The great thing about selling Medicare is that it’s a need, not a want. You're not pushing or selling a product to your client. You're educating them and becoming a trusted resource in the process. Join us for webinar on February 7th at 10am EST.
During the webinar you will learn:
• Sales techniques
• Cross-selling techniques
• Best processes for retention
• How to get loyal clients
Christy Wilbert: Hello and welcome. So glad that you could join us today. I am Christy Wilbert, vice president of Medicare Offerings here at URL Insurance Group, and I'm gonna be hosting your webinar today. Along with me, I have Matt Alina, final expense manager, and Cody Wilbert annuity specialist. So if you've been following along, I've been hosting a webinar a week.
January was marketing Month, so if you missed any of those, feel free to go back and watch them on demand at your convenience, anytime you get a chance. And February begins cross-selling month. And I'm sure, as you can tell by the people that I have here today, we're gonna start with life and annuities. All right, so I just wanted to quickly go through our agenda items.
So obviously if you don't work with URL, I'm just gonna touch on who we are. Explain why Medicare is the foot in this saying. Matt and Cody both have nice presentations for you today. If you're already selling Medicare, how you can easily roll into the other products. We're gonna go over some sales techniques, which I'm really excited to share with you. Matt and Cody can jump in at any time if they want to, I'm using some new techniques.
I'm sharing some with you that we are learning here internally. So that should be a fun conversation. How to get and keep loyal Best processes for retention and then announcements. So we do already have our conference booked for this year, so I'll share dates and some information on that with you.
Alright, so if you're not working with us, who is URL Insurance Group? We are a second generation family owned and operated insurance brokerage or FMO or upline, whatever you'd like to call us in the industry that you're in. We've been in business since 1986 and what you're seeing right there is our logo, which represents you, your client, and our people.
And it's just reminding us that there are real people at the end of what we're doing on our day-to-day, because it can become mundane in you're doing your daily tasks. You forget that you really are trying to help another person feel more secure and at peace for the products and services that we're offer.
Our tagline is we're in the people business and our people are really what separate us in our industry. We do have amazing, experienced individuals that work here at URL. Matt's been here for almost 20 years. He's been in insurance for 23. Myself, I've been here for 10. I've been in insurance for about 20.
And Cody Wilbert is at five years with URL. So again, just experience people helping you every day for all the different products that you're offering.
So basically, Medicare is the foot because Medicare is a way to get your foot in the door with clients. It has a very specific target market and it actually takes somebody who's very knowledgeable in their line of business to help somebody with Medicare.
Christy Wilbert: And once you do, you've earned that trust factor. You've built that relationship and people are more open to doing other lines of business with you. So as I mentioned, huge opportunity. The demographic is very large. You have 10,000 people turning 65 every day. We do a lot of networking here agent on agent to share experience and what works and what doesn't because we truly feel that it's not that competitive of a market because everybody is here to service the clients and help each other.
There's plenty of people to go around. It's also a necessity. You know, people could argue that life insurance isn't a necessity. I believe that it is. But not everybody has to buy it. With Medicare, you do have to buy it. If you don't buy a Medicare plan and you just rely on your part A and B provided through Social Security, there's huge gaps in coverage and you have a huge risk of financial exposure there.
A profitability, it's a great market to get into because there's renewals. Right. It's not just like an annuity or life insurance where you might be paid once and you never get renewals on that product. This is something where you can build a book of business. You can continue to get paid on it year after year and use it as a retiring footprint because you could sell it to somebody like URL. Because we do have a legacy program or a different agency, or you can continue to get those renewals. So the day that you die, however you wanna set it up.
Just to expand a little bit about how all the markets are very similar. I know with annuities and life insurance, they also have demographics that don't fit into the Medicare category. You don't have to be 65 to buy either of those products, but a lot of people of that age are buying them. And the reason is, is because they're retiring. You know, for the first time they're looking at their life and they wanna make sure that they're not leaving their loved ones in debt.
That somebody's not gonna be responsible for their funeral or care when they're older. They wanna make sure that they're setting up their family properly and they're thinking about those end of life stages. People do that at 65 or older when they're retiring. So that's why those target markets are really good to make sure that you're offering everything at one sitting.
And Matt has a great flyer that I'm sure he's gonna go over over with you later that he ran through Karen for compliance. It's a great leave behind on making sure that you're touching on everything that that person is thinking about. If you're not touching on it, somebody else is going to be after you, and that leaves exposure for you losing your client.
So without further ado, Matt, I'm gonna let you take over with your slides.
