Getting creative

Ok, I've been assessing the stale mate; making enough money to live, not making the extra amount needed to accomplish my goals. Obviously I need more leads. Without more leads I can dream all I want about a store-front location and a local ad campaign.

I only like working exclusive leads from small biz owners. That's telemarketing. I've done well with telemarked leads for over a year now. I pay $12/hr, they generate 3 leads per hour for $4 per lead. Most are junk so I close about 1 out of 20. Fine - it costs me $80 to get a client.

Now we hit the real problem - volume. If I make $2,000 in a week my time is worth $50 a hour. Paying a marketer is $12/hr so calling 2 or 3 hours per day is not the best plan. I'd also need no less than 60 leads a week to pump up my production. At 3 leads an hour that's 20 hours a week. I do not have 20 hours a week to make calls.

Back to hiring and past problems. Telemarketers don't work. Most don't work at all - you hire and train them and they never call. Others will make 20 or so calls per hour (which is pathetic) then tell you they get zero to one lead. Good ones pound out leads for a while, then evaporate.

I will never hire a telemarketing company. A lead is a name and a number - period. All I'm looking for is owners with enough interest to at least want information. Having marketers attempt to qualify prospects is a mistake and doesn't work. I'm not gonna pay $15 per lead for junk when I can get junk for $4 a lead.

So I had an idea - enroll in the Maryland Workforce Exchange. Employers get to list a postion for no cost and most applicants are welfare, disabled, unemployed (receiving benefits) or are on some state program.

I'd like people who need and appreciate the money. For the right person at-home telemarketing for $12/hr is a dream come true. I'd imagine it would be fantastic for someone who's disabled. If I hire a qualified person I'd also receive a work opportunity tax credit.

A lot of my former good telemarketers simply didn't need the money. They were at-home moms with working husbands. It was spare cash for them and after making calls got a tad boring they quit. I'd rather offer the job to people who really need the money. I don't have a downside here - if someone doesn't work they don't get paid.

Let's see how this plays out. By the way, this will be in addition to continuing with my Assurant LEGS lead program, local chamber events and everything else I'm doing.

Let's talk about my shared lead program

This lead program I'm in is through Assurant called LEGS. I receive shared leads in real time and the leads are managed through my agent site. I can sell any company I want and it's $8 a pop but when I sell Assurant they give me free leads. So as long as I'm always selling a portion of Assurant basically the leads are free.

Since I abhor shared leads so much and my income is from local small biz owners I only called each lead twice - once with a message, one other time and shot out one email. That's it - never contacted them again. If someone really dug in they probably would have squeezed out a few more.

So here are my stats - 102 leads received, 4 closed for Assurant. I also did some state deals - really don't want to count those.

Now - we have two camps. One camp would say that's fine - 1 out of 25 and I'm making a profit. Even if I paid for them at $8 a pop X 102 = $816 and I probably averaged $650 commish X 4 deals = $2,600 - $816 = $1,784.

Then there's my camp and hopefully this post accentuates the problem most agents have with shared leads - volume. I like to close 4 to 6 deals per week - 4 minimum. That means I'd need 100 leads a week.

Raise your hand if you're getting 100 leads a week. Ok - now we know why most agents can't make a great living on these things - you need an insane amount per week. And even if you got 100 a week you're still only netting $1,700 or so after expenses and with $800 a week in expenses most agents don't have the cash to pay for 100 leads a week for 4 to 6 weeks before steady commissions start coming in.

Heaven forbid you're going as-earned. 4 to 5 deals a week off shared leads? Ok, $800 a week in lead costs X 6 months = ....well you only need around 20K. And now we start to see why we have such an incredibally high failure rate on shared leads.

Most agents I know are lucky to get 20 a week. I don't know many getting 30 or 40 but even if you are that's still only 1 to 3 deals per week - after leads expenses = squat. That's also assuming a 100% placement - which most agents don't have.

Summary? They are not bad as a small supplement to other marketing activities. In fact, I have a 54 lead credit so as long as I keep selling and they keep giving me free leads then why sould I cancel the program. Just note that those 4 deals and 100 leads are spread out over a 5 week period of time. So unless I think I can live off 4 deals in 5 weeks I'd better have some other lead sources.

Ok, I screwed off today

I guess it's "do as I say not as I do." What I did today is the kiss of death to most people who try to work from home. My wife wanted me to come with her to get her watch - which was at the jewelry repair place at the mall. Then of course, we had to eat lunch. On the way home we might as well stop off at some food stores, blah blah blah.

Another shining example of how much more effective I'd be in a physical location with other agents around. Oh well, back hard at it tomorrow.

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Pick a system that suits your style

More and more emails and again, most with the same common theme; new agents trying to figure out what to do. What you're going to find is you simply need to choose a method of lead generation that fits your personality and something you'll actually do.

There is no wrong system. The wrong system is the system that doesn't make you money. The wrong system is a system you don't enjoy therefore don't do leaving you sitting in your house all day talking about how everything will change...."tomorrow." There is no tomorrow in this business - only today. This "I'll pick up the phone tomorrow" mentality is just a stall tactic.

Ways to get prospects:
*Buy share leads
*Pick up the phone and telemarket small biz owners
*Hire a telemarketer
*Go business to business
*Get local; network groups, chamber of commerce, ads, seminars, etc...

The bottom line is especially when you're new at least 70% of your day should be lead generation activities and you need at least 10 new contacts to call each day. If you're calling any lead, be it shared or telemarketed closing percentages are around 1 out of 20.

So if you're only working 20 leads a week you'll have between zero to 1 deal. If you're new there should not be a time during your day, unless you're on an appointment, when you're not employing one of those five things listed above to get leads.

When to pull the plug?
*Shared leads - you don't have any money - can't buy leads, or you already bought leads and they don't work for you
*Telemarket - You get nervous just thinking about telemarketing. Every time you tell yourself you'll do it, it never actually happens
*Hire a telemarketer - see above; no money or you simply don't want to deal with hiring and managing a telemarketer
*Going B to B - your area is too small or you would never just walk into a business cold
*Get local - no money for ads, really don't want to join social groups
*No passion - no desire to sell health insurance. If your brother-in-law offered you $800 a week base to sell alarm systems you'd start tomorrow. You'd sell health "part-time."

Ok, so you're basically not going to generate prospects yet somehow you'll get business through osmosis. This is when it's time to keep it real - the Sunday paper comes out in 5 days. Don't torture yourself or your family.

Chamber starts paying off

I got my 1st client today from the chamber of commerce. He owns a flooring and tile store about 15 minutes from me. This was not gonna be attempted on the phone since he has four other people there who were also interested. I had an 8:30am appointment with the owner then the employees at 9:30.

So I signed him up - he's pending since he's on meds. At 9:30 I spoke to his employees - one of which is his girlfriend so I signed her up and that went instant active. She was amazed when we printed off her insurance cards right in the store.

