Change Before You Have To | By Philip Warren
Did You Know?
• 60.32% of Medicare Supplements are sold by three entities.
• A+ Carriers are dominating the Medicare Supplement Market.
• Large corporations are discontinuing retiree health care coverage.
• 2 Million Baby Boomers are turning 65 & will be making NEW decisions regarding their health care coverage in 2012.
• An unprecedented opportunity awaits us for 2012!
So Many Changes Yet One Constant:
Over the last 50 years we have seen, and some of us have experienced, great advancement and more change than in all of recorded history. The way we do business, the way we communicate, the products we consume and the cars we drive are different now! All of these things, and many others, have changed in ways we could not have imagined.
However one thing, at least in its core structure has remained constant since 1965, and that is Medicare. In the beginning, the American People age 65+ were guaranteed health coverage for doctors and hospitals (Part A and Part B of Medicare). Even with the advent of Medicare Advantage, insurance companies are required to provide those who enroll in this program benefits that mirror Medicare. We hear a lot of rhetoric about Medicare, being an election year; but to change the program drastically would result in political suicide for those in public office.
What Exactly Has Changed? Here’s an Overview of 2011:
• Baby Boomers began turning 65 (10,000 daily).
• Senior Marketing Specialists (SMS) records 79 rate increases from various carriers in various states.
• Commissions decrease on replacement and guaranteed issue business.
• On-line and telephone-sales for Medicare Supplements increase.
• Re-insurance pacts for smaller carriers dry up.
• Larger carriers increase market share.
• Larger carriers continue to develop strategic partnerships for Medicare recipients (Wal-Mart/Humana, Aetna/CVS).
• A+ carriers enter the market place (Aetna and CSI – A Berkshire Hathaway Company).
• Large companies restrict, or cancel, retiree health benefits.
• Fewer carriers offer new Medicare Advantage plans during AEP.
What Will It Take to Survive in this Climate? 
Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, once stated, “Change before you have to”.
At Senior Marketing Specialists we are changing every day to embrace and excel in our chosen market, the Senior Age Insurance Market. With our webinars, insurance agent training and company relationships, we are poised to help you, the agent, grow and evolve as we encounter change. Let us help you change before you have to!
Senior Marketing Specialists Welcomes Dan Mangus as National Sales Director!
We at Senior Marketing Specialists (SMS) are proud to announce our newest full-time addition, Dan Mangus. Dan has spent the past 20 years in South Eastern Missouri running his own family agency which has always been a top-producing agency in the Senior Market. Two years ago, Dan began marketing within SMS as a consultant, speaker, motivator and trainer to some of our top agents. He has also played a critical role in the development of our state-of-art, online training campus, SMS-University. He then spent a year growing and leading our Advisory Council made up of the top producing agents in our distribution.
We are privileged to announce that Dan will be joining our office as our National Sales Director! He will be working with our internal marketing and recruiting staff, plus he will be available to assist all of the 7,000+ agents that we represent across the country. Please join us in welcoming Dan and his wife Kelly to Columbia and congratulate them on this new chapter in their lives!
Successful Selling Part II | The Presentation | By Philip Warren
In Successful Selling Part I we discussed the first step in the successful sales process, that is, the warm up. This step allows both the agent and the prospect to get comfortable with each other, and to begin to review points of concern that the client may have. To review this article, click here.
The next step in the successful sales process is what most people call the presentation, and this is our topic today. Most people don’t like to be “sold”; instead they would rather be educated so that they can make their own decision. This means that, as a professional, your goal should be to inform your prospects. At Senior Market Specialists we have videos, flip charts and a separate division of our website, SMS-University, to help you accomplish this task!
