What percentage?

[Alsky]

Since I am new to Health Insurance sales... How are the percentage of your sales made:

1) In Person
2) On Phone
3) On Internet with your guidance.
4) Online sale that prospect initiated from your website.
5) Other

Just curious... I think this will help agents like myself who have brought on the line of health ins sales to their portfolio, and will help us to know where to concentrate the bulk of our efforts.

Thanks;
Al

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

To be honest, it doesn't matter which system we use. What matters is what system actually works for you. I sell on the phone as do others and we do it well. Others simply don't like the phone and do well in person.

The lowest closing ratio is over the phone. It's obviously easier to get the client to commit when you're in front of them. I used to close about 1 out of 8 leads in person. Now I close 1 out of 15 over the phone.

 

[James]

As for me if I had to rely only on the telephone I would starve! Yet others shine on the telephone. Yet I have a rather unique voice that doesn't play well on the old' telephone, and my hand gestures are rather hard to use when talking on the telephone, I mean people just don't seem to get it?

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

If I had attempted to sell over the phone when I was brand new I probably wouldn't be here. The only way you can pull it off is with a massive amount of leads - 10+ per day.

 

[Alsky]

Ok, so, to sell face to face, you are obviously marketing only to your local area.... does anyone market to neighboring states and regions?

I am not new to the sales game by a long shot but I am new to health sales... seems the lead flow dictates the success ratio if you pocess the ability to pull it off on the phone. (Of course everythings a numbers game).

I still run mortgage protection leads in the pm and have a book of clients, however, if I had a choice of hitting the road or hitting the phone, for me, I'd choose hitting the phone.

I am relying on the formula that John presented somewhere on this forum:

Close 1 out of 15 in house telemarketed leads... I want to make 5 sales per week... I need 75 leads to accomplish this goal.

I hired a tele firm I saw on this forum, and although we are off to a slow start, I am assured I will at least get 2 leads per hour guaranteed... I will need to hire someone for a total of 40 hours per week to see 80 leads.

Any flaws in this formula (presuming I am capable to close 1 out of 15 on the tele)?

 

[djs]

Keep in mind that there are plenty of clients in your local area, there really isn't a need to worry about out of state type stuff, at least up front, unless you are right on a state line. For me, it's to much of a hassle to deal with all the extra licensing requirements, the extra appointments, keeping track of the differences in coverage from one state to the other, etc.

While I'm fairly new to health only sales (previously only sold it in connection with a P&C sale, never marketed health directly), my experience is that closing 1 in 15 over the phone ONLY comes after you can close 1 in 5 in person. There are some other things that come along with this, at least based on my P&C experience.

- People you have met in person tend to be better overall customers, and more loyal to you. This equates to better retention rates (much more critical in P&C, but important here as well).
- Your goal should be to become a trusted advisor for your clients. This is much harder to do over the phone, though a good phone person can pull it off.
- In my case, an in person sale allows me to cross sell much better. I can talk about their complete insurance plan and investment portfolio.
- Health insurance is confusing. Unless you can show them 3 options for them to chose from over the phone, with a clear distinction of what the differences are, than phone sales are tough. You can do this by having a brief conversation, then emailing them the appropriate options, then talking through the options.
- It takes a LOT longer to complete an in person appointment than a phone appointment.
- Many people will take 15 minutes to talk to you on the phone, but don't want to be bothered with meeting in person. In this case, I'll spend the 15 minutes on the phone to get them far enough along to meet in person.

I know a lot of people who sell health insurance work out of their home, so an in person interview means either driving to the clients home, or a local starbucks. I have a slight advantage here that I have an office that clients can easily come to and I have found many prefer to come to my office rather than me come to them. This saves me the commute time, and it presents me as a much better professional (first impression type of thing, people working out of their home can be very professional, I did it for a long time).

It sounds like you have a lot of the core skills and talent to pull this off. If you can get 80 leads a week, and close 1 in 15, you'll do very, very well.

My suggestion, and you may have this already, is make sure you have a solid way to manage the 80 leads a week. Keeping track of call backs, followups, the call me at 6, and the 'dont ever call me again' statuses can be a real pain when your doing that kind of volume. I know many people do this with paper, I'm not that organized, I have to use a lead management tool for this.

Dan

 

[Alsky]

Thanks a million Dan for the valuable and helpful information. I am actually going to try and balance both, health during the day M-Th, with Friday being paperwork day and running mortgage leads in the pm 3-4 nights a week with Friday night calling to set up next week, of course attempting to cross sell all the time.

I am presently using MS Outlook office and am looking at the software offered by frank on this forum... also checking out ACT which can be bought for somewhere around $90, new, but last years version.

Well, I have done enough analizing my swing, now its time to play ball starting on Monday. I will keep you updated as to how I do.

Thanks again...

Al

 

[Krono]

I still run mortgage protection leads in the pm and have a book of clients, however, if I had a choice of hitting the road or hitting the phone, for me, I'd choose hitting the phone.

You have a book of clients that have already bought something from you? CALL THEM! Let them know that you are offering a new service. Low hanging fruit...my friend.

 

[Alsky]

Good advice Krono... already sent postcards and following up next week with calls. Thanks

Al

 

[Winter_123]

I hired a tele firm I saw on this forum, and although we are off to a slow start, I am assured I will at least get 2 leads per hour guaranteed... I will need to hire someone for a total of 40 hours per week to see 80 leads.
==========================================

Is this just a health insurance marketing group or do they do life insurance as well. Can you give me a pointer to that or the firm's name.

Thanks

Winter