Matt Allina: Thank you very much, Christy. Appreciate it. Thanks for including me. Good morning, Christy, Cody and everybody. And a shout out to the life peeps that are on here already. Christy kind of made me feel old as we're going over the numbers of how many years I've been in the business and 23 plus years now in the insurance industry.
If people were to ask me where would I get started? If, if I knew what I know now, and it would be Medicare. Because it is a springboard to a lot other opportunities. Medicare, as Christy alluded to, is a necessity, and that opens the door to so many different opportunities. From life insurance that I'm gonna be talking about to annuities, to so many different things.
When you're dealing with people and you've established that trust with that Medicare client, they want you to talk to their family and their friends. So a couple of things that's important is cross-selling life insurance. The reason I'm gonna talk about this is that if you're not cross-selling life insurance, let's say you're just doing Medicare, or you just kinda add the blinders on to one particular marketplace.
Matt Allina: Somebody else can come in and kind of cherry pick your clients. And with, with Medicare, there's kind of like the three Rs that I've discovered, the first is retention. You want to get that client, you want to keep them. Referrals, you want to get more people. And then of course, doing those first two Rs is gonna gain you more revenue.
Well, let me explain that. Life insurance is a way to kind of close the door on your competition. Folks, your clients are getting bombarded by AARP and Colonial Penn. A bunch of other companies through the mail, through newspaper and magazine. Social media as well as TV and radio. A lot of people are getting hit over the head with the idea that they can only qualify for a guaranteed acceptance life insurance policy or a graded benefit, and that's the only thing that's available.
Through your partnership with URL you have access to products that are going to be significantly cheaper than what they're seeing advertised on tv. You're gonna be able to get them products that are going start a benefit immediately today, not this two or three year benefit. And it's not one of these products that's gonna go away and cancel when they hit the age of 80 or 85.
There are some, I call 'em predators out there, where people, they just keep getting hit over the head and they're going after your Medicare clients. The other thing is that there are other agents in the industry that are doing final expense lead mailings, that they don't do Medicare. So what happens is, or maybe they do Medicare, so they're doing prospecting, they're doing marketing to get final expense clients.
Then in the fall right before AEP, they're setting up to set aside time to go over with their final expense client to turn them also into a Medicare client. By doing Medicare and doing final expense or a life insurance in general. You are now locking the door and that client, pardon in the pun, is a client for life.
Matt Allina: When you're sitting down with a client, there's actually two ways that you can attract or,avenues that you can go through with a final expense client or a senior client, I should say. One is that you're setting aside money for them, for future delivery through a life insurance policy that provides money for final expenses, funerals, burial, cremation, medical bills, things like.
The other thing that you can utilize the benefits for and, and you can really use the life insurance benefits for any reason, but another thing is to supplement that loss of social security income. I've done a few presentations in the past that you can check out and you can always call me and get more information on it, but one of the things we have is the Social Social Security Protection program or SSPP.
When you're dealing with a married couple, this is more prominent there, but it can carry on to others, or other family dynamics. But when you're dealing with a married couple and we can use Christie and Cody as an example. So we're gonna fast forward about 50 years when they're 65 years old, and
So they're about ready to retire, and I sit down and I say, you know what, Christy, what do you make in social security a month? And she says, $3,000 a month. Cody's making $2,000 a month. So collectively, they're making $10,000 from Social Security. Well, let's just say when one of them dies, They get to keep the greater benefit, but they lose the lesser benefit. So they're gonna lose $2,000 a month from Social Security when that person dies.
It's not an, if it's a when. We can utilize a life insurance policy to supplement that loss of income. To buy them time to help them continue to make those mortgage payments or rent payments. Pay off those medical bills, keep the lights on, food on the table. So we can make up that $2,000 month difference through a final expense life insurance policy.
The goal when you're sitting down with somebody at at a Medicare appointment as well as with a final expense client is really the same. You're trying to provide them with peace of mind for your Medicare client. You're dealing with people ages 65 and older. Some of them, if not a lot of them, are going to have some preexisting medical conditions.
It's federal health insurance. Where you're sitting down and you're customizing and you're providing them with the affordable options. You're providing them the peace of mind that should they get sick, that they're covered. They can go see their doctors and get the medications that they need at the pharmacy.
With a final expense client the window there starts around age 55. You'll run into some clients that are 65, but then they have client or they have a spouse that's significantly younger, not significantly, but younger. They're not Medicare age. You can still help them with final expense and understand that when they age in into Medicare, now you have a new client there.
