SIMA Leads

[midwestbroker]

Thanks for the kind words about myself (This is Mike Gattorna, the other half of SIMA)

SIMA is designed to be an education network for senior market insurance agents, plain and simple. We do webinars, live chats, and try to keep agents in the loop about senior market ideas. SIMA is a stand alone training organization that does not contract agents.

Yes, I have been out of the field for the past few years, as I have focused on training and education side of the business. Full disclosure, I also run the online University for Senior Marketing Specialists.

Mark is the leads and tech guru, and has forgot more about the back end of the leads business than I can remember. I focus more on the training and education side.

Rick has a great organization, so do a lot of others on this forum. SIMA is just my place to help agents, without contracts and a free membership should they not want the paid side.

I hope this clears things up. If you have questions, please let me know. My email is [email protected] I don't claim to know it all and turn to many other people who are smarter than myself for answers. SIMA is designed to do the same for agents.

 

[Mark from WI]

Hmmm... It's interesting. That's probably the same reason Parasol would give you for why their leads aren't successful!

Parasol did quite well in our poll of over 200 agents who buy senior leads. Benepath was at the top. HealthPlan One also did well, and Vantage/Brokersweb. PM me if you would like to see the results.

 

[vic120]

I just want to say I have been emailing with Mark since this getting his email on this thread

He has been very informative and helpful

I've search the site a little and found some very useful information

I cant see a reason not to sign at least the free membership and see where it goes

 

[GreenSky]

For clarification, Mark has never personally used any lead vendor since he is not an agent.

If you look on the SIMA site you will see a recommendation to use Word and Brown as a Medicare FMO. W&B requires you to assign commission yet SIMA is recommending them. Red flag for me.

Let the buyer beware where loyalties might be.

Rick

 

[gordon112]

SIMA is having a webinar at 4:30 EST coming up on selling FE over the phone. Not sure this is the right thread for it, but SIMA puts on a lot of free and informative webinars along with information and get togethers via the talk chat.

 

[Mark from WI]

SIMA is having a webinar at 4:30 EST coming up on selling FE over the phone. Not sure this is the right thread for it, but SIMA puts on a lot of free and informative webinars along with information and get togethers via the talk chat.

Thanks, Gordon, we had a lot of fun with that one. We had Steve Modell from Modell Brokerage and Adam Barkow from FEXQuotes.com on the call. One of the things we like to provide on SIMA is free webinars for our members.
Some may end up working with Steve, but we get no compensation from Steve or Modell Brokerage.
Some webinars appear only on PRO. Usually those are more in-depth. All webinars are recorded, and provided on PRO.
Thanks for reminding me about the CHAT, Gordon, we have to do another one soon, those are really fun.

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For clarification, Mark has never personally used any lead vendor since he is not an agent.

Thanks for bringing this up again- YES I AM NOT AN AGENT. I also am a terrible dancer until I've had a few drinks. But I do know leads.
I have led call centers of 20+ agents as a manager, and managed results. I helped to start one of the top leads companies in the business, and manage a marketing services company today. I ran a call center with over 300 reps, and bought enough leads to choke a herd of elephants. I have been helping agents with leads and technology of all types for almost 25 years.
Some tech companies sell insurance AND technology, and compete against their own agent customers. SIMA is neither a downline, nor an agency. We're an independent social network for agents specializing in the Senior market. Sort of like a far smaller agent forum where everyone uses their real names. And starting next week, we'll have our own Leads Co-Op. I don't think I need to be an agent to know what leads are good, and to serve agents with leads that I feel have been generated in a fair manner.

If you look on the SIMA site you will see a recommendation to use Word and Brown as a Medicare FMO. W&B requires you to assign commission yet SIMA is recommending them. Red flag for me.

Funny, we have never "recommended" Word & Brown. Two FMO's are sponsoring SIMA PRO however- Ritter and Senior Marketing Specialists. Word & Brown has done a webinar on SIMA in the past, that might be what you're thinking about, Rick.
There are several things to consider when agents consider FMOs, but we aren't recommending Word & Brown on SIMA- show me the link if I'm missing something. If we do include them as a sponsor of SIMA PRO in the future, we'll definitely be highlighting their practices, and agents will make decisions with their eyes open. They are not crooks. I'd consider them a quality organization, like what you'd said to me personally in the past, and like what I have learned first hand from the people I know there.

Let the buyer beware where loyalties might be.

Absolutely, Rick! Keep plugging away, sir, and good luck to you and Nick and your competing organization. I do wish you the best in all you do!

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I just want to say I have been emailing with Mark since this getting his email on this thread

He has been very informative and helpful

I've search the site a little and found some very useful information

I cant see a reason not to sign at least the free membership and see where it goes

Thanks Vic, much appreciated.

 

[GreenSky]

Absolutely, Rick! Keep plugging away, sir, and good luck to you and Nick and your competing organization. I do wish you the best in all you do!

We don't consider SIMA competition.

Rick

 

[CALTCAgent]

I just don't see much valuable content on the free SIMA site. This is not to knock it. Seems they are just pushing for the paid site to get "the good stuff".

Not much discussion over there. Not impressed. They do seem like nice people though.

 

[senior-advisor-indiana]

I think it may have been midwestbroker that recommended Word and Brown in a thread here a while back. I remember someone being called out for recommending them anyway. I'm not 100% positive who it was.

 

[Mark from WI]

I just don't see much valuable content on the free SIMA site. This is not to knock it. Seems they are just pushing for the paid site to get "the good stuff".
Not much discussion over there. Not impressed. They do seem like nice people though.

Yes, CAL, Most of the in-depth training is in PRO, but we do have several free webinars, discounts, and more, for free members. Regarding our little discussion "forum" that is not very active lately. We don't compete with this big forum here. It's more about agents connecting with other agents. Our advanced search allows people to find other producers in their area, friend, Private message, etc.
But there is some decent free content in there too, and discounts.
We also have some free webinars and chats for all members. Just yesterday we had a webinar on Selling Final Expense by Phone. Recently, we have had free webinars on selling referrals, selling hospital indemnity plans, and how to increase your phone sales.
We were completely free for 2 years, and we decided we had to charge something so we could justify spending more time putting together materials for agents- thats when PRO began. But with our FMO-sponsored scholarships, agents can STILL get SIMA PRO free too. We are also launching a referral program soon wherein SIMA members will be able to get free SIMA PRO by referring 5 other free members.
Thanks for your opinion.