Get out there and market yourself! Part Three
Here’s my last post in a series of three about different kinds of events you can be a part of to market your senior insurance business. Read Part One and Part Two.
Many agents are avoiding formal sales meetings because they’re anxious about CMS oversight, carrier rules and secret shoppers. However, they can be a compliant way to generate more Leads, and very few carriers will disallow agents from conducting formal Medicare marketing sales events.
Running one of these events can be fairly simple. Here’s how to get rolling:
Review the rules regarding formal sales events in the official Medicare Marketing Guidelines.
- Always contact your carrier’s local Broker Sales Manager for rules and procedures for registering or reporting and conducting the event. I’ve noted lately that Humana, in some areas, will send their folks out to actually do the presentation for you while you still get the sales. Our local Cigna and Aetna broker managers in Arizona are always available to attend formal events and lend a hand at the meeting.
- Find a centrally located meeting room. In my region, our city libraries rent meeting rooms to help balance their budgets. Don’t forget to consider the local VFW, American Legion, Moose or Elks Lodges for room rental as they also can be a good source of attendees. They’re all trying to raise some funds for their respective budgets. When all else fails, check some local restaurants and motels.
- Always utilize the carrier-recorded presentation. Often these are available as a Power Point presentation or a link that can be easily replayed on screen at your event. These recordings usually cover all the points that need to be made to be CMS compliant. You almost certainly will be secret shopped, but don’t let that worry you. After getting through all that boring, but important compliant info you can start selling yourself by engaging the audience.
- Use a voluntary sign-in sheet for your guests. Always have permission to call (PTC) and Scope of Appointment forms handy. If you’re anticipating a good crowd, take an assistant with you. They can gather PTC forms and Scopes, assist attendees to fill out enrollment forms and just be generally helpful. I doubled my sales at events when I started taking agent trainees with me. Most of those added sales were from follow-up home appointments my helpers set up.
I’ll give you a more complete rundown on secret shoppers in an upcoming post, so make sure you subscribe to our blog. In the mean time, here is a check list
that can give you an idea of how they evaluate. It’s not rocket science. We understand that some agents experience trepidation at doing these events, that’s why we are here to make it happen for you.
RB Insurance-affiliated agents who have questions regarding the planning and execution of sales events or compliance issues can call me at (800) 997 3107 or email me. We make it happen for you, so ask how we can assist you with advertising your event.