Last year we held specific Final Expense seminars and webinars to train agents to use our video sales system for Monumental Life and Legacy Safeguard. This, along with our recruiting efforts, tripled our Final Expense production in 2011. The question that came up repeatedly at these events was this: “How do we transition from the warm up to showing our clients the video presentation?” And here’s our answer:
Ms. Jones, based on what you’ve told me so far, I want to show you something that we do at Legacy Safeguard that’s a little different. We have a true funeral planning service available. When the time comes, Legacy Safeguard can help your family avoid overspending, in the midst of grief, by negotiating the funeral price with the funeral homes. Your Legacy Safeguard advisor can contact the funeral home to evaluate service options while potentially saving your family thousands of dollars. Plus, Legacy Safeguard is on call 24/7 to provide support for survivors in various ways. I want to show you a short video that will show you exactly how all this works. http://www.legacysafeguard.org/LegacySafeguardVideo.php
Our society is conditioned to receive information on issues from this type of medium. The impact of this video has proven to be far greater than the impact a regular presentation would make. Give this video a try and see for yourself how well it works!
At SMS we have a library full of tools and presentation material to help make your job easier and your work more effective. Let us help you, because we believe at SMS that when we help you, we all succeed together.
Stay tuned for our next, and last, article about the closing step in this successful selling series. And thanks for taking the time to read this article. We hope you benefit from the information it contains!
Free Webinar | AEP is Over, Now What? | by Senior Marketing Specialists
At Senior Marketing Specialists (SMS) we are helping our agents make an additional $40,000.00 – $50,000.00 in 2012! How?
We spent the last year developing complete sales systems and training for Final Expense, Cancer and Recovery Care that are unmatched in the industry! We don’t just offer products at SMS, we help our agents with training in every phase of the sale: prospecting, sales presentations and closing!
To find out more about our 2012 plan, join us for a short webinar that will help you earn more in 2012 while adding value to your client relationships!
Free Webinar | Tuesday, December 20th | 10:00am CST | Click here to Register!
What Could You Do With 2 Extra Hours Each Day?
By Dan McNerney, President and CEO of Senior Marketing Specialists.
Do you work from a list? You might want to give it a try; it could greatly increase your productivity!
Benefits of list making:
- You avoid the risk of forgetting to do something important.
- You save time. How? Well, for one thing, you stop wasting time trying to remember what you need to do next. (Some people argue that you can save 2 hours or more each day by working from a list.)
- You generally accomplish the most important things first because you can more easily prioritize the projects when you see them written down.
- You may even be motivated to complete a task, just for the sake of crossing it off your list.
Ideas for getting started:
- Always jot down any assignment or project that you are responsible to complete and include that on your list. Also, take note of any appointments that you will need to prepare for or make time for.
- Write out a new list at the end of each day. Be sure to include any new list items as well as items that have been on your list but that you have not completed yet.
- Take a minute to prioritize the list by putting a number next to each item that corresponds to the order in which they should be tackled.
I hope this information is helpful. I know that as insurance agents, you are very busy. One of my goals is to help you become more productive and successful.
Leave a comment below to let us know what you think of list-making. Does it help you or not?
Senior Marketing Specialists Interviews Top Insurance Agency in Joplin, Missouri!
Jacob Knorpp’s Senior Insurance Specialist of Joplin, Missouri is one of our top agencies! We recently sat down with Jacob and his Office Manager, Traci Glass, to ask them about their business, their hugely successful Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) seasons, and how they are still reeling after the devastating tornado that ripped through their town this past May.
1.) How does your office prepare for and thrive during AEP?
Our office starts preparing in January. We have weekly meetings throughout the year. We go over what went well during AEP and how we can improve. This helps us prepare for a successful AEP. We do a lot of cross selling during this time which enables us to make sure all of our clients are fully covered.
2.) What are the main products you offer at your agency?
Our main products are Medicare Supplements, Life Insurance, Long Term Care, and Annuities. We also offer Major Medicals, Home and Auto, and of course Medicare Advantage and Part D.
3.) Tell me how your Agency was affected by the Tornado in May?
Our staff and our office were not directly affected by the tornado. Each of us had family and friends who lost everything. We also lost three clients and had several hundred lose their homes. The emotional effects have been the hardest, seeing our town devastated.
4.) I know each of you helped in so many ways – tell me a little bit about how your community came together after that day?
It was amazing to see our community come together. People who lost everything were out helping their neighbors, and even complete strangers, go through the rubble that used to be their homes. You would see people passing out food to the volunteers on a daily basis.
