I've been a work from home health insurance agent for over four years and this is my daily log detailing all the fun and bull involved in being an independent agent. My goal is to build a strong community presence and show other agents that the key to this business is generating your own leads.
I have started an association to train, support and unite independent health agents. See my link on the right.
Great day! Did an Aetna, Assurant and Blue Cross app. Two were leads I telemarketed, one was a referral. It's very refreshing to devote my entire day to insurance activities and furthering my business and as of now I think I'm really on the right track to be a recognized local agency. Of course the big step doesn't come until early next year when I rent store-front space.
Actually, the next big step is a half or full-page ad in local publications which is over a month away. The great thing about local ad rates is they're cheap. I can get a half-page ad in one of my city's local papers for $150 a week. This beats trying to put a 1/16th of a page ad in some huge 100 page newspaper that frankly no one would see - has no impact at all.
I'm looking great next week - five appointments set already and all before Wednesday. Also starting next week I'll be involved in local business meetings. I have business breakfast for my community and I have another breakfast for the chamber of commerce. That one I'm especially looking forward to since new members get to introduce themselves and tell everyone what we do.
Oh, and I got my DOI trade name for Maryland Health Plans today so I can officially go by that name! I think this is important since my agency name basically states what I do - "Health Solutions" did not.
I'll tell ya, it's nice to have a plan, and in my case, theory, and see it start to work out. I joined my community business association which got me a listing on the website and already, here's what I hoped would happen; people seeking out health insurance coming to me.
My theory is simple; Out of 10 people at least 6 would happily change something about their coverage. Most of these people simply do nothing thinking "it is what it is." Others do nothing because they simply don't know where to start. If an agency had a high profile in the area and became well known I think the amount of possible business would be amazing.
We are busy chasing down leads submitting by people who don't live close to us and in the meantime countless people in our community have no faint clue as to who to contact for health insurance.
I guess two things to note: 1) Join your local Chamber. 2) If your client is close, go see them. I had an appointment with a Century 21 real estate agent literally 5 minutes from me - debated about doing it online. That would have been a mistake.
I went to the office and she bought a plan. She grabbed her friend, got her in the office and she bought a plan! Then said I should talk to the owner since they don't offer health. While waiting for the owner (odd title since it's a pseudo-franchise type of arrangement) I noticed the Chamber plaque on the wall. We shook hands and I said I just joined and got approved. Complete attitude shift from what I've ever seen before; "So you're a chamber member?" We talked about some upcoming events we're both attending and it was an "owner to owner" conversation instead of "owner to pesky insurance agent." You know the normal drill - it would be "well that sounds great....have a card?"
Now he wants me to come in next week and do a presentation in front of the rest of the agents. He also said he can't wait to introduce me to several friends of his since health insurance comes up during conversations. There are five other insurance agencies in that local chamber - none of which offer heatlh. It's outfits like Allstate, Nationwide and other places that focues on P&C, life, disability and employee benefits.
Also, the chamber has a monthly newletter and for $20 to $40 per month you can buy rather large ad space. I'm in - got a 40 buck-er and it'll run next month - so that's every business owner seeing my ad for 40 whopping bucks.
It's worth noting the two agency owners I highly respected told me to go this route in 2004. But I was too smart for that - I'm gonna sign up 28 year-olds online and get rich.
Hey, anyone reading this don't get me wrong. Go buy leads all you want - but use it to supplement your business - don't make it your entire business. It should be one of many sources of business. If it's your exclusive source of business you'll find yourself chasing down leads 5 years from now. And if you stopped the leads on Tuesday, you're out of business on Wednesday.
I again re-visit the theme of this to remind those reading along that the goal is to establish a local agency where my business is based on local advertising and becoming part of the community. I also think there's a big difference between promoting "free quotes" and promoting your business. Any can drive quote traffic to their site and it's still people who don't want to be contacted. That's not what I'm after.
Picking up the phone and chasing down 20 quote requesters - 75% of whom are trying to avoid you is a lacking marketing plan. I will still offer quote requests but my quote page will be re-configured to let people know before filling out the form that they will be contacted by me and I'll want them to choose the best time. It won't be a perfect system but it will at least let people know they won't see instant quotes, and a video on that page will explain why. I see little value on showing people rates they can't get.
