Has anyone Ever Had a Physical Office Space Specifically for Medicare? If So, Did You Get Many Walk-

[GreenSky]

I don't have enough lifetime left to live to be able to duplicate his experience. Just trying to learn from it.

You've spent months here asking every question imaginable and in fact presenting your opinions which come from zero experience.

Nobody has enough lifetime to spend the time you have spent deciding if and when you want to become an insurance agent. Until then, you really are just walking in circles.

I'm sure others are finding it wonderful that you love it here. Must be your second home.

But either sh*t or get off the pot.

Rick

 

[LostDollar]

But either sh*t or get off the pot.

Rick

Stuff it Mr GreenSky

 

[GreenSky]

Stuff it Mr GreenSky

Temper temper.

Rick

 

[LostDollar]

Temper temper.

Rick

Yes, you pulled my chain

 

[Key2Success]

The biggest key to success is marketing. If you can come up with a marketing plan that will drive the prospects you want to your office, then it can work. Otherwise you'll spend most of your time in the office posting on this and other forums.

Marketing 101.....everybody knows that!

 

[DS4]

I have a physical office off the main street in my hometown of the last 60 years. I have a very small sign that I'm sure doesn't attract walkin's.
After being in the business of health insurance since May 1978, all my business is referral, ie, either telephone calls or walkin's.
I probably have 1 walkin per week.
The big bonus this year? I'm a T65 this June.
We have 2 high schools in my hometown. I know everyone that is a T65 this year.
All my business in done in my office.
Maybe once or twice per year, I will drive to an appointment.
90% of my business is within 5 miles of my office.

 

[Todd King]

Yes, you pulled my chain

I am curious though. What exactly is holding you back? Are you just scared you'll fail? If so, guess what...you're already there.

If it is your insecurity that is holding you back, I hope you realize that most of the threads that are started, which describe problems that involve post after post of discussing problems that an agent runs into, are not the norm when actually selling. If I had to guess I would say it might be a 50:1 ratio. Most of the problems agents run into where they have to dig for info are not common.

If you really are considering a career with this, stop wasting your time and get going. As much as you like to educate yourself on this stuff you may be able to be a good agent. Until you start though, it's all for naught.

 

[LostDollar]

That's probably me. Yes I do and yes it has worked well for me. But I don't think it would be the way to start out and have you best chance to succeed.

We market very differently than most agents and it would be an expensive way to start if you are on a tight budget.

I advertise in local newspapers.

I put on monthly educational seminars (mainly at hospitals, churches, and senior groups) for seven years.

I was in the field meeting with people every day for FE and funeral Preneed and bird dogging Medicare stuff to my wife at the office.

I ran Yellow Page ads (those were the least effective of my marketing though. )

My office is on a very busy street and my sign out front draws in walk in's every week. Had a HUGE increase when I changed the sign to a more visible one.

We have a large enough base now that we don't need to advertise at all. We still keep a few passive ads running but servicing the base as well as people who call in and walk in is plenty.

My wife is definitely not "sales minded" so I had to drive traffic to her that was more interested in doing business with us than generic leads would be. She has never gone to anyone's home. They all had to come in to her. A more aggressive and hungry agent could have sold a lot more but she has built over a 1,000 client base and that keeps her busy and happy and I don't have to be side tracked with it much at all so it works well for us.

A few years ago there were a lot of old school brick and mortars. Now there are few. That's because new school agents can build a base much quicker and with less overhead. But that has made the demand for the brick and mortar agent more desirable for many consumers. Some like to come to a physical location much better. So it works better for building trust, getting referrals and cross sales.

Her very first walk in when we opened the office was a huge premium term life case. It was around 12,000 AP and she had never sold a life policy before but she closed it. That was around 10-years ago. That's still probably the best walk in we've had.

I have read and reread this several times. I have three questions. Two are pretty specific-one is more general. I'm going to ask the two specific ones below. In regard to the more general one, I'd like to know if it is ok for me to attempt to frame it and ask it in a separate post?

The first question I had is about your wife's training and experience. The general discussion is about Medicare related insurance but the first walkin sale was for life insurance. That makes it look like an important factor in your agency's success is that your wife had knowledge/experience/training that went beyond just medicare. Could you explain her background a little bit more?

The second is about seminars (and it just turned into more than one).

Did your seminars cover more than just Medicare related insurance?

And. for medicare related insurance, would today's legal restrictions prevent seminars from being as effective in generating prospects as they were when you were doing them?

