Med- Sup Sales Difficulty
- Thread starter usakr
- Start date
That's interesting. Personally, Med Supps are an easy sell. Quite honestly, there's not much "selling" involved. Many seniors believe they need something to supplement Medicare. My job is to educate them and then "take the order".
MP is a tougher sell in my opinion. Most people aren't sure if they need the additional coverage. My only thought is that maybe these agents have tried to sell the Med Supp in the same manner as MP. If that is the case, I can see why they may have had trouble. It is a different process.
MP is a tougher sell in my opinion. Most people aren't sure if they need the additional coverage. My only thought is that maybe these agents have tried to sell the Med Supp in the same manner as MP. If that is the case, I can see why they may have had trouble. It is a different process.
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It is probably one of the easiest products to sell in insurance. However, you can not approach seniors the same way as you approach a 34 year old couple wanting mortgage protection. Find someone who knows what they are doing and ask a lot of questions. You definitely must have patience when dealing with seniors and you can not be too pushy. At the same time, seniors will chew you up and spit you out if you do not know how to take control of the conversation and engage them in a way that makes them want to know what you have to say. Frank Stastny on the board could probably give you some good insight as well. Good luck.
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- 7,066
Of all the insurance I have sold, Med Supps are the easiest to prospect for, get appointments for and to sell. Sman is right, seniors should not be sold a Med Supp, they should be educated about them.
If they are properly educated, at the end of the presentation it will lead them to only one conclusion, what the agent is offering is the wisest investment of their premium dollar. They shouldn't be asking any questions or voicing objections, simply handing the agent their Medicare Card.
One of the most important parts of the process, as pointed out by medicarebenefitsdirect, is maintaining control of the conversation. If the agent loses control, the process leading to filling out the app is going to be a lot more difficult.
If they are properly educated, at the end of the presentation it will lead them to only one conclusion, what the agent is offering is the wisest investment of their premium dollar. They shouldn't be asking any questions or voicing objections, simply handing the agent their Medicare Card.
One of the most important parts of the process, as pointed out by medicarebenefitsdirect, is maintaining control of the conversation. If the agent loses control, the process leading to filling out the app is going to be a lot more difficult.
That is the biggest obstacle for me, is that the conversation becomes quite warped with all the questions, and turns a convo takes with seniors.
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3 months ago i had no idea what a med supp was, and talked to maybe 6 people over the age of 65 my whole life, including my grandparents. I am confident that selling med supps is a good way to make money and easy! (easy as long as you work hard!) and next month im stepping into the final expense area, based on the fact that my med supp sales are asking me to sell them final expense plans!
- 7,066
It really isn't as big an obstacle as it seems. I've been trying to think of a term to describe how to handle that and all I can come up with is "extreme knowledge". Not just about Medicare and Medicare Supplement insurance but also of the way seniors think, what their concerns are and the "hot buttons" that turn them on and those things that turn them off.
Seniors usually ask specific questions but they may be asking one thing and really want information about something totally different. Agents new to Med Supps may not recognize this and go into a lengthy explanation trying to give an answer when all they are really doing is "winging it". This will raise more questions that the agent may also not be able to answer either. Pretty soon the agent has a total cluster mess on his hands.
To be successful on the phone the agent has to know Medicare and Med Supps backwards and forwards. Know seniors and what they want. Have a very smooth telephone presentation designed not to let the prospect take control. It is not a "script", it is fact finding and educating. When done properly not only is it a lot easier to get the appointment but when the agent hangs up the phone it should almost already be sold. (I close well over 95% of my appointments.)
I'm going to take a WAG and say you may be keeping track of how many calls you are making per hour or day. Concentrating more on the quantity of calls as opposed to the quality of the calls. It sounds like your goal may be to make as many calls as possible per hour. I'm also going to guess that you are probably only going for an "appointment", just to get them to agree to see you. Or not.
You may be in a "hurry" to get to the next call and they start asking questions and you are simply trying to give a quick answer to make the call as short as possible so you can go on to the next call as opposed to listening to what they are saying. The biggest fault with a lot of salesmen is that they may be great talkers but they have never learned to listen.
I may be on the phone with a prospect for 20, 40 or even 60 minutes before I feel the time is right to "go for the appointment". Then again I may get it in the first ten minutes. My goal is different than most. I want to write one app a day. To accomplish that, they way I do it, I only need one appointment per day. (A lot of my appointments are with both a husband and wife and I get two apps.)
Many agents think that they can use the same approach for Med Supps that they would use for say selling FE insurance. It isn't going to work. The agent will burn through hundreds of seniors just going for the appointment when their goal should be to engage the prospect in a conversation and educate them. Very little is ever sold during a phone call, it must be transitioned into a conversation first, then the "selling process" can begin.
For me, selling Med Supps is totally different than any other kind of insurance I have sold. However, like with all selling, using the phone it is a learned, well practiced art and takes a totally different approach than with other kinds of insurance.
Don't be a salesman, there are tons of them out there, be an educator. Spend time with your prospects and educate them why what you are offering is a better investment of their premium dollar than what they currently have. Seniors who were not thinking about switching their Med Supp company will all of a sudden be very interested. If all the agent is doing is looking for the people who are "shopping" he isn't going to be very successful.
Or, maybe you are doing all those things and simply don't give "good phone". If I were looking for someone to do my telemarketing for me I would look to the women who answer the 900 numbers. I've been told they give really, really "good phone".
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People need them and are oftentimes guaranteed issue - so in that regard, they are not hard to sell. You must be competitive on price by licensing with the most affordable carriers in your state however.
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