I've filled out applications for two local chambers of commerce and advertised on a few local websites. I'm meeting with a Yellow Pages ad rep next week so talk about local print and internet ads.
I put an ad out today to hire people to put up the residential postcard/flyers which I've done before with lacking results. The main problem was finding people to actually work and managing those who did work. However, now that my son's in school my wife is freed up to help me and that's all the difference.
The residential flyers pull .005 (half of 1%) and I've been slapping them up for about three years as a supplement to other marketing. It's not something that can be done in all areas since you need townhomes to make the math work.
Math: Flyers are 3 cents a piece 1,000 placed is 5 leads $12/hr for labor and 200 per hour placed Closing is 1 out of 5 - they are very high-quality leads
So a 10 hour week is $120 in pay, gets 2,000 flyers put up which cost $60 for a total expense of $180. It's 10 leads and two deals. Even if it was one deal it's still extremely worth it. Can I lose money? Not really. The entire box of 5,000 is $150 in cost and putting them up would require 25 man hours X $12/hr = $300 + the $150 = $450 total. I make twice that off one deal.
That breaks down to $18 per lead and internet leads are far cheaper....right?No.I get in contact with all 10 of those leads hence the 1/5 closing ratio. When you get 20 leads you only get in contact with around 30% of them. So at $8 per shared lead X 20 leads = $160 however if you only spoke with 6 those leads now it's 6 into $160 or $26 per lead! So it's $26 to speak with someone and then 3 or 4 others agents also get a crack. Ummmmm, no.
8am: I set an appointment at the end of last week for 8:30am - owners of a auto repair shop about 20 minutes from me. They were closed yesterday so I couldn't confirm. There are those out there who teach to never confirm - just run the appointment. The theory is if you call that gives 'em a chance to back out. First of all, if the deal is so weak that just calling them to confirm leads to them back out then good; just saved me a lot of time. However, in this case they're still interested but when I called only the husband was in. The wife had an issue at home and isn't gonna be in until 10am. So I'd have done the whole suit and tie thing, driven out there and likely been trapped into doing a one-legger.
12:30: Set two more appointments this week, re-set this morning's for Thursday and scrubbed a 4pm I had today. I called to confirm and I could just tell by the conversation it would be a wasted trip. His words: "Well you can still come but right now we're still deciding what to do and we'll be looking more into it next month." Errrr! People can get excited sometimes when you set up a time to meet, but then husband and wife sit down and simply decide they're not at the right time to make a move. I respect that. However, running those appointments is uncomfortable at best. I do not like "closing" anyone and hate that kind of tension. People purchase plans from me - I do not "sell" them and there's a difference. In any case, I let him off the hook and I could how upbeat he got. Why "force" people to meet with you. It's just a waste of everyone's time.
Well I got a list of the businesses that will be at my community network breakfast next week and was interested to see Nationwide and Allstate. This is what these guys do - they are simply involved in the community, not cold-calling all day.
Although I'm excited to get involved in local events and the chamber of commerce it's not all about just getting business. It's really about being a part of my community and not just leeching off it it. You can cold-call or buy leads but you are only gaining business for yourself and not giving anything back. I've been at this for four years and have never really felt like a legitimate business owner. I don't think you can unless it's a give and take between getting business from community, but also giving back.
I see a lot of agents kid themselves - thinking they are "helping people" by selling insurance. Yes, in one way we do indeed help people. But when I think if helping people I think more about Habitat for Humanity then insurance agents. When I was a Mega agent (God forgive me!) they has a cheesy saying; HOPE - helping other people every day. Lol. I think if you want to "help people" you need to hit the grocery store and buy some food then take it down to you local soup kitchen. If you really want to help then you volunteer at the kitchen.
I've very interested in simply bettering my life all around and getting involved in a local charity. I can't think if anything more distasteful then getting involved in a charity with the motive of gaining business, so at any charitable event I simply won't discuss at all what I do. What I'm even more interested in is starting an extremely small charity myself. I'd like to do something to help children in the hospital along the lines of bringing in cool toys - maybe hand-held video games so they can have something do to besides watch tv. I was in the hospital as a kid for 5 days and basically it's only TV between family visits.
