BizTart Insurance Tips

Medicare leads

2011-04-06T17:52:00.000-06:00

I was approached today by a gentleman that has been following the blog for some time with his brother. His question was what lead route should he go with when selling medicare supplements. We talked for some time about the new Facebook advertising. I highly recommend this type of advertising because it is the cheapest pay per click marketing campaign you can find and you can focus in on zip codes, age, gender, and even educational background. If you have a website and a Facebook account you can start right away. I have started using it for individual health and have been happy with the results.

I also recommended www.brokersweb.com. This is also a pay per click campaign for your website that has worked very effectively.

Is it still worth it to sell health insurance after Health Care Reform?

2010-10-12T21:44:00.001-06:00

Hello Ethan - thank you for your wonderfully informative blog. I hope you can give me your insight as to how to proceed. I am new at selling health insurance but at this point I am wondering if it's worth it to invest any further time and money in this business.

I have been hearing that a lot of agents are feeling very discouraged. I don't want to invest any more time and money in something that might be taken from us in the NEAR future and by 2014. And diversifying is going to be very competitive. But maybe worth it.

As one experienced GA agent wrote (and many are feeling the same)
>>>I sometimes have trouble justifying the effort at current levels. If the comp cuts in half I will probably send them a link and wish them luck. ...
even if 75% of the agents bailed already this year, those who remain like us - for how long will we consider this business worth the return on investment of our time? it's getting ridiculously difficult to even put a sale together. Tell me, for the next three years if compensation is cut by say 50% is it worth staying in this biz? There comes a point where one either says no or yes to this ridiculous health insurance market...Deciding how much of my time and effort into a different direction. Come January, deciding my direction may come much easier..... >>>>>

Thank you!
Susan

Dear Susan,

I wasn't aware that so many agents were having a hard time with the business.? I have always believed that 90% of agents have NO CLUE how to run a business. Most are average to excellent sales people with charisma and work ethic but don't ever treat it like a business. I didn't either until I really studied people from Asian cultures on how they ran businesses. Most of these people save their money like crazy and really don't turn a profit the first 5 years while they are building clientele.

I think most insurance agents want to start making income right away. As you and I both know, revenue is different than profit. Until you are covering your debts and expenses you really aren't "making money". I think most of the people that are having a hard time are those that have over-leveraged their revenue by advances and lead costs to a point that they are really not making money; they are just spending their revenues and paying themselves on this.

My advice to you is this..........If you expect to start selling health insurance and making a profit right away you need to really have some reserves to get you through the first year. I would take some advice from some Asian business owners on how to start a successful business. Maybe go to a Chinese restaurant or something and talk to the owners.

Get your personal and business expenses low so that you can break a profit earlier. I like the quote from Brad Pitt in a movie that says "The things you own end up owning you." Stuff can make your life more complicated and harder to manage while you are starting out. I should know.....I used to have a driver drive me to appointments. Fascinating idea but in the end I could have sold more without him.

Get advice from a professional who specializes in analyzing businesses. I recommend Randy Russon. He is the one that has helped me and continues to help. My wife is a CPA but doesn't really know how to analyze my business so we go to Randy. You can find his contact information in this blog.

I would also recommend doing everything you can to increase your profitability by $5 a day. I have a person business coach that has helped me for over 4 years with goal setting and techniques that I would recommend. His website is www.performancegains.com. His name is Coach Bob and he is amazing.

Lastly.........If that is true, that 75% of agents might be quitting the industry, agents that can make it are going to make tons of money. I have been selling on average 3 policies per family. If you sell products like dental, vision, life, accident, and disability you have no worries even if they drop commissions down by 50%.

Ethan

Instructions to Import New Business clients to QB customers file (written for Quickbooks Premiere 2010)

2010-10-12T21:19:00.000-06:00

Importing New Clients
• GETTING DATA INTO AN EXCEL FORMAT

This is obviously for a format used especially for Ethan Selph. By no means are these instructions able to work in every situation because your software program might be much different. I would strongly encourage getting a bookkeeper to do this for you or you can contact Randy Russon, his contact information is within this blog, and he can give you some tips on making this work for you.

1. Open the New Business commission statement.
2. Save the commission statement to the desktop.
3. Open the Able2Extract program from the desktop.
4. Click on the folder to open the commission statement - go to the desktop and find the file.
5. Click Edit, Select all pages in order to convert all pages at once.
6. Click the excel icon so that it will convert to excel.
7. When asked which option you prefer, click custom.
8. The commission statement should now appear like a grid with a bunch of lines.
9. The only section you care about is the “Advance on Issue” section. The other sections don’t matter at this point. You want to make sure the vertical lines are positioned correctly for each column in the “Advance on Issue” section. If they are not positioned correctly (meaning that date will be cut off or not put in the right column, you can move the line by right-clicking your mouse and moving the line). If there is an extra line that you need to delete—double click the right mouse. If you need to add an extra line, simply position the mouse where you want the line and click the right mouse once.
10. Once you have the vertical lines positioned correctly, click the excel icon again.
11. The data should convert to excel and pull up the converted excel spreadsheet.

• SORTING DATA IN EXCEL SO THAT YOU CAN IMPORT IT

1. As previously mentioned, the only information that you are currently concerned about is the information listed in the “Advance on Issue” section.
2. Delete all the rows above the “Advance on Issue” section and delete all the rows below the “Advance on Issue” section.
3. Highlight all the remaining information from the commission statement.
4. Click on Data, Sort.
5. Select the column for Writing Agent that is in the “Advance on Issue” section. (probably column E)
6. Delete all rows with information for agents other than your name
7. Delete any total rows.

