Digital Senior Benefits FE telesales - thoughts?

[JRoot]

I just want to work with your group so badly. I'm just having major anxiety about not being about to afford $800/week for your leads.

You don't need $800 week. 5 leads/day minimum is $385/week to get started. We just require an initial purchase of 75 leads to start.

Also, FE cash flows really well. So you'll typically be profitable in 2-4 weeks.

Go for it!

 

[StagekissPDX]

Ok!!! I'm in!!!

 

[WinoBlues]

Ok!!! I'm in!!!

Make sure you are 'all in'. Don't question or try to reinvent. Good luck to you. You may be changing your life.

 

[StagekissPDX]

Wino, yes, absolutely :-)

 

[Will S]

I'm thinking about joining DSB as well. I really like what I've learned about them. Fingers crossed that they bring me on board!

 

[indiana260]

Welp, James... we stayed out of each other's agency discussion threads online until this thread. I guess that's over with.



The acquisition cost of a telesales FE client is similar for your live transfers (human powered) and our internet leads (tech automation powered). I'll explain how...

Digital Senior Benefits platform has a built in dialer that connects agents with leads as fast as waiting for an inbound live transfer. As the dialer calls, it emails and texts on your behalf to leads who don't pick up - all responses go to the agent. You simply wait to be connected, work your follow ups and answer emails and texts on our platform. The emails and texts get a lot of action from consumers who wouldn't normally pick up the phone - I know we get some lift there.

For our leads, 1 out of 10 leads will become an "app request" where a consumer sees the rate and clicks to apply for that policy - a much more qualified lead. Many of those become "app submits" where they answer all the carrier specific health questions, name beneficiaries etc and click "submit" - the highest converting lead we've ever seen in telesales. Our agents get all this info posted to their CRM and know if it's a quote request, app request or app submit.

Also, in our tech, leads will pre-qualify themselves giving us medications, health conditions etc through our email automations. Everyone is talking about "calendar" leads that no-show most of the time and here we are automatically pre-qualifying leads for our agents.

All of this automation gives our agents a similar acquisition cost to a $25 live transfer lead, but the ability to make many more sales in a day if you're taking enough leads. Right now we have 3 agents that bumped from 25 leads/day to 50 leads/day and testing their efficiency limits on our platform.



I say the same about ours. I'm sure both are great and develop successful FE telesales agents.

I'll add, we have former NorthStar agents on our platform who love our training when they get introduced to it. I think you're underestimating us here.



I disagree on you guys being more versatile in a big way. I'll explain:

1. You're partially owned by NorthStar. You leverage their training, technology and leads and I'm sure there's some sort of oversight on what you can/cannot do in regards to leveraging all of this.

Example: For access to training, you require a 1 year non-compete in FE telesales to be signed.

2. You leverage 3rd party software, so I'm sure you lose versatility on what you can/cannot do. I know we did and that's why we invested in building our own software. We are constantly making optimizations to drive better acquisition costs and make selling easier for agents. We can make our software do whatever we want it to and aren't limited by a 3rd party software.

Example: We can easily integrate with any lead gen website or call center to leverage our final expense sales automation software. Many agents generating their own leads on FB post into our platform easily on their own. That's versatility.

Also you have to charge your agents hundreds of dollars every month to use your 3rd party software (or subsidize it some way). Our platform is free for agents to make sure all costs associated with us are for leads/marketing only.

3. You use 3rd parties to generate your leads: NorthStar + other lead vendors. We generate all our leads internally and track them all the way down to the campaign level through our software. We look at contact/sales percentages daily of those leads and kill/scale campaigns daily.

We don't depend on anyone but ourselves and can make decisions based on outcomes - now that's versatility.

There really is no comparison if you want to bring up versatility.
_

With all that said, you can be really successful with DigitalSeniorBenefits.com or with PPG. James runs a great agency and cares as much as we do. We definitely do things differently though.

We've done a good job of co-existing so far and I have no hard feelings.

Just a couple comments and then I'll let this rest. I agree you guys are legit and a good place for agents. We simply have different business models and could argue our philosophies forever.

1. Leveraging Northstars system to the independent/brokers and call centers doesnt require a non compete. In fact, we have some that choose to reap the rewards and not sign. What we do require is if someone wants all our training they sign and it only covers FE telesales.

2. We use a phone system and CRM that works for what we do. Although we will continue to evolve with the market, if something is working fine there is no need to change.

We get a lot of negative comments from competitors about our tech fee. It's really just people throwing stones cause they dont have anything else to say. We could simply bake in the cost to our live transfers and still have pre qualified for health and banking leads cheaper than anyone else in the country.(That are compliant)

3. Diversification of lead sources is as versatile as you can get. We are never dependent on one source of leads. Furthermore, we have sources generating leads through all sorts of social media and internet marketing sites. We have these leads available for agents to purchase and call themselves or we can load them up and let the marketers do the heavy lifting. We also have thousands of B leads that agenst can call on for no cost. The point is our agents can work however they want.