One other employee worked in the warehouse part-time but has a 6 year old - no coverage. He doesn't make enough to get himself covered but his daughter qualifies for free coverage through MCHIP since he makes less than 250% of FPL. I printed out the MCHIP app and obviously he was thrilled to find out his daughter can get free coverage.

Another employee is on her husband's plan, however $160 a week is taken out of his weekly check and it's killing them. That's $640 a month and he said her husband doesn't make much, but she has COPD and smokes. Turns out after she called her husband, he gets free coverage - it's adding the family the triggers the $640 a month rate.

She can get the state plan for $220, the daughter can get her own plan for around $80 and the husband is left primary on his group for no cost. That's a $340 a month savings! She was stunned and literally said "Where in the hell around you supposed to find out about this bullshit!" lol. She's a trip - had everyone laughing. Of course, no one finds out about stuff like this.

One small hurdle is when the husband can drop his wife and daughter from his plan. He's checking with his benefits department today. Referrals? Everyone wanted a ton of cards - the wife on group coverage said her brother's in the same boat - paying $600+ for family coverage so she gave me his number.

Of course, I could have just signed the husband up over the phone. Then erase this entire post after the owner's one app. Not to say I don't sign people up over the phone, but know when it's time to see people.

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Spam Part 2

Ok, I get an email shot to me instantly. Let's review it:

*It has my application ID. Application! What application? I only filled out a request for quotes. Now some people think they actually have an application processing.

*It says "thank you for choosing Netquote." Insteresting - I didn't see the name "Netquote" anywhere on the spam email.

*It has yet another link for me to click and suggests that the more agents I have competing for my business that better. Guess what happens if I click that link and fill out yet another form.

And now you all start to see what happens when people say 4, 5, 6 or even more agents have called. Also, the gig is up after prospects receive this instant email. They now see the list of agents who will be calling them so they know to simply not answer the phone.

Why do internet leads suck so much? Let's find out

Ok, I got spammed with this a few days ago. The 1st thing it touts in the title is "Get Coverage from $40 per Month!" But in the email message it actually touts $30 per month. Now we can stop right there. First of all, we all know no one can get a plan for $30 per month. Secondly, just what kind of prospect is this attracting? The stupid, the young or the broke - oh, and people actually clicking on email spam.

So I hit the site and am promised "instant quotes." Now, to me "instant quotes" means I'm gonna see some figures. Absolutely nothing states that I'm going to receive calls from agents - in which 95% of all prospects would simply leave the site.

So I type in my family info and only after I click to get my quotes does it tell me that several agents will contact me. This is when most people go "CRAP!" and the reason most don't pick up the phone - even though you're calling seconds after you receive the lead.

Now, there are indeed highly interested people - but those people automatically get routed to Ehealth. So let's sum up:

1) You're calling people who think they can get plans for $30 a month
2) You're calling people who have not agreed nor plan on you calling
3) They have already been routed to Ehealth

So now let's up the competition factor in the equation. Obviously I'll be getting calls today so let's say my family wants a plan with maternity and see what happens.

Just walk away

Walking away from a deal is hard and asking questions you don't want to hear the answer to can be harder. With time in this business warning flares will go up after talking to certain clients. This was a case where enough flares were going off to light up a 4th of July celebration.

Got contacted by a lead - 1st flare. She's been on Cobra for months - 2nd flare. She tells me she's perfectly healthy but is really pressing me to get a plan started immediately - 3rd flare. When I was a new agent I'd have simply asked the health questions and did the app.

We went through the entire online app and I went over the MIB and claims review process. After I did the app I walked her through the verification and as she was looking over the app she started asking me more about the claims review. At that point I'd had it and went over how claims works in detail.

Then she coughs it up - car accident a few months ago and her back's been hurting ever since. The Cobra she was on? It lapsed due to non-payment so she doesn't have any coverage. She was simply scared she's get denied if she talked about her back pain - and she's right. Off to the state plan which is where we would have gone in the 1st place if she'd have been upfront with me.

Obviously we all want get paid for our efforts but this is a case where I had to walk away from $600+ and take the $100 from the state.

I really feel sorry for people looking for coverage

Almost at the end of my internet lead freebie program. I'm sorry I ever said yes - 100% total frustration. Any deal I did submit would have been effort better spent on other marketing activities. Just hearing about other agents and how they operate simply puts me in a bad mood. I really like to stay positive and just can't spend defending myself or what I recommend. I really give it to agents who live off of shared leads - more power to ya.

I love the "but internet leads work" agents. No...calling a lot of people works. If you went to a bus stop and pitched 20 people you'd sell a plan - that doesn't mean you should canvass bus stops for business.

This was a classic - got the lead, called and left a very nice message - shot out an email. That was three weeks ago. Well - she called me. It's a mom looking for coverage for her divorced daughter.

So what did she get roped into? A discount plan - Beechstreet PPO. Daughter (now living with her mother) went to get her meds filled - Wellbutrin and Ambien, and you can finish that story.

So another pesky agent bugging her three times a day finally got his claws in her. Of course, that's Golden Rule after the mother expressly told him she wanted all the meds and doctor visits covered REGARDLESS of the cost! The mom makes fantastic money, she's paying and she just wants the damned condition covered.

Obviously you can finish this story although Golden Rule actually declined her. Now she's out the money she spent on the discount plan, she's out one money for the Golden Rule premium until they can refund her and her daughter still doesn't have any coverage. GR would have been the last place I'd have put her.

So we just did an Assurant Max plan - showed copay vs no copay rates and the mom went with no copay. She'll be approved and issued tomorrow.

If anyone's out there on shared leads battling this endless sea of bullshit, go for it. The agent who lies the most wins. If you think you're getting a majority of the business by being ethical and taking your time with people you're in denial.

Kicked out another Aetna

I know I'm busy when I'm didn't even update this blog yesterday - literally all day on the phone, wrote an Aetna app which literally took half of my day. We went back and forth between Aetna and Blue Cross since she wanted maternity. Then my son had soccer practice at 6pm, get home at 7pm, dinner, etc...

Let me spend some time on the difference between people choosing coverage and you having to sell it. If you try to sell health insurance you will find yourself frustrated. Why aren't all those people getting back to you? Why aren't they answering their phone after that great converstion you had? The answer? Who knows.

Not a lot of people are natural buyers; meaning they're simply at the stage where they want to make a change. Most people, even serious ones, are in the research phase and are not in the right frame of mind to pull the trigger. Those are the people you'll call twice a day, day after day and get nowhere.

The bottom line is you need a lot of prospects. How do you know if you have enough? Here's a test: If you're gonna spend today calling all the people who haven't answered their phone before and haven't responded to your emails then you don't have enough prospects.

