- 1,459
This has been a common trend since I started doing the surveys, makes me wonder how much business I've lost out on in the past by not understanding this point.
Example Survey
Example Survey
It Goes Beyond Price In Small Group Sales
- Thread starter Full Throttle
- Start date
- 4,096
What type of industry is this from?
Size group?
I would total disagree about lowering costs.
I 100% agree about educating the employee's on the value of the benefit.
I also agree 100% about the plan coverage for the owners family. Most micro group owners are really only concerned with their benefits.
It would be interesting if you had a 100 of these surveys completed.
Size group?
I would total disagree about lowering costs.
I 100% agree about educating the employee's on the value of the benefit.
I also agree 100% about the plan coverage for the owners family. Most micro group owners are really only concerned with their benefits.
It would be interesting if you had a 100 of these surveys completed.
- 313
I agree about the benefits part. I find that small co's that purchase group health insurance tend to have more benefit rich plans that their larger counterparts. I think that is because they want the best benefits for themselves as well.
- Thread starter
- #5
- 1,459
12 employees on plan, outsourced technology support industry.
I quit prejudging what they want, hence the survey. I find out what they want to accomplish, then help them get there.
I haven't kept track of how many of these have been completed over the last year and a half, but it has to been at least 50 of them. Without reading through the hard numbers, reducing my current premiums is only the leading indicator around 25% of the time (although it's usually much higher than 1, usually in the 5 to 8 range).
Try doing the surveys and see for yourself. Beyond the research, it gives you a road map of how to sell the person before ever showing up for the first meeting and you can strategize your game plan/questions to be asked before you walk in the door. It's been a great help to me.
- Thread starter
- #7
- 1,459
I respectfully disagree. I still do all my note taking on a yellow pad and ask a lot of questions, but it helps keep the meeting on track and provides a good conversation starting point. Alot of these areas get over looked and help set me apart from the other brokers calling on them. I've sold without using the survey longer than I've used it and like the latter scenerio much more. If it didn't work, I wouldn't keep using it.
- 4,096
This is a great topic!
I have never even considered using a survey for a prospect group.
Most small groups I deal with have no clue of what their insurance goals should be.
Let me ask you this.
Of the prospect groups that you have met with that completed the survey what is your closing rate?
If you can say the survey is helping in getting new clients then I am all about it!
Great post thank you!
I have never even considered using a survey for a prospect group.
Most small groups I deal with have no clue of what their insurance goals should be.
Let me ask you this.
Of the prospect groups that you have met with that completed the survey what is your closing rate?
If you can say the survey is helping in getting new clients then I am all about it!
Great post thank you!
- Thread starter
- #9
- 1,459
ABC,
I apologize, I forgot about this thread and just came across it. As far as closing rate, I'm not sure as I haven't tracked it for quite a while. Here is the bottom line for me: I have gotten groups that I wouldn't have otherwise using the survey. These were groups that went the AOR route.
Give it a shot, it's easy to do. I set it up like this:
"Ted, blah blah blah, I'll see you on Tuesday for our meeting. One last thing, I put together a short 5 minute survey that will help us focus our time more efficiently so we only spend time on the areas you actually want to talk about. Would it work to fax it over to you? When you have a chance, shoot it back to me, otherwise, we can spend the first 5 minutes of our meeting going over it."
About 50% fax it back if the lead came from a cold call (obviously substantially higher from a referral), the other half I use it to start the meeting. My meetings start like this:
"Ted, from the survey, I see "A,B, and C are your biggest concerns. Is there anything else you would like to make sure we cover?"
Ted: "Nope, I think that will over it."
"Of A, B, and C, which do you want to talk about first?"
Ted: "B."
"Tell me more about what made you rank that one so high?"
And off we go. It's much better than starting off talking only about price and never being able to recover. Small businesses think that's the only criteria to talk about since that's how 98% of brokers teach them to evaluate proposals, yet we all sell the same plans and carriers! That's crazy in my opinion.
