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5 Quick Opportunities Now to Unlock Your Best AEP

RBI Sales Coordinator, West Region: Rebecca Howard

If you’ve ever called RBI’s 800 number, chances are good that you’ve spoken to Rebecca! With a background in health care and customer service, Rebecca’s journey to Medicare insurance is a relentless pursuit of the human story. Fascinated by interpersonal relationships, and passionate about treating everyone right, it’s no surprise that Rebecca joins us from the South. A transplant to Arizona from Georgia, Rebecca is a customer service expert and sales coordinator extraordinaire! Rebecca manages agent relationships for the West Coast, and loves training her agents in all the tools and services that RBI offers. In addition to her regular duties, Rebecca is a bit of a word nerd, and serves as RBI’s content editor for the Agent’s Advantage Blog and RBI Classroom.

5 Quick Opportunities Now

to Unlock Your Best AEP Later

RBI Sales Coordinator, West Region: Rebecca Howard


I know, I know. It’s only the first week of May — AEP seems so far away! But the truth is if you haven’t already planned out your marketing leading up to AEP, now is definitely the time to start. AEP is the busiest time of the year in our industry and a great way to avoid that last-minute rush and make sure you have a plan in place is to decide your goals now. Figure out how many sales you want to make first and then decide on a marketing plan. RBI has the tools to help! In fact, here’s 5 quick opportunities to take advantage of now and unlock your best AEP yet.

Number 5: Organize your existing businessUnlock Your Best AEP Yet

If you haven’t reached out to all the old leads in your books, now is also a good time to touch base with a final phone call and personalized letter. It’s also time to make sure that each of your clients’ needs are being met. Pick up the phone and call your clients, or consider sending out a postcard. Make sure that you are asking for your clients to think of you for any referrals. Not sure what to say? Click here and read some advice from the RBI team. Make sure you’re going through your records and reconciling any commissions at the end of the month or interactions inside the Medicare Sales Engine!

Number 4: Learn about additional products

If you’ve had a laser focus on one type of product, it might be time to diversify. One of the best ways to make sure you’re able to serve your clients’ is to be able to address multiple concerns they might have. Have you talked to your members about Hospital Indemnity? What about Final Expense? Does your member qualify for extra help or LIS? Learn about the portfolio approach and then get the product training you need. Check out our calendar to sign up for informative webinars or go back and watch one of our recorded sessions!

Number 3: Pick up additional contracts

Now that you’ve learned about the additional products that will help you better serve your clients, it’s time to pick up contracts! Processing contracts can take the carriers from just a couple of days to several weeks, so it’s important to get started on this in advance. Carriers tend to get backed up with contracting requests right before AEP as well. Don’t get caught in that mess, get contracted now and miss the rush! Click here to see a list of carriers, or request information here.

Number 2: Prepare for the AHIP

It’s that time of year again – AHIP comes out at the end of next month. Get a jump on studying for the AHIP now and be ready to take the exam right away!  Click here to sign up for our 2018 Ace the AHIP webinar and be sure to use our link and get $50 off the price of the AHIP course!

Number 1: Plan your marketing now

AEP is short. What’s the best way to make sure you are able to complete the maximum appointments? Get a steady flow of leads and line up your appointments in advance. RBI’s team loves to help plan this out for our agents. If you don’t know the best way to get that steady flow of leads, watch this recording. Consider hiring a part time assistant to help you set appointments. The better organized you are on the front end, the smoother your AEP will be in the long run.

If you aren’t ready to sell with the most popular plans in your area, let us help you get started! Call our team at 1-800-997-3107 or click here to start the contracting process! It’s time to unlock your best AEP.

Looking for an Insurance CRM? 5 Reasons to love the Medicare Sales Engine

Charlie Ferrell

RBI National Sales Manager: Charlie Ferrell

Charlie started his senior insurance career after a brief 30-year stint in the restaurant industry. In the 12 years since then, he has been blazing trails and setting standards for excellence all over! A native son of Utah, he has been a state manager for RBI as well as a managing general agent for UHC, Coventry, Molina and other carriers! Charlie came to RBI as the National Sales Manager in 2015, and is an invaluable resource for our agents and staff for marketing, compliance, and sales topics! Charlie’s field experience with senior insurance sales has made him an expert in our insurance CRM: Medicare Sales Engine. If all of that wasn’t enough, Charlie specializes in the Dual-Eligible market and is leading the charge behind RBI’s new “Dual Eligibles for Newbies” seminars!

Insurance CRM

Looking for an Insurance CRM?

5 Reasons to love the Medicare Sales Engine

National Sales Manager: Charlie Ferrell


If you have been looking for a reliable, convenient and easy-to-use insurance CRM, look no further! Today I want to tell you more about RB Insurance’s flagship sales and lead management system: the Medicare Sales Engine (MSE). You may have already read about our Massive Response Mailers and partnership with Touchstone Marketing to bring you the best prices and deals on print and fulfillment.  Why are mailers and marketing connected to the MSE? Because we have seamlessly integrated your leads from mailers to the MSE! 