How many times do I call someone? Twice. The 1st time I leave a nice message, the second time I simply call at a different time of day. Then I'm done. Nothing spells "loser" more then a client seeing your caller ID on their machine 8 times over 3 days. Oh...you're blocking your caller ID? Go form an "L" with your thumb and index finger and put it up to your head. This is not how professionals conduct business.

Without a lot of prospects you're doomed to be a pest. You have to call people incessantly so you can squeeze those 2 or 3 clients out of the 20 prospects you got that week. That's also when you start second-guessing everything. The bottom line is you need to generate enough prospects so you naturally find those 3 to 5 clients per week who simply want what you're selling.

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MHIP - becoming more of a pleasure

I just did yet another MHIP app today and let me tell you, my attitude is really changing on doing these deals.

They are now becoming enjoyable and it's simply great to hear the client's enjoyment in finding affordable guaranteed issue coverage. MD is now the nation's richest state and MHIP shows that affordable comprehensive plans can exist.

As you can see, I can get a 50 year old a $1,000 deductible plan for $305 or the $2,600 for $163. If MD can pull this off, so can the nation. If I got "ANY" commission I'd still be in business as an agent.

MHIP plays me a flat $100. But remember there is nothing to it. Normally I go over the plans and rates with a client in about 10 minutes. They download and fill out the app on their own, I simply sign it and fill in my broker info and it's done.

If all of my carriers had GI plans with these rates and paid me $100 flat I'd be able to kick out 10 apps a week without breaking a sweat. That's $52 a year and I'd cross-sell life. Not a problem. If they paid me 5% commish 10 deals would be 30K in volume = $1,500 a week.

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Agent vs Boiler room

I'm at the end of my "free lead" trial. Haven't talked to much about it - internet leads are simply terrible. I've been writing a lot of state plan though!

Just got a lead - shared of course. Actually got excited to call it - husband 56, wife 60 two kids. Not bad. Ok - let's do "agent versus boiler room!"

stats: Family on Carefirst at $1,800/mo - have had it forever. Husband - recent heart attack, high cholesterol, lots of meds. Wife, healthy and two kids - 18 and 20, healthy. They've in love with Carefirst, don't want to change - want lower rate.

And they're off!

Boiler room: "I'm sorry, you already have a plan and you don't qualify for anything. Thank you."

Agent: "You qualify for MHIP because of your condition - even if you already have a plan. It's $334 for a $1,000 deductible. Because you're primary and canceling your wife and kids can submit a new Carefirst application, go through underwriting again and get $1,000 deductible for $554.

However, if your wife got her own plan it would be $211. You kids should get their own plans because they'll be dropped at age 24 anyway, less employers are offering health, and you should lock them into a plan now. They'd pay $84 a piece so it's actually cheaper to go that way."

So hubby's doing the MHIP app as we speak and taking my suggestion for indie plans for the wife and kids.

Boiler room = Go screw off.
Agent = $1,800 on month on Carefirst - now $713 - still on Carefirst.

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Great past week and taxes

I had a great past week - have a nice Assurant check coming, did a GR deal for $720, two Aetna's and two state plans. Although I didn't do any cold-calling I already addressed that my pay has not gone up significantly - I merely replaced what I used by make cold-calling by going local. This week needs to be a mix of local and cold-calling so I can have extra money to put into local growth.

Taxes. If you're a new agent the best advice I can give you is talk to a tax pro. If anyone's telling you that you don't have to pay quartly estimated taxes they're wrong: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=110413,00.html Do NOT take any tax advice from anyone unless that person is a licensed tax pro!

I misfiled and it took the IRS over 6 years to shoot me a love letter. The penalities and interest were staggering. I made an installment arrangment but strugging to make the payments plus all my bills put my behind on quartly taxes which defaulted my installment agreement. I just had to give them a chunk to get current again.

If it were not for past tax mistakes I'd be in fantastic financial shape. I'd be able to rent a physical location this week. The IRS is 100% of the reason I'm behind the eight ball.

I've also, thankfully, been paying on my past-due state taxes all year (also from years ago.) And thank God! Why? Because they just sent me a letter stating that I cannot renew my insurance license on Oct 23rd unless I'm current. Thankfully I only have $1,100 more to go so that's not an issue.

Everyone talks about difficulties with this line of work. For me finding clients and making money have never been an issue. A huge psychological issue for me is getting a check for $2,000, knowing around $600 of it isn't mine (federal + states) and putting it aside.

Yet another extremely busy day

At the start of this my fear was simple; I'd get next to no business if I wasn't doing some form of cold-calling - B to B or telemarketing and trying to go local would result in the business being too sporatic.

Now I can say that if I keep this up over the next several months I'll be hiring agents to help me keep up with the business. Health insurance is simply incredibally sought-after and as I theorized, most savvy people simply don't make a move because they don't know where to start nor do they trust "telephone agents."

My phone was ringing today - which to me is insane since I really haven't done much. But I can't tell you how pleasurable it is to pick up the phone and hear "I'd like some help with health insurance." I was running quotes literally all day.

The bottom line is I'd never be able to handle the business my locality is capable of generating. Health insurance is such a huge problem for everyone and where would the normal person go? You might think "they'd hit the internet net." You'd be wrong. Most people simply suck it up. They pay that $700 a month rate and think "it is what it is." That is, until they know there's a local health insurance agent who's established in the community that they can trust.

Tomorrow is the art & crafts fair and more of my flyers go out. I'm in the next chamber of commerce publication and have 5 more chamber events over the next 4 weeks. I met an Allstate agent yesterday and we talked today for a while. He told me he has never solicited a client - ever. 100% of his business is calls from the community and referrals.

I'd say within 6 months I'll have a physical location, staff, and a few agents on salary+ and be literally the place to get health insurance in my area. At that point I might think of expanding state wide. I can't believe if you throw a rock you'd hit 4 P&C agencies but no one's applied this to health.

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Another "error"

Gotta love all these mistakes companies make. I wonder if there's ever an error where a client owes $1,500 and the bill comes for $0. Doubtful.

My phone just rang and my not-at-all-happy client laid into me. She just got a lab bill stating there was insufficient information to process her claim, which means it didn't get the network discounts applied or count toward the deductible. Obviously stuff like this can rattle people because it appears they don't have insurance.

So I had her fax me the bill and call Assurant claims. Turns out the her social security number goes next to ID Number and her policy number goes next to group ID. Labcorp put "PPO" next to the group number and the claims person says Labcorp knows better.

So I called Labcorp and they admitted they are already aware of the mistake and how to fix it and now it's being submitted properly.

The last thing to note is don't pawn any of this off on your client. This is your job. Don't ever say "here's the number to claims - let me know how it goes." Your client shouldn't have to spend their time and energy on crap like this.

Chamber breakfast - great success!

I had my breakfast meeting today for the chamber of commerce. I was overwhelmingly impressed! The people who run this really understand a lot about social events and it was very well structured.