• GETTING THE REMAINING INFO IN EXCEL READY TO IMPORT

1. Insert a column after Column B Policyholder.
2. Go to Data, Text to Columns.
3. Selected Delimted, Next, check the “Other” box and put a column in the box. Click next and then finish. You should now see the last name and first name in separate columns.
4. Insert another column after Column C (first name)
5. Go to a blank excel worksheet and type in the following formula:
=CONCATENATE(B4,”,”,C4,” “,A4).
6. Copy the above formula into the commission spreadsheet next to the first name of the first client. You should see the following information in that cell now LAST NAME, FIRST NAME, ID NUMBER.
7. Copy this formula down so that each row has the combined name and policy number.
8. This formula will combine the name and the policyholder into one column so that it will be easier to find in QB.
9. Once each line shows the combined data, select all the data in that column (except the header) for Column D. Right click the mouse and select Copy. Right click and select Paste Special and then select Values. Now in column D, you should see the same data as before, but it will be the actual data and not a formula.
10. Insert a column after column D and make a header called Contact. Type in the contact person for each policy.
11. Insert another new column after column F and call that column Start Date. Rename Column H Issue Date instead of New Business Period.
12. Copy the dates from Column H to Column G as well.
13. Delete the Writing Agent column
14. Insert 4 columns after the Premium column so that you have a blank column J. Call these new columns Job Description, Phone, Alt Phone, E-mail. Input the phone and email information if desired.
15. Delete all other columns except the amount of the commission advance.
16. After the commission advance column, add a column for Opening Balance As of Date. Copy the Issued Date into this column.
17. Select the data in the commission column (N). Right Click and select Format Cells. Change to general format instead of Accounting format.
18. Change the format in columns G, H, and O to a Date formal. Select the data, right click and select formal cells, select Date.

• Importing/Copying into QB

1. Go to Quickbooks and select Lists, Add/Edit Multiple List Entries.
2. Go to the first blank line at the bottom of this list.
3. Copy the data from the excel sheet (do not include column headers). Select the data in the excel spreadsheet and then go to the first blank line in the list in Quickbooks, right click and select paste.
4. Make sure all the information was pasted to the correct columns in QB. Make any error corrections in necessary. The commission advance should be in the Customer Balance column. This will show up as an opening balance invoice.
5. Click Save changes.

CONGRATULATIONS—THE DATA IS NOW IN QUICKBOOKS.

6.

• Final step for the weekly renewal reports – add the chargeback information to Quickbooks.

1. If there were any chargebacks on the commission statement that you imported, these will need to be posted as a payment to the customer account in order to clear out the balance.
2. In Quickbooks, Click on Home, then Click on Receive Payments in the Customer Section.
3. In the Received from box, type in the last name and find the correct policy.
4. The date should be the date of the report.
5. The amount is the “Advanced Commission” amount minus the “Earned Credit” amount. This amount is usually different from the chargeback amount listed due to timing differences of when AIO finds out about the chargeback.
6. In the “Deposit To” line, select the appropriate insurance company for the commission advance account.
7. Put “chargeback” in the memo line.
8. Click Save and Close. IF there is an overpayment, an alert will come up, simply click OK.

You can delete the report that you saved on the desktop. You no longer need it.

How to input renewal income into Quickbooks

2010-10-12T21:12:00.000-06:00

Instructions – Inputting monthly renewal statement activity into Quickbooks

This is a step by step guide to entering your monthly renewal statement into quickbooks by exporting and importing. You need to get the "Able2Extract" program in order to do this and if you are just starting out you can do this manually. This is for Quickbooks 2010 Premier Edition. If you just don't want to have to deal with all of this I would encourage you to get someone to do it for you so you can show a payment history of each client and the balance they have with you. I would recommend Randy Russon for the job. You can find his contact information within this blog.

1. Go to your commission statements online.
2. Click on Commission Statements
3. Login to commission statement section.
4. Click on Renewal Statements.
5. Select the most recent renewal statement.
6. After the file opens as a pdf file, save the file to the desktop.
7. Open the Able2Extract Program.
8. Open the renewal statement file from the desktop.
9. Select Edit, Select All Pages
10. Click the excel icon and convert.
11. In the excel file, go to the very bottom of the document and delete any rows that have information on chargebacks. You will enter this information later, but don’t want it included with the renewal information.
12. Delete the header information at the top of the spreadsheet. Delete all rows above the Policy No./ Policyholder titles that start the beginning of the data.
13. Select the remaining data for the entire document so that it is highlighted.
14. Click on Data, Sort
15. Sort by Column D, Writing Agent.
16. Delete all rows for any agents other than Ethan Selph.
17. Open your Customers file in Quickbooks.
18. Hide all columns in Excel except for Policy No, Policyholder, Product, Earned Credit and Earned Commission.
19. For the amounts listed in the “Earned Credit” column you will need to input a payment into Quickbooks as follows:
20. In Quickbooks, Click on the Home window.
21. Click on Receive Payments.
22. Type in the last name in the Received From section until you find the correct client.
23. The amount is the amount listed in the Earned Credit column.
24. The date is the date of the report – for example 5/31/2010 for the 5/31/2010 renewal statement.
25. The deposit to line needs to be changed so that the payment is posted to the appropriate insurance company. Determine the product type from the excel spreadsheet either in the product column or after the name of the policyholder.
26. Click on Save and New and move on to the next payment following the same steps as above.
27. You may highlight or bold the information in the excel spreadsheet so that you remember which payments you have already input.
28. For the amounts listed in the “Earned Commission” column you will need to create an invoice and an immediate payment on the same day.
29. To create an invoice, go to Home and Create Invoice.
30. Select the Customer. If the customer is not in the system, add them to the system.
31. Select the class – product type.

