Do you ever get discouraged?

[newbie2001]

Hey everyone, going through a little valley of despair over the last few weeks. Spent several thousand dollars marketing T65 seminars and feeding folks. Had over 80 attendees and just 8 of those 80 were turning 65

Obviously the seminar is educational in an attempt to let me help you enroll etc etc.

I did another group of these last year with great results and a 35% conversion rate (it was my first time). Had a lot more people turning 65 though.

With all of that being said I managed to submit one OEP app and that’s it. No one wanted to sit down and have a conversation because “oh yeah we just changed a few months ago”

Trying to find the positive in this situation as maybe they are good prospects for AEP but I would have really liked to get there business now and not 6 months later.

Anyways. Enough complaining but didn’t know if some of you more experienced guys and gals had some insights.

Thanks and happy Easter

Edit: Before you say, “you didn’t give them a reason to want to talk to you about changing their plan.”

Yeah I know, but I also didn’t want to lie to them or make up some reason that we need to sit down “oh more changes came out”.

 

[sshafran]

It's a tough business. Be a sniper.

For example, with OEP - you can't really advertise but the main driver for it is network issues. ie this big carrier leaving this big hospital. How can you get in front of those people?

Seminars are fine I guess and I know people do them successfully but (my opinion) it's not direct enough.

I don't want to give you a generic presentation with hopes that maybe we can meet again.....

Get them to meet with you specifically to pick a plan that will work well for them. Not to get a quote. Not to shoot the breeze. Not to get educated...


I knew a guy doing seminars then he'd try to follow up to do a get to know you thing then he'd try to meet to start outlining a plan then try to meet to close it.... Good grief just write the plan and close it....stop being timid.

 

[somarco]

Seminars have a learning curve . . . and not everyone has the ability to put one together and make it click. A lot of trial and error for most folks.

There are ways to conduct them on a shoestring . . . feeding a meal is an absolute no-no until you know what you are doing and really know how to get the RIGHT folks there.

 

[ValeRosso]

Like others mentioned, it’s tough. Especially with seminars…youre not only spending for the mailers, but the venue and food, travel, etc. It’s not cheap. We did food seminars, got 30-40 per event easy. As soon as we stopped providing food the attendance dropped 75%.

We stopped doing seminars because it was clear, there are more plate lickers than anything. Also, not everyone is going on Medicare @ 65. You have many retiring at 67, 68, 69.

Last..seminars arent really for immediate business. They’re a long game.

Keep going man. We all have down days/weeks/months. You’re not alone.

 

[InsuranceGuy29]

This.

Like others mentioned, it’s tough. Especially with seminars…youre not only spending for the mailers, but the venue and food, travel, etc. It’s not cheap. We did food seminars, got 30-40 per event easy. As soon as we stopped providing food the attendance dropped 75%.

We stopped doing seminars because it was clear, there are more plate lickers than anything. Also, not everyone is going on Medicare @ 65. You have many retiring at 67, 68, 69.

Last..seminars arent really for immediate business. They’re a long game.

Keep going man. We all have down days/weeks/months. You’re not alone.

This. OP, the vast majority of folks just want free sh!t, to put it very bluntly. Many of these people will drive 25 miles to get a free lunch, cheap pen, and a magnet.

As others have stated, this business is extremely difficult. They make it look and sound easy when they're recruiting agents. Why? Because they don't really care about YOU, the agent. They care about whatever you can bring in to them.

If you only stay on a year (average for most new agent's, before they get discouraged and exit the business), and you only get them 4-5 policies. Well, that's 4 or 5 policies that they didn't have before.

If they have 100 people consistently cycling in and out all doing that, it all adds up to MAJOR business for them. I'm being very honest, the only reason I got into this business is because I had a very close family friend (that's like a sister) who has her own FMO, and she paid for pretty much everything.

She obviously makes a good amount off of me, too, from what I write, so it all works out. But 98% of FMO's will never be doing that and giving that extremely high level of monetary support. I was young, lost, and broke, and she understood that. It's like anything else in life, cash and connections are king.

