How to make the most money in 4 months

[Frank Stastny]

Sorry for the ignorance; I'm still in the learning stage.
Where do you get the leads to sell Med Supps all year? Any advice? And, what is "MA"?

I generate my own leads from lists I purchase and the wealth of people I have in my prospects database. Lead Concepts is the company I get my leads from. I order a list of people between the ages of 67 and 78 with incomes starting at $12,000 per year.

An "MA" is a Medicare Advantage plan. There are HMO's, PPO's and now PFFS or Private Fee For Service plans. They are the options for seniors that fall under Part C of Medicare.

 

[Frank Stastny]

You can also just buy lists by themselves and do NO mailing at all. That is the best cost wise by far.

A man after my own heart.

As you said, why buy crap leads or pay $400.00 to have 1,000 cards mailed and only receive 15 to 18 replies.

In the senior market working from a list definitely the way to go in my opinion.

 

[OHInsAGNT]

You can expect, at best, probably a 0.08% lift on direct mail to strangers with not relationship to you or your company. So, if you sent out 1000 mailers, you'll probably get 8 phone calls. You better be at the phone 24/7, because they likely won't leave a message and won't call back.

If half of those 8 actually apply and half get approved, that is 2 deals. How much did you pay for the mailer and how much commission will you get from 2 deals?

My best advice is to stop spending money now, if you don't have money to spend. Work the phone for free with contacts you already know or go online join DO NOT CALL and pick neighborhoods from the phone book, check their numbers and call. You'll need other products though. You're not allowed to cold call senior products. At least, that's as I understand it.

If you must make significant money in 4 months or bust, follow the earlier advice and get another job until insurance can support you.

 

[Frank Stastny]

You're not allowed to cold call senior products. At least, that's as I understand it.

An agent will be prohibited from cold calling seniors to try to sell them the Medicare Advantage plans.

Agents, however, can sell Medicare Supplement plans any way that works best for them.

Cold phone calling, knocking on doors, hanging out at gas stations and pumping their gas for them, standing around grocery stores and carrying their groceries to the car for them, standing on street corners and helping them cross the street or anything else the agent can come up with.

Creative agents who learn to prospect will always succeed in the insurance business.

 

[xrac]

If you and your wife are both working in insurance I would suggest that the one of you does the best selling insurance continue doing that and that the other find another job to help pay the bills until you guys get established. Once the partner in insurance gets their feet on the ground and knows what they are doing the other one can jump in at that point. Having to have money now is a recipe for disaster in this business. It tempts one to be unethical and to cut corners, it makes us desperate to close sales which clients can sense from our demeanor and presentations, and it makes us take on people as clients we should walk away from.

 

[MSIS]

One of our agents sells alot of medicare advantage plans in that same area your in. You may want to look into that. I think he is selling with AARP right now through United healthcare.

 

[somarco]

Having to have money now is a recipe for disaster in this business. It tempts one to be unethical and to cut corners, it makes us desperate to close sales which clients can sense from our demeanor and presentations, and it makes us take on people as clients we should walk away from.

Solid observation.

 

[djs]

You can expect, at best, probably a 0.08% lift on direct mail to strangers with not relationship to you or your company. So, if you sent out 1000 mailers, you'll probably get 8 phone calls. You better be at the phone 24/7, because they likely won't leave a message and won't call back.

If half of those 8 actually apply and half get approved, that is 2 deals. How much did you pay for the mailer and how much commission will you get from 2 deals?

Strangely enough, I would have agreed with this until recently. I've never been a fan of direct mail..... high overhead, low response, wrong market, etc, etc, etc....

I got talked into doing a direct mail campaign recently. Talked into, as in I'm trying to grow my homeowners book of business and was looking for marketing opportunities, and after looking at several, direct mail was one of the best.

It seems to be working, MUCH better than I expected.

Why?

My mail pieces are targeted at the individual homeowner. I actually run a quote for their homeowners insurance and mail it to them, with a cover letter introducing myself. I get responses of about 2% to this method, with almost 100% written on the response. It's still early, time will tell if it really pans out, but I've been happy with it so far.

I did change my cover letter a bit, and the response plummeted. Going back to the original one...

My assumption was that no one opened junk mail. Most don't, but these get opened, at least in a reasonable number. Now, I don't use window envelopes, I include my return address, an actual stamp (even though bulk mail, unless you know mail, it looks like just another stamp).

I print the letters and mail them myself. It takes about 2 days to run a 1000 quotes, 2 days for my daughter to fold and stuff them.... not to bad.

I never thought that I would advocate direct mail, but it does work still, if you have the right material. It's not a quick, get money now, type of thing, and if it wasn't for the cross sell opportunity, it might not be worth it for me.

I'm a believer, just don't mail generic stuff though, you're response will be abysmal.

Dan

 

[Frank Stastny]

Strangely enough, I would have agreed with this until recently. I've never been a fan of direct mail..... high overhead, low response, wrong market, etc, etc, etc....

I got talked into doing a direct mail campaign recently. Talked into, as in I'm trying to grow my homeowners book of business and was looking for marketing opportunities, and after looking at several, direct mail was one of the best.

It seems to be working, MUCH better than I expected.

Why?

My mail pieces are targeted at the individual homeowner. I actually run a quote for their homeowners insurance and mail it to them, with a cover letter introducing myself. I get responses of about 2% to this method, with almost 100% written on the response. It's still early, time will tell if it really pans out, but I've been happy with it so far.

I did change my cover letter a bit, and the response plummeted. Going back to the original one...

My assumption was that no one opened junk mail. Most don't, but these get opened, at least in a reasonable number. Now, I don't use window envelopes, I include my return address, an actual stamp (even though bulk mail, unless you know mail, it looks like just another stamp).

I print the letters and mail them myself. It takes about 2 days to run a 1000 quotes, 2 days for my daughter to fold and stuff them.... not to bad.

I never thought that I would advocate direct mail, but it does work still, if you have the right material. It's not a quick, get money now, type of thing, and if it wasn't for the cross sell opportunity, it might not be worth it for me.

I'm a believer, just don't mail generic stuff though, you're response will be abysmal.

Dan

You do good work!

However, how many agents do you think there are who are looking for "leads" that would make that kind of time and investment in their business?

The "direct mail" most are referring to, I think, is having a generic post card sent to prospects.

Your way is a well thought out, creative approach to prospecting.

You are obviously not lazy nor pissing away thousands of dollars buying crap "leads" and then bitching because the 10 or 15 people who respond to the cards aren't ready to write you a check the first time you call them.

Good job!

 

[somarco]

I actually run a quote for their homeowners insurance and mail it to them, with a cover letter introducing myself.

I can see how that would be effective. The approach is non-threatening and you have enough information from databases to at least "get close" on the rate. (I am assuming you don't pull CLUE or other info to "fine tune" the quote before sending it out).

That's smart.

I did change my cover letter a bit, and the response plummeted

Been there, done that.