Does anyone on Here Sell 3-5 Med Sups a Week Yr Round?

[thomasm]

Sure you can call all of those numbers once in a few days but there is no way you are going to legitimately work those prospects in that amount of time. Not everyone will be ready to buy, follow ups are the key to success. Your contact rate and your close rate will be lower than it could be if you worked that list over a few times.

Here's a crazy idea, pull that same data set nationwide and see what you come up with. Fish in a large pond with a wide net.

Yes, That's what originally attracted me to selling 100% by phone, the ability to call multiple states! Of course you probably should just start with one state with a lot of targeted data to pull from and go from there!

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you must not be working those phone numbers very well, if you go through 1261 numbers in 3 days...

I'm an old school door knocker just now transitioning into telesales.

My average dials are 400+ a day. I'm sure your referring to repeat dials, so my question is how many times and how often do you make repeat dials before moving on.

I pretty sure three times a day is overkill and will get your number blocked.

What's the right balance?

 

[axeman462]

Yes, That's what originally attracted me to selling 100% by phone, the ability to call multiple states! Of course you probably should just start with one state with a lot of targeted data to pull from and go from there!

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I'm an old school door knocker just now transitioning into telesales.

My average dials are 400+ a day. I'm sure your referring to repeat dials, so my question is how many times and how often do you make repeat dials before moving on.

I pretty sure three times a day is overkill and will get your number blocked.

What's the right balance?

I would call them 2-3 times a week, for about a month, give or take. Do this while trying different things: different times of the day, different days of the week, and maybe even calling from a different phone number.

 

[somarco]

I have never called more than twice. Saw no reason in appearing desparate for a sale. Plenty of low hanging fruit out there if you know where to look.

 

[sshafran]

I do not sell 3-5 weekly consistently. Yet.

However, I do think that it's possible...

 

[Lloydlofton]

A few things to thing about when you are looking at putting together an activity plan to build a book of business in the senior market. There are three things individuals who are aging into this next phase of their life will do, almost without exception:

1. Sign up for Social Security

2. Automatically be enrolled in Medicare - in fact if they are going to choose to continue to work in some capacity for a year or two after they have to opt out of Part B.

3. 80% or there about will get some kind of supplement.

These are "predictable buying behaviors" that is these are behaviors we know they will engage in, almost without exception.

So we know "what" they will buy (some kind of supplement), we know when they will buy it (when they sign up for social security, SEP, lifestyle changes) and we know how much they will pay because the plans are filed in each state.

Moreover we know where they will get the money to pay for this supplement. Most couples (male t0-65, wife 62?) have had some kind of health plan for 30+ years, even if they have group coverage (changing with ACA) they have been paying for dependent coverage.

So when this t-65 profile male prospect signs up for social security, is enrolled in medicare he will "re-position" the money that is already in his monthly disposable income to pay for this supplement (or allocate for co-pays, deductibles on MA plan?) This is a predictable behavior.

When he does this his spouse will now need to get her own stand alone health plan with CI/Accident plan, more wallet share in the home for you to build a book of business.

Then 3 or 4 years later what will happen to her, she will age into retirement, sign up for social security, be enrolled in medicare and then re-position the money she has been paying for her health care into a supplement.

You can write 3 - 5 plans a week if you have a plan. Knowing the prospects predictable buying behaviors can help you develop a plan to capture this business "anyway" that is they are going to buy this supplement "anyway", the question is from who?

 

[vic120]

do think possible sure

I find this is a pipeline type business

when I am consistent I find I have a lot of weeks where I do 3-5 and some more and some less

When I am going well I end up with 15 - 25 per month

I have however Had a baby last year in feb and moved this year in feb
and find that I need to stop pulling leads 3 weeks before, Because follow up is key to not burning leads

I also find it takes me a month or 2 to get pipeline working well again

I also find good lead sources change and it is important to keep watch and change things up every here and there

 

[Bevo]

Selling med supps by phone is easy if you know your product knowledge, underwriting guidelines, and learn the most common objections to overcome. Especially if you're doing it by phone.

