For those of you using NORVAX...

[somarco]

Anytime a prospect looks at even one plan it is confusing. Most folks like to shop. There is nothing wrong with that. It's like my wife. She knows I look at women. She says it doesn't matter where I look at the menu as long as I remember I have already ordered.

The more prospects look, the more they see the plans I am recommending make sense.

I do have my favorites, but I also spread business around. Some carriers are just not a good fit for my primary carriers (Golden Rule, KP & Time). That is why I will use others (Aetna, World, BX & Med Mutual) as needed.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Well someone's stroking on the leads. Whatever happened to the good old days when a lead was shared by only 2 or 3 agents? As I said yesterday, 7 calls which is abusing. And why did I get an Email from Netquote thanking me for submitting a quote through them? Are these guys tied up with Netquote? And how is the consumer benefited by being hammed by every agent in the country with a car payment due next week?

 

[Mike_Golden1]

There is a man here in Louisiana that has about 10 employees has one of those fancy calling computers that dials and puts telemarketer on as soon as biz picks up an says hello. I looked into getting him to get me some leads but he only does min. of 100 per week for agencies. He works in all states ,if anyone int. I will get his info for you

If anyone is interested, I have a predictive dialer system I bought at the end of last year but haven't had the time to implement. It has 4 line capability and the software will scrub against DNC lists. I bought it because I tried an online live transfer service (at 10 cents a call) late last year for Medicare Supplements and it worked pretty well (I got 1 live transfer per 50 calls)-the system only cost me about $350 so if anyone wants it we could work something out-you would only need a monitor to make it fully functional (and at least one phone line, of course).

 

[somarco]

It's a game between the consumer & us. The trick is to know & understand the rules of engagement and play it to your benefit.

Generally the consumer is totally lost since they do not know the rules, much less understand them.

There are basically two ways to generate activity. Interruption marketing and permission marketing.

Interruption marketing is when the agent initiates the call. This is like the commercial that interrupts your movie just when the stalker is about to get the girl. Same thing when you are working in your business and a telemarketer calls. Most of the time you hang up, sometimes not so politely, other times you will give them information just to get them off the phone. Occasionally the timing is right and you have a valid prospect.

Permission marketing is originated by the prospect. The prospect is the one who initiates the search for products or services. They may or may not know what they need, but they know what they are looking for and what their time frame is.

With interruption marketing you are tapping the prospect on the shoulder, asking to cut in. With permission marketing they are raising their hand, indicating they are ready to listen to what you have to say.

Either way, you need to know the rules and be able to skillfully play them.

 

[Mike_Golden1]

You can contract through Jami - $15 per hour with 2 leads per hour guaranteed = $7.50 per lead. Why anyone would pay for shared leads at the same price boggles my mind - especially when telemarketed leads are 100% small business owners. My average volume is $4,200 and I can't remember the last person I signed up under 40 years old.

Mike Golden from the 12th to yesterday has turned in $37,872 in volume - $18,936 per week. His per deal AV is $4,010. He's 100% telemarketed leads and $3,700 a week ain't a bad living and that's just Assurant. He also cross-sells life and it writing a disablity case I think today.

What John isn't telling you is that he has written at least as much as I have in that time period and kicked my butt yesterday ($7,200 AV vs. $5,300).

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

There are always exceptions but the clear rule is the younger crowd is online shopping for quotes and the over-45 set is not. I want the over 45 set for many reasons;

*understanding of health insurance.

*most have pre-ex conditons which I love since they see the value in health insurance.

*Small biz owners stay on the books longer then their employees who are job-hopping constantly.

*They understand the concept of HSAs

Personally, I'm not a fan of having my prospective client getting pounded with incessant phone calls. I don't want to be one of the herd....I am the herd. With internet leads there's far too much wasted energy trying to educate people about all the other people who will be calling and trying to position yourself as "the one" to deal with. While everyone's wasting that engergy I'm going over rates and plans.

When using telemarketed leads it's not like you're getting disinterested prospects. Those people simply say no to the marketers. What you don't get with internet leads is my typical client; very successful business owner paying "$750" a month. The rate's not killing 'em but what they don't know if they can get a HSA for "$480."

I've done internet leads for 3 years and telemarketed leads for 8 months. I'd never buy another lead again. It's painful for me to watch others do it.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

What John isn't telling you is that he has written at least as much as I have in that time period and kicked my butt yesterday ($7,200 AV vs. $5,300).

Well you bought shared leads Mike - how do they compare with 100% small business owners through telemarketing?

 

[Mike_Golden1]

There are always exceptions but the clear rule is the younger crowd is online shopping for quotes and the over-45 set is not. I want the over 45 set for many reasons;

*understanding of health insurance.

*most have pre-ex conditons which I love since they see the value in health insurance.

*Small biz owners stay on the books longer then their employees who are job-hopping constantly.

*They understand the concept of HSAs

Personally, I'm not a fan of having my prospective client getting pounded with incessant phone calls. I don't want to be one of the herd....I am the herd. With internet leads there's far too much wasted energy trying to educate people about all the other people who will be calling and trying to position yourself as "the one" to deal with. While everyone's wasting that engergy I'm going over rates and plans.

When using telemarketed leads it's not like you're getting disinterested prospects. Those people simply say no to the marketers. What you don't get with internet leads is my typical client; very successful business owner paying "$750" a month. The rate's not killing 'em but what they don't know if they can get a HSA for "$480."

I've done internet leads for 3 years and telemarketed leads for 8 months. I'd never buy another lead again. It's painful for me to watch others do it.

I'm only a newbie in the business but can tell you that, at least for me, working with business owners is far superior to the random mix of people requesting quotes through the internet. Yesterday I was able to take a married couple who own a successful business off a Mid-West policy with a $300 per day hospital benefit (and who were paying $575 a month!) into an Assurant CoreMed plan with $6M lifetime benefit (5K deductible) with a 36 month guaranteed premium of $430. They had been getting 2 rate incresaes a year from Mid-West.

Needless to say, they are fairly happy and I will most likely get some referrals from them.

 

[Mike_Golden1]

By the way, does anyone know if there is a Mid-West/Mega subscriber list that can be purchased? Maybe something called, 'The We've Been Scammed Users' group?

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

If memory serves this was the lady on a $300 a day R&B plan and she's epileptic on two meds. $300 a day? Even when I was a Mega agent I was never that nasty. I sold their Premier PPO product.