Sales Strategies Archives - Page 4 of 7

UPDATED 2017: Agents Don’t Work Alone: Build a network of professional friends

March 2, 2017/in RB Insurance news, RBI Classroom, Sales Strategies, Your Office Shortcuts /by Bob Bever

Charlie Ferrell

National Sales Manager

NOTE FROM RBI: Charlie Ferrell, our National Sales Manager, is celebrating a work-a-versary today! On this day in 2015, Charlie made the switch from being an state manager/MGA to working full-time at RB Insurance Group — and we are so glad he did! If you’ve called RBI for advice, you’ve probably talked with Charlie for help on individual markets, MAPS planning, or even real-time client advice. Today we celebrate Charlie’s amazing contributions to RB Insurance by bringing back one of his earliest blog articles as National Sales Manager. Though it’s newly updated for 2017, the content is as wise and relevant today as…well…as Charlie himself.

UPDATED 2017: Agents Don’t Work Alone

Build a network of professional friends

National Sales Manager: Charlie Ferrell

You may have heard the expression “You can’t be everything to everyone.” That’s just as true in the insurance business as it is in everyday life. In order to serve my clients, I’ve found I need to align myself with others who can fill in the gaps between my Medicare knowledge and expertise.

Breaking Bad Habits:

If you’re like me, you frequently find yourself fielding questions from clients on topics beyond your scope. I’m going to be totally honest with you: when I started getting more clients calls than I could handle on subjects like wills or Medicaid planning, my main referral source for years was Google. At a certain point, however, I started getting tired of hearing myself say, “Let me see if I can find someone who can help you.” There’s nothing I can do about not knowing absolutely everything about senior health insurance and finances, but I felt I could do better than sticking the duty of due diligence on my clients.

“Networking can be mutually beneficial for agents, lawyers, financial advisors.”

That’s why I decided in 2014 to get smart about networking. I knew it would be more helpful to my clients if I could recommend someone I personally knew and trusted for their financial or legal questions. I also knew I’d be investing in my book of business because networking can be mutually beneficial for agents, lawyers, financial advisors— their clients are probably going to need Medicare advice at one point or another!

Building New (and GOOD!) Habits:

I called a few of my longtime clients and asked them who they go to for advice. They recommended a few highly respected attorneys they had had good experiences with, one of whom deals exclusively with Medicaid planning. He helps families protect their assets when someone needs to go into a nursing home. Another attorney I reached out to specializes in wills and trusts: a perfect solution for me, since sometimes a client needs a simple will. Other clients need the whole package that puts all of their assets into a trust, especially if they have homes in multiple states and don’t want their kids to have to go through probate to spend if it isn’t necessary.

Lastly, I found a CPA to help my clients with their tax questions and financial planning needs. I now feel confident that my network has my clients’ best interests at heart and that I can depend on them returning the favor by sending their respective clients to me. I estimate that 10 percent of my new clients in 2015 came from my alignments with outside experts.

What I Learned:

It’s amazing what you can get when you ask your clients for their input. I noticed right away that my clients were much more engaged, and so were more likely to refer their friends and family to me. For these clients, it was clear that I valued their opinion. Second, I found this exercise reconnected me with some of my clients I hadn’t spoken to in a while.

Personally, I’m excited whenever I can help others. As agents, most of our clients are looking for someone they can trust to help them with life’s difficult decisions. You can be that trusted advisor for Medicare, and you can let others offer valuable advice on finances and legal arrangements. Your clients will benefit, you will benefit, and your new network will benefit as well. The bottom line is these professional relationships are a win-win-win.

Are you ready to get started? Build a network of professional friends to strengthen your business today! If you don’t know how to take the first step, click here to watch our recorded webinar “Finding Dual Eligibles” or call our team of experts today at 1-800-997-3107!

