Selling Season is Nearly Here, Now what?

Most plans are in the process of onboarding their agents and preparing them to sell.  Meanwhile, they’ve invested marketing dollars across various channels and different media. Now it’s time to turn marketing dollars into members.  With another AEP just around the corner, here are a few GHG best practice tips to keep in mind this season to help get the most bang for your buck out of those incoming leads.

• Cut down on lead distribution times as much as possible.  This is one area that cannot be stressed enough; beneficiaries are not waiting for follow ups, if leads are not quickly & efficiently being converted into appointments another carrier could potentially get that all-important first meeting on the schedule faster.  The industry is much too competitive, and the cost per lead is far too expensive to let any leads sit in today’s marketplace. Statistics show that close ratios improve the faster the lead can be converted to an appointment and the quicker that meeting can be conducted by the agent.  In an industry where the little details can matter, if this process is managed effectively there are additional members to be had.
• Once agent in-home appointments are in full swing, make sure to collect and document a disposition from the agent for EVERY meeting.  A lot of good information can be collected about why a potential beneficiary chose to enroll or not enroll in a particular plan.  That information doesn’t only apply to the sales team.   Share it with the benefit design team too, it will provide a real world perspective on why beneficiaries join, or more importantly, why they don’t. Most plans are good at tracking dispositions for their employed sales force,  but lack integrated systems to capture this for some independents.  Consider adopting a mobile technology to capture the rest of the picture from the independent agents.
• Make every possible enrollment avenue available for potential beneficiaries.  This means having a telesales unit, deploying a nimble sales force in the field, and finally in today’s world, utilizing (hopefully creating one if not) the online enrollment process.  The aging in Baby Boomer population requires us to provide a diverse number of channels for prospects to enroll.  Missing one avenue could be detrimental to your sales numbers!
• Learn from your successes….and your mistakes!  Improvement in years to come is only possible if there is an understanding of the effectiveness of current marketing campaigns, where enrollments are coming from, what return on investment various channels have yielded, and many more variables in play.  Track…measure…assess….adjust…repeat!

As always, stay tuned to the GHG Blog and to the Point for more selling season tips later this month.