How do I pick a good lead vendor?

2010-09-13T15:14:00.000-06:00

Thanks for your response Ethan! Just to let you know I have been using the mojo dialer for a few months and its great. I wish there was just one program for everything but that's wishful thinking! My problem now is finding a good lead vendor. I started out with insuranceleads.com and it was okay and then for about a month everything started unraveling (i.e., my contact ration went from about 40% to 20%, a lot of incentive leads, people who never requested information, etc.) I have also used netquote and a couple of others and I have found that with shared leads price doesn't mean better quality. This is a journey I guess.

Esteban

Answer: I built up my leads database with Netquotes. You can get hosed pretty bad with them too. I would suggest before trying any lead vendor to go to their site and put your information in there with your phone number and see how many agents contact you. If you mess around with zip codes that a lead vendor might use you might find that you are only sharing with one other agent instead of 10. Also pay attention to how quickly agents call you so that you can determine if you are competing against a call center or a good ole' agent. I prefer competing against agents because they don't have a predictive dialer half the time. I would also work with MOJO to have your leads directly imported into their system. They can show you how to do this.

Ethan

When is a good time to call leads?

2010-09-13T14:33:00.000-06:00

Hello Ethan,

I love your blog, keep up the good work. I have two questions for you. I am a new agent and I just started buying leads. So as not to wait around all day for leads when is usually a good time that leads start coming in or is it sporadic throughout the day? Also, do you do a lot of webinars when selling insurance online? It seems that some of the "experts" suggest you cannot sell successfully without selling via webinars. What are your thoughts. Thanks.

--
Cordially,
Esteban

Dear Esteban,

I don't think there is a perfect time to turn leads on and off. I think a lot of it depends on your situation and how many leads you are getting. If I were getting a few leads I would have them go to a smart phone or something and call them as soon as they come in if you are not in front of a computer all day long. I you have more than 10 leads a day coming in I would use an autodialer like MOJO or a call center like LEADPOD to make calls for you. These two services can help you make a much better return on your investment.

Lastly.........Don't let your business run you. You are the business owner and you need to run the business. If you aren't happy because you aren't doing what you love you will never be able to sell very much. I like to allocate so many hours a week prospecting, doing customer service, outside prospecting, and so forth. You have to figure out a formula that makes you happy. I would keep a time budget and keep track how your week is going to be divided up. Also there is nothing wrong with doing a business venturem like selling health insurance, part time until it out earns your other job. My rule of thumb has always been to not bite off more than I can chew!

Stellar Aged Leads

2010-09-13T14:22:00.000-06:00

Hi Ethan,

I found your blog and recorded webinar when I was researching stellar prospects. I am a bit leery of stellar prospects because I cannot find anything about them, good or bad on Google, the insurance forums or even the BBB. Also the emails I get from them are from a name at a totally different insurance company. I am worried about their legitimacy. But then again they are connected with MOJO which makes me feel a bit better. Since you don’t buy leads how are you connected with them? Is this where you got the original 5000 leads?

Answer: Dear Abby,

I don't know very much about Stellar Prospects. I met the owner at a Norvax convention last year and we joined up to do a training webinar. The owner was very nice to me and there was a lot of people on the call. He doesn't appear to be a person that I wouldn't trust. Since the webinar that I did with him there has been no communication. I really don't do those types of webinars anymore for Stellar or anyone. They end up eating away at my time and I never get compensated more than selling insurance policies.

I want to buy aged leads. I use another source but these prices are good for life. If I buy leads, how do I get them into my account (I use Aliss). Then how would I get them to MOJO and use them with a dialer and my own crm? Do I have to load them manually to Aliss and then again into MOJO? Then do I use the auto dialer, and when I get an answer, hurry up and search in Aliss for the client? I need to have the leads in Aliss since that is my quoter.

Answer: I wouldn't switch your clients from Aliss to Mojo simply because MOJO is an autodialer and not a quoting software. With Aliss there should be a function that allows you to export contacts into a .csv file and you can easily import them into MOJO. I like to "toggle" between MOJO and my quoting software by holding down "alt" and "tab" at the same time. I wish there was one program that would do "everything" for you but it is still in development with me for a while. I will let you know when it comes out.

Lastly, how early is too early to make calls. I am in the est time zone. I work numerous states but mornings are good now that the kids are back in school. I have always started no earlier than 10 a.m. because I don’t want to annoy people. How early is too early? And how early are people in the mood to buy? Thank you for your time and answers. Sincerely, Abby

Answer: I think 8am in a prospects' time zone is the perfect time to call. In addition to that, I would call at noon and 6pm. More than 3 times a day can get pretty annoying but you have to be aggressive with these people otherwise they will go somewhere else. Do yourself a favor and don't leave a message. You will get a better response from people calling you back if you don't leave a message.

