Working Walmart this Year - Cost to Agent $500.00?

[policy doctor]

The other week Sunday I was in W-Mt and stopped by the Direct Health kiosk. Poor agent was placed directly across from the bathrooms....need I say crappy location??

Anyway, he was alone and looked unhappy. Chatted with him and results were miserable...he was hoping Obamacare season would bring him some sales but his AEP was a flop. Rued the 20 hrs per week he had to spend there . Guess with that location it was hard to get motivated and be enthusiastic.

See that's the bad part....agent doesn't know where his booth will be placed, and it's hard to adjust the hours at will. Nope...not good w/o salary and benefits to do this one. Even the telesales agents make more money, esp when you factor in no expenses like gas, time spent driving, hours on phone servicing calls and looking up providers and drugs. Plus when its 5 PM their work is over for the day.

 

[rousemark]

The other week Sunday I was in W-Mt and stopped by the Direct Health kiosk. Poor agent was placed directly across from the bathrooms....need I say crappy location??

Anyway, he was alone and looked unhappy. Chatted with him and results were miserable...he was hoping Obamacare season would bring him some sales but his AEP was a flop. Rued the 20 hrs per week he had to spend there . Guess with that location it was hard to get motivated and be enthusiastic.

See that's the bad part....agent doesn't know where his booth will be placed, and it's hard to adjust the hours at will. Nope...not good w/o salary and benefits to do this one. Even the telesales agents make more money, esp when you factor in no expenses like gas, time spent driving, hours on phone servicing calls and looking up providers and drugs. Plus when its 5 PM their work is over for the day.

That seems to be where the tax and insurance booths are always located in our local WalMart

 

[MedicareAgent]

I have agents in 2 walmarts and they all are doing horrible. Lucky to set 3 appts in a week, have sold nothing at the booth at all, locations of the booths suck. I will not have stores next year, total waste of time.

 

[djmarden]

It is my understanding Humana was running the show last year as a result of the PDP partnership. I worked the kiosk last year and did better and feel the branding of humana helped attract some business (rather than healthcare starts here...). The logic behind using directhealth was to somehow offer wal-mart customers more choice, but it appears too generic and people really don't know what services we are offering. The location of the kiosk and of the store itself do play an important role. Without any type of base salary, this set-up is a HUGE waste of time. If the health insurance companies really thought there was money to be made, surely they would be staffing with their sales agents.

 

[MedicareAgent]

the booth is to generic like you said, not one company listed, poor location and the sides are so high you cannot see anyone in the booth unless your right in front of it.

 

[rugerred]

I have made some decent sales but overall it is not a good situation. The small kiosk, vague marketing and Walmarts general disinterest not to mention the cluster that this was starting up means I won't do it next year. I made probably in the $10k range.

 

[MedicareAgent]

Maybe its the agents that suck? lol.

 

[rugerred]

Maybe its the agents that suck? lol.

Could be me but I prefer to blame someone else.

 

[MedicareAgent]

Good point.
I'm happy to see you are at 10k, that is wonderful compared to my team, I have one gal that is at a total of 8 sales, 3 of them are rx cards. I think if the signage was more prominent and they didn't pile up the "go back" carts on each side of our booth it might be better, I don't think my agents will do it again next year.

 

[rugerred]

Good point.
I'm happy to see you are at 10k, that is wonderful compared to my team, I have one gal that is at a total of 8 sales, 3 of them are rx cards. I think if the signage was more prominent and they didn't pile up the "go back" carts on each side of our booth it might be better, I don't think my agents will do it again next year.

I have a ton of PDP and a mix of MA and supps. My biggest thing was husband and wife for advantage. One couple I wrote 2 med supp 1 PDP and 1300 av of FE. I KNOW I am not doing it next year.