“So, RBI, what exactly is the Medicare Sales Engine?”

Simply put, the MSE is RBI’s proprietary CRM system to help our agents manage their leads, clients, commissions, appointments and much more! You can get a lot out of the MSE, especially if you really take the time to learn how to use all of the features.  Let’s take a closer look!

#1 – Built to serve senior insurance agents:

First off, when we began to develop the Medicare Sales Engine over 10 years ago, we started with our own group of senior insurance agents and asked “what would make your life easier?” As a result, the MSE is built around the needs of an agent who is out in the field selling, with features to make you more efficient and to cut back on your busy-work. You can view the Medicare Sales Engine on your tablet, phone, laptop, desktop – any device with an internet connection. With our on-going commitment to excellence, if you have a feature you’d like to see implemented in the MSE, you can call us and we’ll see about adding it to the MSE!

#2 – At-a-glance updates on your business

We recognize that your time is valuable, so we have made sure that the Medicare Sales Engine is very simple and easy to use. When you login, the first thing you see is your dashboard, a snapshot of your business. The dashboard breaks your business into clients and leads sorted by temperature, and displays information so you know exactly where you left off.  This helps you identify your next tasks, trends in your business, or areas of opportunity!

#3 – Seamlessly integrates with lead mailers

Remember when we said that the MSE seamlessly integrates with lead mailers?  Well, we have developed a partnership with Touchstone Marketing and one of the benefits of this relationship is behind-the-scenes system integration. What does this mean for you? Any leads from mailers you purchased from Touchstone Marketing will show up inside your Medicare Sales Engine account. All the lead response information from the mailer, and a copy of the mailer itself will be uploaded to your account. An added bonus? You’ll get an SMS text notification that you have new leads so you can start working on your hottest leads right away!

#4 – An Insurance CRM with the right price tag

Most insurance CRM systems have a drawback — whether it’s a must-have feature like tracking commissions, or the ability to upload your existing book of business, or a bit of sticker-shock when you see the price tag. With RBI’s insurance CRM, the Medicare Sales Engine is free to contracted agents. It’s that easy: when you’ve completed the contracting process, and are ready-to-sell, your MSE portal is generated. You can log in right away, and get started!

# 5 – HIPAA Compliant record keeping, free Quoting Tool, and more!

We only have time for 1 more awesome thing that the Medicare Sales Engine can do, so this one’s a combo. The Medicare Sales Engine is HIPAA Compliant so your records are protected. It’s easy to upload notes, applications, and other records to have an online back-up for your office. We recommend that you take a few minutes each day to update actions you have taken with each lead, such as calling to schedule an appointment. An additional feature that agents love is the built-in quoting tool.  The RBI quoting tool gets real-time CMS updates, so you know you’re getting the most recent information about product availability and pricing. You can use the quote tool to research best plans for your leads and clients, and add notes inside their record about special medical or financial considerations.

We love to talk about the MSE, so if you have any questions call us at 1-800-997-3107! You can also catch up on some of the basics by watching this recorded webinar. To learn more about the quoting tool, watch this recorded webinar.

The Medicare Sales Engine is just one more way that RBI commits to make it happen for you! Get contracted today to get your own free access to this fantastic insurance CRM!


Video: Medicare Marketing Madness Roll-up

So you registered for the Webinar Wednesday this week but couldn’t make it. (We get it, life gets busy.)

But just because you’re busy, doesn’t mean you should miss out on great advice! Watch this video Medicare Marketing Madness Roll-up to get the highlights in 1 minute!

Here’s just a few things to keep in mind with Medicare marketing, that Justin Bever (RBI Director of Marketing) highlighted:

  • As with any small business (but especially in senior insurance industry), marketing should be about getting your message in front of the most people compliantly, with the lowest possible cost.
  • The best bang for marketing bucks in Medicare is sending Direct Mail marketing. (Don’t know anything about Direct Mail? Watch now)
  • Direct Mail produces a consistent lead pipeline at an affordable and predictable price
  • The five key elements of Direct Mail marketing are the timing of your mailer, the mailing package (or type of mailer you choose), the copy or text, what the offer is, and the mailing list you choose.

And so much more! Watch the Medicare Marketing Madness Roll-up below now!

Now you’ve had the 1 minute sneak peak, click here and watch the full recording!

Don’t forget that next month starts our Carrier Spring Training month at RBI! Sign up to access the webinars! You can choose the webinars that are right for you by clicking here.


Targeting Your Ideal List — the most misunderstood Direct Mail concept

Justin Bever

Director of Marketing: Justin Bever

About the Author: In his 9 years since joining the family business in 2008 as a Broker Support Representative, Justin has made innovation his top priority. Justin is passionate about bringing technology into the agent’s toolbox, and has developed tools such as a direct mail program for lead generation (2011); Medicare Compare (2013), an online tool for beneficiaries complete with its own brand identity; and the Medicare Sales Engine (2014), a fully integrated Client Relationship Manager for agents.  Justin’s most recent accomplishment is the Agent Market Edge (2016), an online portal that integrates RBI and their print + fulfillment partners to make marketing accessible to agents. When he is not leveraging technology to produce exciting new tools for agents, Justin’s hobbies are skiing, hiking, and cooking exquisite meals in the company of his high school sweetheart and wife, Cassie. 