Where do I get more General Agent help?

2010-09-13T13:25:00.000-06:00

Ethan,

Love your webinars. I listened to a couple of them. They've been very helpful. Your info was sent to me by Sue from Indiana who has been communicating w/you as of late. Both she & I got in to this business through the Pajama Man (PJM). We both have become somewhat discouraged. I am in the same situation as she's in. I'm running dry in funds and have been hesitant to jump in buy leads & take calls. I feel I need to put resumes out & get a night job until I get up & rolling in this business, but then I feel I won't have the time to do this business diligently. Catch 22, huh?

I'm really emailing to ask if you think I should leave my general agent who's of little value to me to go with AIO. They seem to help you get off the ground running. I've been speaking with a Gary Blanche from AIO who has been trying to recruit me. I'd have to transfer my carrier appointments to AIO. I feel that listening to live calls & their coaching (if they are being truthful) will help me get adjusted.

Are you still with AIO?

Thanks,
William

Dear William,

I am sorry to find out that you are having a hard time in the industry. I know what it is like to be recruited and not helped. It has happened to me several times. I guess you could say I am loyal to my family and not as much to organizations. I do use American Insurance Organization for my insurance products. I don't use them for all insurance carriers because they can't appoint me with all carriers.

I don't know Gary Blanche very well but I do know that he has received numerous awards for recruiting. I was in the Bahamas 2 weeks ago where he received an award for the best "recruiter" of 2009. That being said..........I cannot assure you that he is going to take better care of you than your last recruiter simply because I don't know much about you or your work ethic. The organization of AIO is a good solid one but I am sure that there are a lot of people complaining of not getting enough help from their sponsors. I have had agents that I have spent a lot of time working and training in the past that have said that I don't help them enough and I was spending 10-15 hours a week coaching them.

When I recommend a product, service, or person I have always used them. I never make a recommendation without trying it out for myself. That is why I can't tell you whether Gary Blanche is going to turn your business around for you. I hope this helps!

Do you do one on one sales calls?

2010-09-11T10:21:00.000-06:00

Do you still have personal one on one calls for sale, because I would like to pick your brain on approaches for aged internet leads?.

Corey

Dear Corey,

I don't do one on one sales calls with insurance agents anymore. I have been training agents for years and unfortunately I have never been able to figure out a way to make more money doing that than by just selling insurance. Because of that, lots of insurance General Agents have come to me for enhancing their sales skills and strategies for their agents knowing that I won't "steal" anyone from them. I am sorry I don't do this anymore. I do have plans to put some sales calls on YouTube though. I am just not sure when that will happen. This whole blog is really just a service that I offer to agents so that insurance producers can become effecient in selling insurance without having to make some of the same mistakes I made when I first started the industry.

Do you have Youtube videos on how to enter information into Quickbooks?

2010-09-11T10:11:00.000-06:00

Ethan, Did you do the YouTubes on using Quickbooks? Are you saying that you can build a CRM by integrating it with Outlook? Where can I get more info on all of this?
Jim A. (Texas)

Dear Jim,

If you use Outlook, it automatically syncronizes the information from Quickbooks to Outlook or from Outlook to Quickbooks. I am using my own CRM now that I built because I tried to get Outlook on my new computer and had problems get anyone from Microsoft to help me configure Outlook the way that I wanted with the new edition. After spending literally 2 weeks on this project I gave up and have revamped my own database that I built and it can export and import directly into Quickbooks right now. I do have the information on how to enter information into Quickbooks available but not on Youtube yet. I have been having technical difficulties adding this information to the blog. Hopefully it will be up within the next two weeks.

The CRM system that I have will eventually be available to the public for sale but I am still about 6-12 months from that. I use Quickbooks for all of my customer payment information and financials. I am using my own CRM for a toll free number, auto responders, CRM, and telephone broadcasting. I will let everyone know when I have my own CRM that will be available for the public.

Who do you use to help you make business decisions?

2010-09-11T09:29:00.002-06:00

I gave up trying to make up decisons about my business by myself years ago. It is just too hard to become proficient in one line of work and then be super good at another. We do have to trust and rely on different specialists to help us in any business venture.

During the past 12 months I have been using the financial firm of Russon and Company for all of my financial decisions. Randy Russon, the owner of Russon-Company, has spent quite a bit of time interviewing me about my health insurance business. He has interviewed me about the strategies of my business model as well as asking what has worked well and what hasn't worked very well.

Randys' poignant questions and positive attitude have helped me feel comfortable in working with him.

Last year because of the help of Randy Russon, he helped me cut over $50,000 of expenses and helped me implement new strategies that increased my business revenue.

Even though my wife is a CPA and helps me quite a bit with accounting needs, she doesn't have the background of analyzing financials that Randy Russon has. Becuase of that we have outsourced most of the financial analyzing to Randy Russon.

This past year I had an insurance agent, at a conference that I spoke at, ask me how much money should I spend in leads? I had no clue what to tell him because when I asked him about his revenue, expenses, and profit margins he had no clue what I was talking about. I referred him to Randy Russon in hopes that Randy would help him put all of the information into Quickbooks and help make recommendations for him. At the minimum I recommend that each business owner meet with someone like Russon-Company once a quarter to get help paying your quarterly taxes. It also helps you to get another persons' perspective on your business.

I have referred quite a number of people to Russon Company and will continue recommend his name for small business owners. His website is www.Russon-Company.com and his phone number is 801-226-9075.