Thank you.
LD

 

[Newby]

I have read and reread this several times. I have three questions. Two are pretty specific-one is more general. I'm going to ask the two specific ones below. In regard to the more general one, I'd like to know if it is ok for me to attempt to frame it and ask it in a separate post?

The first question I had is about your wife's training and experience. The general discussion is about Medicare related insurance but the first walkin sale was for life insurance. That makes it look like an important factor in your agency's success is that your wife had knowledge/experience/training that went beyond just medicare. Could you explain her background a little bit more?

The second is about seminars (and it just turned into more than one).

Did your seminars cover more than just Medicare related insurance?

And. for medicare related insurance, would today's legal restrictions prevent seminars from being as effective in generating prospects as they were when you were doing them?

Thank you.
LD

My wife was green as a pea when she made that sale. What saved her was the owner of the agency that I ran my term cases and annuities through at that time had just been to iur office and took my wife and I to lunch the week before. She called him and he talked with the applicant on speaker phone and walked her through the sale.

Her background had been in bean counting for the past 15-years. She has book learning and credentials but knew nothing about insurance or sales.

The seminars I did were educational only. They were very compliant and I definitely had secret shoppers at every single one of them. There is no difference from today because I just ended them in December 2016. Nothing has changed since then.

Those seminares were 100% Medicare Supplements, Advantage plans and Part D RX plans. No specific company info. No sales pitches. I've done other seminars through the years on FE and funeral preneed but not during the Medicare seminars.

I only did a couple of them where no asked for a business card. In most once one person asked everyone in the room asked for one. From that they had to proactively call me and many of them did.

I think any agent that can speak to groups and show that he is knowledgable and helpful with information they need should take every opportunity to speak to those groups. Once you are out there and doing it you will get calls from others asking you to speak. I've had calls from church groups, Silver Sneaker groups, senior housing groups, hospitals, and a funeral director association to speak at their meetings.

I hate public speaking as much as anyone reading this. But once you force yourself to do it a couple of times and if you really know your subject it gets much easier and the question and answe sessions especially are very rewarding. You forget how much you do know until your audience starts asking questions that you can rattle the answers to right off the top of your head.

The leads that come from doing these things are better than any other lead you will ever generate. They have already met you. They have already sized you up. They are under no obligation. And now they are calling you to meet at your office. It doesn't get any better than that.

 

[LostDollar]

I am curious though. What exactly is holding you back? Are you just scared you'll fail? If so, guess what...you're already there.

If it is your insecurity that is holding you back, I hope you realize that most of the threads that are started, which describe problems that involve post after post of discussing problems that an agent runs into, are not the norm when actually selling. If I had to guess I would say it might be a 50:1 ratio. Most of the problems agents run into where they have to dig for info are not common.

If you really are considering a career with this, stop wasting your time and get going. As much as you like to educate yourself on this stuff you may be able to be a good agent. Until you start though, it's all for naught.

Maybe more personal than is wise to post, but best effort to answer is below.

A) Insurance Agent/License and SHIP volunteer are mutually exclusive.
(however issues below have just as much negative effect on an office volunteer job as they do on being an ins agent.)

B) Declining mental focus period or attention span.

c) Declining reading ability.
Vocabulary, Comprehension, Speed, Retention

For ins testing I can do flash cards to build/rebuild business vocabulary which will in turn help with comprehension and speed. Longer term retention issues will make some percentage of those increases illusory over a longer period of time.

If i decide I really want to pass the exam, I think with determination, patience and effort, I can do so. It will be much harder now than 20 years ago.

I am still unable to get a good "read" on the amount of reading an agent must do, but when we start talking about stuff like contracts, applications, policies and the volume of just cms medicare material; I'm thinking there is an 80% or more chance I can't do the necessary reading to actually function as an agent.

D) My memory is getting worse. I am unsure just how much basic level Medicare material I will actually be able to remember without having to look it up every time. Lots of repetition will help but I can't tell if it will allow me to be functional.

I am working on my tax return. From a year ago, I am running at around a 90% level of " I've never seen this stuff before and have to look it up or research against last year's return to see what's going on". Most frustrating.

E) Insurance sales is a different type of sales than my previous experiences. There are a lot of required "touches per customer". Leading to implied requirements of a lot of organization, followup and long term commitment to to the process. Maybe longer term than I could reasonably be expected to provide.

F) Obtaining an insurance license to make another effort at succeeding in sales and business may not be the wisest use of my current time and effort.

Rather like going back to the dome in this story (Desertion by Clifford Simak):
(this is a school site and did not trigger any av alarms on my machine)
http://www.flatrock.k12.in.us/site/...anceid=793&dataid=1416&FileName=Desertion.pdf