Targeting your ideal list

Targeting Your Ideal List:

the most misunderstood Direct Mail concept

Director of Marketing: Justin Bever


When you think about marketing for Medicare, you probably think of Direct Mail. Thanks to CMS Guidelines restricting outreach methods for Medicare Advantage, Direct Mail is a popular way to find new leads.  What you may not know is that Direct Mail is also very effective to reach other types of prospects in the senior insurance market. If you have been following our webinars this month, you’ll know that we tackled the basics of how Direct Mail works last week. Let’s take a closer look at the single most important part of a Direct Mail campaign: targeting your ideal list.

Targeting your ideal list matters

Building a list is not only the most important part of any Direct Mail campaign, but also the most misunderstood concept in Direct Mail. You can have the best copy, the best offer, the most beautifully designed postcard and if you send it to a list that isn’t relevant to what you are selling, you’ll get a 0% response. Think about this for a moment. Talk about a waste of marketing dollars.

Relevance drives sales

Why does this happen? Simply put, prospects buy what is relevant to them. Television ads are a great example of this: big companies pay lots of money to know what demographics are watching so they can target their ads to those consumers. In our business this concept is pretty obvious: you wouldn’t send a Medicare lead piece to an 18-year-old college student, because it is completely irrelevant to their needs and desires. So, how do you select a list that will be relevant to the piece you are sending?

Types of lists for Direct Mail

Targeting your ideal list

How do you select a list that will be relevant to the piece you are sending?

There are four primary types of lists that you can target in Direct Mail:

  1. House lists (your clients, past and present, and your previous responders)
  2. Consumer Lists (rented or purchased)
  3. Business lists (rented or purchased)
  4. Specialty lists (think specific magazine subscribers, for example)

Each type of list is going to require a different type of mailer or outreach. For finding new prospects specifically, in our industry we rent or purchase consumer lists. There are a number of ways that you can rent or purchase consumer lists, but the retail price you’ll find is typically between $0.05 – 0.08 per record. (Stay tuned for RBI discounts available to contracted agents!)

Not all lists are created equal!

When you purchase a consumer list, you want to look at three demographics (or selectors as list brokers call them): age, income and geography. Using geography as a selector makes sense: you don’t want to get leads that are out of state, for instance. Age and income are a little trickier, but a rule of thumb for a higher success rate is to target ages 64.5 to 85 for Medicare Advantage, and 64.5 to 75 for Medicare Supplement. Replacement Medicare Supplement plans are more effective up to the age of 75; beyond age 75 most beneficiaries choose a Medicare Advantage as a replacement. Why you ask? After age 75 there are higher costs on a supplement and stricter underwriting as well. Ultimately, targeting your ideal list dictates the success of your direct mail campaign.

Are you ready to get started?

We can help you! We work with print and fulfillment companies to bring you discounts and exclusive pricing on mailers. At RBI, we will make sure you get the right list for every mailer you send and the cost of the data is included in all our mailers. If you do feel the need to purchase a list separately, our cost to contracted agents is only $0.025 per record. Give us a call at 1-800-997-3107 if you want help selecting the right list for your campaign.

Still not convinced? Watch the webinar! “Direct Mail Madness” covered the basics of Direct Mail marketing, and “Medicare Marketing Madness” covered how to use Direct Mail for your senior insurance business! 


Video: Direct Mail Madness Roll-up

Don’t you just hate missing amazing content? Now you don’t have to: watch Direct Mail Madness Roll-up now!



Have you thought about using Direct Mail to market your senior insurance business? Maybe you thought it was a lot of money for leads. Maybe you thought that it was too complicated for you. Perhaps you thought that tracking your investment would be impossible.  If any of these scenarios have you nodding along, you need to watch our 60 Second Roll-up “Direct Mail Madness Roll-up.” 

What are the things agents hate most about marketing?

  • Spending lots of money and not getting anything in return, or in other words, bad Return on Investment (ROI)
  • It’s tough to get the message to the right people, or targeting the message
  • Getting leads that are not effective

RB Insurance is here to help!  We de-mystify Direct Mail, and can help you determine ROI, targeting the right leads, and ultimately get leads that you can convert into a client for life.

Direct Mail Madness Roll-up

Look for this symbol on all our new “60 Second Roll-up” videos!

Now that you’ve got a taste for Direct Mail, you should watch the full recording! Then you should check out your Agent Market Edge account and get started today!

Don’t forget to sign up for next week’s webinar, which talks about how to use Direct Mail to grow your Medicare business. Check out our Carrier Spring Training series starting in April and get started contracting for the selling season! Call 1-800-997-3107 to get more details! 


