Suremed Product

After selling Suremed for the past 6 months I have concluded that the health advocates portion doesn't work at all if you already have insurance.  Basically the website claims that it will reduce medical bills down by an average of 38% but doesn't have a disclaimer that the discount only applies to those that don't have any coverage. 

The main purpose of this product was to reduce medical bills and if it doesn't do that you're better off selling your clients dental, vision, teledoc and some other products to get more commission and a better product for your clients. 

How can I get more medicare leads?

Hi, Ethan
I've been reading all the great and helpful information on your blog.

Thanks, for placing such a good resource online that newer agents, like myself, can benefit from.

I have a few questions I would to ask you.

Can you used aged leads to build your data base to the 5000 magic number? Or do you have to purchase new online leads?

My market is Medicare Supplements. My leads are all aged leads ( 1 year old ). I read your script for calling aged, 1 year old, health insurance leads. How could I modify it to fit calling aged med supp leads?

                     Best Regards, R.Lee
Sent from my Windows Phone

Dear R. Lee,

  You can totally use aged leads to get to that 5000 number.  The best way to get medicare clients are to get a bunch of 62-63 year old clients on individual plans and let them know that you'll take care of them once they turn 65 because you have all of the medicare plans.  This way you're the first one that explains how medicare works for them and you have a few years to build loyalty so that when they're aged in you're ready to go.  Hope that helps!  Aged in leads are much easier to sell than someone that spends all year shopping for a good plan.  I would also work on getting networked through people that are in the same industry such as hospice care givers etc.  They can be an excellent source for referrals.


Ethan

Exporting from IDA

Ethan
  Is it possible to export client info from IDA?  Have you ever done it?   I
  can't do anything with mine.  My email does not work - they have totally
  messed up my whole system.   I have not been able to email any of my
  clients for at least 8 months and no emails are coming in from leads.
  They
  have totally messed me up.  They will transfer everything to their new
  system, but they want to charge $29.99 a month plus $29.99 per plug in and
  recharge on the plugins every year.  I don't want to get involed with
  them.  They charge too much!   I just want to export my info, but I can't
  figure out how without their help.  Do you know a quick and easy way to do
  it?

  I appreciate the help!

  April

Dear April,


  Rule #1.   When dealing with CRM's, make sure that there is a function that will allow you to export all of the information the way you want before purchasing it.  Rule #2 is when I tell you to ditch a program several times, do it quickly instead of waiting YEARS.  This will prevent lots of disappointment and loss of income.

  Now the only way that I've been able to figure it out was to right click and drag a specific folder and click copy.  Then go to a regular excel spreadsheet and right click paste on your mouse.  Then you'll save it to a csv file to import it into your next system.

  IDA is pretty ruthless on their exporting policy that's why I terminated after 1 year.  Good product but I saw pretty fast that I was painting myself into a corner that I couldn't get out of with my contacts.  Be glad that you only have that problem because I've heard of them stealing contacts although I haven't verified that.  My source is pretty reliable though.  Get out now while it's easier or you can stay in longer and have more contacts later to export.  I've used clarifynow.com which has worked great in the past and right now I'm using MOJO. 

Ethan

Do I use a quoting engine or quote from the carrier?

This is a response from Aprils' question.  I really like the Norvax product for quoting 4 options with accident and critical illnesses on one email to the client.  What I usually do is have a 5k, 3k, 2k, and 1k option with more ancillary features on the higher deductibles.  This client applied for 5 different plans.  So I made about $1400 off that client the first year.  I then extracted contact information and put him into my www.mojosells.com CRM and will keep him posted on the underwriting.  You can view more about Norvax's multiple carrier quoting at http://norvax.com/products/howitworks-quoteengine.html.

Alternative Medicine With Insurance Sales

It is no secret that the health insurance industry has been slowly figuring out ways to decrease commissions long term.  The last few years the insurance companies have put together some nice bonus plans if you meet a certain level of sales.  Less than half of all policies are kept longer than a year because of change of employment or rate increases.  The self employed family is where you'll see most of your residuals.  It would be smart to focus on those types of families.