Most times you attend social events you end up with little gaggles of people who know each other and you have to find a way to fit in. Also, if you're like me you're not the kind of person who's just gonna walk up to a group of people and start talking about what you do.

There were about 120 biz owners at the breakfast and we are all at tables of 8. Everyone got 60 seconds to pitch what they did and hand out cards to everyone - then we had to switch tables. So by the end every person there got my card and heard a short speil about what I do. I was also the only person at the event who sold health insurace.

So far today since I've been home I've received 8 calls from people who want health insurance or want to lower their rates. Phenominal - and I got a buffet breakfast. We're not supposed to directly solicit people after the event - no one wants 100 small biz owners calling them over the next few days, but emails are fine. So today I spent some time loading all their email addresses from their biz cards into Constant Contact.

Also, I had a client call me today who was supposed to fill out an Aetna app a few days ago. I assumed she flaked since I never got the verification link. She called me to today to get an update. I was like "what update?" She did the app three days ago using my link - shows me as the broker. Called Aetna and of course the entire broker support deparment was in a meeting until 3:30. That's top notch service!

Finally got ahold of someone around 4pm - she couldn't figure out why it wasn't assigned to me. Must be a "snag." Yep....great snag that gives them the business while cutting me out at the broker. Now I have to fax in the last page of the hand written app and they'll switch the deal back into my name. Thanks Aetna - I appreciate that!

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Knocked out one today

Did a Golden Rule app today, a state plan and simply have a ton of stuff working. This is like a different life for me then a few months ago. I'm really starting to get busy - as in very busy.

I have the chamber of commerce breakfast tomorrow at 7:30am. I'm really looking forward to that! Then on Saturday I have the arts & crafts fair where I can promote my business.

I have to say the improvement in general quality of life is just fantastic. This has nothing to do with motivation like "Jeffrey Gitomer," "Zig Ziglar" stuff. This has to do with simply working an 8 hour day just like I would if I was on salary for some company. In fact, if I was making in salary what I'm currently making in commish I'd likely be working 50 to 60 hours a week with some company.

And I posted this before but it's also the "objects in motion..." rule where when I get going I simply stay going. The opposite is true when you're doing nothing and trying to psych yourself into some kind of action.

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Three deals!

I would have been happy today with two, but got three with a referral signing up tomorrow. Got an Assurant, Aetna and Carefirst Blue Cross (can't screen shot Carefirst because we did a paper app.)

This is going to be one of my real 1st weeks. Not only am I simply working full days but I have very modest advertising out that's pulling a few leads a day, I have my chamber of commerce breakfast Thursday morning and I'm volunteering at my chamber's art & crafts fair on Saturday. Because of that I get to put a marketing piece into a grab bag everyone gets when they walk in.

This is simply what I should have been doing from the start. There was nothing at all wrong with buying leads when I started but I should have supplemented it with community marketing and community involvement.

I will stress that no single activity will generate enough business to make a living. I know agents who just joing groups like BNI and that's their sole marketing source aside from pestering friends and family. Won't work. The deals are too sporatic. It's local advertising, doing local events, (fairs/trade shows)chamber of commerce, and telemarketing.

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Fantastic full day

I'm committed to simply knocking out full days. Until I have enough cash for a lot of local marketing and doing local events it's simply all day contacting old leads, generating new ones, running appointments and phone sales. The days of 2 or 3 hours a gone. Things are simply habits or they're not. I have not been in the habit of a full 40 hour week.

The results are dramatic. I've spent the entire day on the phone and sent 8 solid quotes out today all with tomorrow follow-ups. All of them are qualified for health and money. If I just closed 2 of them what I'd show myself is a full day of work would be 2 deals a day. I won't even run the math on 10 deals a week - the commish is staggering.

The bottom line is there are all sorts of mental tricks we all use to fool ourselves into working when we're not. The interenet is obviously a dangerous thing to have around if you're into work-avoidance. It's like a fat man trying to lose weight while being locked in a room all day with 20 bags of potato chips. The will power needed is insane.

The irony is the internet was supposed to make your business "explode" with the ability to buy leads, generate leads and sell online. However, in reality the internet is directly responsible for most agents failing. Shared leads are simply horrid, it costs a fortune to generate enough leads through your website to make great money and most agents (98%) don't have either the experience and skills necessary to sell online. Without the net all agents would be on "old school" sales techniques and doing much better.

If you want to lose weight, don't buy the chips. Only have healthy snacks in the house. That's my trick. If I want a snack we have grapes and apples. If I wanted Oreos I'd have to drive to the store - so guess what I eat.

Same with the stupid internet - between email, message boards and the net in general it's just too easy to avoid putting in a full day at work. So today the browser was shut down and the only thing on my screen was prospects and quote software.

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Flyers

When I first got into this biz in 2003 placing flyers, ie: B to B was my main source of business. I didn't have a website, didn't even know Goleads existed for telemarketing and also didn't know about internet leads. For some reason UGA (Mega Life) didn't want their newer agents purchasing shared leads. I've attached a link to my flyer at the end of this post.

If you're a new agent you absolutely need to generate your own leads. The most effective choice is telemarketing however putting out flyers can be a good supplement if you simply need a break from making calls or it can be your main source of lead generation if you live in an area with a large business population.

Flyer placing for weenies:
Put on jeans and a t-shirt, walk into a business and say "I'd just like to leave you with this flyer, have a nice day." They pull 2% and you can place 40 an hour. Hitting small office buildings is great - stay away from large ones with security.

2 hours a day is 400 per week which is 8 leads and absolutely a deal - if not two. Closing percentage is very high. The problem with this method is you need to stick to it. The 2% return is not immediate and only realized after a lot of flyers are placed.

This can also be a great supplement to shared leads. You might only be getting 20 or so leads per week which means you're only working 2 to 3 hours a day. When you're done calling all of your prospects go out and place some flyers. The question is not "what will the return be?" - the question is "what will the return be if I don't place them, don't make calls and just sit in my office?

Flyer placing for those with guts:
This is direct engagement. Walk into a business and ask for the owner. If the owner's in simply introduce yourself, hand them the flyer, state what you do, and ask if they would be interested in seeing if they can lower their rate. This obviously results in a lot more deals. Dress business casual - you don't need a tie but absolutely no jeans.

One of my independent friends in 2004 answered and ad to work for United Healthcare - $35K base, health, dental, 401K and take a wild guess at the job details; B to B all day.

My flyer:
http://rapidshare.com/files/57456703/Walk_and_Talk_flyer5.doc.html
or here:
http://www.savefile.com/files/1073486

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My take on health care reform

I still get a fair amount of emails talking about the upcoming changes to health insurance so here's my take:

*I believe there will be significant changes to health care five years from now. Those changes, however, will not be a gov't run single payer system. How do I know that? Even Hillary isn't dumb enough to have a gov't run platform. Her latest plan, in her words, is "reality based" - meaning she knows it's impossible to get a bill passed for a Canadian-like or UK-like system. As it stands right now it looks like Hillary vs Giuliani and although I'm a Republican I think Hillary would clean his clock. I'm a realist. If Hillary gets in she will not rest until health care reform happens.