You've already locked them in on the life insurance side of things. With final expense, you're also dealing with clients that have preexisting medical conditions. A lot of these final expense plans are underwritten in such a way that they will take those clients that have those preexisting medical conditions, heart attacks, cancers, strokes, and a bunch of other things. High Blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes. Just like you're customizing a plan for Medicare, we show you how to customize affordable plans for your final expense clients for the same client. And this really is providing peace of mind for your clients when they pass away. They'd rather be remembered for the good things than not be remembered as a bill.
Matt Allina: A lot of families, if you were to go to GoFundMe where they do the crowdfunding, if you were just to type in the search word funeral, there's over 3 million people today that are looking for money to be able to pay for a funeral. What they're looking for is anywhere between $3,000 and $10,000, which would cover a cremation or a burial.
For some of our clients that money is real money and if they died today, the family is going to be setting up a crowdfunding account. Handing around a hat,to be able to pay for mom, dad, grandma, or grandpa's funeral.
So let me explain final expense and what it is. Both of these policies, it's the exact same policy whether you're doing the SSPP or a final expense plan. It is a whole life policy. It provides tax-free benefits. On the final expense side, you. Promote the fact that there's going to be funds immediately available for funerals, burials, cremation expenses, pay off medical bills, any lingering debts that may be out there.
Matt Allina: Replace an income and leave a legacy. There's also the ability for that client to be able to leave some money to their grandkids or their children for that matter. For me, I would leave my kid money to my grandkids because I love them more with social security protection. That's because you are really trying to protect your loved one, your spouse, you don't know who's going to go first. But you wanna make sure that they continue to receive that social security income and you replace it through a whole life life insurance policy.
You're basically extending their social security benefits for several months to a few years. It provides that monthly income. And what we teach people is you take 10% a dime, 10%. To protect the dollar. So if we go back to using Christy and Cody as an example. We're trying to protect that $2,000 benefit. When I said that Cody's making $2,000 he married the sugar mama Christy, and she's making $3,000 a month.
So we're trying to protect Cody's loss of income because that's the lesser of the two benefits. So what's 2% of $2,000? That's $200. times two, that's $400. If you were to do the math, you're looking at about $4,800 and most of that you earn in compensation, if not all of it, and a little bit more.
But again just by sitting down and having that conversation and showing them the why, why they need to consider doing this. Moving on, we have a couple of different cross-selling opportunities or cross-selling pieces that we have made available. The first one that we have is called the top five lead in questions for final expense.
Some of us, and a lot of our clients, we don't like talking about the end. We know it's coming. We just don't want to be reminded of it. This is a soft way of leading into having that conversation. Questions like, if you were to die today who's going to be responsible for arranging your funeral?
And, and is there going to be money available? Or, another one that I like is, have you ever had to arrange a funeral for a friend or a loved one? And if so, how did it go? Was there enough money to pay for all of that? You'll find that sometimes people have already had to plan their mother or father or grandmother or grandfather's funeral and they've had to chip in some money cuz there wasn't enough money.
This is to protect their family, their loved ones, so that they don't have to chip in money when they die. The other cross-selling piece that we have is a form that we call our intake form. It says at the top of the page, I can help you with other services and it lists all of the different services and you can customize it to maybe your P&C agency.
You can add the PNC aspects to it. This is a compliant way to let your clients know you do more than just medicare. So then when you're on the appointment, ask them to fill that out as an intake form. Then what it allows you to do, and this is especially important during AEP, when you're running from appointment to appointment that at the end when the dust settles. Now you circle back and you call that client and you say, Hey, I was out at your home back in November. You'd mentioned you wanted to get some more information about life insurance or final expense. Or IRA replacements or social security protection, whatever the case may be.
Do you have any free time in the next week or two that we can sit down and chat? The other piece that we have, which is also utilized by many of our Medicare partners that we partner with here is a cross-selling letter. That they will copy and paste onto their own letterhead.
Of course, it's customizable to whatever they want. And it starts off by thanking the client for being a, a treasured Medicare client. Then having a conversation about final needs, planning and sending these letters out in manageable batches, following up with a phone call. It's another touchpoint for you.
It's a way to thank your client for their business, and it's a way for you to stay in front of your client. To keep the other sales predators out there from taking your client that you've worked so hard to get.
So let me explain. Something that we do here is that we do subsidize lead costs. So some Medicare agents actually started doing final expense and saw the opportunity and went into Medicare. One of the things that you'll find is that your Medicare client could be a final expense client and vice versa.
So for final expense sales, and I'm just using round numbers, but you'll kind of get the idea that we're kicking in an extra 5% bonus for all of the business that you do. So on final expense sales, if you did $10,000 of final expense annualized premium, we're gonna give you a $500 lead credit. One of the things that we're doing this year here in 2023 is we're allowing you to either use that to purchase additional final expense leads, or you can use it to purchase Medicare leads.