5 Quick Opportunities Now to Unlock Your Best AEP

RBI Sales Coordinator, West Region: Rebecca Howard

If you’ve ever called RBI’s 800 number, chances are good that you’ve spoken to Rebecca! With a background in health care and customer service, Rebecca’s journey to Medicare insurance is a relentless pursuit of the human story. Fascinated by interpersonal relationships, and passionate about treating everyone right, it’s no surprise that Rebecca joins us from the South. A transplant to Arizona from Georgia, Rebecca is a customer service expert and sales coordinator extraordinaire! Rebecca manages agent relationships for the West Coast, and loves training her agents in all the tools and services that RBI offers. In addition to her regular duties, Rebecca is a bit of a word nerd, and serves as RBI’s content editor for the Agent’s Advantage Blog and RBI Classroom.

5 Quick Opportunities Now

to Unlock Your Best AEP Later

RBI Sales Coordinator, West Region: Rebecca Howard


I know, I know. It’s only the first week of May — AEP seems so far away! But the truth is if you haven’t already planned out your marketing leading up to AEP, now is definitely the time to start. AEP is the busiest time of the year in our industry and a great way to avoid that last-minute rush and make sure you have a plan in place is to decide your goals now. Figure out how many sales you want to make first and then decide on a marketing plan. RBI has the tools to help! In fact, here’s 5 quick opportunities to take advantage of now and unlock your best AEP yet.

Number 5: Organize your existing businessUnlock Your Best AEP Yet

If you haven’t reached out to all the old leads in your books, now is also a good time to touch base with a final phone call and personalized letter. It’s also time to make sure that each of your clients’ needs are being met. Pick up the phone and call your clients, or consider sending out a postcard. Make sure that you are asking for your clients to think of you for any referrals. Not sure what to say? Click here and read some advice from the RBI team. Make sure you’re going through your records and reconciling any commissions at the end of the month or interactions inside the Medicare Sales Engine!

Number 4: Learn about additional products

If you’ve had a laser focus on one type of product, it might be time to diversify. One of the best ways to make sure you’re able to serve your clients’ is to be able to address multiple concerns they might have. Have you talked to your members about Hospital Indemnity? What about Final Expense? Does your member qualify for extra help or LIS? Learn about the portfolio approach and then get the product training you need. Check out our calendar to sign up for informative webinars or go back and watch one of our recorded sessions!

Number 3: Pick up additional contracts

Now that you’ve learned about the additional products that will help you better serve your clients, it’s time to pick up contracts! Processing contracts can take the carriers from just a couple of days to several weeks, so it’s important to get started on this in advance. Carriers tend to get backed up with contracting requests right before AEP as well. Don’t get caught in that mess, get contracted now and miss the rush! Click here to see a list of carriers, or request information here.

Number 2: Prepare for the AHIP

It’s that time of year again – AHIP comes out at the end of next month. Get a jump on studying for the AHIP now and be ready to take the exam right away!  Click here to sign up for our 2018 Ace the AHIP webinar and be sure to use our link and get $50 off the price of the AHIP course!

Number 1: Plan your marketing now

AEP is short. What’s the best way to make sure you are able to complete the maximum appointments? Get a steady flow of leads and line up your appointments in advance. RBI’s team loves to help plan this out for our agents. If you don’t know the best way to get that steady flow of leads, watch this recording. Consider hiring a part time assistant to help you set appointments. The better organized you are on the front end, the smoother your AEP will be in the long run.

If you aren’t ready to sell with the most popular plans in your area, let us help you get started! Call our team at 1-800-997-3107 or click here to start the contracting process! It’s time to unlock your best AEP.

Looking for an Insurance CRM? 5 Reasons to love the Medicare Sales Engine

Charlie Ferrell

RBI National Sales Manager: Charlie Ferrell

Charlie started his senior insurance career after a brief 30-year stint in the restaurant industry. In the 12 years since then, he has been blazing trails and setting standards for excellence all over! A native son of Utah, he has been a state manager for RBI as well as a managing general agent for UHC, Coventry, Molina and other carriers! Charlie came to RBI as the National Sales Manager in 2015, and is an invaluable resource for our agents and staff for marketing, compliance, and sales topics! Charlie’s field experience with senior insurance sales has made him an expert in our insurance CRM: Medicare Sales Engine. If all of that wasn’t enough, Charlie specializes in the Dual-Eligible market and is leading the charge behind RBI’s new “Dual Eligibles for Newbies” seminars!

Insurance CRM

Looking for an Insurance CRM?

5 Reasons to love the Medicare Sales Engine

National Sales Manager: Charlie Ferrell


If you have been looking for a reliable, convenient and easy-to-use insurance CRM, look no further! Today I want to tell you more about RB Insurance’s flagship sales and lead management system: the Medicare Sales Engine (MSE). You may have already read about our Massive Response Mailers and partnership with Touchstone Marketing to bring you the best prices and deals on print and fulfillment.  Why are mailers and marketing connected to the MSE? Because we have seamlessly integrated your leads from mailers to the MSE! 