Do you have two Vonage accounts because you sell in two states?

2010-09-11T08:47:00.001-06:00

I have 4 phone numbers and one toll free number for my clients. I started with Skype with 4 phone numbers and I got out smarted by their fees in making as many calls as I do that it started costing my more money than having a two Vonage accounts.

My accounts through Vonage have one "real" phone line and one "virtual" number. The reason that I have had so many phone numbers is because if I was trying to get in touch with clients that I felt were avoiding me I would call from different area codes. It has always been worth paying a little bit more in a phone bill because of the people I am finally able to talk with.

I started my phone lines with Skype but I have been much more happy with Vonage with the call quality. I was able to bring down my internet speed from a 10 Megabyte high speed fiber optic line to regular DSL from Qwest when I switched from Skype to Vonage. I think I am saving about $60 a month because of that.

How I organize my clients in my CRM.

2010-09-11T08:32:00.001-06:00

These are a list of statuses that I have set up in my CRM. Basically I have a folder for each of these statuses and when I move a client to a particular status the email auto responders start for these clients.

6 month client review Advises client to call us for 6 month check-up

Application pending Application completion reminder.

Customer service Already approved. Just to advise client that Customer Service is working on their issue...

Delinquent payment Asks client to contact us regarding a policy update.

Lab work/Paramed Advises client a Paramed will contact them regarding required lab work to qualify for insurance.

Medical records request Advises client their medical records have been requested for review by the insurance company.

Missed phone appointment Client did not keep a phone appointment. We request they contact us for a new appointment.

New client check-up Asks client how things are going for them (every few months).

Non-valid leads Advises prospect we tried contacting them by phone, and request correct information

Not interested resolicitation 10-month 'reconsider us' notification for those who are not interested.

Prospect appointment Reminds prospect of upcomng phone or personal appointment.

Prospect introduction Introduces the agent and available products for prospective clients.

Quotes viewed Acknowledgement of client online review of Norvax insurance plan quotes.

Renewal 10-month policy review notice to client.

Thanks for your business (post-sale) Same or next day e-mail thanking client for their new business.

UW customer service Prospect is in underwriting, but has service issues. Notifies them their problem is being worked on.

UW decision (CIRD) Advises client that the Underwriting Department has made a decision. (One of the following: Counteroffer, Incomplete, Issued, Rate Increase or Declined. Note: The decision not communicated in this notice.)

UW decision (CIRD) phone appointment Post-CIRD phone appointment.

UW going well Advises everything is going well in underwriting: No requirements for this client, but no decision as yet.

UW interview - Aetna No decision as yet. Client needs to call for UW phone interview.

UW interview - American Community No decision as yet. Client needs to call for UW phone interview.

UW interview - Assurant No decision as yet. Client needs to call for UW phone interview.

UW interview - Humana No decision as yet. Client needs to call for UW phone interview.

UW interview - UHC No decision as yet. Client needs to call for UW phone interview.

Interim rules on Health Care Reform

2010-09-11T08:26:00.000-06:00

http://images.magnetmail.net/images/clients/NAHU_2/attach/GLG_Summary_Annual_Limits_Regulations_June_10.pdf

What strategies should I use when just starting to sell insurance?

2010-09-01T15:52:00.000-06:00

Dear Ethan,

I can't tell you how much your information and your videos has helped me.

We had a family construction business but there has been no work for over two years. We were unable to find anything to bring income even though we tried everything we could think of. We were slowly liquidating practically everything we owned and exhausting savings and credit cards and family assistance. We were desperate to find an income!

I am very new now in insurance - just passed the exam and am very green. I was never in insurance industry prior to April, 2010. In fact, I hated even reading my policy and rarely did! What got me hooked was that I could help educate people about insurance and help them get better plans AND make an income. I figured I could learn it but several times I thought "What was I thinking???" But so far so good. People like you have been very helpful and inspiring.

I worried about health care reform but no good in worrying. I like your Phil Jackson idea - take it a day at a time. Focus on now and hurry up and get it done now. (he used to be our Chicago Bulls coach although I'm in Indiana). Sorry to go on - here are my Qs:-

Can you import the client info into Quickbooks from Mojo or Quotit or Norvax? All of those systems will allow you to export that information into an excel file and then you can upload that into Quickbooks. If your reports are in a pdf you can use www.able2extract.com. The link is http://www.investintech.com/prod_downloadsa2e.htm.

What do you feel is a good salary to pay an assistant, how many do you have, and how many hours do they work?

I don't have any assitants at this time. I have felt that by the time you get an office and a couple people helping you it eats away at your margins so much that it isn't worth it. I moved back into my home from my office two months ago and I like it much better. If you need help with a technical project or something you can always call a temp service and they can have an employee meet you at a Kinkos or something. That is what I usually do if I need some sort of project done. I wanted to build a huge agency in the past but I really like my lifestyle of coming and going when I want and seeing my 2 year old lots while working from home. I have tried pretty much everything in this business and I prefer it this way but maybe it will change in a year or so.

Why do you have to work every day if you are just mainly working aged leads? I don't have to work everyday and I don't always but I work and play hard. Last week was the Bahamas and then next week I am taking a 7 day backpacking trip through Yellowstone! Besides.........I am only 37 years old. I have my prime earning years ahead of me and I need to work to keep up with Obamas tax increases that are coming.

