Senior Medicare Leads

[retread]

I am posting this thread in hopes it will hit the ears of those lead vendors trying to hype their crummy leads to agents in the Senior market.

First: to Senior Agents... do you exaggerate your sales pitch? Then don't complain if a lead vendor does the same to you. What goes around, comes around. The lead vendors will say anything to make a sale.... do you? We all learn to be skeptical, especially having been burned by a fast-talking blowhard. Yuck! and I am in this industry.... let's try to clean it up some.

Second: to Lead Vendors... if your landing page gathers census data for Major Med, then don't try to pan that off as a "quality Medicare Lead". Just because someone inputs their DOB and it is over 65, does not make it a "quality" Medicare lead. I just experienced this. I had responses that half marked "NO" to a query if they had existing Major Med and half that marked "NO" to the query if they had insurance currently. Not one mention of the word Medicare on their site. How is it that someone 77 years old would say they have no insurance? The census gathering questions are built around under 65 respondents and is confusing to Medicare beneficiaries. They are responding with answers they think will get them the info they want from an awkward survey.

Back to agents... don't buy leads from a vendor without logging onto their site and viewing their input fields. If they do not query the data you need, then there is no way you will be able to order leads with custom filters. They just won't be there.

Last comment: This goes for quote engines, also. All internet quoting engines focus on the under 65 market. None do a good job for the Senior market. Now that the baby boomer generation has caught their attention, these quoting vendors think they can say their quoting tools will help you sell to this booming market. That's so much barnyard pie. They may even have one or two Med Supp carriers, but that isn't enough to keep your spit wet. Until a quote engine has at least half dozen or more Med Supp carriers YOU are appointed with, they are NOT serving the Senior market for you.

End of rant.

 

[dyadvisor]

I certainly do not consider that a rant but a lesson in reality. Any agent with over 5 years experience should be able to develop their own personal lead system.

The problem is that most agents do not know what a true lead is.

 

[pahealthquotes]

I believe CMS is regualting Senior product quote engines and require that ALL PLANS available in that particular zip be quoted. This creates a huge problem for the quoting technology companies. Do they have contracts to quote every plan available in a certain area? Will the companies release this data to the quoting technology firms? Man I hope so. Hopefully someone will figure this out real quick. I would be willing to pay 100 a month for a medicare quote engine that could be used on my websites. Ritter Insurance Marketing in PA does allow you to use thier senior products quoting tool for free but as of right now they will not allow you to use it on your own web site.

 

[retread]

I believe CMS is regualting Senior product quote engines and require that ALL PLANS available in that particular zip be quoted. This creates a huge problem for the quoting technology companies. Do they have contracts to quote every plan available in a certain area? Will the companies release this data to the quoting technology firms? Man I hope so. Hopefully someone will figure this out real quick. I would be willing to pay 100 a month for a medicare quote engine that could be used on my websites. Ritter Insurance Marketing in PA does allow you to use thier senior products quoting tool for free but as of right now they will not allow you to use it on your own web site.

CMS regulates MAOs, not Med Supp carriers. Med Supps are regulated by the states' DOI.

CMS provides MA quotes on its site, but does not cover enough of the benefits to do a decent comparison.

Here in KS, the KID site provides a Med Supp quote for you, but it is not kept current. NEVER trust the government to do a good job.

I do my own matrix of competitve MA plans, and go directly to the carrier for the latest Med Sup rate chart. This is labor intensive. If a private enterprise would provide a reliable, compliant, accurate quote engine for the senior market like is available to the under 65 market, they would have me knocking at their door.

 

[Frank Stastny]

CMS regulates MAOs, not Med Supp carriers. Med Supps are regulated by the states' DOI.

CMS provides MA quotes on its site, but does not cover enough of the benefits to do a decent comparison.

Here in KS, the KID site provides a Med Supp quote for you, but it is not kept current. NEVER trust the government to do a good job.

I do my own matrix of competitve MA plans, and go directly to the carrier for the latest Med Sup rate chart. This is labor intensive. If a private enterprise would provide a reliable, compliant, accurate quote engine for the senior market like is available to the under 65 market, they would have me knocking at their door.

Good post except I don't see how it is "labor intensive" to simply look at a rate sheet. Put your finger on the zip code and age and bingo, the rate is there.

Why in the world would any agent take the time to use a quote engine for Med Supps? It takes way too much time to enter info in a quote engine.

Every good Med Supp agent knows the current companies that are the most competitive in their state. There is no sense looking beyond the top two maybe three companies.

A professional Med Supp agent will always make sure he/she is licensed with the top two to four most competitive. Those companies will send the agent a rate sheet with zip codes, age, tobacco and non tobacco.

To get a Med Supp quote the agent only needs to glance at the rate sheet, look at the zip code and the age to get the rate. In my opinion quote engines for Med Supps are a huge waste of an agent's time even assuming that they are kept up to date.

I would never take the time to use a quote engine even if they were reliable and available.