“So, RBI, what exactly is the Medicare Sales Engine?”

Simply put, the MSE is RBI’s proprietary CRM system to help our agents manage their leads, clients, commissions, appointments and much more! You can get a lot out of the MSE, especially if you really take the time to learn how to use all of the features.  Let’s take a closer look!

#1 – Built to serve senior insurance agents:

First off, when we began to develop the Medicare Sales Engine over 10 years ago, we started with our own group of senior insurance agents and asked “what would make your life easier?” As a result, the MSE is built around the needs of an agent who is out in the field selling, with features to make you more efficient and to cut back on your busy-work. You can view the Medicare Sales Engine on your tablet, phone, laptop, desktop – any device with an internet connection. With our on-going commitment to excellence, if you have a feature you’d like to see implemented in the MSE, you can call us and we’ll see about adding it to the MSE!

#2 – At-a-glance updates on your business

We recognize that your time is valuable, so we have made sure that the Medicare Sales Engine is very simple and easy to use. When you login, the first thing you see is your dashboard, a snapshot of your business. The dashboard breaks your business into clients and leads sorted by temperature, and displays information so you know exactly where you left off.  This helps you identify your next tasks, trends in your business, or areas of opportunity!

#3 – Seamlessly integrates with lead mailers

Remember when we said that the MSE seamlessly integrates with lead mailers?  Well, we have developed a partnership with Touchstone Marketing and one of the benefits of this relationship is behind-the-scenes system integration. What does this mean for you? Any leads from mailers you purchased from Touchstone Marketing will show up inside your Medicare Sales Engine account. All the lead response information from the mailer, and a copy of the mailer itself will be uploaded to your account. An added bonus? You’ll get an SMS text notification that you have new leads so you can start working on your hottest leads right away!

#4 – An Insurance CRM with the right price tag

Most insurance CRM systems have a drawback — whether it’s a must-have feature like tracking commissions, or the ability to upload your existing book of business, or a bit of sticker-shock when you see the price tag. With RBI’s insurance CRM, the Medicare Sales Engine is free to contracted agents. It’s that easy: when you’ve completed the contracting process, and are ready-to-sell, your MSE portal is generated. You can log in right away, and get started!

# 5 – HIPAA Compliant record keeping, free Quoting Tool, and more!

We only have time for 1 more awesome thing that the Medicare Sales Engine can do, so this one’s a combo. The Medicare Sales Engine is HIPAA Compliant so your records are protected. It’s easy to upload notes, applications, and other records to have an online back-up for your office. We recommend that you take a few minutes each day to update actions you have taken with each lead, such as calling to schedule an appointment. An additional feature that agents love is the built-in quoting tool.  The RBI quoting tool gets real-time CMS updates, so you know you’re getting the most recent information about product availability and pricing. You can use the quote tool to research best plans for your leads and clients, and add notes inside their record about special medical or financial considerations.

We love to talk about the MSE, so if you have any questions call us at 1-800-997-3107! You can also catch up on some of the basics by watching this recorded webinar. To learn more about the quoting tool, watch this recorded webinar.

The Medicare Sales Engine is just one more way that RBI commits to make it happen for you! Get contracted today to get your own free access to this fantastic insurance CRM!


Video: Medicare Marketing Madness Roll-up

So you registered for the Webinar Wednesday this week but couldn’t make it. (We get it, life gets busy.)

But just because you’re busy, doesn’t mean you should miss out on great advice! Watch this video Medicare Marketing Madness Roll-up to get the highlights in 1 minute!

Here’s just a few things to keep in mind with Medicare marketing, that Justin Bever (RBI Director of Marketing) highlighted:

  • As with any small business (but especially in senior insurance industry), marketing should be about getting your message in front of the most people compliantly, with the lowest possible cost.
  • The best bang for marketing bucks in Medicare is sending Direct Mail marketing. (Don’t know anything about Direct Mail? Watch now)
  • Direct Mail produces a consistent lead pipeline at an affordable and predictable price
  • The five key elements of Direct Mail marketing are the timing of your mailer, the mailing package (or type of mailer you choose), the copy or text, what the offer is, and the mailing list you choose.

And so much more! Watch the Medicare Marketing Madness Roll-up below now!

Now you’ve had the 1 minute sneak peak, click here and watch the full recording!

Don’t forget that next month starts our Carrier Spring Training month at RBI! Sign up to access the webinars! You can choose the webinars that are right for you by clicking here.


Targeting Your Ideal List — the most misunderstood Direct Mail concept

Justin Bever

Director of Marketing: Justin Bever

About the Author: In his 9 years since joining the family business in 2008 as a Broker Support Representative, Justin has made innovation his top priority. Justin is passionate about bringing technology into the agent’s toolbox, and has developed tools such as a direct mail program for lead generation (2011); Medicare Compare (2013), an online tool for beneficiaries complete with its own brand identity; and the Medicare Sales Engine (2014), a fully integrated Client Relationship Manager for agents.  Justin’s most recent accomplishment is the Agent Market Edge (2016), an online portal that integrates RBI and their print + fulfillment partners to make marketing accessible to agents. When he is not leveraging technology to produce exciting new tools for agents, Justin’s hobbies are skiing, hiking, and cooking exquisite meals in the company of his high school sweetheart and wife, Cassie. 