*Most likely we'll have employer-mandated coverage - meaning employers will simply have to cover all of their employees if they have a business over a certain size.

*Individual coverage will be available on the market like it is now, but will be guaranteed issue and costs will be offset by the gov't and probably a 5% tax increase.

*Commissions will likely fall - probably the 5% to 10% range which will basically put most independent agents out of business. That being said, it certainly won't put top health agents under. They will simply ramp up business and focus more on cross-selling life and DI. It will still be possible to make six figs selling individual health.

My take? If you're struggling now as an independent most likely you'll be out of business 5+ years from now. Here's my time line:

2008 - elections
2009 - new prez sworn in. Doesn't matter who - all off them want health reform
2010 - legislation introduced and passed for health care reform
2011 - health insurance companies submit their rates for GI plans - implementation starts
2012 - new changes fully implemented

Again, I see it in five years from concept to implementation. Whether or not I'm correct, I don't think it would be a fantastic long-term plan to ignore the potential changes. If I were you, I'd be lining up a plan B now.

This is what I'm doing. I'm going for a strong community presence and basically making a lot of money over the next several years. If changes happen the way I think they will, I'd like to already be established in the community.

The worst case scenario is I'm dead wrong, years from now we have a single payer gov't run system and we're all basically out of business selling health insurance. However, I wouldn't mind having a lot of money floating around in the bank if that happens and not in a position where I need immediate pay.

Still need to break out of the comfort zone

Being my family's sole income source, I reached a comfort level a while ago based on simply what I need to make the pay the bills and have some left over for fun. It's odd how once I hit that level I slack off.

What I've accomplished over the last 2 months is simply trading cold-calling and paying telemarketers for generating my own business locally. I'm still making about the exact same amount but now but it's local marketing and referrals. I've whittled the rest of my day away on "research" for marketing ideas and costs. I can do all the marketing research I want but without the extra cash it's a pipe dream.

I'm at a stale mate. Yes, I'm making enough to live and also generating my own local business but not making enough to really launch into advertising or prep for a store location next year. What I need to be doing over the next few months is double up.

I need to generate local business like I've been doing - go to my chamber events, local marketing groups, referrals and handle leads coming in through my website but I also need to hit the phones myself and call Goleads an hour or two a day to bring in those extra two deals per week I need to expand on advertising.

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Final note for the day

My son at soccer practice yesterday. This is the kind of stuff I really enjoy!

And the day keeps getting better

I've been having a great day on the phones setting appointments and now just got another deal I put in yesterday issued. This was allergies, on daily Singulair and cold-weather induced asthma - needs Albuterol during the winter months. Aetna's out of the range in the 1st place, then add a 25% rate increase, GR would rider out allergies, asthma and the meds - not an option - and BCSC and Coventry would decline.

Assurant to the rescue yet again with a condition specific deductible. No rate ups, no riders, all meds covered, all treatment covered and re-priced and only an additional $1,500 for any major event. Oh, and approved in a day.

More Assurant insanity

Just crazy - app I put in yesterday, three meds between husband/wife w/previous surgery already approved and active. I build the rate increases into the quote so it went to counter-offer then active. When you use EASE and note conditions like HBP the online form forces agents to put in every last detail about the condition. Because of that there's never any missing info, no reason to call clients, no reason for an APS. This is active and they already printed out their cards. It's simply an embarrassment that other companies don't have this type of system.

Pizza Hut, Dominoes, Little Caesars

The lesson here for me is not to limit myself. Pizza Hut is the number 1 pizza franchise in MD followed by Dominoes and Little Caesars bringing up the rear.

Pizza Hut: Delivers, can also pick up and also eat in their restaurant for a wider menu.

Dominoes: Delivers, can pick up but no capacity to sit in and eat.

Little Ceasars: Doesn't deliver, can't eat in, pick-up only.

The lesson is obvious; don't limit the ways you do business. We have "Little Ceasars" agents who only use one business model; they will only do business by phone or only do business in person. They are unwilling to mix two and leave a lot of business on the table.

We have "Dominoes" agents. They will do phones sales but also meet with clients, however they have no office location. Clients cannot come in, sit down and talk about a varity of insurance products and build a community presence.

Then we have the "Pizza Hut" agents. These are your State Farm, Nationwide and Allstate agents - also agency owners who have physical locations. They can sell online, meeting with clients but also have the ability to be known in their area and much more opportunity for cross-selling.

Basically, I've run Little Caesars where all clients had to come to me; ie - all phone sales. I'm running Dominoes now where they can come to be or I come to them - much more money running a Dominoes. Now it's off to the Pizza Hut concept.

It's no accident that Little Caesers in MD comes in dead last for pizza franchises. Anytime you limit the ways you do busienss you're always going to make far less.

Well, I guessed right

Woke up this morning, punched into my Adwords and they disabled all of my keywords saying I either have to improve the "quality" - meaning I had to add "health insurance" to my keywords or bump my bid to $5 per click. No dice. I don't want to generate internet leads.

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The question...

So where do you put a 55 year old husband, HBP on Norvacs, 55 year old wife 5.6 180 pounds HBP on Lotrel and Benicar - hospitalized for a week with a urinary tract infection in 2003, currently has Mega, doesn't want anything excluded, owns a construction biz and horse farm and has money all over the place and wants everyone covered while being under $400 a month?

You guessed it.

Interesting deal. She was happy to be under $1,000 yesterday until I sent her the Assurant alt. quote chart that listed all the rates. Then she wanted the $10,000 deductible. I thought that was kinda high and she comes back with "listen, we could pay a $20,000 or even $50,000 bill without a problem. We just want cataclysmic coverage but we also want all of our current conditions covered." Done. Very savvy lady - knows the deductible really doesn't matter, only what the plan actually covers.

Interesting to note that I brought up how she had a GR plan in the past; 180 pounds, 2 HBP meds, UTI hospitalization? She told me her "agent" (have to use the term loosely) told her he'd "help her out" and listed her weight at 150, and only noted 1 HBP med. What a guy!

Google busted me

Ok, I got caught. A few posts down you'll see I ran local town searches on Google and noticed hardly anyone advertised so I figured I'd get some free or cheap exposure - bid 10 cents a click just to get my ad placed. Well, give it to Google to be just a tad smarter than me:-)

Two days ago they made my keywords inactive and made me bump most to 50 cent minimum bids. Then tragedy - I started getting some clicks and leads. I actually got 5 leads yesterday and Google only charged me 36 cents per click. Well...they certainly weren't gonna let me get away with that.

