Thursday, March 27, 2008

Another webinar

As the days go by I get more and more emails and calls about the association. I try to get back to everyone but I'm falling behind with the emails.

I'll be holding a webinar tonight at 6pm - just hit the site: www.ihiaa.com and click the webinar section. All you need to do is click the meeting link and call in right before 6pm EST. I'll go over everything and answer any question.

If you want to be sent a reminder before the meeting starts just email me at admin@ihiaa.com

Yesterday it was call after call lining up discounts and agencies. I have a line on a fantastic agency that gives Humana advances - got more talking to do today for that.

Lined up a very good lead source; shared but they don't redirect to Eheatlh nor use affiliate spam to generate leads. 100% search driven, and tested. 75 cent per-lead discount to members to boot.

Back on the phone today to scour more lead sources.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

And the mailers go out!

1st batch of mailers go out today - this is the real size (click on it) and the only change they made was centering and enlarging the text under "webinar." The postcards can be simple since all I really need agents to do is hit the website. Should be interesting results.



In other news I'm getting the Norvax quote engine installed on my site since they just came out with changes that really made a huge difference to me in the way I like to present quotes to my clients.

I'll update you more on the new Norvax features either later today or tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Are you an information kiosk - and IHIAA webinar today

First off - we're holding a webinar today on the benefits of joining the association followed by a Q&A session. Go to www.ihiaa.com and click into the webinar link. Yesterday was our largest enrollment date yet!

There is power in numbers and as membership grows we have more leverage to work on steep discounts on services agents use every day.

Onto closing deals. Are you wasting time with tire kickers? Are you trying to chase people down - calling over and over, leaving message after message?

Don't wast time with tire kickers and don't spend countless hours just giving away free information to prospects who never had any intention of enrolling.

It's hard in this business to create a sense of urgency; we can't offer discounts; "buy by tomorrow and save 10%" like most sales industries.

Still - urgency needs to be created but it's a thin like between coming across as helpful without turning into a used car salesman.

Qualification is the key. Regardless of the lead source, my initial conversation is a series of questions - not statements. A huge mistake agents make is going into sales mode with prospects; going over plan benefits and rates.

Instead of launching into a presentation, ask a battery of questions. They won't answer the questions or seem disinterested? Done - move on:

Me: "So what's your biggest concern now about your coverage - your rate or benefits"

Prospect: "ummm, I dunno."

Me: "Ok, what's your current rate?"

Prospect: "Ummm, I dunno. Around $300 I guess."

DONE!!! Move on! There's no interest there. Interested prospects will engage you, answer questions and convey dissatisfaction about their current situation.

However, if you're not careful you can even lose the interest ones but not setting yourself up as someone who's gonna do business.

When I have a prospect on the phone who's conveying interest I have to get them excited about what I can do for them. Normally I'm saving clients money and I put it like this:

"Well Pam, you're currently paying $640 and based on some quick quotes I'm looking at you can save just over $200 a month. How does that sound?" When she says it sounds great I'll say:

"The good news is this is very simple. I can show some plans side-by-side and once you choose the plan you want I can take care of the application in minutes."

This positions me as someone who's gonna do business - no someone who's gonna just "show them quotes." When you do a presentation it's important for them to be in "buying mode" instead of "researching mode."

Monday, March 24, 2008

Addicted to the live desktop presentation

I've now signed up every client over the past 2 weeks using the Zoho desktop share feature and now I really don't know how else I would ever do it.

I like controlling the presentation. Before, I was just telling my prospects to "click this" and "click that" but you're really not on the same page as them.

I'm doing the side-by-side plan comparisons and it really turns it onto a shopping experience. My next step is hooking up with the Norvax engine. As it stands now, I can take them to my site and do side-by-sides for one company but what I'd love to do is comparisons between other carriers.

Imagine taking a healthy prospect and doing a side by side with Copay Select, Aetna ppo30 and Max Plan with a copay. Lol - "Ok Jim, choose $140, $260 or $310."

On the association front, I went with "website tonight" from Godaddy and greatly improved the look of the main site: http:/www.ihiaa.com and the member's site. In fact, from the modest monthly fee ($12) Godaddy charges for unlimited pages it's a far better overall value than using Google's free site.