I am not a fan of looking at acquisition cost. If I were I'd say "look at our low cpa on our b leads" You have to factor time spent into the equation and agent burnout.

Again, just stating the facts as I see them.

Agents should compare the legit companies and decide which model fits them best. Our model is to focus 100% of your time on selling.

 

[Will S]

I have looked into both your companies and am leaning toward DSB due to your tech fees. Both companies look fantastic but the tech fee is the deal killer for me. Now, if you offered the 50% plan without tech fees then I might would be willing to stomach that but difference in potential income is too large to justify only being paid 50% just to save $100/month on tech fees.

I also am a HUGE fan of DSB's systems. I do like how you both have teams to train you and service your policies for you. I think that's priceless. Back in my P&C days an agent I worked for with State Farm insisted on the sales producers also servicing our book while trying to sell. I worked for one of the top agents in the country so I, along with every other producer, had an enormous amount of service work each day and on top of that he would yell and belittle us when our sales suffered. Hellooo?! Let me sell sell sell and maybe I would be more productive. So to see you both have a good grasp on the whole "let them focus on selling and let the others do the service work" philosophy is refreshing.

Ultimately I'm deciding on pursuing DSB because I feel like my chances of success are greater there and it comes at an overall lower cost with higher contracts. That's just me and every agent is going to be different. What works for me may be terrible for someone else and vice versa.

 

[StagekissPDX]

You don't need $800 week. 5 leads/day minimum is $385/week to get started. We just require an initial purchase of 75 leads to start.

Also, FE cash flows really well. So you'll typically be profitable in 2-4 weeks.

Go for it!

JRoot, just 4 last questions:

1. What is the persistency rate for FE (Final Expense) business written with DBGA?

2. Do you have a department at DBGA that works to keep business that may fall off? And by this I mean, a continuity department, or essentially a department that works to keep business that is in danger of being charged-back?

3. Does DBGA send out a welcome packet to all new clients/customers?

And last but not least:

4. Does DBGA have a convention, get together, pow wow once a year where DBGA agents can get together, break bread, network and hang out?

Thanks, in advance, for answering my questions JRoot: I appreciate you!

 

[Will S]

I can't speak for DBGA but I have been extensively researching them recently and have learned the following:

They do have a service team that works on all service related tasks for you. Missed payments, beneficiary changes, etc are handled by them for you. At no additional charge.

They do send out welcome packets to the customer for you. Literally everything after the sale is done by them. You, as the agent, focus on selling only.

I live in such a rural area that it's difficult to door knock my leads and have them come to the door because they're so suspicious of everyone around here. I could work in the ghettos of the two major cities near me and probably do well but I'd always feel unsafe. I have a family to live for and no amount of sales is worth the risk I would take by going into the areas that would buy in my geographical area. Given that, I'm so excited about possibly partnering with them.

 

[StagekissPDX]

You rock, Will!!!!

I TOTALLY hear you Will, about the safety factor: we did not get into this business to take our life into our own hands out on the field. If I were going to do that, I would've become a police officer.

We are trying to help people make solid plans for their lives, and not have to worry that something will happen to ours while doing so.

Now, of course life is risky, but it becomes more so exponentially out in the field. It's ridiculous that after my near miss with a violent felon, I had my sisters worrying about me. I was downloading apps that would alert my friends and family of my whereabouts, and apps that alerted the police if I were in danger (essentially, it's a panic button app). I also started carrying pepper spray with me. I'm a huge true crime fan, and I know there are some really terrifying people out there who are just waiting to commit a crime of opportunity. I don't want to be one of their victims, thankyouverymuch.

You, Will, don't want your family to worry about you, we all have enough to worry about, and volunteering to put ourselves into dangerous situations is not my kind of fun...I mean, maybe some people are into that sort of thing, but not me: life is exciting enough right now without an added "bonus" of having to fight for my life to get out of their home, because I have a maniac in front of me.

I am beyond thankful that telesales is an option for agents now. Thank you to DBGA, PPG, NorthStar, Senior Life and anyone else I'm missing here. You are helping agents stay safe, live long and prosper

So thank you so much for answering some of my questions, Will! Hopefully, JRoot will answer my questions about the persistency rate at DBGA, and if there's a yearly pow-wow agents are invited to.

I did see something about a mastermind in Vegas DBGA held in June, but I wasn't clear if that was more for the DBGA team he had, like a retreat, as companies like to hold retreats for their office staff, or if it also included any agents that work with DBGA as well.

JRoot, what are the persistency rate numbers at DBGA (What is your persistency rate and how that bakes into what your agents take home, after the persistency rate kicks in) and do you have a yearly pow-wow that DBGA agents can attend? Thanks in advance for answering these 2 questions.

Standing by....