Obviously their mega super-brain computer realized I'm advertising for health insurance. For that one keyword I got just a few clicks, (I have 30 different keyword searches) made it inactive and now want $5.00 per click! Basically, they charged me 36 cents per click for people clicking to get health quotes when their system knows they're getting $5.00+ per click from people advertising health insurance.

I emailed them yesterday and actually get a pretty prompt response; they want what I'm selling to be part of my keywords - ie; I need to put "health insurance" in my keywords. Oddly they've only targeted just that one city search and the rest of my campaign is fine.....for now. I'm guessing that within a few days Google will be demanding $5.00 per click for all of them, which is the going rate for "health insurance" keyword search. Oh well, I tried to be sneaky.

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What a nightmare

I just got a fantastic referal - lady owns a horse farm about 2 hours from me - wouldn't matter since the 1st words out of her mouth, even though I was referred, was "I don't want anyone coming over."

Ok, she's 55, husband 55 and son 23 but a college student. Wife w/HBP, husband w/HBP, daughter with allergies. Not really a biggie and they want to be under $1,000 a month. Wow, nice dealing with people who have money.

What do they have now? You guessed it - Mega Life. Obviously we don't need to talk about what happened there. Then she says "And absolutely no Golden Rule!" What happened there? An agent sold her a plan, everything was ridered and she claims she knew nothing about it. Meds for her, her husband and daughter, doctor visits, testing - denied. She fliped out saying agent never said anything about riders. GR told her to look in her policy - there they were.

Before that? Aetna nightmare. She had them for a few months - same story - no coverage for anything pre-ex and Aetna said she didn't have prior coverage that qualied since they had a break in previous coverage. This lady can't win - and can't find an agent to simply tell her the truth; GR rates are great - no pre-ex will be covered, Mega sucks, Aetna is horribly expensive and no pre-ex covered for 12 months.

And you guessed it - off to an Assurant HSA. Well under their price range and all meds, doctor visits and treatment of any pre-ex condition will count towards the deductible and more importantly, be re-priced. Nice deal.

For what it's worth we covered the rate difference between GR and Assurant's HSAs. What you'll find it people who aren't dead broke don't care - they want coverage for pre-ex conditons. GR was coming in over $200 a month cheaper. Her words, verbatim "I couldn't care less. I want everything covered."

Know all the options in your state

This is not all about commissions. Yes, I obviously want to make money like everyone else but what keeps me in this line of business is being able to help other people. If you're a new agent you should be doing meticulous research on everything that's available to your prospects. Here are MD examples:

MCHIP: http://www.dhr.state.md.us/how/medical/mchip.htm
Free health care for children under 19 and all pregnant women who fall into certain income guidelines. I get those leads - female 32 with two kids but instead of recommending a family of three plan, I see if she qualifies for MCHIP. If so, her kids get free healthcare and maybe she only needs a plan for herself.

Pharmacy Assistance: http://www.dhr.state.md.us/how/medical/mpap.htm
Provides free or discounted medication to people who make too much money to qualify for state assistance.

County health department: http://www.aahealth.org/index.asp
Free health screenings, free shots/immunizations for children and "one stop shopping" to see if you qualify to any type of assistance program.

Local hospital: http://www.aahs.org/
Offers a myriad of free screenings; blood pressure, prostate, breast exams, etc... on top of a ton of free programs and educational classes. It's also the place to contact if you don't have any insurance, don't qualify to any type of assistance but need some type of testing or even surgery. Most people don't know that in many cases you can negotiate the cost of some services and the hospital will absolutely let you know about any program available to help offset the medical costs.

State health department: http://www.dhmh.state.md.us/
The "one stop shopping" website for every program known to man for health in Maryland.

This is the kind of information I like to provide my clients who are lower income. One of the questions most agents don't ask their prospects is "what's your family income?" I do indeed prep that question by letting them know they are under no obligation to tell me how much they make, but most times I can guess and say "by the way, since you're 28 years old with two kids if you make under "X" amount per year you could qualify for A, B, and C programs.

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You emailed - I respond

I get a fair amount of emails from this blog which I appreciate and most have a common question. Here are my answers:

You could just continue telemarketing without all this added effort
Not really. I'm meeting with my clients and I'm not gonna drive hours. With the available number of prospects within a reasonable driving distance I have 3 or 4 months of calls before the list is burnt. I'm also moving away from marketing tactics that most people simply hate. Internet lead leads hate getting called by 4 agents and most small biz owners hate getting telemarketed. To be an asset to the community people need to seek out my services.

You're going through all this effort then you'll go under when universal healthcare happens
I don't run my business on what might or might not happen years from now. Worst case scenario? Elections in '08, new prez in '09, at least a full year to draft legislation and two more years to implement. Nothing's happening for at least five years. Doubtful it'll be single-payor system anyway. More likely it'll use private insurance companies and mirror what Mass. has implemented.

All you sell is Assurant
I wrote two Assurant, one Coventry, one Aetna and one Blue Cross last week. All I talk about is Assurant since they're exciting to me. Nothing exciting about writing Blue Cross and getting $17.50 five months from now. Doesn't mean I don't sell 'em. I have a deal going today and it's Aetna. Nothing too exciting about 15% and I see my 1st commish in 3 months. I've also written 4 state plans in the past 3 weeks for $100 flat per app. Most agents don't spend 5 seconds on state plan clients.

I like your idea, but it won't work
You mean you've tried a complete local focus with sponsorships, ads through several media outlets, member of the chamber of commerce, booking table/booth space at all local events and basically getting your business name everywhere and it didn't work? Or you have never tried something like that and are guessing.

More than likely you, like me, ran one or two ads - they didn't pull well and you said "this doesn't work." Or you joined one network group like BNI and got the occasional deal and said "well this doesn't work either." For my plan to work it needs a combination of everything. A very good friend of mine got sponsored to join the rotary club. That's it - just joined that club at $110 a month. He has yet to gain a single client.

My local State Farm agent is in all local publications. He's also a chamber member, a member of my local community group and he has billboard on the major drag. I'm sure he does much more marketing. I would guess that's co-op money he splits with State Farm but again, I've run the numbers and they work out.

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I'm seeing the light

I'm very impressed with the direction this is going. I put in 5 deals last week with no cold-calling at all. Not only that but I have 6 appointments already set up for this week, four of which are from my community business group.

In the past I've avoided business groups and community activity because I didn't want to be "that guy." We all know "that guy" - he's the one you can't hold a conversation with without being pitched. He's a follower of the "three foot rule" which means anyone within three feet of you gets pitched. If you're in the grocery line "that guy" is gonna strike up some lame conversation then whip out his business card. I hate that guy.