 

[scagnt83]

Cross-sell at the seminar. Guys I know who do Medicare seminars are also talking (briefly) about annuities/life/ltc. And often make just as much in annuity sales or ltc sales as they do Medicare.

 

[newbie2001]

It's a tough business. Be a sniper.

For example, with OEP - you can't really advertise but the main driver for it is network issues. ie this big carrier leaving this big hospital. How can you get in front of those people?

Seminars are fine I guess and I know people do them successfully but (my opinion) it's not direct enough.

I don't want to give you a generic presentation with hopes that maybe we can meet again.....

Get them to meet with you specifically to pick a plan that will work well for them. Not to get a quote. Not to shoot the breeze. Not to get educated...


I knew a guy doing seminars then he'd try to follow up to do a get to know you thing then he'd try to meet to start outlining a plan then try to meet to close it.... Good grief just write the plan and close it....stop being timid.

Yeah I used the same presentation as last time but I had the 2 main issues. Mainly not enough people were aging in, and they already "just switched" and no major changes were coming.

Last time I stayed in touch until it was time to enroll then it was lets meet and get your plan selected. Done deal.

Like someone else mentioned. A lot of these people aging in are not retiring and staying on group for another 2-3 years which is not good for me.

 

[newbie2001]

Like others mentioned, it’s tough. Especially with seminars…youre not only spending for the mailers, but the venue and food, travel, etc. It’s not cheap. We did food seminars, got 30-40 per event easy. As soon as we stopped providing food the attendance dropped 75%.

We stopped doing seminars because it was clear, there are more plate lickers than anything. Also, not everyone is going on Medicare @ 65. You have many retiring at 67, 68, 69.

Last..seminars arent really for immediate business. They’re a long game.

Keep going man. We all have down days/weeks/months. You’re not alone.

Yeah my venues are smaller so sometimes I am 11-12 max, biggest event was 28 attendees and the room was packed. I noticed personally the more attendees the worse conversion personally.

As you said out of the few people who were actually turning 65 many of them are continuing to work and staying on group.

I wasn't looking for immediate business it took me ~6 months to work all the T65 leads from last time but with hardly any attendees turning 65 it kinda takes the wind out of your sails because that's truly who the seminar is designed for.

 

[newbie2001]

This.


This. OP, the vast majority of folks just want free sh!t, to put it very bluntly. Many of these people will drive 25 miles to get a free lunch, cheap pen, and a magnet.

As others have stated, this business is extremely difficult. They make it look and sound easy when they're recruiting agents. Why? Because they don't really care about YOU, the agent. They care about whatever you can bring in to them.

If you only stay on a year (average for most new agent's, before they get discouraged and exit the business), and you only get them 4-5 policies. Well, that's 4 or 5 policies that they didn't have before.

If they have 100 people consistently cycling in and out all doing that, it all adds up to MAJOR business for them. I'm being very honest, the only reason I got into this business is because I had a very close family friend (that's like a sister) who has her own FMO, and she paid for pretty much everything.

She obviously makes a good amount off of me, too, from what I write, so it all works out. But 98% of FMO's will never be doing that and giving that extremely high level of monetary support. I was young, lost, and broke, and she understood that. It's like anything else in life, cash and connections are king.

Yeah I know this business is tough, trust me. I work really hard and have put my heart and soul into learning and understanding everything. I have a goal in mind clients wise before the end of the year and in my head these seminars were going to be the launch pad for that.

But yeah the distance some of these people drive for free food is ludacris. I don't mean to be rude but the way some of these people eat its like they have not ate for days then they don't fill out the survey sheet I provide and run out the door before I can even talk to them. It is sad in a way.

 

[newbie2001]

Cross-sell at the seminar. Guys I know who do Medicare seminars are also talking (briefly) about annuities/life/ltc. And often make just as much in annuity sales or ltc sales as they do Medicare.

As far as I know I cannot discuss other products. I had a couple of people ask me about other products which I am following up on but I do not explicitly mention it in my presentation.