Updated: 3/2/2017; Original post date: 12/3/2015

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M.A.P.S. Method for Success: AEP Planning

Your Best Month Yet – Starting off right on day 1

March 2, 2017/in Promotions, RB Insurance news, RBI Announcements, Sales Strategies, Stories From the Field, Your Office Shortcuts /by James Gramp

James Gramp

Sales Coordinator & Independent Agent

With his signature common sense, quiet good humor, and brilliant customer service, Jim is the other half of the RBI phone answering dynamic duo! An Arizona native, Jim manages agent relationships for the East Coast and specializes in the RBI agent tools, especially the Agent Market Edge. Jim has been a licensed health insurance agent for over a year, and has worked at RBI for 2 years. An accomplished bassoonist, he is known around the office for his amazing musical skills. In addition to keeping busy around the office, Jim frequently contributes to our blog, bringing a new agent’s perspective to the RBI online presence.

Your Best Month Yet

Starting off right on day 1

RBI Sales Coordinator and Independent Agent: James Gramp

Earlier this week I talked about how to wrap-up your month and make sure you’re getting the money owed you from products sold over the month. But how did I get those sales in the first place? There’s a process to making sales, and it starts with day 1 of the new month!

Here’s how I’m going to be preparing to reach my sales goals for March, to have my best month yet!

Pro-Tip: Determine a Focus Area: The first thing that I need to do is determine a focus area. It does no good to plan marketing efforts if I haven’t first determined a focus area. I’m going to continue to focus on Dual Eligible and LIS beneficiaries for the next few months because it’s still a very underserved market and because of the pro-rated MA commissions. Here in Arizona 50% of Dual Eligible beneficiaries are actually enrolled in a Dual plan, which means there is still plenty of opportunity to write business.

Making sales starts with day 1 of the new month!

Now that I know my focus area, I’m ready to look at my 5 sales strategies.

Set Goals: Some of you may have a yearly sales goal that you aim for each year (which is great, don’t get me wrong!), but I find it best to set smaller monthly/weekly goals. For instance, 5 sales a week is more manageable than 260 (52 x 5) enrollments for the year. Smaller weekly/monthly goals will help keep you on track and ultimately help you reach your yearly goals.
Research: It’s always good to refresh your knowledge of the MSP/Extra Help limits. Read up on carriers in your area, or (in my case) D-SNP products or other plans. If you’re not sure where to start with Dual Eligibles or Low-Income Subsidy, watch RBI’s recorded webinars by clicking here or here.
Review Marketing Strategy: Food pantries, senior housing units, HUD housing, and provider offices (dental, optometrists, etc.) are all great places to find Medicare beneficiaries. If you’re not hitting your sales goals through community marketing, then I would suggest looking at running a Direct Mail campaign to keep a steady flow of leads coming your way. Give RBI a call to learn how to be successful with Direct Mail!
Own your backyard: You want to be known as the Medicare Expert in your neighborhood. Some great ways to get this credibility are volunteering, or just taking time to chat with people you see day to day. Your next lead could be someone in the elevator, or getting gas at the next pump. Strike up a conversation and let them know what you do, you never know what you’ll get out of it. A good example of this comes from RBI’s CEO during this past AEP, when Bob Bever spent 3 minutes with a gentleman while in line at K-mart, explaining what he does, and gave him a business card. A few weeks later Bob got a call from the man’s father and was able to help him enroll.
Be consistent: I cannot stress enough how important consistency is. Especially if you have a connection with a food bank or provider office, you need to have a schedule of when you go in and setup your booth in their facility. If you’re not consistent with your schedule the influencers at these locations won’t know when to tell their customers that have Medicare questions when you will be there next. With educational events I recommend doing them at least once a quarter, the more consistent you are with scheduling these events the more attendance you will see.

The best single piece of advice I can give is to treat your insurance business as a full-time job. If you plan on doing this as a career, then you have to treat it like one and show up eight hours a day, five days a week. Many agents get discouraged after a month or two of not bringing in consistent sales. Don’t fall into this trap! Instead, ask yourself: “do I have a marketing plan to generate leads?” and “am I consistently working my plan?” One of my favorite quotes is “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Let’s plan to succeed and make this our best month yet!

RBI believes your marketing plan should be Measurable, Actionable, Profitable, and Scalable. We call it the “MAPS method to success.” If you don’t have a marketing plan, give RBI a call today at 1-800-997-3107 and plan your best month yet! You can also click here to watch the “Marketing for Success” webinar and get started!