But I don't have to turn into that wad. Business networking groups are just that and it's expected. I can be at community events and still not have to turn to the lady behind me in the grocery store and say "some weather, huh!" Case in point was my son's B-day party yesterday. Several parents came with their kids and decided to say. For over 2 hours we all talked and you couldn't have paid me to mention I sell health insurance. Basically, learn to turn it off. Now, there are people who would say I missed potential opportunity by not handing out my cards to the parents at my son's party. They are dildos and people will hate to be around you if you turn into one of those losers.

Instead - how 'bout this; how 'bout being so well known in the area that the lady in line behind you says "aren't you the guy who does health insurance? Can I have a card?" Now - that's what I'm talking about.

My goal (as pictured) next year is a store-front retail location. I've run the numbers and it works out. I mean, common...I did 5 deals last week, will absolutely do 5 this week, have spent a grand total of $70 so far ($25 on banner ads, $5 for Adwords and $35 to join my local chamber) and it's a deal a day. I haven't even attended my 1st chamber event - that's next week. I also haven't done a single community event yet.

The truth is simple; health insurance is an extremely high-demand insurance product but most people simply stick with what they have because they don't know who to contact. Most business owners wouldn't be caught dead typing in their personal info into a website, which is why I'm not concentrating on generating internet leads. My banner ad and Adwords campaign are merely out there for exposure. I really could care less if some 22 year old clicks my banner - I just want people to get used to seeing my name.

I think the market potential is huge. And I'm not talking about 10 or 15 deals a week "huge." I'm talking about over 100 deals a week and needing to hire agents on salary+ to handle the business.

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Using AdWords for exposure

First of all, did a nice Coventry app. I actually did it a few days ago but I just got it faxed back today. This was a referral, lady who wanted all copays - couldn't grasp deductibles (I tried my best) and with Coventry in MD almost everything is a copay and she can get an affordable rate with a low deductible. Coventry doesn't have online apps in MD yet.

Now....AdWords - tried it about two years ago - lacking results as a lead generation tool. Very expensive now to get 1st page ranking - over $4 a click and too much junk. That being said I did indeed make a profit off the campaign. You'll think you're getting exclusive leads but what you'll see is many people hit multiple sites. Also, unlike internet leads which can be returned for credit, you not only pay every time someone clicks your site, but all the quotes with no phone, no email or uninsurable.

This is something different. When I type in the names of local towns there's almost no ads. That's because people who advertise use the product's keyword - like "smithville maryland furniture." It's pretty expensive per click to run those targeted ads. You can try to plug in 10 cents but your account won't go active.

However, not hardly anyone's advertising just using "smithville maryland" keywords since it doesn't generate targeted traffic for their product. But I'm after the exposure. So now for 10 cents a click I'm on my town and all surrounding town's searches. This is exposure, not lead generation! If you want a little exposure in your locality just Google your city/town and see how many ads are on the page. In my town and surrounding towns it's zero to 2 ads. Because of that Google basically is taking what they can get, meaning it's very cheap.

All this will be is people searching their home towns and simply seeing my business name. I could care less if they click. If they don't I have free exposure - $5 to activate an AdWords account. If they click they click - at 10 cents per click I'm golden.

Banner's up and missed opportunity

My banner's up! I did a search for my local towns and turns out one company owns "localtown"maryland.com." I actually went to this site when I first moved here and Google searched it. Now you can't be better bang for the buck than this - $25 flat per month and I'm listed in every single city and town in PG county: http://www.glenndalemaryland.com/local-businesses/metro-lookup.html?Statevar=MD&MetroCountyvar=Prince+Georges&mcpick=County&includesubs=on I'm in the "local" section.

This kills PPC (pay-per-click) since you have to worry about competitor abuse - despite Google saying they have click fraud under control. Yeah....right. This can be clicked 1,000 times or none - $25 per month, over 50 different local cities and towns. It's just great exposure and one leg of advertising. Also goes to show just how cheap this can be. Again, this is more about building name recogintion then thinking my phone's gonna ring from these banners.

Also a missed opportunity. We have the Coffee News: http://coffeenewsbowie.com/ - which is just one large double-sided page with local events and happenings and it's put out free in a ton of businesses. I've seen it a hundred times and thought "I should stick an ad in there." Well, I called today and as you can see, my competitor certainly didn't wait. I called and they have a "no competitor" rule so I have to wait until they choose to stop advertising. (the circled ad says "Afforable Health Insurance" and they're independent. )

Business breakfast

I had my community business network breakfast this morning - this wasn't the chamber of commerce - that breakfast is the 27th. I live in a very large community and they have their own group.

I was very pleasantly surprised. It was nothing I feared it would be. Everyone was just fantastic. We had nine people show and all of them ran home-based businesses; lady who made wedding and b-day cakes, photographer/videographer, dog walking/sitting service, personal training coach, etc...The highlight was the lady who ran a pole dancing business. That's right, she books a party at your house - girls only - brings a pole and they have a "girl's night out" pole party. Now....that alone was worth it to show up:-)

Basically, everyone shot the shit. We all have kids and we mainly talked about schools, sports and our kids. Very low-key, very relaxed, very fun. Everyone got 5 minutes to talk about their business. I was second to last and after I talked about what I did it was a 30 minute conversation. I now have 4 appointments from the nine who showed up. Not bad. I also booked the photographer since the last family portrait we had done was when my son was 4 - he's 6 now. Oh, and a real estate agent was there an announced that she desperately needed some part-time home-based admin help. So now her and my wife are talking - looks like a done deal. All nine of them told me I should run a seminar at the community center. I'll call today to see how I'd set that up.

Gets better. The chairman of the Piney Orchard (my community) HOA was there and talked about the monthly newsletter for all 2,500 residents and the lack of ads. What ads? We didn't know we could put ads in the newsletter! Yep....a whopping $20 gets an ad in monthly community newsletter. That's a done deal. See...this is the kind of stuff I just would never know about unless I got active. Plus, what else am I doing at 7:30am anyway? I'm up at 6am every day so it's no skin off my nose.

In other news, I got a lovely email today from the HOA of Piney Orchard Millersville - about 15 minutes from me. I put up doorhangers about a month ago and now that's all banned. It most certainly wasn't banned when I put them out and I just got off the phone with them. Everyone's fine and despite what the letter said, no specific complaints were directed at me and I do NOT put flyers on mailboxes! They knew that. However, from now on, as the letter states, no more anything on doors or a nice little fine will occur. Not a problem at all. It's not just me - no pizza menus, Chinese food menus, or anything on the door at all.

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Why don't we advertise?

I don't know of a single independent agent who advertises. I know a few (very few) financially successful agents who either buy shared leads or telemarketed leads. That being said, I'm sure there are many independent agents out there who are advertising. Why don't we hear from them? Probably because they're actually busy.

I've done some ads and local stuff in the past; ran a small ad for $250 in a regional paper - got about 6 calls and closed a deal. I didn't run the ad again. Why? I made around $500 off that deal and netted $250. I not only should have renewed, I should have placed it in three more papers. Over time that ad would have pulled more and more. Our problem? We are looking for immediate return.

