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I'm pretty decent with spreadsheets. Would Open Office Calc work? Google sheets? Would you be willing to share an example entry/What fields are you using?
Most Recommend Crm from the Medicare Gurus?
- Thread starter OttoGraf
- Start date
I'm pretty decent with spreadsheets. Would Open Office Calc work? Google sheets? Would you be willing to share an example entry/What fields are you using?
Google sheets might not be 100% compliant with Medicare since it's cloud based but I won't tell CMS if you don't.
As far as fields, name, spouse, DOB, address, phone #, current plans, retirement dates, really whatever fields you want to use. You can use google calendar to book appointments or set reminders (e.g. John Doe's wife turns 65 in 6 months etc.). Personally I don't see the benefit of spending money on a CRM unless you have multiple agents using it or you're auto dialing a ton of numbers, and even then Excel or Google Sheets is robust enough to handle multiple smart users and most dialers will allow you to import CSV files.
I bought a CRM back in 2001 (Agency Expert). The idea of having to manually input 16+ years of data is one of the things that prevents me from making a change. I'm sure some of the data can be exported, but when I think of all the emails that are stored in the database plus all the policy information, it's just not very appealing.
So I agree, I too would recommend getting a CRM from the get go.
Agency Expert allows you to import and export data from Excel. So if you start with Excel and decide to switch to Agency Expert you can import all of your data.
Guys I swear I'm not a Microsoft Shill I just really like Excel.
Along the way of transitioning from field agent to IMO, I gave my clients away. If I had not done that there would have been much more to input into the system. It would have taken months more to accomplish!
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Thanks I'm going to use google sheets & reevaluate after I've sold 10 policies.
As I said, there's more information than just the fields of basic client info. I have every email sent or received for every client over a 16+ year period (some of these exceed 100 emails). I doubt very seriously that information would export. I also have every letter ever sent to every client for the same period in the AE database. That likely wouldn't export either.
If Excel works for you, then keep doing it.
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Do you need emails for cya?
Absolutely. It protects me and my clients.
Ok, when I first started I used Excel too.
Trust me - you do not want to use Excel long term.
With the Medicare business, you should be doing a lot of things like taking notes of people's doctors, looking them up in networks, storing their Drug List ID & Date from Medicare.gov - uploading illustrations of the Part D plan from Medicare's plan finder so that when they call you 3 months later you can say, oh yeah, the illustration which I sent you (and saved in my CRM) shows the donut hole is starting this month for your 32 medications....
How on earth are you going to do *all of that* in excel.
How are you going to track campaigns and evaluate (and re-evaluate) your ROI?
Take the training wheels off and get a CRM.
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Also, like SMAN said - he saves letters he sends to clients/prospects. You can't do that with Excel. When I write a letter, once I hit "print" in 30 seconds I save as .pdf and upload to CRM. Client calls 2 weeks later to discuss or ask a question - the CRM with Phone integration pulls up their "page" automatically and I can answer and see the letter instantly.
Again, you can't do that with Excel.
Not harping on it - but not getting a CRM is working with a hand tied behind your back. I know some agents still like their wall of sticky notes and piles of papers with legal pads next to a bankers box full of files (with full intention of organizing, of course) - but it's 2017.
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