Targeting your ideal list

Targeting Your Ideal List:

the most misunderstood Direct Mail concept

Director of Marketing: Justin Bever


When you think about marketing for Medicare, you probably think of Direct Mail. Thanks to CMS Guidelines restricting outreach methods for Medicare Advantage, Direct Mail is a popular way to find new leads.  What you may not know is that Direct Mail is also very effective to reach other types of prospects in the senior insurance market. If you have been following our webinars this month, you’ll know that we tackled the basics of how Direct Mail works last week. Let’s take a closer look at the single most important part of a Direct Mail campaign: targeting your ideal list.

Targeting your ideal list matters

Building a list is not only the most important part of any Direct Mail campaign, but also the most misunderstood concept in Direct Mail. You can have the best copy, the best offer, the most beautifully designed postcard and if you send it to a list that isn’t relevant to what you are selling, you’ll get a 0% response. Think about this for a moment. Talk about a waste of marketing dollars.

Relevance drives sales

Why does this happen? Simply put, prospects buy what is relevant to them. Television ads are a great example of this: big companies pay lots of money to know what demographics are watching so they can target their ads to those consumers. In our business this concept is pretty obvious: you wouldn’t send a Medicare lead piece to an 18-year-old college student, because it is completely irrelevant to their needs and desires. So, how do you select a list that will be relevant to the piece you are sending?

Types of lists for Direct Mail

Targeting your ideal list

How do you select a list that will be relevant to the piece you are sending?

There are four primary types of lists that you can target in Direct Mail:

  1. House lists (your clients, past and present, and your previous responders)
  2. Consumer Lists (rented or purchased)
  3. Business lists (rented or purchased)
  4. Specialty lists (think specific magazine subscribers, for example)

Each type of list is going to require a different type of mailer or outreach. For finding new prospects specifically, in our industry we rent or purchase consumer lists. There are a number of ways that you can rent or purchase consumer lists, but the retail price you’ll find is typically between $0.05 – 0.08 per record. (Stay tuned for RBI discounts available to contracted agents!)

Not all lists are created equal!

When you purchase a consumer list, you want to look at three demographics (or selectors as list brokers call them): age, income and geography. Using geography as a selector makes sense: you don’t want to get leads that are out of state, for instance. Age and income are a little trickier, but a rule of thumb for a higher success rate is to target ages 64.5 to 85 for Medicare Advantage, and 64.5 to 75 for Medicare Supplement. Replacement Medicare Supplement plans are more effective up to the age of 75; beyond age 75 most beneficiaries choose a Medicare Advantage as a replacement. Why you ask? After age 75 there are higher costs on a supplement and stricter underwriting as well. Ultimately, targeting your ideal list dictates the success of your direct mail campaign.

Are you ready to get started?

We can help you! We work with print and fulfillment companies to bring you discounts and exclusive pricing on mailers. At RBI, we will make sure you get the right list for every mailer you send and the cost of the data is included in all our mailers. If you do feel the need to purchase a list separately, our cost to contracted agents is only $0.025 per record. Give us a call at 1-800-997-3107 if you want help selecting the right list for your campaign.

Still not convinced? Watch the webinar! “Direct Mail Madness” covered the basics of Direct Mail marketing, and “Medicare Marketing Madness” covered how to use Direct Mail for your senior insurance business! 


Video: Direct Mail Madness Roll-up

Don’t you just hate missing amazing content? Now you don’t have to: watch Direct Mail Madness Roll-up now!



Have you thought about using Direct Mail to market your senior insurance business? Maybe you thought it was a lot of money for leads. Maybe you thought that it was too complicated for you. Perhaps you thought that tracking your investment would be impossible.  If any of these scenarios have you nodding along, you need to watch our 60 Second Roll-up “Direct Mail Madness Roll-up.” 

What are the things agents hate most about marketing?

  • Spending lots of money and not getting anything in return, or in other words, bad Return on Investment (ROI)
  • It’s tough to get the message to the right people, or targeting the message
  • Getting leads that are not effective

RB Insurance is here to help!  We de-mystify Direct Mail, and can help you determine ROI, targeting the right leads, and ultimately get leads that you can convert into a client for life.

Direct Mail Madness Roll-up

Look for this symbol on all our new “60 Second Roll-up” videos!

Now that you’ve got a taste for Direct Mail, you should watch the full recording! Then you should check out your Agent Market Edge account and get started today!

Don’t forget to sign up for next week’s webinar, which talks about how to use Direct Mail to grow your Medicare business. Check out our Carrier Spring Training series starting in April and get started contracting for the selling season! Call 1-800-997-3107 to get more details! 


