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

[DS4]

LD, just get licensed and sell Plan F. You don't need to know anything about Medicare to sell Plan F. lol

 

[Todd King]

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

This certainly does clarify your hesitation. However, I've seen your research into different subjects when it comes to Medicare and I've also witnessed your memory about certain subjects when it comes up again. I'm not so sure your problem is as big as you think it is.

 

[Bod]

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.

Nice, Newby. I think it must have been one of your posts. What does your sign say? Now I just need to find a wife and get her to sell insurance. I've been warned that getting married is a bad contract, though.

Now tell me how stupid this idea is...keep in mind, this would be in addition to other prospecting methods.

I was thinking of getting one of those huge vans or maybe a mobile office on a trailer that is "architecturally interesting."

I could have a set of huge, unmissable signs that say something like "On Medicare? Stop to price check your Medicare Supplements! FREE coffee and snacks. Only 17 days left." (17 days would be the date when I leave.) And the van or RV or trailer would also be branded and hard to miss.

I would then go town-to-town for a month at a time. In each town, I would rent out a space in an unused parking lot or something like that and be right near the road. The, idea is people would be interested enough in the sight to stop and ask questions. At which point, I'd talk to them if I was there or I could have someone outside underneath a tent schedule appointments for me if I'm unavailable.

Now, I assume this idea is barely worth pursuing if nobody is doing it. My theory is there would be an increase in walk-ins because people are attracted to new things that appear in town and it would be very clear that the I'm leaving in X number of days and, unlike most insurance companies you see on the street, it would be clear I specialize in med supps.

 

[SrSvcs]

Temper temper.

Rick

That's right. Better keep your mouth shut, lest YOU be banned. Rick will go crying to the mods as he does, literally, every day.

Grow up man.

 

[Todd King]

That's right. Better keep your mouth shut, lest YOU be banned. Rick will go crying to the mods as he does, literally, every day.

Grow up man.

You are so wrong about that. In case you haven't figured it out yet, the Mods don't much like Rick either.

 

[GreenSky]

You are so wrong about that. In case you haven't figured it out yet, the Mods don't much like Rick either.

Yes he is so in love with me I'm mentioned in almost all of his posts. Including the one where he said I should put a shotgun in my mouth. Apparently the mods and owner think that's ok to write on the forum.

Rick

 

[LostDollar]

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.
.

Your comment sticks in my mind, but I can't get it boiled down to some kind of focus point.

From your perspective and experience, and trying to think from the viewpoint of the consumer, what is the benefit or quality of life improvement the consumer gets from being able to discuss the Medicare supplements in an office setting -- compared to telephone or home visit?

Thank you.
LD

 

[Newby]

Your comment sticks in my mind, but I can't get it boiled down to some kind of focus point.

From your perspective and experience, and trying to think from the viewpoint of the consumer, what is the benefit or quality of life improvement the consumer gets from being able to discuss the Medicare supplements in an office setting -- compared to telephone or home visit?

Thank you.
LD

Just answer your phone. While there are some great phone agents out there, nine out of ten of them sound like script readers and BS artists.

I've had one: pitch me with in the last day that had as a part of her script that she is from Medicare. So I drilled her down on it three times and made her repeat three times very specifically that she works for Medicare and she is paid by the federal government. Then of course I scared the **** out of her. (Hey she interupted my lunch.)

Seniors get pitched all kinds of horse **** over the phone. The smart ones are very skeptical. Many of them not only want to brick-and-mortar but they want a brick-and-mortar that's been around for quite a while. I'm not saying these are the majority of seniors but I'm saying that there are tons of them.

It probably helps that I'm of that mindset also. I'm Uber conservative. If I have to give my so security number out I do think about what's going to happen if it gets used inappropriately. Whould I rather have it from some guy that called me and I'm not even sure where he's at or what he's all about or the guy down the street that I can drive to his office and raise hell with him? I know that's not the way young people think anymore. I'm just short of 60 so I'm kind of out of the generation that didn't grow up with buying things online or giving personal information over the telephone.

 

[kgmom219]

Seniors get pitched all kinds of horse **** over the phone. The smart ones are very skeptical. Many of them not only want to brick-and-mortar but they want a brick-and-mortar that's been around for quite a while. I'm not saying these are the majority of seniors but I'm saying that there are tons of them.

THIS.

I get asked this a lot, with a skeptical "You don't have an office?"

My response.. Pull the chick card. "Nope, I'm a single mom and didn't want to put my son in daycare. Started this when he was 2 and almost 15 years later, this still works for us"

It also establishes how long I've been doing this.

 

[Key2Success]

THIS.

I get asked this a lot, with a skeptical "You don't have an office?"

My response.. Pull the chick card. "Nope, I'm a single mom and didn't want to put my son in daycare. Started this when he was 2 and almost 15 years later, this still works for us"

It also establishes how long I've been doing this.

Well, you don't find many 17 year olds in day care these days......there would be no one for him to play with.