Tips For Selling Medicare Over The Phone
The vast majority of Medicare beneficiaries will have their first conversations with an agent either over email or over the phone. Particularly since the pandemic, many people are more prepared to discuss, choose, and even purchase their plans over the phone rather than in person, in an office. With this in mind, here are some basic tips for successfully marketing and selling Medicare insurance plans over the phone.
How to Get Prospects to Call
In general, the nature of Medicare insurance plans means that outgoing calls or cold calls are not the most successful way to sell Medicare. Agents can call pre existing contacts, of course, and beneficiaries ready for re-enrollment, but in general, it is best to let potential clients come to you.
One marketing tip is to get involved in the local and wider community. An agent having a presence in their community means that, when people are ready for Medicare insurance enrollment, that agent will be the one they think of and are most likely to call. Some of the ways agents can do this is by writing newsletters in local papers, giving free seminars at local libraries, and getting involved with local business groups to network with local business owners. Community is where sales come from and opportunities as well. If the agent develops a reputation as an expert in their community, that will drive members of the community to them as needed.
How to Make Outbound Calls
There are many rules about making outbound calls as a Medicare insurance agent. They are rather strict, and the following is a list of what an agent can do:
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Call current enrollees, including those in non-Medicare plans, to discuss plans
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Return phone calls and messages to those who contact them
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Call with permission. Examples include an online phone call or contact request or a business requesting a return call from the agency
These rules exist to protect beneficiaries, and are related to the ethics of selling Medicare insurance plans. The following are some of the things that agents cannot do:
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Make unsolicited phone calls to prospective beneficiaries and clients
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Call about other business and then switch topics to Medicare
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Agents cannot call about referrals – the referred person must call the agent
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Call someone who attended a sales event – the only exception to this rule is if the agent has express permission for this phone call from that sales event. Proof of permission must be documented.
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Agents cannot call about whether or not prospective clients received something in the mail
With those rules in place, the most ethical and easiest way to generate business for a Medicare insurance agent is by getting people to call them; not the other way around.
Licensed agents – Selling Medicare Over the Phone
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