you are only gaining business for yourself and not giving anything back. I've been at this for four years and have never really felt like a legitimate business owner. I don't think you can unless it's a give and take between getting business from community, but also giving back.
I see a lot of agents kid themselves - thinking they are "helping people" by selling insurance. Yes, in one way we do indeed help people. But when I think if helping people I think more about Habitat for Humanity then insurance agents. When I was a Mega agent (God forgive me!) they has a cheesy saying; HOPE - helping other people every day. Lol. I think if you want to "help people" you need to hit the grocery store and buy some food then take it down to you local soup kitchen. If you really want to help then you volunteer at the kitchen.
I've very interested in simply bettering my life all around and getting involved in a local charity. I can't think if anything more distasteful then getting involved in a charity with the motive of gaining business, so at any charitable event I simply won't discuss at all what I do. What I'm even more interested in is starting an extremely small charity myself. I'd like to do something to help children in the hospital along the lines of bringing in cool toys - maybe hand-held video games so they can have something do to besides watch tv. I was in the hospital as a kid for 5 days and basically it's only TV between family visits.
Not too bad of a week. Not fantastic either. I figure this represents about a third of what I'm capable of once I get involved in the community and start doing community-based advertising. Nice thing about this check is zero marketing expenses.
Heck, it wasn't too long ago that I was making half that selling cars, working 10 hour days on average including every Saturday while putting up with the management Jedi mind games.
I simply love this line of work. No nights, no weekends, no office politics, can't get laid off. It's also the only sales job I've had where I'm truley helping people. Plus, I don't play well with others anyway so it's not like I would have ever made it in the corporate environment. The single largest problem with this line of work is simply self-motivation and getting down to work.
