It’s still summer, but with Q3 underway, it’s not too early to consider what you can do now that will help you ensure a smoother Q4. For many employee benefits agents and brokers, Q4 is the busiest time of year with new group enrollments and renewals.
Insurance Sales Tips
Embracing these seven tips can help you prepare for what’s ahead later this year:
1) Jump on renewals: If you’re a Word & Brown broker, you can login and view your personalized broker dashboard showing your upcoming renewals. That makes it easier for you to prepare, look at your clients’ current coverage and determine whether you need to help them shop for alternatives, or decide whether renewing at their new rate makes sense.
2) Start early: Ninety days out is not too soon to think about your new clients’ future coverage. If you need help finding new clients, a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program can help. It can also be useful in following up on missed opportunities from prior years – situations where you lost out to another broker. Read our 2020 post about CRM options, if you don’t have a program already in place.
3) Research comparison plans: Whether you do it on your own, or you enlist our Inside Sales Reps to help you, WBQuote offers side-by-side plan comparisons showing current, renewal, and recommended alternative coverage options for clients and prospects. You can share with them the benefits of “staying” or “moving” to a different plan and carrier.
4) Ensure clients get the provider access they want: Our Integrated Provider Search helps you make sure your clients have access to their preferred doctors, medical groups, and prescription drug benefits in the plans they’re considering. We’ll do the research for you, so you can be a superstar in the eyes of your customers.
5) Take advantage of our broker resources: Word & Brown offers a trove of tools to help you serve your customers. These include, but are not limited to, WBQuote, the industry’s most advanced Small Group quoting engine; WBQuote Lite, our mobile quoting program that allows you to quote on the go, anytime, anywhere; WBBroker, which puts quoting, provider searches, and underwriting updates at your fingertips; and HR Support from Mineral.
For California brokers, you can offer WBMedID to your groups with qualifying coverage from Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California, or Health Net. WBMedID gives your clients’ employees access to their Medical ID Card information right on their smartphones, as soon as their coverage is approved by the carrier.
We also offer Online Enrollment and HRIS, which can dramatically streamline your clients’ benefits enrollment – and ongoing HR management like new employee onboarding and benefits administration. Our API integration makes it easy to go from quote to online enrollment with just one click. Additional charges may apply for added Ease services such as payroll.
When you (or your clients) need a form or collateral, we make it easy to get it through our online Insurance Forms Library. In addition, you can stay on top of changing insurance rules and regulations with information from our exclusive in-house Compliance team. They are here to help you navigate the uncertainty of state and federal laws affecting you, your clients, their employees, and their businesses.
6) Review your 2022 goals progress: Hopefully, you’ve been monitoring your goals and progress throughout the year, and you’re on target to excel in peak season. If not, you can still make adjustments to your plan now, which will help you get back on track.
7) Take your vacation now: Peak season will require your full attention to achieve maximum results. If you have not had a vacation this year, take the time for an extended weekend or getaway. Fall travel costs are expected to be lower, as compared to the summer run-up. Recharging yourself now will pay off later.
What You Need When You Need It
At Word & Brown, we’re committed to broker service and your ongoing success – in Q4 and all year long. We employ a roster of benefits professionals with decades of experience working across California and Nevada. You can count on us – start to finish – before, during, and after the sale.
We’re working every day to help you attract new business and keep your customers coming back year after year. Let us prove our value to you.
Contact your Word & Brown representative to discuss how we can work together to help you write more and earn more. Or, if you’re not already working with us, call us today at 800-869-6989 or visit us online to get started.
