Are you ready to take your Medicare business to the next level and start recruiting agents to your down line? Agent recruitment can be a good first step for scaling your Medicare business and adding another source of revenue aside from the Medicare plans that you personally sell. This is exactly what I did with my Medicare business and it allowed me to help others start a successful Medicare business and increase my yearly revenue through overrides from my down line.
If you are interested in agent recruitment, here is some useful information on recruitment, what makes a good candidate, effective marketing, and where to market these candidates.
What is agent recruitment and how does it benefit your company?
Medicare insurance sales can be considered as a multi-level marketing (MLM), or network marketing model. This means that independent agents are recruited by other agents (called their upline) and they can go on to recruit agents of their own (called their downline). The agents make direct commissions on policies they personally sell, but they can also make commissions, or overrides, on policies that anyone in their downline sells as well. The overrides paid from downline sales are less than any policy sold on your own, but they still qualify for lifetime renewals and they are policies you didn’t personally take the time to sell. You can grow your business by recruiting and training these agents, and benefit from every sale they make. This last point means it is important to recruit qualified agents that WILL produce so you have a good ROI for any time or investment you made recruiting them.
What makes a good candidate to recruit?
Are they already licensed? This is not necessary, but it eliminates a lot of time, steps, and testing if they already have a current insurance license. Keep in mind, having a current insurance license does not mean they already sell Medicare. This can include life insurance agents, health insurance agents in the under 65 market, or property and casualty insurance agents. You can also recruit current Medicare agents who are unhappy or do not have all the contracts they want with their current upline.
Do they already have a book of business? We have had a lot of success recruiting agents that are already doing independent sales of some sort and have an existing book of business accumulated from their sales. Having an existing book of business gives them an existing pool of potential Medicare customers they can start marketing as soon as they are contracted. For example, if you recruit an agent that sells Final Expense then they probably already have a book of business with a lot of 65+ leads. You can brainstorm and come up with potential recruitment opportunities that may have existing books of business, including many of the examples listed under point 1 of “Are they already licensed?”
Anyone with enthusiasm and drive! Even if they do not have their license or a current book of business, do not overlook people who are enthusiastic and driven. There are a lot of people in sales roles that thrive doing sales and can self-motivate to sell Medicare. Sure, they will have the extra added step of getting licensed first but getting past the licensing part should be a good indicator that they are serious. For example, I have contracted an elementary school teacher, a construction worker, and a realtor who have all excelled in Medicare!
What makes effective recruitment marketing?
This is the great part about Medicare right now. Considering the rate in which baby boomers are turning 65 and the increasing agent commissions, the numbers really speak for themselves.
Emphasize the opportunity: We have had great success targeting our marketing materials around the huge opportunity of approximately 11,000 people aging into Medicare EACH DAY! This makes it a booming industry with a steady supply of potential clients.
Emphasize the income potential: This is getting easier as well since CMS announced an increase in agent commissions for 2024. Agent commission on each new MA plan sold is increasing to $611 for 2020 ($762 in CA) with renewals paying $301 ($381 in CA). This can add up quickly even if you market this to prospective agents as starting part-time for extra income. Here is an example of a grid we include with all our agent marketing materials to emphasize the earning potential.
Emphasize the benefits you offer: Highlight any great reasons to work with you. Do you help them with training? (side note: you definitely should or they won’t be successful and will go elsewhere!) Will you guide them through getting contracted? Will you offer co-marketing money? If you are already contracted under us, then any agent you contract in your downline will have access to a turnkey Marketing Platform that gives them a FREE Contact Management System, Lead Management Tool, Quoting Tool, and Electronic Enrollment Tool. They will also have access to our Ready, Set, Sell Online Guide that will walk them through the process of getting contracted and certified to sell Medicare. This is a huge benefit and allows your marketing materials to show you are there to guide them through the process. If you are not already a contracted agent with us, CONTACT US HERE to learn how to get contracted ASAP and gain access to all our provided benefits so you can offer them to your recruits as well!
Be sure to check out our blog on “Why Sell Medicare?” which expands on this topic.
Where to market potential agents?
Local Insurance Agents in other fields: You can start with agents that are in your area. Make a list of all the life insurance, under 65 health insurance, and P&C agents located near you. This is an easy search with Google Maps. Simply go introduce yourself, talk to them, and give them your flyer. This is a great resource because even if they are not interested in selling Medicare themselves, you can still talk to them about earning a referral fee for any of their clients you can sign up. I have done this with many agents. They give me a list of their 64+ clients and I send a letter on their behalf that states the agent has partnered with me to offer Medicare. If you enroll a client you can pay the agent a referral fee (up to $100).
Postcards/Mailers: If you want to reach a bigger audience, you can do mailers to the various ideal candidates mentioned above. You can purchase lists of any of these groups to mail out bulk postcards. We have had a good response rate with our mailers by targeting groups we either have something in common with or know their industry is going through changes. For instance, I started as a P&C agent so I send mailers to other P&C agents that are allowed to contract and sell Medicare. This way, I can say that I started in P&C but have had even more success selling Medicare. This helps build trust and show I can help guide them from one type of insurance sales to the other. As for changes, figure out which industries are getting commission cuts or have rule changes affecting their bottom line. These will be the people that are more willing and interested to explore new income sources. If you are contracted with us, we already have a pre-designed postcard where you can add your picture and contact information to use. If you are not already an agent with us, contact us to learn more about getting contracted with us to gain access to these materials.
Social Media: If only there was a site where professionals listed their job titles so we could easily search and contact them. Oh, wait! There is…Linkedin! This is a great resource to find other professionals that would make good Medicare agents. Do a search for your specific target audience and add as many of them to your network as possible. You can send them a message to let them know about you and what you do. Also, as you continue to grow your Linkedin profile and followers, you should post consistently about how Medicare is booming, talk about your success, other related information about becoming an agent, and that you are looking to help new agents get contracted. This is also true for Facebook and Twitter. Make sure you have a business page and are posting regular content as well as updating your friends and family that you are recruiting agents.
Other Ideas: There are too many to go into detail in one blog so I will just give a list of other ideas for you: Networking events, business conferences, tradeshows, job search engines, college expos, job fairs, Facebook groups. Get creative with your recruitment and remember to always let people know what you are doing.
Now get out there and grow your Medicare business by recruiting agents! If you are not already contracted with us and want access to all our great resources for you and your downline then CONTACT US HERE. Don’t miss out on all the benefits of joining our team. We are constantly working to improve our process and provide more tools to help our agents succeed!
GMIA, Inc. – You Recruited Your First Agent, Now What? Says :
[…] sure to check out our recent blog “How to Grow your Medicare Business Through Agent Recruitment” for more information on benefits and how to […]