Do you send teaser emails before you contact NEW prospects,too, or just renewals and not interested? I was unclear about that. If I were working new leads (which I am not anymore) I would send them an introduction email explaining what I do along with a phone call. If I don't make contact I would send a follow up email 4-6 days later and then from then on I would double the amount of time I am sending out emails. So on the third batch I would send out an email 8-12 days later and then 16-24 days after that and so on.

Do you have a script to suggest to start with these aged leads (but new to me, not renewals or Not Interested leads). There are several videos on this blog that explain a script for new leads and if it is an aged leads you can visit one of my posts at http://biztartinsurancetips.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-to-call-not-interested-leads-or.html to find out more about this.

you have me excited to start! I am signing on for the auto dialer and then the stellar prospects leads.

Thank you!!!

Susan

Which package should you start out with on Norvax and Mojo?

2010-06-23T16:41:00.000-06:00

Ethan,

After reading all your blog posts and watching your interview, I'm very seriously considering obtaining Mojo and Norvax.

From what I understand, MoJo within weeks will modify their product to have a CRM system as well as automatic lead call and connect. First, is this correct?

If so, then which product from Norvax would you recommend? (answer for a starter agent on a lower budget and keeping in line with your training, "don't borrow or spend more than you earn" The choices are Basic, Professional, Prem, and Elite.
For AIO agents: Are there any discounts available you know of? I don't see any in the AIO site.

Thanks.. I'll watch your blog for a post response. Truly appreciate your help and training.

Joe, FL

Dear Joe,

Anytime I purchase a new technology product there is always a learning curve to making the product work. As a rule of thumb, because I am the worst at learning new technology, I always start at the most basic package you can purchase with that company that gets the job done. My recommendations would be.

Norvax: Start out with just the quote engine. Once you have put in all the insurance companies and you know that product like the back of your hand you can look at the auto responders and some other stuff. There are 3 major components of the Norvax System. They are..............

1. Quote Engine- Basically just gives quotes so that consumers can compare plans and apply right there. This also has a simple contact manager that you can use.

2. Auto Responders - Lead Miner- This automatically sends out a link so that the client can view plans right there. It also notifies you when a client views your proposals.

3. Website - This is a custom built website (template) that you can market and prospects can get a quote and sign up for the plan online. This works great for consumers that can't speak English very well.

Mojo - Makemycalls.com, Mojosells.com: I would just start with the basic package. I only recommend the auto dialer if you have hundreds or thousands of contacts to call. It doesn't make sense to purchase an auto dialer if you only have 100 people to call. You can call over 100 people in an hour because it calls 3 people at a time. The new feature that has auto responders should be great but I would learn the ropes before starting out with the whole package. My policy is "Invest a little, get a return on your investment, and then invest more where you see a profit." The auto dialer is very complex. You could have your brain fried after a few hours of tutorials on this product. As with any new feature there are going to be bugs as well so give it a month or two. I don't even do BETA tests with new products anymore just because I end up being the Guinea pig.

As for the AIO (American Insurance Organization) discount. With both of these products there are none. There used to be and if you had them before you are "grandfathered" into them. If you are with AIO you can ask John Pequeno to see if he is willing to renegotiate the discounts. Daniel Christoffers is awesome to work with over at Norvax.

Interim Rules for Health Care Reform Effective September 23, 2010

2010-06-23T14:37:00.000-06:00

White House Issues Interim Final Rules on Provisions Effective Sept. 23

Interim final rules were issued Tuesday by the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and Treasury concerning implementation of the pre-existing condition exclusions, lifetime and annual dollar limits on benefits, rescissions, and patient protections provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) .

Grandfathered Plans

Last week Interim Final Regulations were issued from the Departments of HHS, Labor, and Treasury around “grandfathered plans” under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA). Health benefit plans in effect on March 23, 2010, are considered grandfathered health plans, which will not be subject to certain PPACA provisions.

The new regulations allow insurers and their customers to make only certain types of changes to their existing health plans while maintaining their grandfathered status. However, if an employer, member or insurer wants to make any changes to their plan beyond those defined in the regulations, they would lose their grandfathered status and have to follow the new rules identified by PPACA.

HHS included in its rules clarification that grandfathered plans:

Cannot significantly cut or reduce benefits

Cannot raise coinsurance charges

Cannot significantly raise copayment charges

Cannot significantly raise deductibles

Cannot significantly lower employer contributions

Cannot add or tighten an annual limit on what the insurer pays

Cannot change insurance companies

How will health care reform affect your commissions?

2010-06-16T14:46:00.000-06:00

The word on the street about comissions could drastically change the way most insurance agents sell policies. Most clients only stay on the same plan for 1-2 years because of rate increases. For the next few years the rates are going to stay pretty low and the commission structures are going to reflect most other types of insurances. Some insurance companies have already stated that they are going to an "as earned" type of pay structure with lower comissions like automobile insurance. Most insurance companies are going to "beef up" the comissions on ancillary products such as life insurance, accident riders, dental, vision, and disability to make up for the drop in income for agents.

As I get more information on these changes I will post this information. I believe it is more important than ever to keep a reserve around to allow you to stay in the insurance industry long term.

How to calculate earnings from advances on your insurance business

2010-06-15T19:30:00.000-06:00

About one third of insurance companies offer advances now. It is very hard for a new insurance agent to make it without getting some start of advances to get going. Unless you have a large loan most insurance agents wouldn't be able to support their families without an advance.

