If you’d like to sell more Affordable Care Act (ACA) products to clients under age 65, consider using these strategies and tips. We’ve gathered some helpful advice to help you reach your sales goals.
Incorporate these marketing suggestions into your business plan to sell more ACA products all year long. Happy selling!
Understand Your Clients’ Needs
When working with clients to find the right ACA coverage, it’s important to have a comprehensive understanding of their current needs. Consider their current health status, average number of visits to a provider in a year, medications, budget, and preferred hospital network. Having a complete understanding of your clients’ health insurance priorities will allow you and your clients to make an informed decision about which plan will be the best fit for them.
Having a complete understanding of your clients’ health insurance priorities will allow you and your clients to make an informed decision about which plan will be the best fit for them.
Make sure you consider all elements of a plan in order to place your client in a plan that will meet their needs. As a Ritter agent, you have free access to a HealthSherpa account. HealthSherpa is a direct enrollment tool that can be used to shop and compare plans with your client and make finding an individual health plan even easier.
Note: Currently, HealthSherpa is only available in federal exchange states.
Be a Source of Knowledge
The insurance industry is constantly changing; that’s why it’s important to stay on top of new plans, new carriers in your area, as well as new compliance and regulation changes. As things change in the industry, make sure that your clients can trust you and easily approach you with questions about their insurance plans. We recommend becoming a “subject expert” on the types of insurance you plan to sell.
There are several educational resources available to agents looking to gain a better understanding of marketplace insurance. We recommend HealthCare.gov’s blog for help with tricky situations or other questions you may have. Ritter also has resources available for agents looking to grow their ACA knowledge or brush up on facts, like our eBook, The Complete Guide to Selling Affordable Care Act Insurance Plans. This guide covers the basics, marketing tips to reach more clients, and provides resources such as a cold call script, customizable letter, and helpful metal tiers comparison chart for clients.
If your clients can sense you’re a knowledgeable agent, they’ll likely feel comfortable coming to you with questions and referring you to their family, friends, coworkers, and more! Your clients should be able to trust you with something as important as their health insurance. They should always feel as if you’re in their corner.
Reduce the Number of Options
There isn’t a shortage of options when it comes to health insurance. However, finding just the right plan for your client can be overwhelming for them. One reason that we recommend knowing your clients’ needs well is so that you can eliminate plans that won’t be beneficial to them.
While having options and being able to choose your own plan can be empowering, too many choices can create decision fatigue. You’ll also save time by being able to present your clients with a shorter list of plans to choose from. While navigators cannot recommend one plan over another, you can, as you provide them with a few options to choose from.
While having options and being able to choose your own plan can be empowering, too many choices can create decision fatigue.
To eliminate some of the options available, on HealthSherpa and most state-based exchange platforms, you can filter plan options by monthly premium amount and maximum deductible amount to consider options that align with your client’s budget. Also on HealthSherpa, you can compare up to five plans at once and send the comparison to your client through the platform. If your client qualifies for Advanced Premium Tax Credit subsidies, but not cost-sharing reductions (CSRs), consider quoting a few of the lowest-cost bronze, silver, and gold plan options.
If your client does qualify for a CSR, concentrate your efforts on silver plans. These plans are the only options available to use with a CSR.
Build Relationships
As an agent selling ACA plans, your target clients are under 65 years old. This means they’re also most likely online. One survey reports that 99 percent of young adults aged 18 to 29 use the internet frequently. We recommend you stay up to date in your lead-generation methods and determine your social media strategy. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn make it easy to connect with others at any time, making relationship-building happen outside of business hours.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, more people are more familiar with remote meeting software due to a large amount of the workforce working remotely. Platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams can make meeting with clients virtually even easier. Try using them to get in touch with your clients periodically throughout the year, and especially before the Open Enrollment Period (OEP).
Practicing client retention is one of the most important things you can do for your business. At minimum, we recommend responding to emails within two days, responding to calls within 24 hours, and being on time for business meetings.
Learn new strategies for client retention and transform your business. Read our recommendations in The Complete Guide to Client Loyalty and Retention.
Understand the Impact
Periodically, set aside time to analyze the work you’ve done in the last few months. Were there channels that were more effective than others? Were there campaigns that generated several leads for your business? Understanding the impact of your work is crucial and an important step to improving your sales strategy year over year.
Of course, there are more statistics that matter than just new business. Making sales is important, as it’s what keeps your business running, but check in with your current clients and make sure they’re happy with the services you provide. Some agents choose to send surveys out to clients in order to gauge responses and adapt their strategies.
When your current clients are happy, they’ll come back, and maybe, they’ll refer friends or family to you as well.
No matter what combination of strategies you choose to implement, Ritter is here to back you up throughout the entire process. If you’d like recommendations from our knowledgeable team of sales reps, contact us today!
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