Spotlight on Outstanding Community Referral Sources

James Gramp

James Gramp

Sales Coordinator / Independent Insurance 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.

Spotlight on Outstanding Community Referral Sources

Sales Coordinator/Independent Insurance Agent: James Gramp


My focus for this part of the year is on the Dual Eligible population, something you would know if you read my last post (shame on you if you didn’t!), “Your Best Month Yet.”  The most successful ways I’ve reached this population are Direct Mail and Community Marketing.  Both methods are very effective but today I’ll be focusing on community marketing by building outstanding community referral sources, especially in the Dual Eligibles/Low Income Subsidy (LIS) market.

Community Referral Sources - do your homework!

To gain community referral sources, do your homework!

Do your homework: Prepare for the meeting

Effective referral leads are worth their weight in gold.  Think about it: they’re almost always referred to you by someone they trust, which helps you break through the most important barrier between you and making the sale; earning trust. If you want to succeed in gaining community referral sources, and then in appointments from these referral relationships, you must build a name for yourself as the “Medicare Expert” in your community. The first step is to obviously have the knowledge to be an expert. This means not just the ins and outs of Medicare, but also research the focus group you’re targeting. For instance, I’m targeting Dual Eligible/Low Income Subsidy members, and locations in the community that interact with them. I need to research both. Hint: If you don’t know where to start for your target market, call us! That’s what we’re here for.

Where’s Waldo? Find the Decision Maker

There’s a lot more to community marketing than going to provider offices/food banks and asking if you can put up a flyer in their office. The trick is to find and educate the decision maker or influencer, that is, the person or people that interact with the potential members on a daily basis. Community Referral SourcesThe influencer will be doing the actual referral, so they need to know what you do. How do you help seniors save money? The answer in my case is by helping enroll members in the ‘Extra Help’ or the state Medicaid (AHCCCS in AZ) program. Influencers also need to understand that your consultations are 100% free of charge. You do not want to go in to a networking meeting looking like a typical salesman looking for your next sale — that’s a great way to get shown the door. You want your “pitch” to be centered around the value you bring to the table: the education and extra financial help you provide your clients.

Show me the money! What’s in it for the influencer?

Not only do you have to show the benefit you provide to your clients, you also have to show the decision makers or influencers the benefit they have of working with you.  A lot of what you say at this point is specific to the type of facility. Take a dental office, for instance. Dental office patients who are on Medicare and Medicaid qualify to enroll in Dual Special Needs Plans, which can give them up to $xxxx.xx in dental coverage as long as that particular doctor ins “in-network” for that carrier.  If these potential members enroll, you’re literally putting money in their pockets that they can only use to fix their teeth.  In my appointments with dental office influencers, I make this statement: “Not only do I help my clients save money with these federal and state programs, but for my clients that qualify I can get them on a plan that gives them $xxxx.xx in comprehensive dental coverage. That would be additional dollars to your top line with minimal effort on your part. If I can get your patients more money to get their teeth fixed would you refer your patients that have questions about Medicare/Medicaid to me?” Patients will be more likely to schedule appointments for major work if they don’t have to cover the costs out of pocket, and the dental office will see this value. The decision for the influencer is very straightforward at this point, because I have shown them how the referral relationship will impact their bottom line.

At RB Insurance Group, we pride ourselves on our ability to help the Dual Eligible population! Our staff has personally enrolled thousands of individuals in Dual Special Needs Plans.  Trying to get into the D-SNP market? Watch this webinar! Give RBI a call today to get contracted and learn about the incredible opportunity you have to truly make a difference.


Referrals that Empower: 3 paths to timely results

Our RBI team includes licensed life and health agents with a combined 50+ years of experience in the field.  As you can imagine, they know how to get referrals that empower not just their business, but also their own personal growth as agents. 


Charlie Ferrell, National Sales Manager, started as a senior insurance agent more than 12 years ago. His expertise is in Medicare, specifically Dual Eligibles and Low Income Subsidy clients.

Rob Bever, Director of Compliance, has more than 15 years in the Medicare/senior insurance market. He has around 1500 enrollments under his belt and specializes in the Dual Eligible market.

James Gramp, Sales Coordinator/Independent Agent, though James has only been an agent for about 2 years, his clients are already raving about his great service!

Bob Bever, Founder, got licensed as a life and health agent in 1978 and has applied his excellent service to his clients and agents alike! His success is the reason we’re all here!


Compliance Tip

Referrals that Empower: 3 paths to timely results

Contributions from the RBI Team



Every agent spends a significant portion of his or her time thinking about, reading about, and planning (or executing plans!) to increase sales. It’s what all of us want as agents because, after all, more sales mean more commissions, which means more security for our pocketbooks and our families. One of the most important ways to get more business is to ask for referrals. But if you read articles about this topic, you’ll notice a theme telling you to ask for referrals, but no one ever tells you how to do this. No more! RBI is here to end this trend.  Our tutorial will teach you to increase your sales with referrals that empower your business to the next level. Here’s our top 3 recommendations, plus our bonus round for agents that want to build a referral system they can “wind up and walk away.”