It's entirely up to you. I know some of you that are on our call today, you are more interested in building that book of Medicare. I don't wanna stop that. There's an opportunity there. So if your goal is really to build your book of business on the Medicare side, but you're going to also lock it in on the final expense side, then do it. We'll subsidize your lead costs so that you can continue to prospect and get new clients on the Medicare side. Whether it's turning 65 or whatever the case may be.
So just a little added gusto allowing you to kind of cross pollinate and help with growing your book of business. Really becoming a senior marketplace specialist or just a superstar for that matter. So, with that, I'm gonna hand it over to Mr. Wilbert, who's gonna be talking about cross-selling annuities.
Cody Wilbert: Awesome. Thank you so much, Matt. I appreciate it. One little story before I start. Just kind of inspiration behind the slides that I did or why I laid it out the way that I did. A few years back when I started working at URL, we had an agent at the time was very good at Medicare.
Was one of our top agents from Medicare, but they also started to try to get into annuity sales. And of course the email I received from them was the who, what, where, when type of email. And it was laid out almost just like this, where it's like, Cody, what do I ask? When do I ask it? How do I ask it?
You know, how's it done? How's an appointment done? And I will tell you the reason that I'm bringing that agent up is, as of this year, they are in our top three agents as far as annuity sales go. So in a matter of five years, that same person who was asking these questions, is now in the top three of our annuity sales for the year.
So I'm not gonna say any names of anybody, but I will say that awesome success story from that standpoint. It really was kind of what drove me doing this. I wanted to keep it kind of high level, but also very simple and some things to think about or some things that you can say.
So it is, what do I ask? That's kind of the first point here. And really what I want you to think of is, these are three quick questions that you can ask. You don't need to be an expert in anything with annuities whatsoever, or investments, and you can ask these questions.
Do you have any funds in the market losing money currently? This has been a hot topic for easily over the past year with a lot of folks seeing losses in their 401ks or variable investments that they have out there. When you ask that question, all you need to follow it up with is, okay, well let me hear what type of product it is, and they'll tell you what type of product it is.
And a lot of times what you can do right after that is say, well, do you have a statement that I could see. Right there. That's all you need to do. That's gonna be your initial fact finding for that piece right there. You can bring that information to us and we can help decipher what product that they have and also help you decide is it a good move for them to purchase an annuity or move to that annuity from that standpoint.
The next question I have is, do you have a consistent paycheck coming in? This is gonna be a hot button for most people, especially those who just retired. Yeah, I have all this money from my retirement account. I've built it up. I've done a great job saving, but what do I do at this point with that money?
And how do I make sure that I'm never gonna run out of that money? And that's a beautiful thing that annuities will do for them. We have products that will guarantee payments for you and for your wife, and they can be guaranteed for life.
So think of it as paychecks that are gonna keep coming in just like they're working. But now it's gonna be driven through an annuity instead. So again, another easy question asked, do they, do they need more income? Do they have paychecks coming in now that they retired? Or what is their plan for paychecks coming in? And then the last one kind of meets closely to the first one is, do you have any funds underperforming?
So maybe they're not losing money, but are they underperforming? Maybe they come back and go, well, I do have this bank CD and it gets me 0.35 a month. Okay, well you're right. That is underperforming. That's really not doing a whole lot for you. There's annuities out there that can guarantee your client 5.5% for over five years.
So there are really good annuity vehicles that have guarantees just like other products that your client may have. Really all you need to ask 'em, are your funds underperforming? What is that vehicle that they're kind of in right now? Are they sitting in a CD? Is it a stock bond mutual fund? You know, get a couple more answers there and then say, do you have a statement that I could see and take with me?
That way I can make a proper recommendation for you. I like the the three what's, because I think anybody can ask those three what questions. It doesn't matter how much experience you have. Those are all gonna be kind of good, lead-ins or what do I ask questions? The next thing I have here is when do I ask?
So good time is always gonna be fact finding out your initial appointment time. Do you have the right forms for that? We have recommendation forms that are a front and back and it will fully fact find for you as far as what you want to find out from an annuity standpoint. The second piece I have is leave a sheet with your other services.
Matt did a good job showing earlier some of those nice marketing pieces. Really the, can I help you with other services, is a great thing to leave behind as Matt mentioned. Really what you're doing is showing them that, hey, this is a one stop shop for you. I am your guy or gal to fulfill all of those insurance needs for you, and I have all those other avenues and options to do so.