Medicare: Avoiding a Sales Allegation

May 30, 2017

Cross-Selling: Start with your Book of Business

May 23, 2017

Certifications and Planning your AEP

May 18, 2017

Referrals: Building your referral network. Download this free white paper to learn

May 16, 2017

Stay focused on earning money

May 11, 2017

End of the Month Wrap-up

February 28, 2017/in Promotions, RB Insurance news, RBI Announcements, RBI Classroom, Sales Strategies, Stories From the Field, Take Action Tuesday, Your Office Shortcuts /by James Gramp

James Gramp

Sales Coordinator/Independent Agent

With his signature common sense, quiet good humor, and brilliant customer service, Jim is the other half of the RBI phone answering dynamic duo! An Arizona native, Jim manages agent relationships for the East Coast and specializes in the RBI agent tools, especially the Agent Market Edge. Jim has been a licensed health insurance agent for over a year, and has worked at RBI for 2 years. An accomplished bassoonist, he is known around the office for his amazing musical skills. In addition to keeping busy around the office, Jim frequently contributes to our blog, bringing a new agent’s perspective to the RBI online presence.

End of the Month Wrap-up: Client Retention in 3 easy steps!

RBI Sales Coordinator and Independent Agent: James Gramp

It seems like every year the days go by faster and faster. It’s already the end of February, so I’m going to share with you my end of the month wrap-up and a few best practice tips to help you stay in touch with your clients so they remember who to call when they have questions or problems!

Here’s three ways that I keep my business on the books:

If you send a letter to your clients, hand sign it for a personal touch!

Number 1: Thank You Letters

The best piece of advice I can give you is to send your new clients a thank you letter. This is a great way to make sure your clients remember your name. Just think of all the seniors you run into during AEP who say they can’t remember who helped them enroll in their current plan. You do not want to be “that” agent. Instead, by sending a thank you letter, you will stay in touch. The letter should be simple: thank them for the opportunity to be their health insurance agent and include a few business cards. Ask your clients to hand out your card to any friends or family who have questions about Medicare. In my letters, I also like to include a picture of myself at the bottom and I always hand sign it to add a more personal touch. Depending on how many enrollments you do a month, you can personalize your letters even further by handwriting the whole note!

Number 2: Updating CRM records

This one should be a no-brainer. You should be using a CRM system to manage your clients to help make your life easier, because who likes excel spreadsheets? I use the Medicare Sales Engine, or “MSE” – which is RBI’s own agent-built CRM system. I usually update my client’s CRM record the same day I make the sale so I don’t forget, but if you haven’t yet done so, be sure to update your clients records now. If you use the MSE, check that you have converted the leads you sold into clients. Another MSE feature I use all the time is tracking commissions: just enter the product you sold, and the commission you expect to be paid. If you entered the information correctly, you’ll see the potential renewals for the next year on your dashboard. The end of the month is a good time to check that your commission records inside the MSE match the statement from the carrier. The best part is that RBI provides the MSE tool completely free for contracted agents! You can get contracted here today!

Number 3: Follow-up Call

Two weeks after I’ve enrolled new members, I like to give my clients a call to make sure they’ve gotten their welcome letter and all their member ID cards. I usually open the conversation up by saying something like “I just wanted to make sure you got your new member ID card.” If they haven’t, it’s time to set-up a conference call with myself, my new client and the carrier, to have the ID card re-sent. Your clients will love the fact that you’re being proactive in asking about their experience and solving their problems. As a bonus for us as agents, this is also the perfect time to ask for referrals. Let your clients know that if they have any friends with questions about their Medicare to give you a call. Be VERY clear that you cannot call them, they have to call you. You’d be surprised how many follow-up with you!

And that’s it! As you can see, my end of the month wrap-up is just three simple steps. If you can implement these “best practices” to your business I can guarantee that you’ll see more business stay on the books and also bring in more new business from happy clients when they refer their friends to you!

Click here to learn about the Agent Market Edge and how RBI works with print and fulfillment companies to bring you exclusive pricing! If you’d like sample ideas for client letters give RB Insurance Group a call today at 1-800-997-3107 to see firsthand how RBI can help you take your business to the next level!