I did a health fair in 2004 - ran about 4 hours and got around 5 deals from it. The table cost $150 and I made around $4,000 off it - but I got those deals over the course of the next six weeks so psychologically it didn't appear as if it was successful. I'd say $150 returning $4,000 is successful. But at the time my focus was on tomorrow; get me leads today that will result in deals tomorrow. Basically, a short-sighted marketing plan. Here are things I've been heavily researching:

Advertising

*Local ads are cheap. Stay local. Regional and states ads are very expensive and your ad gets lost with the other 100 ads and has no impact.

*Advertise on all your local websites. Search "your town" on Google and chances are your town or city has pages you can put links or ads. In my area they are very cheap. On top of getting some leads you're building name recognition.

*Look for advertising opportunities in local businesses. Local restaurants might have ad space, in my area you can advertise on shopping carts, etc...

What you're looking for is the "compounding" factor. It's not that one ad in the local paper, it's not the ad on the shopping cart or the ad on your community website - it's finally people putting it together: "Oh...so this is where I go for health insurance." Or you're talking with a prospect and they say "Oh! I just saw your ad!"

The irony is you can do all this for less than a lot of agents spend on leads. I know agents spending $500 a week on leads. That same money could go extremely far in your locality.

I think what it all comes down to is fear. Fear that you'll have ads everywhere and no calls, no business. What you're failing to realize is health insurance is a huge concern. And article I read last year said health insurance is one of the top three concerns among small business owners.

Issues with turning prospects into clients are mainly trust and legitimacy. Once those two issues are solved I personally believe business will explode. You solve both by having a strong community presence backed up by a good ad campaign. Word spreads by servicing your clients well. You think you're getting referrals from someone you pressured? You think they want their friends and family to go through that?

The only people who will refer you are people who "buy" from you, not people you "sold." This is why I think referrals in this biz are very lacking. They are nowhere near the levels they should be. Agents in this biz after 5 years should be able to live just off referrals. They obviously don't because they must "sell" their clients. Prospects didn't seek them out - they were hunted down. The problem? Most agents must sell their prospects to make a living because they are not in contact with enough people who simply want to buy.

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Assurant is insane

Got back from my appointment a little bit ago - very smooth. She owns a home-based child care business and we had a great meeting. She signed up and it already instantly approved. I'm also stunned that the deal I put in this morning is already approved! That was technically a standard issue since the surgery that corrected the endometriosis was just over three years ago (which is standard according to the guidelines) and hypothyroidism which is standard.

So we have a nice busy day, ran two closed two, both business owners and $6,540 in AV for $1,635 in commish today.

Could I have just done this all in my office? Maybe....maybe not. The point is this: Would you work a nice solid day, meet with your clients with none of them being over a 20 minute drive for $1,635? I would. I'm done today - been done for over an hour, wife is downstairs making dinner and tonight's spent with my family. No phone calls, no following up, no emails, no nothing. Call people, set an appointments, go meet 'em.

Anyone reading along, this is just my system. You can do what you like and if it ain't broke don't fix it. For newer agents or for agents who who are trying to make this work for them:

*Only work exclusive leads. Generate them B to B, flyers, telemarketing, community involvement, trade shows, fairs.

*See all of your clients

If you do those two things you'll have a very nice life. If you try to to figure out a lazier way to make it work then:

*You'll spend your days chasing down people who don't want to talk to you.

*You'll constantly be defending yourself and have to warn clients about competitors

*Years from now you'll be at your computer waiting for your next batch of leads to come in.....that is, if they're still affordable or if that one "good" source you're using doesn't go under

*You won't be signing up business owners

Busy, and love'n it

Almost 4 years into this biz and I was definitely in a rut. I simply work best when I'm extremely busy - kinda the "objects in motion..." thing. I also do poorly when I find myself bored. And let's face it - are any of us gonna do marketing tasks we simply don't enjoy? I'll telemarket if I have do, but it's nothing I looking forward to. Is it effective? Sure. Same with internet leads - they're also effective. I always wrote business off leads but again, not a task I really enjoyed.

I'm not a fan of hunting people down who don't want to hear from me. I'm less of a fan of talking to prospects who aren't business owners. That doesn't mean all of my clients will be owners. But if you're not, then you can pick up the phone and call me. I'm not hunting you down. On a scale of 1 to 10 my patience is -2 for people who really don't want to use my services.

But now that I've shifted gears I find myself getting very busy and my attitude has picked up significantly. I met with and signed up the owners of the auto repair place this morning. I had that meeting last week but they rescheduled. Because I went there I was introduced to two of their employees who also want coverage. Also, not a shot in the world I'd have signed them up online. Husband 50, wife 47, both smoke, wife on a med, recent surgery and recovered endometriosis. We went over plans for 30 minutes. Now I'm outta here around 3:30 today to sign up the owner of a day care.

I know the local focus will work however that assumes you have a very large community. I'm not sure what I'm doing could be pulled off in "small town" America - maybe. I'm between Baltimore and Wash DC and the business community is simply huge.

The title of is is branding an agency starting with $200. I have yet to spend that. I had some marketers and only one logged in any real amount of hours - not $200 worth. Aside from that I've been telemarketing and quite honestly, working on old leads. These were people I tried to sign up online who I'm now scheduling meetings with. That will pull me through nicely on top of referrals and chamber of commerce events until I get into advertising and renting space at local events.

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Absolutely positively on the right track

I had an offer I couldn't refuse to try out an internet leads source - basically free leads. Still, I said no twice but they called me and I gave in. What the heck...some free leads. Well....here we go, typical junk. Basically, all young girls, almost calls straight to voicemail and it wouldn't matter anyway to end up closing that very sough-after $88 a month premium. I actually have two of these working, then will promptly cancel the leads. What an insane waste of time to call people all day and hit voicemail.

These are:
*Not business owners
*Not looking for health insurance (looking for quotes which is much different) *Under 30 years old

Now for the polar opposite, I got listed today in my chamber's directory and got a call. Very nice lady ownes a travel agency (above pic) and her rate is through the roof - she's 63 and paying over $1,200 a month for coverage with decent health. So we compare a bevy of leads coming in which are junk and I have to hunt them down or my phone ringing from a business owner who wants health insurance. Hmmmmmmm. Toughie.

I also signed on as a volunteer today to help man the art & crafts booth my chamber is holding on the Sat. the 29th. After I signed up I was told that I can bring a flyer or any give-away to put in a bag that everyone gets when they enter the fair. Very cool! I also signed up for a business newtorking breakfast at 7:30 on the 27th.

And for all of you who are following along who are still hooked on the idea of 100% of your business coming from shared leads, my question is - what will you be doing in 5 years? Most likely, the same thing I'm doing; kicking myself in the ass that I didn't create a strong local presence years ago.

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