After a busy Medicare season, that's always a good one. Because yes, you just sold them their Medicare policy, but now is a good time to follow up with them as it starts and see, okay, how's everything going? Is it doing what you expected? Have you been to the doctors yet? Ask those questions, but then, kind of get into, hey, you know, I also offer the following services. Plug in your life or your annuity or whatever you want to ask them about at that point.
So that's always a good time to follow up. And you'll see I have in here policy renewals, moments of celebration. I have agents that I know that send out cards every year on a birthday. They'll send out something when they see a wedding happening or something along those lines. One of the kids, maybe of their clients is graduating.
Just touching base and keeping your name around those folks means a lot. They'll remember those things as well too, and come time to do business. They'll remember the guys who were caring about them, in the moments that probably nobody else. So don't be afraid to use those moments to just simply drop a card in the mail.
You know, it doesn't take much to just fill something out quick. Hope everything's doing well. Leave your card in there if you need to. And, and I'm sure that not only would it mean a lot to them, but I'm sure they talk about it with their friends as well.
Next was the how to, so this is kind of the good one. So how do I do it? Okay. You're, you're telling me these before, but how do I actually do it from there? So, I did mention our recommendation form. This is gonna be a good form to use to fact find and, and get all the annuity information that you want to get on your client's current investments. What their goals are gonna be, and also just do a little bit of fact finding on their financials.
From there, it gives you the right questions to ask them how to ask them, and even some ranges to use as far as their answers. Maybe they aren't fully comfortable with you yet and they don't want to say, oh, I have $500,000 in liquid assets. Well, maybe it makes 'em feel more comfortable to check the box that says 250 to 500,000.
And that's what they want to tell you. It's a range. They don't need to tell you an exact figure at this point, but it's gonna give you a really good idea of what kind of investments and financial background they have at that point. Collect as much information.
So you've heard me say this, summary statements. When you're at that appointment, make sure you're asking for those things. Most folks will have somewhat of a good summary or statement or something they've recently received that they can give to you. Sometimes it's just, Hey, I use my online account for this. Okay, great. Can you print me out, maybe the main page when you log into your account.
Take that with you afterwards. The email and call with information. Is really, once you've collected the information and once you've done your fact finding, you feel free to reach out to us in the annuity department to build a case or help you learn more about these annuity products that we have out there.
After that, you would get licensed with the applicable company completing the training. Which is gonna help you learn the product that you're selling to your client in more detail. Finally it would be presenting with your client in application illustrations forms.
I should have on there really it's taking the application. After you take the application, our group has always been a hands-on group. We are always ones to want to help you with your app. We will scrub over your application. But note that most of these companies also offer e-app application process to make it very easy as well too.Make you, a little more efficient in not skipping any necessary forms or anything like that as well.
So that's kind of the quick run through of how do I do it, from fact finding to collecting calling our group to help us build a plan for you. Getting license and then presenting and taking that application for your client. So a couple facts I like to always drop into any PowerPoint that I do. Most of your clients are gonna have one of these type of accounts or is a great way to discuss annuities or lead in with an annuity.
So they might have retirement accounts, 401ks, CDs, brokerage accounts, which I mean by that would be your stocks, bonds, mutual funds those type of accounts or even pension plans. But did you know that most 401ks are variable? And what I mean by that is they go up when the market goes up, but they also go down when the market goes down.
So really once a client hits 59 and a half, it's a very good time to start speaking with them. Even if they're working about protecting some of those funds that they've already built up or used before. Another did you know, was April and October are huge CD renewal months. If you're running into your clients, ask them about their current CD investments.
Ask 'em what it's returning to them, and simply explain to them that you have guaranteed annuity products that can offer rates as high as 5.5 or higher percent for guaranteed of five years. That's a great way to kind of talk about CDs.
Did you know that there are guaranteed paychecks your clients can never outlive? I did touch on this earlier. But that's another one that most people don't realize that that's what an annuity's built for. When you see somebody winning the Powerball, and they give 'em that option of an annuity, that's what they're doing for them. They're creating a guaranteed lifetime payment for that person to never run out of that money instead of taking the lump sum.
And that's what most people are doing is lump summing their 401k or retirement plan. Really not figuring out a plan to never outlive that money. And the last one I have here ties into that guaranteed paycheck and it's, did you know that you can provide benefits for the spouse even on a qualified retirement plan?
And without getting too deep into that qualified retirement plan is your normal 401k. So most people think, oh, I can take my 401k and provide an income for myself. But annuities also are a very good tool to use to create an income for not only you, but your spouse. Give you that peace of mind that if you were to pass away that that continued income is gonna happen.