 

[retread]

Good post except I don't see how it is "labor intensive" to simply look at a rate sheet. Put your finger on the zip code and age and bingo, the rate is there.
...quote]

That assumes you have that information at your fingertips. The labor involved is gettting that information in a manner that is available at your fingertips, and keeping it up to date. Rate changes seem to be coming every month.... at least for me. Maybe I carry too many carriers!!!

How do you refer to a rate table, Frank? Do you download one to your computer desktop or print out one and put it in a notebook? I do both because I haven't had a laptop suitable for Med Supp sales until recently. Even using my desktop in my office, I still connect to the carrier before quoting just so that I don't quote an out-of-date rate.

For printed rate tables, I organize a notebook by carrier. In that notebook, I put sales material relevant to that carrier product. I have a carrying case that I store all the notebooks. This is replicated with my laptop. The more I use my laptop, the more ways I find to speed up the quoting process, but I have not cut the cord to my notebooks.... yet. I have made a giant step towards this by installing mobile broadband on the laptop. It remains to be seen if this is going to be productive. Mobile broadband is not cheap.

BTW: I am licensed in 6 states. I do F2F within 50 miles, and phone/online/mail over that distance.

 

[pahealthquotes]

CMS regulates MAOs, not Med Supp carriers. Med Supps are regulated by the states' DOI.

CMS provides MA quotes on its site, but does not cover enough of the benefits to do a decent comparison.

Here in KS, the KID site provides a Med Supp quote for you, but it is not kept current. NEVER trust the government to do a good job.

I do my own matrix of competitve MA plans, and go directly to the carrier for the latest Med Sup rate chart. This is labor intensive. If a private enterprise would provide a reliable, compliant, accurate quote engine for the senior market like is available to the under 65 market, they would have me knocking at their door.

here you go Ritter Insurance Marketing - Home

and its 100% FREE

 

[Frank Stastny]

Ed it sounds like you are taking a rate sheet and making another rate sheet from a rate sheet. It sounds like you may be making it more complicated than it needs to be.

I have the rates on my computer, I get them from the company. I have rate sheets in my briefcase in manila folders, and I have rate sheets in dividers on my desk.

The rate sheets come from the company and are always up to date and current with the correct information.

I'm not sure what companies you are representing where rates are changing every month. When the rates change I get new rate sheets from the company. There is no need for me to go to their website every time and confirm the rates before I give someone a quote.

I sold two over the phone yesterday. They called, I grabbed the rate sheet from the divider on my desk, put my finger on their zip code and age, gave them the price and filled out the app. Much quicker than using a quoting engine or going to the companies website.

I sell in multiple states as well but more often than not I'm usually only recommending one company in the state. I'm familiar with the health questions each company asks, the rates and always know the company I'm going to recommend in any one state.

I would never give or show them a price comparison of two, three or four different companies. I'm the professional, it is my job to recommend the plan and company that gives them the best investment of their premium dollar. Never give a prospect a choice and then ask them to choose.

I've been selling Med Supps for seventeen years and never found it difficult to look up rates. Maybe I'm missing something.

Good post except I don't see how it is "labor intensive" to simply look at a rate sheet. Put your finger on the zip code and age and bingo, the rate is there.
...quote]

That assumes you have that information at your fingertips. The labor involved is gettting that information in a manner that is available at your fingertips, and keeping it up to date. Rate changes seem to be coming every month.... at least for me. Maybe I carry too many carriers!!!

How do you refer to a rate table, Frank? Do you download one to your computer desktop or print out one and put it in a notebook? I do both because I haven't had a laptop suitable for Med Supp sales until recently. Even using my desktop in my office, I still connect to the carrier before quoting just so that I don't quote an out-of-date rate.

For printed rate tables, I organize a notebook by carrier. In that notebook, I put sales material relevant to that carrier product. I have a carrying case that I store all the notebooks. This is replicated with my laptop. The more I use my laptop, the more ways I find to speed up the quoting process, but I have not cut the cord to my notebooks.... yet. I have made a giant step towards this by installing mobile broadband on the laptop. It remains to be seen if this is going to be productive. Mobile broadband is not cheap.

BTW: I am licensed in 6 states. I do F2F within 50 miles, and phone/online/mail over that distance.

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

I think what he wanted, I could be wrong here...

Is a quote engine to spit out the "quote" into a proposal automatically to send to a prospect, with just the click of a button, like the health ins quote engines work.

 

[Frank Stastny]

I think what he wanted, I could be wrong here...

Is a quote engine to spit out the "quote" into a proposal automatically to send to a prospect, with just the click of a button, like the health ins quote engines work.

I understand the concept of submitting a quote/proposal to an "underage" health prospect. There are so many different options for a prospect to consider.

I never send a Med Supp prospect a quote/proposal either by e-mail or snail mail. It is a waste of my time. I tell them the price on the initial phone call. There are no rate ups, exclusions or riders with a Med Supp. I only offer them the plan that is the best investment of their premium dollar and explain why that plan is the "best" one.

My Med Supp sales are a one call or one appointment sell. If I can save them money they will usually buy, if I can't then I record the name of the company they currently have and I call them again when their company has a premium increase. If I don't make that sale shame on me.