One of the more frustrating parts of this industry is that medications don't solve most medical problems.  If you've had clients around for more than a few years you'll notice that they're on the same medications they've been on years ago.  I'm not knocking prescriptions because they are what they are.  They can help you cope with medical issues but how many medications actually solve health issues.  How many people have you seen that have taken cholesterol medication ever come off of it?  How many Bi-Polar clients are freed from Bi-Polar?  Pain medication does take away the pain but at what cost to other organs?  All too often we see commercials of prescriptions that have a long list of possible side affects.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't ever go to a doctor or ever get a prescription.  I'm saying that maybe there are alternative methods of healing that are more cost effective and just as good or better at healing.

Yesterday I contacted a client that had been on an individual policy for 3 years and was getting another rate increase.  I convinced him that maybe we should apply to another carrier because of the rate increase and the exclusion to 3 of his wifes' health conditions.  We had done the application and they were on the phone with the underwriter.  The underwriter told them that they needed to order medical records at the clients expense and that they were probably going to exclude 4 health conditions.  My client told the underwriter to not bother with the rest of the underwriting because they weren't going to go through all of that.  So once again my client is stuck paying about $600 a month with NO relief for current health issues!  Am I the only one that gets frustrated with these scenarios?

About 4 years ago one of my friends approached me as a founder of a Essential Oils company named DoTerra .  We used the product for years but my income was so high and everything was going great for us at that time.  Now he has 7000 customers every month and earns over a half million a year.

I've always believed that you can take your two biggest problems and they can solve each other.  So I started using essential oils with my insurance business to increase residuals and help my clients get some help with health problems.  I have been really happy that over 78% of clients that tried the products noticed a difference within a few days and were interested in purchasing these products.  You can go to www.mydoterra.com/reliableinsurances to view the products and pay structure.  To watch or listen to product webinars go to www.builddoterra.com and click on education. 

I realize that this is a totally out of the box strategy.  It does work and once someone uses the product and as long as they like it they continue to make more and purchases for LIFE!  If you got into the health insurance industry for residuals you'll notice that it probably isn't what you had anticipated.

Selling health insurance is a great short term opportunity.  I have been selling health insurance for about 8 years and there has only been about 1 or 2 years that I haven't made well over $100,000 a year.  It provides a lot of flexibility and if you're good enough you can keep clients around for a long time and get referrals.  If you are looking for something to retire you keep looking.  I believe that through DoTerra I will continue to build up my residual income enough to someday be able to retire!  Until then......I pound out the phones every day with little security if illness or need for retirement comes sooner than later. 

Data plan with a dialer

Terrance asked if I would use a data plan with a dialer.  I'll tell you how I use my dialer and that is with my Cricket phone.  I use www.makemycalls.com and I have unlimited phone calls across the country for $10 a month with Cricket.  I loved having a land line for years but have found that the phone companies keep jacking up the rates forcing me to go with Cricket.  I like the www.makemycalls.com aka www.mojosells.com dialer because it is now my CRM and also it can dial 3 numbers at the same time.

Selling Health Insurance in 2012

So far there has been some interesting developments in selling health insurance post health care reform. Here are some pros and cons in selling insurance right now and in the future.


Pros


1. Because of the requirements of the Health Care Reform Law the rates for health insurance have gone up dramatically the last 6 months. We might have gotten a commission cut but we are making a smaller percentage of a larger premium.
2. Insurance companies can't cancel our clients' insurance anymore.
3. If insurance companies go over 10% of a rate increase they have to report that information to the Health and Human Services department.
4. Clients like the preventative on their plans quite a bit and the healthy clients that never go to the doctor finally feel like their getting something for their money especially on higher deductible plans like HSA's.
5. 80% of health insurance agents quit so that leaves a bigger market for those that are really good at selling.
6. Software companies like Norvax have quoting software in place that allows you the opportunity to quote life, dental, health, critical illness, and accident policies in the same quote. Now I am averaging 38% commission because we are selling multiple products at the same time.

Cons

1. We don't really have any money as a country to fund the Health Care Reform Law so the whole thing might go belly up. As long as we have ink to print paper money then they'll still probably have money in the system to fund health care reform.
2. It doesn't seem like Republicans are really putting forth a lot of effort to repeal the law. They've had plenty of time to do so which makes me wonder.....Are Republicans really against it?
3. If you're not highly engaged in selling and coachable you probably won't make much money selling health insurance. This is because there aren't a lot of new agents selling health insurance. They all got scared off so you're really playing with the big boys. That's ok because hopefully the content of this blog will help even the playing field. I have top agents across the country that are always looking at this blog for tips on how to become better.