As Matt mentioned earlier, a lot of times we lose some of these benefits that we have when we are joined as a couple. While annuities try to keep that benefit continued for life. Just like we talked about those guaranteed paychecks, you can also guarantee that your wife or your spouse is going to have that exact same benefit that you guys had when you were both living together. Which is a very good peace of mind.
Something that most people don't realize annuities have. So other easy advantages of annuities, tax-deferred growth, guaranteed income, protection from market loss, elimination of fees, passing probate. So that's really the design way to leave funds to your beneficiary. You can then list someone that's a primary.
Cody Wilbert: You can even have contingents listed kids, grandkids other folks to get money down the road as well too. And then there's also doubling income for nursing home and home healthcare. Which is a big benefit of annuities where once you go into a nursing home, that guaranteed paycheck that you were receiving, can actually be doubled. A lot of times for up to five years or more for you when you go to a nursing home or home healthcare.
Some couple other easy advantages of annuities. If you visit our website, we also have a lot of these forms printed out. That'll tell you easy advantages of annuitiesAnytime you're getting any type of rebuttals to annuities, we have a couple forms on that as well too. Ways to kind of discuss that with your client.
Cody Wilbert: And then the last thing I have here is don't forget about our Orion services. So maybe you don't feel comfortable at first doing that initial annuity sale and you're saying, Cody, you gave me the who, what, where, when, but I still don't feel like I can get out there in front of them the first time.
Know that our Orion services are easy to use. It helps you retain your client and lets us be the expert for you. We can hold your hand as much or as little as you would like us to through that process. I've seen people use our Orion services two or three times and then feel confident enough to go out and make that annuity sale themselves after that,. That's because they held our hand along the way and said, okay, I want to learn exactly how this goes from the time you meet with them to the time this thing issues and gets paid out the commission at the end.
Cody Wilbert: So don't feel like it's an all in boom or bust situation. I want you to feel like it's a great learning experience for you as well too. But if you have those clients or this is not something that you want to get into, we are happy to split that commission with you and,work that business for you.
So, just wanted to kind of end on that. I appreciate giving me some time on this as well too, Christy. I'll kick it back over to you as well for maybe some general sales techniques.
Christy Wilbert: Great job, Cody. Thank you and thanks for touching on Orion. Obviously, our client referral services platform is available for all the different lines of business that we have here at URL, but our primary focus is of course, to teach you to cross-sell.
That's why we have all the different experts in each line of business here. Please know, at the end of the day, we just wanna make sure you're retaining your clients and being able to help them with whatever they need. So Orion is here for you as well. So this is just a funny little cartoon if you can't read it.
Glass of water on a table and the one person says half full and the other person says half empty, and the other one says, it looks like it's a hundred percent full, so I should be entitled to 80% of it. So, because I don't have a poll in there, I'd love to just, if you wanna just put in the chat, which person are you?
I'm definitely the guy in the hat that feels entitled to 80% of the a hundred percent water . I can tell you because Cody's my husband that he is the half empty . Matt, which one are you?
Matt Allina: I am the half empty. Are
Christy Wilbert: Are you? I would never guessed that.
Matt Allina: Yep. I'm the type of person that when I go on a vacation that I've been planning for months and months and months, that when I'm on vacation, I'm like, it's over.
The planning is the best part of a vacation. Once you're on it, you, you're a week away from it being over .
Cody Wilbert: Oh, man.
Christy Wilbert: That's the silliest thing I've ever heard.
Matt Allina: At heart, what can I say?
Christy Wilbert: Yeah, seriously. Well, I wanted to put this up here for a reason, not only for laughs, Because the biggest thing that we're learning here, we do internal sales trainings from time to time. And what I've learned thus far, that was huge.
To match somebody's vibe really at the end of the day. So like, give yourself a vibe check. I know that's what the young kids are saying these days. I always go in at a 10 because that is my personality. So I am just there at all times. But that doesn't mean that the person that I'm sitting with or talking to wants to experience that level of personality.
So really take a moment to put a number on that person, like maybe they're at a five today and I need to bring myself down so we can speak on their level. That really changes the whole atmosphere of the appointment. Before, I'll be honest with you, my goal was if that person was a five, I wanna bring 'em up to a 10 during our meeting. But that isn't what that person always wants, so I just wanted to share that with you.
You know, be present. Somebody's always going through more than what they show. You know, everybody has something going on on their day-to-day personal life that, unfortunately we have to compartmentalize and leave that at home when you go to work. But that doesn't mean that you're forgetting about what's going on.
