The Classic Impulse Over-reaction

We find that we get a lot of phone calls from insurance agents and agencies that have recently gone to the “Annual Convention”. At these conventions one of “Key Speakers” usually tries to impress the crowd with a lot of web and social media buzzwords and general concepts that most of the crowd pays attention to.

The problem is, most of the attendees understand the concepts are very important but really lack the hands on experience on how the technology, social media or website concepts can really be implemented to actually help them and their agencies.  

So what ends up happening is the insurance agent overreacts, out of fear and impulse spends a lot of money and ends up with new technology that is impressive….. but has no real value to help their agency and insurance model.

Our point is this….. Technology is a lot like the old “Gold Rushes”. Once the public starts to hear about it the gold is already long gone and the “rush” moved to a new secret location. If you want your agency to be successful with technology you can start with being more hands on. The best education is trial and error. This will allow you to make better long term decisions. 

Health Insurance Technology Chaos

As most of you must know by now two of the biggest insurance companies in the USA (when it comes to individual & family Health Insurance) recently announced that all sales must now come via their “Coded Online Broker Enrollment Links.” That they would no longer be taking paper applications.

Basically what this means is, to sell these carriers you need a website. You also need to login to these carriers broker portals and create your own quoting & enrollment link. Which is free and takes about 1 minute. Then you can either send the consumer to your site or go there with them and enroll them.

Supposedly this was announced about 4 weeks ago to every broker and General Agent across the country by these 2 carriers.

Funny thing is, last week I received four phone calls from four different insurance agencies. I honestly didn’t know anyone of them as they weren’t my clients. All of them said basically the same thing.

“We have been following you on LinkedIn for a few years. We know you used to be a General Agent and we were hoping you could explain what it means to get “enrollment links”. We have reached out to the carriers and our GA and we can’t get any answers that make sense.”

Long story short, I had to teach all four how to login and obtain these links, plus all four of those agencies needed websites built to house the links, which we took care of. But I think the point of the story is how chaotic it is out in the health insurance world. I am not going to sit here and rip the GA’s and the Carriers. But what I am going to do is suggest every agent and agencies start to realize that it’s survival of the fittest moving forward. You can’t expect anyone to guide you or be proactive when it comes to teaching you technology and industry changes that you need to know.

You need to look in the mirror and understand you have to be accountable for all of this stuff moving forward. No one is going to help you, they have their own problems.

I mean how many sales you can make if you don’t have the ability to make a sale. I would say that’s something worth 10 minute of your day to learn and setup.

Ken French

Ken@snoozzy.com

www.benefitstore.net

973-607-1916 Ext 1

Should I Use LinkedIn for My Insurance Agency

As we approach 2014 I now almost find it almost comical when I chat with insurance agents who want me to prove to them that they should use LinkedIn for their insurance agencies.

I try to explain to them I could care less about LinkedIn, that I personally don’t like it very much myself and that my opinion really should mean very little to them.

However I try to explain the facts to them.

-         - 69 Million different USA computer users hit the site during August of 2013

-          - The site allows you to network with others

-          - The site allows you to create a database of your contacts

-          - The site allows you to message and market to those contacts

-          - The site allows you to join niche groups of your target market clients

-          - This is with the free version of LinkedIn

-          - Plus if you know what you’re doing, you should still have time to continue what you’re currently doing from a marketing standpoint.

So even though I don’t really like using LinkedIn, I learned a long time ago that my opinion doesn’t count. That I am salesman and I have to go where the crowds go. I have to do my best to touch as many people as possible, to project myself to be credible, to be an expert and to be a problem solver. That the insurance industry is truly a numbers game and that the agencies who reach those numbers make more sales.

In conclusion, it’s ok to hate or not understand LinkedIn. However if you want to project your expertise out to new and different people there is no excuse for not using it…. I guess you can always have fun cold calling.

Ken French

President

www.benefitstore.net

973-607-1916 Ext 1

Ken@snoozzy.com