AEP Is Winding Down, But Your Work Is Not Over!

As the Annual Election Period (AEP) begins to wind down, you have a pretty good idea of where you will end up this AEP. Whether you knocked the socks off your competition or missed your goals, now is the best time to assess your marketing and sales strategies in preparation for 2017!

Typically, we all have to perform an analysis for senior management showing where the leads and sales came from and what the costs per lead and sale were. Based on that information, we want to understand what changes need to be made or tested for next AEP to increase lead generation and decrease the cost per lead or sale.

But that shouldn’t be the end of the analysis — now is the time to do the following:

• Conduct an AEP Process Analysis — From an operational perspective, what went right and what didn’t go as well as expected? Were there reprints? What were the call center stats — were they better or worse than last year? From an operational perspective, what would we like to change from this year to the next? What do we have to do internally/externally to accomplish that?
•  Vendor Assessment — What vendors over-performed or performed as expected? Do vendors need to be replaced? If so, the Request for Proposal (RFP) process should probably be completed by the end of the first quarter.
• Review Competitive Creative — There is nothing wrong with understanding what competitors are doing and seeing where you might need to strengthen your own creative in the next year.
• Review the sales distribution strategy to understand where the sales opportunities may have been missed and where they were most successful.
• Deep-dive Evaluation of Lead Generation to Member Onboarding — Since now is the time when we really remember all of the pain points and accomplishments, we want to document them to ensure we make changes where needed and expand the successes.
• Look back at the work plan/tactical execution plan to understand where more time is needed next year for a better execution come AEP.

Based on our experience, now is the time to conduct the assessment — before everyone has forgotten what needs to change and before the frustration of a missed date or opportunity becomes a distant memory. Gorman Health Group (GHG) has helped several organizations with this type of assessment — to provide that outside-in perspective which is honest and non-partisan.

Have questions? Contact GHG at ghg@ghgadvisors.com.

Resources

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