So be a person, be sympathetic and empathetic, and treat them like a person that you care about and that you love. You wanna make sure that they're getting the best that they can get from you in that moment. And I know we might have that intention when we go to work every day and meet with clients, but it might not actually come out every day.
So it's just a nice reminder.
Okay. Some more things might sound obvious, but I just wanted to reiterate. Obviously education, we provide a lot of education here at URL. That's why we're doing this webinar. We have a ton of resources on our website that we always want to put the best and the most accurate information out there for you.
If things come up in the news, we're always sending that out via email and putting some stuff on our social media, so that you can relay that information to your clients. So you can be the most accurate. You can be certain and believe in the products that you're selling. If you don't believe in what you're selling, what are they to believe in what they're selling?
I have an example of this that actually goes along with everything I'm gonna go over. Cody and I were in the market for a new vehicle and we ended up purchasing one, and the gentleman did a fantastic job getting to know us throughout the process. As you know, it's a very lengthy, time consuming process, and you just wanna run out the door when you're done.
but they keep you there to fill out a million things and ask you a million questions. And then of course at the end they try to sell you all these different warranty packages and they start with the biggest one that's all in, and then they go down and down and down. And I think they have like four different warranty packages we could buy.
He went over each one in full detail with us. Then when we said no, he was like, okay, well my boss has to, you know, have a crack at you before you walk out the door. And man my blood was boiling. We've already been there for two hours. The last thing I wanna do is wait on the manager to come in for me to say another no.
Christy Wilbert: But while he left and we were waiting, Cody asked me, because you know, we're in sales, we do sales things for a living. He's like, what do you think would have changed your mind with this guy if he did something different? My response was, he did a great job at building rapport.
He did a great job at getting to know us this whole time, but he didn't guide us at all. He didn't use any of the information that he gathered the whole time we were here to give us any recommendation to say, if I was you, knowing you have a three year old son. He's gonna ruin the interior and there's gonna be cheerios all over the place.
You don't need the Mac daddy, but maybe this one will be good and here's why I think you should buy it. There was none of that. So I just wanna make sure that you believe in your product and that you're guiding, and that you're recommending. You're using the information that's in front of you when you're building rapport with your client.
They're looking for that. They are not the expert you are. Especially when we deal with 40 different carriers. You know, like Matt knows final expense. What makes it different? The carrier. You know from us, a MedSup is a MedSup. What's the difference? The carrier. You're buying the brand. And brand is important. Don't just go in with the cheapest rate. You know, the better product might be $2 more a month, but it is your job to explain why that $2 is super important to that person. So rant ended. Today, Cody is driving a beautiful Ford Pinto
Cody Wilbert: You know, to Christy's point though believing in your product and what you're giving somebody is so important in sales. What's beautiful about our industry is we have great products and great things to believe in, and you are changing somebody's life by doing these things. It is tough for your car salesman out there because I could have walked out the door and gotten any car that I want or anywhere I want, and yes, somebody can do that with insurance.
But at the same time, at the end of the day, you need to feel good about the product that you sell. And insurance is such a good industry for us to feel that way afterwards and believe in the products that we have out there.
Christy Wilbert: Great point. Cody. 100%. A big selling technique is fear-based. And that just means being honest about something.
If you don't make a decision today, please know what the repercussions are, because I don't feel like I'm doing my job. If I don't fully educate you. If you take 60 days to make a decision what you're leaving behind by waiting those 60 days. For Medicare, it could be a penalty. Make sure, you're being honest and being a guide.
Christy Wilbert: Building rapport. So my whole story kind of had to do with that as well. Make sure you're asking questions. Our salesperson did a great job at asking questions. You wanna figure out their lifestyle, what their needs are versus what their wants are for any of these products. What's important to them, so that you can help guide them and if you were them or if they were your parent.
How would you recommend the products to them or how would you fit that into their lifestyle or their needs? Repeat statements for information. So this was a good one that we were taught, and Cody now uses it a lot, even with me, which I think is funny. Like if somebody says, for example I kayak, you know, or I go kayaking a lot, a simple response is "you go kayaking a lot?" Because then they'll go further down into it. They think you want more information on it. Oh yeah, I went here and here and we did this. Instead of just ending it at one statement, you're keeping the conversation going.
Identifying pain points and providing solutions. You should know what your pain points are if you're in sales, right? You probably get the same question all the time, final expense. Matt knows, I'm sure five pain points why people say they don't need it or don't wanna buy it. Then he can turn that around. You should know those things. Turn everything into a positive and don't disagree. Their pain point might be absolutely correct and be honest with that.
