Medicare Supp Seminar

[Justin Bilyj]

Hello Everyone,
Is there anyone out there that has given a med. supp. seminar? I have at my disposal various libraries that have given me the opportunity to hold seminars on it, and Im wondering how to entertain seniors and any other presenting tips you may have.

Anyone do this with LTCi?

 

[patch36]

The challenge is to get people to come. Seminars are hard to fill, which is why most offer free food. The other challenge is if you do offer something for nothing you have to generate business to pay for it. Med Sups and LTC are not high ticket commissions. I realize you are talking about what should be a free venue, but attracting an audience is tough.

If you get them there and you give them knowledge they can use, that beats entertainment. It also builds trust and credibility. Good luck. If you come up with a way to fill the seats, share your experiences.

 

[allhealthandlife]

Hello Everyone,
Is there anyone out there that has given a med. supp. seminar? I have at my disposal various libraries that have given me the opportunity to hold seminars on it, and Im wondering how to entertain seniors and any other presenting tips you may have.

Anyone do this with LTCi?

You mean having doing a Medicare Supper ?

Old people love to eat free ! I have noticed that the ones that ask the most questions at seminars are usually the professional plate lickers who feel they are justifying their free meal by particapating in the discussion.

 

[Justin Bilyj]

No food, and from what I understand, the woman at the library told me that there are a lot of seniors who ask for this type of info but no speakers, so I dont think it will be hard to find people. The place is always packed, I'd expect atleast 15 people there.

 

[captain94]

I did seminars for med-supps and Ltc and annuities. mostly people who want to eat free meals. I then tryed only providing coffee no one showed up. I would not do it again, the ROI was never high enough and always a huge wast of time. If you expect 15 you will get 3. its always 20% of what conferms. I would call everyone the night before get 50 confermations and about 10 would show up. 20% never failed.

 

[Frank Stastny]

I use to do a lot of public speaking so it seemed a natural to do seminars at senior centers. Never any problem getting a group of people together for the seminar.

However, there was always a lot of conversation going on among the attendees, always one or two who love to heckle and in general not a whole lot of interest in actually setting up an appointment or purchasing a policy. No, I didn't try to sell during the seminar, only to generate interest.

There were always a few that thought they had the "very best policy" with the "very best company" and knew more than I did who would contradict what I had said. Everyone knows that "one of their own" is a whole lot more knowledgeable about Medicare and Med Supp policies than I am.

It only takes one person to put a damper on everything you say. Their attention was then directed to what "he", usually a guy, was saying and all of a sudden "he" became the "expert". Once that happens then forget about setting up appointments with others in the group.

I finally came to the conclusion that it was pretty much of a waste of my time. I put a lot of work into setting it up, had printed material to hand out, information I put together, not just the crap provided by insurance companies.

What does work a whole lot better is if you can sell a policy to a member of the senior center and have that person "sponsor" you. Have your client introduce you and say warm and fuzzy things about the excellent service you provide and the money they saved by taking a policy with you.

Without this kind of credibility you are just another "insurance agent" who is there to blow smoke up their, ah, noses.

 

[Cenla Agent]

I did a lot of seminars when I was captive with Humana and selling MA's and PDP's. They worked pretty well because that's when the PDP was first made available and there was a lot of publicity about it. But even then, attendance lagged when it wasn't either at the end of the year when people wanted a 1/1 eff. date or at the end of the enrollment period. CMS changed the rules on MA seminars as well, now you can't serve meals, etc.

Something else that has tended to be very successful for me has been when I had a good rapport with a client or prospective client and he or she was able to have several friends or family members over to their home to hear a presentation. But that was when I was selling MA plans and there was interest due to their newness to the area (i.e. they had not been previously available, or at least not for several years) as well as a sense of urgency because of an impending deadline.

I know of agents who were successful with seminars in the past selling Supps. (this would have probably been in the 80's or maybe early 90's) but I tend to agree with Frank. Unlike something like Part D, there are too many variables unless you were somehow able to target your market and get a good number of prospects (as opposed to suspects) to show up.

Now, if PFFS and other MA plans were to pull out of certain markets in the near future due to a cut in funding, that would generate a lot of interest about what the other options are and could perhaps make seminar type proposals a more viable option.

 

[coachd]

I have my first med sup sem on Tues the 28th. I have done public speaking and many seminars on other topics. I do not pan on selling at it. Just educate.

LTCI ones have always worked well for me.
I can get into Sr. centers, not Libraries. How are you getting in?

 

[Justin Bilyj]

I screwed the old lady behind the desk....
No seriously they weren't gonna let me do it, since im not a nonprofit, I charmed the old lady, gave her my card, and asked her if she could talk to her boss(the one who runs the county library system) for me. I told her im not gonna charge money, sign people up, just straight educate. she called me the next day to say that i was the first person to do this (nonprofit thingy), and she said that if it went good there would be other opportunities at all the other branches, not bad....Im gonna try the next county over, see what I can do.

 

[Frank Stastny]

I screwed the old lady behind the desk....
No seriously they weren't gonna let me do it, since im not a nonprofit, I charmed the old lady, gave her my card, and asked her if she could talk to her boss(the one who runs the county library system) for me. I told her im not gonna charge money, sign people up, just straight educate. she called me the next day to say that i was the first person to do this (nonprofit thingy), and she said that if it went good there would be other opportunities at all the other branches, not bad....Im gonna try the next county over, see what I can do.

You silver-tongued devil.

Make sure you have something to hand out. Although I very seldom use them, this would be a good time to have a pen with your name and phone number on it to hand out. It would be well worth the expense to have them made up.

Present them with a "facts sheet" with the items you are going to cover leaving plenty of room after each item for them to make notes. Have your contact information at the top.

Explain to them why the vast majority of doctors accept assignment today. Informing them of the changes that took place in the mid 90's is the best way to impart that information.

Go into detail describing the term "Accept Assignment" what it means and how it works and why most doctors get paid directly by Medicare and the insurance company. Ask how many in the group have doctors who Accept Assignment. Involve the group in your presentation. Try not to do all the talking, encourage them to participate.

This would also be a good time to inform them how Medicare pays for clinical laboratory services and what that means if they ever happen to go to a doctor who does not accept assignment.

The importance of the effective date of their Part B of Medicare especially if there are attendees who are about to become eligible for Medicare.

I would also add something about how insurance agents get paid.

Those are just a few of the things you can use to educate them without sounding like you are trying to make a presentation to sell them a policy.