The key to becoming profitable while getting advances is to save up enough money so that you have enough cash on hand to cover your debt to the insurance company. Until you have saved up this much money you are not "making money" in this business because you are living off loans. Most agencies that insurance agents work for don't really care about the bottom line of the agents or really understand how to maximize each agents earnings. To fully understand how to increase profitability for your insurance business you need to have all of your accounts in a program like Quickbooks that can help you measure profitability.

About 95% of insurance agents don't really treat their insurance business like a business. They treat it like a hobby. You can tell a true business owner that really has intentions on making money because they have records that show money made and money lost. If you had to hire a 3rd party to view your books would they be able to see what's going on with your company and make recommendations? You should have your entire book of business located in a central location so that you can have available documents to share with others that might be able to help you.

I would strongly encourage each insurance agent to start entering information into Quickbooks and consult with a financial advisor that is trained in financial analysis at least every quarter. I am convinced that really anyone can make a living in this business if they have the tools to make informed decisions. In the future we will have some tutorials on this blog that should only take you about 5 hours a week to to input it yourself. Most bookkeepers will do it for less than $16 an hour so if you make more than that an hour you should probably hire someone to do it for you. The point is that you want to get it started so that you can make more accurate decisions about your business.

Using Quickbooks for your health insurance business

2010-06-09T10:58:00.002-06:00

Can I just tell you how much I have enjoyed using the new Premier Quickbooks for my health insurance business?! With one click I can see income expense trends, previous income comparisons, collection accounts, advances owed, highest paying customers, renewals, and expense breakdowns on one page. I am slowly working this into my CRM. It even has a auto responder through Intuit that you can use!

It synchronizes automatically from Outlook with all of the contacts and allows you to see the entire payment history of each client. In the past if there was a billing issues I would have to research the problem with the client, call the Insurance company, and then call the client back again. I am so glad that I can get off the phone with these insurance companies and be able to provide better customer service the way a business should be.

The Quickbook Premier is $349 for a 3 year license and you don't have to worry about monthly fees with quickbooks. The only drawback is that it is a program that you install on your computer but they do have an online quickbooks that you can access anywhere. I think that one is about $20-$30 a month. We have used it about 4 years ago and never had a problem. The premier definately has more features though. I am putting my budgeting and forecasting stuff together as well as my business plan into Quickbooks Premier now.

Drip Email Marketing

2010-06-02T14:10:00.001-06:00

Thanks for you help to those of us just starting on-line sales.

Are you still using Norvax , or are you using Mojo and some other drip mail co.?

I signed up with Mojo, and I am thinking of a drip e-mail co.

Any help you can offer would be grand, and thank you for your blog site!

Walter

Dear Walter,

I will tell you what I use and have used but the challenging part of running your own business is deciding which business model works for you. Here is what I would prescribe based on the type of business most insurance agents are running.

1. Buying internet leads and selling them. I recommend using Mojo and Norvax for this. The Norvax system is a totally different software than Mojo. The Norvax system is a quoting system with very little interface to be considered a "great" CRM and doesn't hold a candle to the Mojo auto dialer for making calls. If I were an agent buying leads I would have my leads go into the Mojo system automatically and call them real time. I would use Norvax for the autoresponder emails and quoting. This summer Mojo is going to be coming out with an email marketing function that emails every time you call if you want it to. I believe this feature is going to be awesome! As long as Mojo doesn't have a quoting software you would still probably need Norvax.

2. Working off renewals. I use the Norvax system for quoting and the Mojo auto dialer for making calls. Occasionally I will use Constant Contact for some email auto responders but mostly I am a call shop now because I like to talk to my current clients to get to know them better.

This is my story on how I started selling online health insurance

2010-06-01T17:19:00.002-06:00

I found this training online about me that I wanted to share with you. This is my story and how I got introduced to online marketing through Norvax.

http://www.4shared.com/audio/yzUBs3GY/Norvax_U_-_8_Ethan_Selph_Top_P.html

The battle between Mojo and Norvax for a CRM

2010-05-27T18:17:00.001-06:00

Hi Ethan!

I have just listened to your recorded webinar from Stellar Prospects – thank you so much for all of your insight!
I have been using the Mojo Dialer for a few months, and I also use Norvax Autoresponders, and I have been really happy with both programs. I am just wondering how you set up your Call Results – and then send those prospects to lists. You mentioned that when you are working your NOT INTERESTED list and you tell someone you are going to call them at renewal, I am assuming you put them in a list to dial in December (for example). Then a list populates for renewals that come up in December. There aren’t enough Call Results, so I was just wondering if you could give me some insight on how you organize it.

Dear Krysten,

If you haven't seen my video on how I have set up my autoresponders through Norvax you definately need to watch that. It is on this blog a few months ago. That explains how I categorize all of my clients.

When someone tells me they aren't interested right now I move them into a folder called "Not Interested June" or whatever month I am in. That makes it easy to export from my CRM into the MOJO autodialer. Right now pretty much any list that that I am calling is exported from my CRM like Norvax into the auto dialer. It can take about 3 minutes a day but it is the easiest way to do things that I can figure out. I am in the middle of deciding whether I should build my own CRM, using Quickbooks as a CRM, and Mojo as a CRM. All of them have different capabilities which are great but none of them offer everything that I want.

