New Agent Needs Products to Sell

Then do you recommend focusing on selling regular life insurance to get in the door to make some sales first?
No! You'll find quickly that most seniors you call on, except for low income, have some sort of life insurance, have a pre-paid funeral plan, or are fortunate to have some savings in place. Final Expense is a niche that is better served by buying leads. And Medsupp prospecting doesn't work if you're in an area with a high MA penetration rate.

If your cold calling/knocking... and focusing on the senior market, the most important thing to think about is...

What are seniors most concerned about? What problems are they trying to solve?

Saving money on healthcare costs?
Outliving their retirement income?
Long term care expenses?

Here's one problem, and a good place to start. Medicare doesn't cover everything. This leaves opportunities, especially in areas with lots of MA plans to offer supplemental products, like Hospital Idemnity, Dental, Vision, & Hearing, Short-Term Care, Cancer plans, etc.

As you gain more experience, you can cross-sell med-supps, LTC, fixed annuities, and FE for the occasional broke senior you come across.

The biggest thing I changed with my approach is, I'm no longer leading with one product. I don't know even know if they have a problem yet! Now, I sell the need to do a complete "insurance needs analysis", then make recommendations, based off that!
 
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No! You'll find quickly that most seniors you call on, except for low income, have some sort of life insurance, have a pre-paid funeral plan, or are fortunate to have some savings in place. Final Expense is a niche that is better served by buying leads. And Medsupp prospecting doesn't work if you're in an area with a high MA penetration rate.

If your cold calling/knocking... and focusing on the senior market, the most important thing to think about is...

What are seniors most concerned about? What problems are they trying to solve?

Saving money on healthcare costs?
Outliving their retirement income?
Long term care expenses?

Here's one problem, and a good place to start. Medicare doesn't cover everything. This leaves opportunities, especially in areas with lots of MA plans to offer supplemental products, like Hospital Idemnity, Dental, Vision, & Hearing, Short-Term Care, Cancer plans, etc.

As you gain more experience, you can cross-sell med-supps, LTC, fixed annuities, and FE for the occasional broke senior you come across.

The biggest thing I changed with my approach is, I'm no longer leading with one product. I don't know even know if they have a problem yet! Now, I sell the need to do a complete "insurance needs analysis", then make recommendations, based off that!

Hello, Thomasm!
Many thanks for your suggestions too! Do you charge them for the complete insurance needs analysis as its own separate service then? :idea:

Anyway, I do not have to just focus on senior products, since I am a life insurance agent first and foremost. Starting out new to all this, I need to develop some client base. Maybe I can just start by selling regular ol' life insurance across many different age ranges, then focus on MA etc later? That is, if many seniors already have some type of life insurance already. For now, I would like to know which is better way to provide enouch of an income to support myself. It sounded like just selling MA & med supps will be hard to provide a living -- please correct me if I understood that part incorrectly.

What do the veteran agents with more experience & wisdom think?
 
Welcome to the senior market.

I would suggest getting a few supplement carriers under your belt and learning the basics of Medicare. Download the Medicare and You book from Medicare.gov and flip through it.

FE is a simple product but like it was mentioned before, when you enter the funeral arena, you are not only going against other agents, you are also have funeral homes that sell pre-paid plans.

As for IMO's, there are a lot of good ones out there. Full disclosure I market for one as well as run SIMA, see my signature line. I am doing a webinar in a couple weeks on door to door marketing. Free to attend.

There should not be a lot of overhead expenses (relative to other businesses). Mainly just E&O, some mail, if you have to send in some apps, marketing costs and time.

Easiest and fastest way to get started:
Get contracted, study how supps & Medicare work, buy a list, and then go knock on some doors. You can easily add other products quickly like cancer and FE. The key to this business is activity = keeping your prospect funnel full. I see a lot of agents try and prepare to work, and never do any. Don't over-think your way out of productivity. When in doubt, go sell.
 
No! You'll find quickly that most seniors you call on, except for low income, have some sort of life insurance, have a pre-paid funeral plan, or are fortunate to have some savings in place. Final Expense is a niche that is better served by buying leads. And Medsupp prospecting doesn't work if you're in an area with a high MA penetration rate.

If your cold calling/knocking... and focusing on the senior market, the most important thing to think about is...

What are seniors most concerned about? What problems are they trying to solve?

Saving money on healthcare costs?
Outliving their retirement income?
Long term care expenses?

Here's one problem, and a good place to start. Medicare doesn't cover everything. This leaves opportunities, especially in areas with lots of MA plans to offer supplemental products, like Hospital Idemnity, Dental, Vision, & Hearing, Short-Term Care, Cancer plans, etc.

As you gain more experience, you can cross-sell med-supps, LTC, fixed annuities, and FE for the occasional broke senior you come across.

The biggest thing I changed with my approach is, I'm no longer leading with one product. I don't know even know if they have a problem yet! Now, I sell the need to do a complete "insurance needs analysis", then make recommendations, based off that!


Hello, Thomasm!
Many thanks for your suggestions too! Do you charge them for the complete insurance needs analysis as its own separate service then? :idea:

Anyway, I do not have to just focus on senior products, since I am a life insurance agent first and foremost. Starting out new to all this, I need to develop some client base. Maybe I can just start by selling regular ol' life insurance across many different age ranges, then focus on MA etc later? That is, if many seniors already have some type of life insurance already. For now, I would like to know which is better way to provide enouch of an income to support myself. It sounded like just selling MA & med supps will be hard to provide a living -- please correct me if I understood that part incorrectly.

What do the veteran agents with more experience & wisdom think?
 
Hello, Thomasm!
Many thanks for your suggestions too! Do you charge them for the complete insurance needs analysis as its own separate service then? :idea:

Anyway, I do not have to just focus on senior products, since I am a life insurance agent first and foremost. Starting out new to all this, I need to develop some client base. Maybe I can just start by selling regular ol' life insurance across many different age ranges, then focus on MA etc later? That is, if many seniors already have some type of life insurance already. For now, I would like to know which is better way to provide enouch of an income to support myself. It sounded like just selling MA & med supps will be hard to provide a living -- please correct me if I understood that part incorrectly.

What do the veteran agents with more experience & wisdom think?

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Midwestbroker,

Many thanks for your excellent reply & advice! It really breaks the process down in an easy to follow way.

I want to thank everyone who has offered their help guiding a newbie through this road of getting my feet wet.
 
Hello, Thomasm!
Many thanks for your suggestions too! Do you charge them for the complete insurance needs analysis as its own separate service then? :idea:

Let me ask you....In your lifetime how many times have you paid for a complete insurance analysis. If you are just an insurance agent you might not even legally be able to charge a fee (state laws may vary).
 
I noticed someone here recommended you go to medicaretraining101, There is also medicareagenttraining site out there. They are both dot coms. I am interested too, since I am in the Senior's market with another product that should fit hand in glove. I don't know how the two compare. They look similar and both cost the same. Does anyone have any feedback on these 2 training sites?

I recommend Medicare Training 101

Good info and many many years experience in selling Medicare products by them brings an excellent perspective when using their trainging.
 
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