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

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

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.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

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.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

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.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

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.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

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.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

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.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

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.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

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.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

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.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com