Thoughts on the FE telesales biz

[Surancedawg]

Why does the FE telesales business always seem to be so unstable?

For the sake of disclosures, I have sold FE over the phone for a few years now, and I do reasonably well at it, but it always seems to me to be on wobbly legs. Carriers constantly entering and exiting telesales, the ongoing problems with persistency, and final expense agencies changing management all the time.

It would be easy to understand if the whole economy was a mess, but that's definitely not the case at present. Waiting for all the critics of FE telesales who say its a business model that just isn't practical to pipe in.

 

[WinoBlues]

JD?

 

[DayTimer]

@jdeasy

Fixed that for you .. I guess he won’t be making an appearance today after all. @jdeasy tell us how you’ve changed your opinion and you now support telesales and you are now a Villanova Wildcats fan instead of Kentucky

 

[Surancedawg]

JD?

LOL old JD was the first person I thought of. What he used to say about FE telesales, from my perspective, doesn't seem too far off.

 

[Rob Lion]

Why does the FE telesales business always seem to be so unstable?

For the sake of disclosures, I have sold FE over the phone for a few years now, and I do reasonably well at it, but it always seems to me to be on wobbly legs. Carriers constantly entering and exiting telesales, the ongoing problems with persistency, and final expense agencies changing management all the time.

It would be easy to understand if the whole economy was a mess, but that's definitely not the case at present. Waiting for all the critics of FE telesales who say its a business model that just isn't practical to pipe in.

Still plenty of telesales companies that aren't going anywhere lol.

 

[Surancedawg]

Well just since I've been doing FE telesales, RNA has all but vacated it, Foresters, Assurity, GPM, (soon, I suspect) Prosperity. Balt Life is inching its way away from its reliance on telesales. Liberty Bankers complains about the poor persistency of its telesales all the time. Just doesn't seem to be a very lucrative business overall for the companies/agencies involved.

 

[Rob Lion]

Well just since I've been doing FE telesales, RNA has all but vacated it, Foresters, Assurity, GPM, (soon, I suspect) Prosperity. Balt Life is inching its way away from its reliance on telesales. Liberty Bankers complains about the poor persistency of its telesales all the time. Just doesn't seem to be a very lucrative business overall for the companies/agencies involved.

RNA, prosperity, and Assurity still do telesales lol.

 

[bboman23]

RNA, prosperity, and Assurity still do telesales lol.

We are in the FE thread. Assurity doesn't do FE anymore.

RNA doesn't allow phone sales for their FE anymore (other than very rare situations). Some people still do it, but they'll get caught eventually.

 

[Rob Lion]

We are in the FE thread. Assurity doesn't do FE anymore.

RNA doesn't allow phone sales for their FE anymore (other than very rare situations). Some people still do it, but they'll get caught eventually.

RNA still does Telesales just only for select agencies.

 

[Newby]

I have always seen FE telesales when marketed to the same type of customer that FE face to face agents market to (low income seniors) as a very tough gig. It’s hard enough to get in front of them without them “porching” you, get them to show you their current policies for an accurate comparison (their memories of what they have are never correct, and the policy is never really at their daughter’s house) and all the other smokescreens you get when you are face to face. It’s even harder when they can just hang up on you and be done with you.

If I was selling by phone, I would want to do it with an agency like Jeff Roots which is actually taking a whole different approach to the lead generation, as well as the target customer and is ready to pivot to products other than FE based on your qualifying of their needs.

I think agents and companies have bad experiences with FE phone sales mainly when they are largely selling to low income families. Low income people are less logical and more impulsive in their decision making. They are easy to get them to make a buying decision but harder to get them to stick with a decision. Most of them have something they are already paying on but very often it’s something that a face to face agent can easily beat. But harder for a phone agent because you can’t review their actual policy. You have to rely on their fuzzy understanding of what they have. So they (the client) has way less confidence that you know that your product is a better option for them because you didn’t really see what they had.

The other thing is that low income people are VERY price sensitive. Most products that are approved for phone sales are not priced low. They are mid-packers on up. That is the #1 easiest thing that face to face agents will use to wedge you out is if your policy you sold them is easy to beat on price. Anyone who thinks that low income seniors stop responding to FE direct mail, Telemarketer’s, or Facebook leads just because they already bought a policy has their head in the sand. I would estimate that 70% of them are on the constant hunt find a little better price on everything they have to pay for. I’ve personally been on hundreds of Medicare appointments where they “wanted to see if they can get a better price” and they are on a zero premium plan. Or they are dual eligible and pay nothing anywhere. It’s just the nature of the low income demographic.

Phone sales agents have several advantages and many disadvantages compared to face to face agents. I think their disadvantages are amplified if they focus on the low income families with a product that has a LOT of competition.

As soon as you raise your target prospects up in income level you have a more logical thinking client base, but a tougher one to get an appointment with (for face to face agents) and that is a huge advantage to a good phone agent (convenience). This is a factor in why Med a Sups by phone has a way better success rate than FE. The fact that Med Sups are rarely ever sold to low income people allows the product to screen out the base of people that are going to be least persistent to start with.

This is all my own opinions and observations. I accept that everything is debatable by people that have different perspectives and experiences.