Quality Medicare Appointments Lead to Referrals

Keep Pushing for Quality Medicare Appointments

If you've done a good job, your quality Medicare appointments will shine. You will find that the referrals from that customers will be a huge center of influence for you.

That one insurance lead could turn into so many more sales.

I know that this annual enrollment period has been different than anything I have personally experienced. And probably the same is true for you. We've had to make adjustments and we've had to work harder than we've ever had to work to meet with and to enroll new members in some areas.

As many of you know, working in this arena, we depend on leads. It doesn't matter if they are self generated, direct mail, or Facebook ads.

Low Lead Returns? Don't Get Discouraged

I have tried to send out leads to agents this year and we ordered leads here at Tidewater as we do every year. I wanted to be frank with you and let you know that lead returns in the Carolinas have been much lower than what we've seen in the past. And because of that, they they're near and dear when you get them. And I want to give you a true example of what I've personally run into.

My Experience With Quality Medicare Appointments

I had an area that I thought would be a great place to drop some leads. So I had a lead drop done about two hours from my house. As most of you know, I say, "I have a car and I will travel". I'll go out and meet with customers wherever they may be. My hopes were that I would get a good return, but I did not. I received six leads off and some had phone numbers, some had email addresses, some had both.

So I went to work and called the leads just like I always do. I called different times of the day. I documented when I called and I called each lead about ten or twelve times. Finally I had a breakthrough with one of my leads and the appointment was set. Unfortunately, I was not able to set any more appointments off of those six leads. So then the dilemma was, do I go and spend 4 hours drive time for one appointment? The answer was yes, I will.

You never know who will be there

I wanted to try to salvage something out of the lead drop, and because this person had expressed interest in getting help, I wanted to be that helper. So when I went out on the appointment, I was expecting to see one person. As it turned out, when I arrived, it was a lady and her sister and there were two other people there.

I ran the appointment just like I normally would. I tried to take my time and be patient. I asked good questions while I was there. We looked up doctors,  medications, and we went through the benefit offerings.

And at the end of that appointment, I had written 2 sales! In my mind, I thought I basically broke even on this late drop. So if you can keep them on the books next year as a renewal, that's when you'll be profitable.

Referrals: Show me the money!

Before I left the home, I asked the ladies if they had any other questions. Then I asked them for referral. I basically said, you know, ladies, I appreciate the opportunity to work with you today. The way I make my living is sitting down with folks just like you, and if you think I've done a good job for you today and if you know of anyone else that you think these plans could benefit, I would certainly appreciate you passing my name along.

When I left the appointment, I was happy. But within two days, Miss Boone, she called me back and she said, "I've got two friends that I need you to see. They're actually going to be at my house if you'll tell me when you can make it back." So needless to say, I went back and 2 more sales were written. Since that time, she has called me again and I'm getting ready to go back out again to write another one of her friends.

1 Lead turns into 5 applications due to Quality Medicare Appointments

So in that one lead, it looks like I'm going to write a minimum of five applications.

My point being is that when I looked at my 6 leads, I only had one that looked like it was going to amount to anything. But if you work the averages of six leads and you receive five sales out of six leads, all of a sudden the numbers look much better. That lead drop is going to be profitable for me.

I will have helped five new customers. I just want you to know that it's a wonderful, wonderful thing to ask for referrals.

Don't be afraid to ask for referrals

Many agents lose opportunities because they don't ask.. They get so excited about making a sale that they forget about asking. It is always strong evidence that they're happy with your quality Medicare appointment if they offer warm referrals.

So I wanted to encourage you today to stay persistent, keep making your phone calls on your leads and know that it's not always the number of appointments that you run, is the quality of the appointment that you run, and ask for that referral!