5.) I know that Jacob personally went and checked on each of his clients – tell me a little about that.
The day after the tornado we started searching through our database for clients we knew lived in the path of the tornado. We looked for cell phone or emergency contact numbers in an effort to reach them. We called our local radio stations and asked them to announce for our clients to call our office to let us know they were safe. It was several weeks until we got in touch with mostly everyone.
6.) Since we will be publishing this in November around Thanksgiving – tell me what you will be thankful for this year.
The thing I am most thankful for is the way the entire country and even the world came to our aid. It was, and still is, an amazing thing to witness!
7.) If anyone wants to help, what is the best way to continue to support your community and where is the help most needed?
If people want to help, they can donate to:
The American Red Cross| 410 S. Jackson| Joplin, MO 64801
Part One of Successful Selling (with a Final Expense Emphasis) by Philip Warren
This is the first in a three part series written by Philip Warren, Sales Coordinator for Senior Marketing Specialists.
For over twenty five years, I had spent much of my career in executive marketing positions in the Senior Age insurance business. During that time, I literally taught thousands of agents how to sell Medicare Supplements, Long Term Care and Annuities. I always used a fundamental approach that had been proven successful by captive agencies. The system they used was set up to make all agents successful, not just the superstars.
In 2008, I left corporate marketing and decided to return to the field. The market I chose to go into and product I selected to sell was final expense insurance. I had first been trained to sell in this market in 1975. Very little had changed in the final expense market during the ensuing thirty three years with only one exception; I now had a funeral planning service to compliment the life insurance plus a video for my presentation.
In the next two years I sold over 200 final expense policies following the system described in this article.
When I began working with Senior Marketing Specialist earlier this year, Dan McNerney, JoAnn Wray and myself concluded that we wanted to do more to train our agents to sell Recovery Care, Final Expense and Cancer insurance. We developed what we now call our three part sales system:
1. Warm up
2. Presentation
3. Close
Sound familiar??? Of course it does. However, selling products outside of Medicare Supplements can be a challenge for many agents. So, we decided to take each product line that we promote and develop full scripting and presentation material to help our agents become more successful. (Visit our website at www.smsteam.net for complete access to our training models.)
Today we will be reviewing the warm up. What is a warm up? And what do we accomplish by a warm up?
When you first enter a home, the first objective is to make all parties, yourself included, comfortable. Imagine someone coming into your home, or place of business, and immediately telling you that what you are doing, and how you are conducting your business, is wrong. What would you do? I would suggest they leave!!!
That’s why we use questions to show our interest in them. When you show you’re interested in them, they will become more interested in what you have to say! Try these universal questions:
• How long have you lived in the area?
• What did you do before you retired? (Or, what do you do for a living?)
• Do you have any hobbies?
• Do you have family in the area?
These questions are designed to encourage the prospect to talk about themselves. Once a diologue has begun, and the prospec is comfortable, I can move on to a different set of questions that relate to the purpose of my visit. For these next questions, I’ll use the final expense warm up:
1. Has anyone in your family, or anyone close to you, had to pay for a funeral or other final expenses?
2. Do you know how much Social Security pays for a death benefit? ($255)
3. Are you a veteran? ($750)
4. Do you have any funds or a program set up to pay for your funeral and other final expenses?
5. How would your family pay for/handle your final expenses and funeral arrangements?
6. How’s your health?
The process I’ve described usually takes about 15-20 minutes. That may seem like a lot of time, but I can guarantee that when this is done properly your closing ratio will improve dramatically. They know that you are interested in them and their affairs, and we have presented a topic that they need to consider addressing, funding for final expenses.
One important thing to remember: Let the prospect do as much talking as you do, maybe more. They will tell you what you need to know in order to help them.
You’re now ready to make the presentation. We’ll be covering that in our next article. Good luck and good selling!!!
Maximize your Medicare Advantage (MA) Annual Enrollment Period (AEP)!!!