The tough part...is finding leads.

 

[gotrr]

Will someone recommend a good telemarketing firm, please? Thanks much.

 

[Daytona_Guy]

I really can't recall reading anyone who just started from day 1 selling 3-5 med sups a week yr round? It just seems med sups are part time selling for 3-5 yrs till it builds up and you're making $100k plus a yr

When I started selling Medicare Supplements by phone, I was using direct mail from Mainstreet Powermail and relied heavily on their experience with historical response rates to guide where I would do the mailings. As I could mail anywhere in any state, I asked their rep for guidance as to the absolute best state response rates in the country and then in that best state. Believe it or not, I was getting 4 to 6% response rates in Michigan at the time.

I was writing 3 to 5 deals a week and only working Med Supps two days a week in the early days. I then continued to mail, fill the pipeline, and moved eventually to doing it five days a week, away from a mix of doing local final expense sales in person. Making that transition was a balancing act, because the final expense sales paid more, up front, but I knew from the residual income aspect that it was a better, long term play to get into the Medicare Supplements.

When the direct mail returns started to go down and we had two postage rate increases close to each other, I turned to telemarketing. I paid a local guy to do my calling and he would gauge interest and then build me up to the potential client on the phone, setting an appointment for me to go over their options based on how much they would save by switching to a new carrier on the same plan. This, too, worked very consistently.

Fast forward six years later and the phone rings all week from referrals now.
I write three to eight deals every week from referrals, spouses of clients, or posts I've put on the internet that are discovered by those shopping.

It is nice not having to do outbound marketing. This is something that I was told, early on, would happen but was hard to believe when it felt like it was so hard to get any traction in the business.

As to:

It just seems med sups are part time selling for 3-5 yrs till it builds up and you're making $100k plus a yr

You can do it part-time and get there slower, for sure. I know many agents who started selling Medicare Supplements at night after their full-time jobs. I started part-time doing it just two days per week but set those entire days aside to concentrate on this aspect of my business before going full-time.

If I had it to do over again, I would have done it the exact same way. I probably worked 30 hours in those two days, early on. I know for a fact that it greatly depends on how hungry you are. I see, day in and day out, agents who rely on their spouse's income to support their family and they treat their business as a part-time hobby. That won't cut it. Those in that scenario do not have the fortitude to weather the rejection and stay long enough to enjoy the income.

On the other hand, I see agents who commit to cutting their safety net and it is sink or swim. They swim. Their commitment level is do or die and that makes all of the difference in their mindset to working the hours necessary and doing whatever it takes to make enough presentations.

Whichever direction you choose to go in, I strongly suggest investing in help with the prospecting, then the prospecting and pre-screening as soon as you can afford to do so. There is no greater time waster than spending YOUR valuable, limited and precious time with those that are uninterested. Even worse is spending 95% of your time with those that are uninterested and even if they were interested, unqualified to take action (due to health, qualification to buy a Med Supp, etc.).

I continue to find it extremely liberating to have someone on your schedule that understands what you do, knows the price of the best plan for them, knows that they will likely qualify based on the health questions OF that plan and knows exactly what their savings will be once they consummate that transaction with you.

This was my best lesson learned in this business:



I wish you the best, but it's a decision, really.


CW

 

[MatthewC]

do think possible sure

I find this is a pipeline type business

when I am consistent I find I have a lot of weeks where I do 3-5 and some more and some less

When I am going well I end up with 15 - 25 per month

I have however Had a baby last year in feb and moved this year in feb
and find that I need to stop pulling leads 3 weeks before, Because follow up is key to not burning leads

I also find it takes me a month or 2 to get pipeline working well again

I also find good lead sources change and it is important to keep watch and change things up every here and there

If you don;t mind my asking, Approx. how many leads do you tend to have in your pipeline when you are writing 3-5 aps per week?