Medicare Sales After AEP
The Medicare AEP can be a crazy and busy time for insurance agents. Once we recover, we need to come up with a strategy to generate Medicare sales after AEP. This post will review some of common methods successful agents use and some of the not so common ones. We will also address how the OEP (Medicare Open Enrollment Period) fits in with this strategy.
Medicare Sales After AEP: Review results and get organized
Should we assume that all our enrollments have been correctly credited to us? The quick answer is “NO”. While it may be tempting to assume you have been correctly listed as the AOR on all your cases it will likely cost you money doing so. We have found there to be roughly a 5% to 10% error margin when it comes to carriers crediting agents on sales. Over time, the amount of missed initial commissions and renewals will add up. Make it a practice to review your book and make sure all cases are showing up in your agent portal. Having a CRM (Agencybloc is an example) makes this practice easier but for those without a CRM a simple excel spreadsheet will work. You could also use Connecture or Sunfire as a basic CRM. Connecture and Sunfire both have call recording capabilities at no cost which can help with the new call recording rules
How can you handle the AEP more efficiently next year?
While the past AEP is fresh in your mind, take some time to think about what you could have done more efficiently. Those with larger books of business can spend some or all of their AEP renewing what they have. In some cases it may make sense to hire some help renewing the book so you can focus more attention on new sales. Not to mention it will make life during AEP a lot more enjoyable. Some other things to consider:
- Are you processing your plan changes over the phone? It is much more efficient than face to face meetings
- Do you load all your clients medication and doctor info into Connecture, Sunfire or MyMedicarebot? Doing so allows you to quickly run drug cost comparisons, plan comparison and save drug lists for next year
- Do you have someone helping you make all of your AEP calls to existing clients? Adding an employee to make the calls, load all the clients drug information, book appointments and do all the post enrollment follow up can be a huge time saver.
- Organize current clients by plan. This allows you to have a consistent message for the entire group in that plan. Maybe the plan had a bad renewal and there are other options that may be better. They may be in a plan that still looks good for next year. If this is the case, there may not be a need to move many of them.
Strategy for the new year
How do you plan to start writing business during the OEP and for the remainder of the year? Keep in mind, you cannot use the OEP as a marketing method. This is not to say you cannot market during the OEP. (You certainly can) You cannot use the OEP as the means of solicitation. However, the OEP will give you the flexibility of moving someone from one MA to another or moving them from MA to original Medicare and possibly a supplement and drug plan. (You cant go from a Medicare supplement and a PDP during the OEP)
Come up with a strategy to write business all year
Agents with large books of business tend to spend a lot of their AEP maintaining their current book. They write a majority of their new business outside of AEP. If you are a newer agent without a big book, you should be writing business during AEP and the entire lock in period. Here are some of the more common successful strategies agents use.
T-65 Medicare educational seminars
Turning 65 educational seminars are one of the most consistent ways to write business outside of AEP. As an added benefit, they work well during AEP too. When other lead methods suffer from lower returns due to all the AEP advertising, Educational seminars are largely unaffected. Agents can run the seminars throughout the year specific to the area they like to work in. Most of the prospects are turning 65 which means you will receive full new to Medicare compensation on MA plans and will have commission eligible GI for Medicare supplements.
The most difficult part of running seminars is getting people in the seats. We offer agents a turnkey program that does all the work for the agents. Seminars through our program are averaging 50+ T-65 prospects per seminar. We provide agents with everything they need to run a successful seminar. This includes access to sample presentations, guidance on how to run the event, what type of locations to hold the event in and everything else needed. We also help agents with the cost of running each seminar. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SEMINAR PROGRAM
WATCH A VIDEO ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Phone sales with online leads and live transfer leads
Selling Medicare plans over the phone has become the most popular method used by agents. The skill set for phone sales is very different than face to face selling. Agents need to be prepared in order to sell by phone. All non face to face sales now need to be recorded. Recording and phone enrollment is availalbe to agents at no cost through Connecture and Sunfire.
Access to phone sales leads are will be needed to make this strategy work. We give agents access to online and live transfer leads through our vendor LeadStar. Learn more about Leadstar
Medicare sales after AEP: Retail sales
Retail sales have been a consistent method of generating business for many agents. While retail tends to be more productive during AEP and OEP, it can yield result throughout the year. Agents can work a number of venues. Some such as Walmarts, cost money and are on a bidding process that needs to be iniated by your upline/FMO. Others are at no to low cost and are accessed through the companies agent/broker managers in their local areas. This tends to be for locations such as Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens and a number of other retailers. A number of venues and locations are accessed simply by the agent having a relationship with the person who controls that location. Examples are dollar stores, laundry mats, food pantries and any other type of venue that has Medicare and/or Medicaid populations.
The key with retail is keeping consistent hours at the locations and building relationships with the people working there. Click here for a recorded webinar on working retail locations
Working mail reply cards
You may be surprised to hear that many agents still work mail. They usually send mail for T-65 replies or for things such as dual plans, dental or vision. A number of vendors will do the mail drops for the agents. They usually charge around $500 per 1,000 pieces dropped. The vendor usally handles all aspects of the mailing. What the agent gets back for a response rate depends on who the mailed. Two quick tips about mailers: Mail replies will be very low if done during AEP. Everyone will mailing during AEP so the card sent for you is one of 20 in the mail box. As a result, the reponse rate is usually very low and often is below 1% response. The other tip is with T-65 mailers. To get a good response rate (“Good” meaning 3% or better) mail should be sent out to prospects turning 65 no sooner than 7 months from when they go out.
Learn more about mail reply card marketing
Medicare sales after AEP: $500 a month lead program for all agents
We offer a Medicare lead,marketing and advertising program: It provides for $500 a month to agents to help with cost of Medicare leads, marketing or advertising. No reduction in commission, no minimums to start. Learn about the free Medicare lead program