Selling Health Insurance – Everybody Needs it Nobody Wants to Pay for it
Who is your health insurance customer? Article 12 in Randy’s Closing Insurance sales Series.
Hi everybody,
For those of you I have not met
My name is Randy Mc Arthur
Today, I’d like to talk a little bit about your customer and most likely who he is. Hopefully this article will tie some of the previous articles together and shed some light on the method to the madness. In the previous article titled “types of leads” “working old leads” “working new leads” health insurance – not why but why now” and especially the article titled “our company’s mission statement” I discussed increasing your success by embracing the appropriate motivation to do the right thing for the customer. We got to know the customer somewhat during the process by looking at the customer’s wants and needs. By the way, it would be very beneficial to re-read the articles above before you read this one, but that’s up to you.
In today’s financial and economic environment, fear is running rampant and justifiably so. In order to know who your customer is, you have to consider the pressures that made him who he is. If he is looking for health insurance RIGHT NOW, he probably just experienced a significant change in his life that is his triggering event. People don’t mess with their insurance for the fun of it. Your health insurance customer is most likely one of five types of people.
In our current economy, he could very likely be a middle class, middle aged person with all the normal obligations that come with it, a mortgage, kids, credit card debt, two car payments, etc. Guess what? His company just closed his division and now he is without a job! He may or may not have a severance package that includes health insurance, but even if he does, the coverage is not going to last forever. He has to be at least a little bit scared and not accustomed to buying his own health insurance.
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This person is used to structure. It is someone who has worked at the same company or at least in the same industry for a good number of years, has paid vacation and a predictable schedule. He has been living the “American Dream” and now it has gone wrong. He does not like changes but now is forced to buy his own health insurance. How do you best help him?
Another face I’m seeing more and more frequently these days is just one step removed from the person who just got fired, laid off or downsized. This person just received notice that effective the first of the upcoming month the health insurance will no longer be available as a company paid benefit due to economic pressures on the company. They must do away with the health plan and cut some other cost or close the doors. How you help this person is much the same as the first, but a little different. They have more time to make their decision.
The next customer still probably had a triggering event that made him start looking for health insurance RIGHT NOW, but at least, is familiar with buying his own health insurance. He is employed by a company that does not provide any benefits. This customer is usually more of a free spirit that is willing to give up some security for some freedom. He often works for a smaller company than his corporate counterpart – with the exception of the part time retail workers who can’t afford anything anyway unless they are young with very few other bills. Sometimes he is in the market for health insurance, sometimes he is not. How will you help him?
Then there are the customers like today’s state employee family members. The employee is covered at 100% of the cost of coverage, but it is very expensive to add family members to the plan. The state employee family member is a pure premium buyer. You do not have any coverage to offer, that covers everything as well as the state employee’s health insurance plan. This customer simply can not afford to add the family to the state plan, but knows the value of good health insurance and is looking for the best coverage value available, not the cheapest. They are good customers.
My sister is a state employee. I cover her family. If you are in North Carolina, I know you have seen that the NC state plan is getting ready to increase in cost due to some rule changes pertaining to weight and smoking. How will you help them?
Last but not least we have the self employed people. They are the most diverse group of people you will encounter. God gave you one mouth and two ears. Listen to what each one of them has to say. Their motivation for being self-employed ranges form scheduling around other obligations such as home schooling their children or to simply try to make more money than they could working for an employer.
They are fiercely independent and make their own decisions. Usually they are accustomed to some change in their lives because they are accustomed to constant change in their business. Their budget varies greatly due to everything form money made, to money invested into the business, to, for some, which season of the year it happens to be. These people are used to accessing risk and making choices. How will you help them?
Of course, there are some more types of potential health insurance customers out there, such as the brand new college graduate or the person that needs a temporary policy for 3 to 6 months while waiting for their normal employer provided benefits to kick in, but, in my opinion at least 90% of your market will fall into one of the aforementioned categories. It just makes a lot more sense to concentrate on the 90% before you even investigate the 10%. You have to consider the odds and decide how to help the most people.
I hope this article together with the preceding chapters that I mentioned have helped you in some way. Evaluated together, they provide a framework of; Who, What, When, and Why. All that is left is How.
Just like always, I am happy to help anyone who asks for my help. My personal mission is to; first, only and always do the right thing to help people insure that, through their own choices, they are making the best decisions they can make to guarantee their success in everything they do.
If I can help you in any way just give me a call at (919)781-2018 or email me at randymcarthur@ymail.com . I look forward to hearing from you. Good luck in your endeavors and god bless you.
Thanks
Randy Mc Arthur
Thanks for stopping by my insurance leads blog.
Cheers,
Mac