For more than 200 hundred years the process for selling a product or service has changed little. Although the technology available has advanced at alarming speeds in recent years, the general sales process has not. Key ingredients needed today to be a successful agent remain basically the same; competitive products, qualified leads, access to information and consistent follow up. How your leads are generated and the cost per lead now makes a significant difference between success or failure. More importantly what you do with them is now more important than at any other time in history. Nothing replaces a qualified lead!
What you do with each prospective customer is based in many parts on your style of selling. Every sales agent has their own way of making the sale, even if the products are effectively the same as they are in the health insurance industry. What has changed is the selection of tools available and how we utilize them in order to make the sales process easier and more productive.
With over 20 years of insurance sales experience and more than 9+ years of managing successful internet platforms we are now making available to qualified agents, a set of tools and proven concepts you can incorporate within your own style of selling all within an e-commerce format that is accessible from anywhere there is an internet connection. Make no mistake, if you do not have an effective web presence with some very basic tools you will find it much more difficult to compete and harder to close the sale as more and more insurance sales are conducted via the internet.
If you think the trend will stay relatively dependent on the agent then look around. The auto insurance industry is a good place to see what impact the internet can have on the agent. With the addition of online real-time application processing the consumer is able to access applications directly from the web and in many cases bypassing the agent. The consumer does not care for the most part how they obtain the product as long as it is simple, non-obtrusive into their lives and fast. This trend has already started. Companies like Progressive Auto Insurance even quote their competitors on their own web site. This in theory prevents the need for the customer to search other sites for competitive rates.
Most Health Insurers either have or will soon have their own online presence with the ability for the consumer to apply online directly from their web site. Even though most of these insurers are still promoting support for the broker it is clear that the field is becoming more crowded daily by both brokers and insurers all seeking the same customer from within a e-commerce environment. Let’s face it - it makes perfect sense. No paper, less cost, it’s easy for the consumer, and they can do it anytime they see fit, 24/7.
So what’s the answer to this problem? We suggest one answer is a shared web based environment that provides the internet platform from which customers, both new and existing can access needed content which will aid them in making an informed decision while providing the means to act on their decision and execute it NOW! Whether they find you via the web or they are directed there by other forms of marketing you now use, you need the capability to service your prospective customers via the web.
Maintaining a web site today is still a very costly matter. The cost of hosting the site, creating the site, maintaining your site, keeping visible in the search engines are in most cases an overwhelming and expensive task for the independent agent. Some insurance companies such as Blue Cross of California offer the agent a simplified web presence option with little flexibility built into the system and you are only representing one carrier. The growing cost of not having an effective web site although difficult to measure is in our opinion potentially much greater than the cost of maintaining some sort of web presence..
Consider this – Insurance companies continue to struggle with how they are going to control the rising cost of their health plans. As agents we have learned to accept the time of year when rates increase. Even though most will agree that an increase in rates is a difficult time for all there was at least a silver lining in that the agent would see an increase in their commission base consistent with the percentage increase in rates.
For those subscribers that stayed on the books this meant our commissions increased at the very least with the level of medical inflation. We were not required to work so hard as long as we were able to maintain a stable subscriber base. Renewals are at the core of the reason most agents stay in the business. What happens when the insurance companies intrude into this sacred area of compensation? Commissions are a grand reservoir from which the insurance companies can and will eventually tap. Don’t think it will happen? Look around.
So what is the answer? We suggest one answer will be for the producer to sell more business while maintaining a lower cost per sale. We will be forced to be more productive in order to maintain the same level of compensation. Others will follow. I don’t believe that the other carriers are immune to the cost elements affecting companies like Blue Shield of California, Blue Cross of California and others. I also don’t believe that the role of the agent is sacred, as most will claim.
The truth is, it is all about money and production. Larger producers will become fewer and deliver higher numbers while other agents may loose interest in selling certain products altogether. But out of change always comes new opportunities. Most carriers now compete directly with the agent and most agents don’t even realize it. Yet they do and they are not going to ignore productive tools like the web because every decision they make is based on one thing - profitability! These companies must do what is best to survive. They have responsibilities to their subscribers first. As brokers we are all independent, self employed and responsibile only to ourselves and our families.
So how does today’s agent become more productive when they are already dealing with full schedules? We believe that the combination of a Shared Internet Platform and simple tools like todays contact managers can provide you with the necessary advantage needed allowing you to plug into a web based platform that can only enhance your current style of selling. This is a time tested platform that has worked for more than 9 years now.
The concept is simple in that customers that visit the individualhealth.com website are given the choice to select an agent at multiple access points throughout the site. They can select a participating agent that is available in the county they reside in or any other agent of their choosing. Customers can be directed by you to your own interface on the web giving them direct access to the application information they are seeking, right now. No longer will they need to wait for enrollment information. Lead them to it, online right now. If they are ready to apply, lead them to the appropriate application with your agent number embedded into the form right now. Let them view actual brochures in full color right now. Apply online, yep, right now, eliminating the need for you the agent to handle the application at all.
Sound interesting well please read the next section on Why a Shared Platform? |