I am working with Quickbooks to have everything integrated with one of the CRMs' so that you can pull up a ton of different reports like forecasting tools etc to help out insurance agents. So in the meantime I am just like everyone else..........toggling between 3-4 different programs and having my wishlist of features in a CRM which never seems to get fulfilled.

Also, do you really feel confident that the Mojo Dialer autoresponders will be able to replace Norvax? Are they going to have the volume and quality that Norvax provides?

The one thing that the Norvax autoresponders have is the ability to be able to see who has viewed different proposals. If you take that away and the quoting engine you have really nothing. I don't like the fact that you cannot view any history of emails sent to your client on Norvax. I think that problem with Norvax makes it about a 3 for a CRM. I have to rely on protection of my incoming and outgoing emails to keep clients in check. I have discussed this many times with Norvax and they haven't implemented anything yet and it has been a year since my conversations. You will still have to have an email account like Outlook to be able to receive incoming emails because Mojo is going to do a pop 3 but at least it can send out an email everytime you call someone if you want. I could really see this paying off on missed appointments and renewals. You just don't want to go crazy with the settings otherwise people will mark you as a spammer.

Ideally I would like to have a Quoting engine, Quickbooks, Email account, and flexible CRM into one system however it will probably take me about 1 year to complete it. I have the CRM part built but the Quickbooks is a tough piece of the puzzle.

Next week I am going to put up some new charts that I made up on the schedule that hopefully will help you do some forecasting stuff. If you don't have every insurance account in Quickbooks I believe that you are losing a ton of valuable information. If you are interested in this please contact me through www.biztartfinancial.com.

As for who is going to be the best autoresponder system this summer I don't know. I would definately give Mojo a good try if you are on it all of the time. I know their customer service is really good and it doesn't look like it is going to cost much more but I could be wrong.

Once again, thank you so much for all of your insights! Much appreciated!

Krysten

What is "churning" or "twisting" with health insurance

2010-05-26T15:56:00.000-06:00

I have had several conversations with different insurance producers on my strategies for selling health insurance. Some have accused me of "twisting" or "churning" policies. I will explain how I sell most of my clients and you can decide on your own what you think "twisting" or "churning" is.

I call my clients every 4 months to check on them and their policy. At renewal time if I can find a better policy for a cheaper price I will apply through that company. Here is an email from a prominent GA when I asked him if he thought I was "twisting" or "churning" insurance business.

Hey Ethan,

You are right in that if you are saving the client money and/or providing them better coverage (or a reasonable combination of the two), you are safe from any of your sales being considered churning. This is what you are doing when working with old clients and no insurance department or anyone else for that matter would ever give you a difficult time for doing this, because you are obviously doing what is in the better interest of the client.

I've never heard of any sort of 20% or other percentage rule. I think whoever you talked to heard this hear say from a non-credible source, or maybe was just confused altogether. If there was such a rule, it would be state specific and I can tell you that rule definitely does NOT exist in PA. And I've never heard of any other state having any such rule.

One other thing to add, even if a specific state did have such a rule, it would be impossible for them to do anything to you as an agent if you saved all of those clients either money, or gave them better policies. You are really doing what's in the best interest of the client at that point. What are you supposed to do, turn the client away even though you can save them money? Bottom line is, your safe. You're really got no concern with this.

Thanks Ethan!

Thanx Much,
John Pequeno
American Insurance Organization

Here is the Wikepedia version of "twisting" or "churning" health insurance.

§ 781. Twisting
(a) A person shall not make any statement that is known, or should have been known, to be a misrepresentation (1) to any other person for the purpose of inducing, or tending to induce, such other person either to take out a policy of insurance, or to refuse to accept a policy issued upon an application therefor and instead take out any policy in another insurer, or (2) to a policyholder in any insurer for the purpose of inducing or tending to induce him or her to lapse, forfeit or surrender his or her insurance therein.

(b) A person shall not make any representation or comparison of insurers or policies to an insured which is misleading, for the purpose of inducing or tending to induce him or her to lapse, forfeit, change or surrender his or her insurance, whether on a temporary or permanent plan.

West's Ann.Cal.Ins.Code § 781

Churning, also known as twisting, is an attempt by an unscrupulous agent from an insurance company to cancel your existing policy and replace it with a new one, drawing down your cash value (called ?juice? in industry jargon) to pay for it. This activity generates additional commission for the agent and may result in your having to pay more down the line. It is also a word used to describe the actions of a stock broker who continually buys and sells for an account, churning profits for the broker oftentimes eating up whatever profits might be there for the consumer.

You can view the link here at http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_churning_and_twisting_in_insurance

Limited Medical Plans

2010-05-26T15:18:00.000-06:00

I particularily don't like limited medical plans but Teamcorp seems to be above average. Since AIM Health Plans has had so many problems this is the next best option instead of a risk pool plan. Their benefits are, I believe, twice as good as AIMS' but the whole lack of HIPAA compliancy issue is a little hard to sell for Teamcorp. I am selling this as a short term plan and then I work like the dickens to get a copy of their medical records from the client and try and sort out a bunch of their pre-existing conditions. It definately seems that doctors and facilities are exaggerating the health issues now adays.

You can also have the client go to http://www.mib.com/ to get a copy of their consumer report from the Medical Information Bureau. I always tell my clients that they have every right to see what their doctors' opinion is of them.

You can get around a 25% commission with Teamcorp and I truly believe it is better than not having any type of coverage.