Be transparent. Say, you know what, that's a great conversation and here's what I think on the other end of it. So just to open their mind a little bit. You don't have to disagree with their comment. Just keep it positive. Prepare those responses. So if you're getting something again and again and again. Have a great answer prepared for the next time.Consistency and reminders. Be attentive. We wanna make sure if we're creating appointments that we're calling before them, that we're calling after them. As both Matt and Cody went over in their presentations. Touchpoints are so important for retention. We're gonna go over that a little more.
How to get loyal clients. Statistics show that the more product lines or policies that you have in place with your client, increases loyalty in the long run, right? Because if somebody for final expense is knocking on their door, but they have Medicare and an annuity with you. Somebody brings up final expense, they may not go to that individual. They may say, John's my agent for the other things that I have. So I'm gonna check with John first because I trust him.
If John already had everything, those door knockers or those phone calls aren't gonna typically affect the loyalty that you have with your client. Use the leave behind. Unfortunately, with this demographic, they do tend to forget if you're not in front of them,. Often enough who their agent is and how to get ahold of them.
Christy Wilbert: You could take Matt's flyer and make it even more personal by adding your picture because sometimes our photographic memory is better than names. And I always like to say, leave a few spots blank, like maybe next to your name and your photo. All the different lines that you do. You say, appointment was on this date and I sold this.
You remind them what policy they're on, when was the last time you were there. Any other valid information that you feel is necessary. When they go to pull that paper out, because they're like, "oh, I remember my agent gave me that paper. It says what plan 'em on. It has their name, their phone number and everything."
Christy Wilbert: Something besides a business card, because those tend to get thrown away or misplaced in a pile of 500 others.
So retention, obviously touches. Touches are so important. Everybody mentioned it, after AEP for Medicare is a great time to follow up with your clients. As Cody said, have you used your card? It's still open enrollment period right now until March 31st, where they can switch their Medicare advantage plan. If they aren't happy with it or their provider isn't billing, plan properly.
There's also birthdays, Cody mentioned, big celebration events. Any holiday that is, really non-denominational is better to reach out to all of your clients. We always use Thanksgiving here because the majority of religions do celebrate Thanksgiving. There are some that do not, but you try to touch as many people as you can with one thing.
And you can use send out cards. That's a place that we use here where you really just send them the Excel file and you pick the card and they do it all. Super hands off and easy. Another good time is before AEP because they're gonna start getting their AOC letters, which is the annual notice of change.
And they need to know who they're gonna be reaching out to if they want to sit down and review their plan. So make sure you're staying in front of your clients, like we said. Stay active in the community. Obviously if you sit behind your desk all day, nobody's gonna call you.
Your phone's not gonna just automatically ring. It is very important to get out there and network with your local businesses. For example, here in Lingos Town where we are, there's so many mom and pop businesses, they're not big chains. Those are the perfect businesses to just walk in and try to build a relationship, build a rapport, ask if you can put up a flyer.
It's not hurting them, it's not charging them money. Maybe see if you can invest something into their business so that you can market and it's a win-win for both of you. Be creative. Understand your customer's needs. So be more than a one trick pony. And that is what today was all about.
Christy Wilbert: Retention equals renewals, and that's what we want. We wanna build our book of business. We want those renewals to keep coming in. We wanna sell new policies with our clients to keep 'em loyal. So I hope that you got good information from us today on all of that. Last, but not least. We have scheduled our Medicare Connections Conference. Last year we did bring in some life insurance and annuity vendors. We will be doing the same this year. We'll have Penny there and Pace, Social Security, the whole shebang. So that is scheduled for August the 24th. It is a Thursday. It'll be all day long. So come and spend some time with not only the URL staff but all of our carrier partners as well.
So we look forward to seeing you. There is our information. Feel free to reach out to us directly after this webinar or any time to discuss anything further. It looks like we did get a question on here before we sign out.
Christy Wilbert: Is the fact finder sheet and those other two sheets listed as one of the first slides available on the URL site somewhere.
Matt Allina: The fact finder that I have where I can help you with other products and services. It is actually under the Medicare area because it did go through Medicare compliance. Karen McDaniel signed off on it. So it's under their marketing tools on that side. But if you do need us to send any of those forms, I know I can send those forms to you from the copies of the letters to the intake forms, to all of the different things there.
And I know Cody can also send the fact finders for the annuity side as well.
Christy Wilbert: Thank you, Matt. Thanks Matt. Thanks Cody, for joining me today. And thanks to all of you who attended. This will be recorded if you need to reference back to it later. We hope that you have a great day.
Matt Allina: Thank you.