Referrals that Empower

“Increase your sales with referrals that empower your business!”

Number 1: Learn to pre-qualify clients

Charlie Ferrell, RBI’s National Sales Manager, is fantastic at getting referrals.  We asked him for his best advice on how to build a referral base he doesn’t have to think about every day and his number one piece of advice was to pre-qualify every client before the end of the appointment, whether you sell them a plan or not. Charlie does this by understanding that every appointment with every client is about education. “If you are educating your clients on how Medicare works, it leads seamlessly into asking the question at the end, ‘Have I helped you understand Medicare better?‘” Charlie says. “If I have done my job right, my clients know what their options are, so when I hand them a business card and say, ‘Please give this to anyone that you know who could use my services,’ the response is always positive.”  To implement this strategy, you should make sure that you do a good job educating your clients in Medicare before you present individual plans. You’ll spend a little more time with each client, but you’ll build a strong and loyal client base. This makes asking for the referral at the end of the appointment more natural.

Number 2: Make yourself accessible

“The key to good referrals is ease of contact for your clients,” says Rob Bever, RBI’s Director of Compliance. “With the CMS Medicare Marketing Guidelines, most of my referrals come outside of appointments these days, usually within 1 week of my follow-ups.” What are those follow-ups? Rob says he hands out “piles of business cards” and reaches out to his clients with follow-up letters, birthday cards and other types of letters. He usually get some referrals about a week after his birthday card or other letter reaches his client. “If my clients have 20 business cards on hand and I’ve told them, ‘If you have any friends or neighbors who have been having trouble with their insurance, have them call me,’ I’ll get referrals that way.” The bottom line? Stay in contact with your clients through phone calls, letters and other outreach. Clients can’t refer friends to you if they don’t have a way of contacting you.

Number 3: Emphasis on value

James Gramp, RBI’s Sales Coordinator extraordinaire, says his “ask” always focuses on the value he brings to the table. “If I have done my job in the appointment, the closing statement is easy enough. I usually say something like ‘If you have friends or know someone with questions about Medicare, I’m happy to help. My services are completely free, they can just give me a call.” Jim says he always makes sure to emphasize that he is available for questions, and that he is there to serve his clients’ needs without a price tag.  Pro tip: “Make sure referrals from your clients know that they have to call you due to government regulations. I usually state that explicitly in my appointments so there is no confusion,” James says.

Bonus round: Provide exceptional service and your referrals will come to you

Bob Bever, RBI’s managing member, has been in the insurance industry for over 35 years. His expertise is invaluable for picking up referrals that empower. Here’s his take, “Building your business by referrals really comes down to one statement: be the best agent that you can be. I always leave 4 or 5 business cards with my clients and tell them if they have any issues to call my mobile number. But if you build that expectation you have to fulfill it as well. Be what you advertise. My success came to me because I was willing to answer my phone anytime day or night and provide service to my clients right then.” Bob shares that when you take the time to build a rapport with your clients and then give the best customer service possible, your clients will talk about their experiences. “I still get referrals from some of my clients that I first got in the 1990’s.”

Did you like our referral advice? Do you have advice of your own? Call us at 1-800-997-3107 and tell us how you work to expand your business! If you like this article, chances are good you’ll like this one and this one. Not yet an RBI agent? Check out our list of carriers to get started contracting today! 

Subscribe to the RBI Agent’s Advantage Blog for a weekly newsletter digest of great Medicare content, like the latest in carrier news, tutorials, video roll-ups and more!


Video: Marketing for Success Roll-up

Did you miss Webinar Wednesday this week? Catch up by watching our Marketing for Success Roll-up, below!



We couldn’t close out the work week without telling you about our fantastic Webinar Wednesday topic this week! If you’ve been following along on our webinars, you’ll know that we love bringing you amazing (and useful!) content to help you improve your sales! Our Marketing for Success Roll-up is here to tell you exactly what you need to know in order to increase your ROI on marketing!

Many agents think about marketing on an as-needed basis.  The problem with approaching marketing in such a haphazard way is that there is no way to track your results. Instead of practicing the “RAM” method of marketing, RBI is here to help our agents follow the MAPS method.

What is the RAM method? Random Acts of Marketing

What is the MAPS method? Building a marketing system that is Measurable, Actionable, Profitable and Scalable.

Watch our roll-up below for more information!

Marketing for Success Roll-up

Look for this symbol on all our new “60 Second Roll-up” videos!

Like what you heard? Click here to watch the full recording of “Marketing for Success.”  To learn more about how RBI can help you be a better agent, click here.

Want to get started? You can see a list of all our carrier partners by clicking here. For more details, call us at 1-800-997-3107 and speaking to our experienced sales team!   



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

Charlie Ferrell

National Sales Manager


NOTE FROM RBICharlie 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.

Build a network of professional friends

“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


Your Best Month Yet – Starting off right on day 1

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.

Plan Your Best Month Yet

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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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!
  4. 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.
  5. 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!