Researching local events

A few months ago we went to a German festival at Fort Meade which is five minutes from our house. It was packed with sponsors who all had tables - well over 50 businesses. The place was mobbed and there were lines of people waiting to visit the tables to pick up information and the giveaways.

Come to find out later it was a whopping $150 to rent a table. You didn't need any huge trade show display. All you needed was $150 and something to give people who stopped by.

The event was Sat. and Sun. Just a wild guess - I would have pulled at least 20 deals out of it. I pulled 7 deals out of a small health fair held at a local fire station (which only ran 10am to 2pm) in '04 and about 200 people where there. There's one thing however I don't have to guess at. I didn't get any business out of it because I didn't have a table.

I've done a lot of research and obviously events are all over the place - far too many to be to personally attend. I'd like to be at the larger events this year - the Maryland State Fair pulls in 600,000 people. How much business would I get out of that?

I think a lot of it is how you have it designed. If you just plant your ass in a chair and people come by to just take your brochures and giveaways - probably not that many. If you create a bit of a buzz and get people to write down their basic info then obviously you'll do a lot better.

In our area Chick-Fil-A always has a booth where you spin a wheel to see which giveaway you'll gonna get. You also fill out a card to win a bigger prize.

I'm not sure I can give away any type of large prize due to rebating laws. But I can absolutely have people fill out short "get a free quote" cards. The bottom line is when people come by you want their contact information.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Gearing up for '08

My original goal has not been forgotten; to establish a local health insurance agency. True to that goal I'm gearing up for '08 in a few days. Everything done to gain business with be local. That will include:

1) Local telemarketed leads
2) Renting table/booth space at events
3) B to B flyers - probably pay someone to distribute them
4) Ads in local publictions

My theory:
A lot of people would review their coverage and possibly switch but there's no local established agent/agency they know about and trust. We all know that most people actively seeking quotes are young, broke or unhealthy.

Most people with money, between 40 to 62 with coverage just suck it up. They're likely uphappy with their rate but wouldn't be caught dead typing in their personal information on the net.

I am happiest when I'm out of the house. I successfully sold online for almost a year - never met with a single client. And I was never more miserable.

Merry Christmas

MERRY

CHRISTMAS!!!

Hell Yeah!

Mail truck pulls up yesterday and gives me a package. I open it up and it's a frick'n Magellan RoadMate GSP Navigation system from my Assurant RSD. How cool is that!

I've been wanting a navigation system for a while so I'm thrilled. I've been playing with it every since I got it - has the voice feature and everything else I'd want.

In other news, my seminar for new agents is almost done. Actually, there's not too much to put together. We all remember when we first go licensed and said "Ok, now what."

Most newbies get sucked into NAA, Mega and Aflac or captive life companies who may or may not be telling them what it's really gonna take to make that "easy six figure" income everyone's touting.

I'm a firm believer that any agent who has a great work ethic and sales skills would do far better selling health insurance then any other product. But just how would any agent get into the health field? Ummm.....unless it's UGA, Cornerstone or UA they wouldn't. Most new agents don't even know companies like Golden Rule exist none less how to get appointed.

The seminar isn't going to be about one company being better or one way of generating leads being superior. It'll be about letting agents know all the available ways to generate leads with all the pros and cons of any method.

So what I've put together is a "how to become a health insurance agent." No one will contact under me - that's a conflict of interest.

I've received a decent amount of feedback regarding pricing and everyone's all over the map from $50 to over $1,000.

First of all, it's not necessarily about what it's worth but what people are willing and able to pay. It's also about starting low to establish myself then possibly charging more. I think the initial fee will be around $200.