Where in the Hell Are All the Unhappy Business Owners?

[Labman]

Being new to this business I've heard and read a lot about the small 5-30 life business owners who were unhappy with their group health agents or just not serviced correctly. Heck, I haven't ran into one person who was unhappy and I've talked to a bunch of owners either via the phone or in person.

Maybe the economy got everyone off their butts???

 

[Insuranceman]

I know what your saying, over 90 % of the the business owners I talk to tell me that they are satisfied with their current health insurance.

 

[Labman]

Yea, it sucks!

 

[stormtracker]

They're ALL unhappy, until an agent walks in the door. Then, they all get completely satisfied with their coverage-- no matter what it is... We have a certain "stink" about us that they all see a mile away...

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

They're ALL unhappy, until an agent walks in the door. Then, they all get completely satisfied with their coverage

A lot of truth to this.

If you are prospecting by cold calling on the phone, interrupting their day, here's the fastest way to get rid of you...

"I'm all set."

"I'm satisfied with what I have."

"I'm not interested."

Poor bastards get assclowns cold callin' 'em all day long.

 

[jmhopkins40]

I know what your saying, over 90 % of the the business owners I talk to tell me that they are satisfied with their current health insurance.

* moonlight is correct in this instance...thats what you will hear cold calling. Of those same 90% that are happy with their agent or service, over 50% cant tell you their agents name and most cant tell you who provides their coverage.

You may set yourself apart by stopping by each small business in your territory "as if they were already your client" every 2 months. They will remember your name and persistency and so will their employees. We train our agents to do this everytime they are in the field and provide them with a new product flyer. Of course this does not work too well if you are only the master of 1-2 products. Overtime these owners allow many of our agent to post information in the common areas of their business, waiting areas and employee break area.

 

[Bruce]

* moonlight is correct in this instance...thats what you will hear cold calling. Of those same 90% that are happy with their agent or service, over 50% cant tell you their agents name and most cant tell you who provides their coverage.

You may set yourself apart by stopping by each small business in your territory "as if they were already your client" every 2 months. They will remember your name and persistency and so will their employees. We train our agents to do this everytime they are in the field and provide them with a new product flyer. Of course this does not work too well if you are only the master of 1-2 products. Overtime these owners allow many of our agent to post information in the common areas of their business, waiting areas and employee break area.

I believe this is absolutely true.

And your leave behind doesn't need to be a product flyer. I will leave a copy of my newsletter, my CV, etc... I'll also follow that up with a short DM piece, usually post card variety, handwritten. Repeat....

I don't believe "stone cold" coldcalling works very well for group health.

Also, assuming I know the group renewal date, I focus my greatest efforts NOT pre-renewal (when every azzclown is working the group) but rather 1-2 months POST-RENEWAL. I've found that for groups that renew their existing carrier, this is the period of greatest dis-satisfaction. They could have got "stuck" due to health conditions that made moving hard or impossible. They could be having problems with the carrier reissuing certs, IDs, billings, etc.

I also worked as a group rep/mgr for a carrier for a lot of years and I know that many, many groups switch carriers 1-2 months past renewal.

For me, August is a great time for working groups with a July renewal date. Feb/Mar is a great time to work January renewed groups.

And any time of the year, off anniversary, is great to work small groups that have had their rates driven by 1-2 large claimants. If you are in position to have the opportunity to work the prospect when a single claimant who has been driving the group to the high end of the rate band, this is a great situation.

Basically, I:
1. Prospect off renewal.
2. Work extra hard in June, Aug, Dec and Feb. In other words, the months surrounding (but not including) 1/1 and 7/1 renewals. These are the ex-dates when inforce agents and carriers are the busiest and the most vulnerable on all their business.
3. I try to steer my own clients away from 7/1 and 1/1 renewal dates, if at all possible. I like May/June and Nov/Dec effective and renewal dates the best so I can renew/move my client successfully when carriers are not so swamped and are more likely to work harder to get or retain business themselves.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

It's a combination of the owner's disdain for agents and the false media hype that everyone's unhappy with their health care.

First of all, most small biz owners who are unhappy with their broker or plan change it - immediately.

Cold calling is really about being in the right place at the right time which is why it sucks. When owners who are happy aren't prospects and unhappy owners initiate change on the end who are you left with?

That said, let's look at this two ways. I did BtoB cold-calling for around 5 months exclusively - no other marketing system used I was earning around $3,000 per week.

Positive aspects: It took around 3 hours of BtoB averaging around 30 businesses per hour to gain 1 client. The average commish was $600 X 5 deals = $3,000.

Negative aspects: 3 hours of BtoB per day X 30 businesses per hour = walking into and pitching 450 business per week for 5 deals which means the interest was just over 1% which means 99% where NOT interested.

I'm not too sure an effective marketing strategy is pitching a group of people, 99% of whom are not interested in what you have to say.

This is why methods like BtoB and telemarketing are only used to get off the ground.

 

[Labman]

What do you guys say to the owner who just changed and is reluctant to talk because they don't won't to go through either the paperwork again, or think their agent probably got them the best deal?

Great ideas by the way guys, keep em coming. I've got to do something to drive more business.

 

[briko3]

You actually walked in to 450 per week or you called them on the phone?