Do you know what you’re doing on December 8th? If not, then you’re not ready for the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP)! Join Senior Marketing Specialists’ President and CEO, Dan McNerney, for a brief 10 minute session on how to really maximize your AEP, and find out what the most important action is taht you can take during AEP to make 2012 a great year for your business!
What this short, 10 minute presentation to learn how you can maximize your AEP! The sessions will be playing throughout the month of November:
- Every Tuesday at 6:00pm CST | Click here to register for free.
- Every Wednesday at 11:00am CST | Click here to register for free.
- Every Friday at 3:00pm CST | Click here to register for free.
Have a great weekend, and don’t forget to turn your clocks back an hour on Saturday!
Insurance Updates – Week 3 of the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP)
New Deductibles for 2012 Announced! Call 1.800.689.2800 for details.
UHC Updates—
* Keep sending in those apps! We have added 10 additional staff members and extended our hours to keep up with your enrollments! Now we’re available from 7:00am — 5:30pm CST.
* If you need supplies, let us know. We can help you get some immediately!
* Remember to put a PCP (Primary Care Physician) on each of your MA applications. Even a PPO should have a PCP selected! (It is the number one reason for rapid disenrollment if they don’t.)
* Don’t forget to tell your MA and PDP clients about the Hearing Aid Benefit! Remember, it is available at no additional cost on many plans.
* Be sure to check out the AARP Med Supp Rate Announcements for 2012. Many states
are taking a zero percent rate increase!
Coventry/Mercy Updates—
* Coventry Value Plan PDP Plus is raising a lot of questions. Check with our office about the process and procedure for enrolling your clients.
* No mail order available.
* Coventry Value Plan PDP Plus $0 copay is ONLY at the Preferred Pharmacies.
* If you need supplies, let us know. We might be able to expedite your order. Coventry
apps can NOT be copied because they each have a distinct number.
Windsor Update—
* If you need supplies, let us know. We can download and give you what you need.
Universal American Update—
* For those of you who have not certified yet, they have extended their offer of a $200 gift certificate if you certify before October 31!
Why You Should Be Offering Your Clients Cancer Insurance!
Our agent, Clint Guier, recently shared with us the following two stories:
“The first client, I sold a $5,000 lump sum cancer plan to effective 11/23/2010. She has a plan F supplement with me and lives in Hannibal, MO. She has to travel to St. Louis to receive specialized care. Her house was flooded this spring and she has to move due to black mold growing, and her house will be bulldozed in after her and her husband find another place to go. They have no money in the bank, and she is waiting on her lump sum check to arrive from the cancer company so they can put a deposit down on their new place that they will be renting. She is naturally upset and worried but was so happy to know that the plan I sold them last fall would give them some much needed relief in a time of financial, emotional and physical stress. Her only question was, “Now, this only pays the $5,000 once, right? How did we decide on that amount?” I’m thankful I brought it up and sold her what I did, but it would have been nice to tell her after the 5k lump sum that it would continue paying every time she had a treatment for as long as she battles cancer!”
“The second client I just got off the phone with. I was calling to check on their Med Supp premiums for them because they are raising next month. Ken told me that they had better stay with them (the Medicare Supplement company) because they’ve really been using it. I asked what was going on. Ken told me that Dolly has cancer and has been getting chemo treatments. They have been my clients for over 5 years and I don’t think I’ve ever talked to them about cancer coverage. I didn’t have the guts to ask Ken if they had a cancer policy that was helping pay the bills. Ken did tell me that the crops look pretty poor this year and Dolly hasn’t been able to do much with the garden. (They are farmers and make a good portion of their income off selling produce locally.)”
*The names in the stories have been altered to protect the clients identity.
As agents we can’t do anything about the past, but we can make sure we are mentioning cancer coverage to our clients in the future! The need is real, the coverage is important and the price is right. Are you talking to your clients about cancer insurance?
If you have any questions about cancer insurance, give us a call today at 1.800.689.2800. One of our marketers would be glad to explain what cancer products you can offer your clients.
If you live in Iowa or Missouri, be sure to join our Sterling Cancer webinar this Thursday, October 27th at 10:00 CDT! Click here to register now.