Broker blog

Are you trying to establish yourself as a “thought leader” on LinkedIn? Have you tried publishing content? In 2014, LinkedIn allowed only “big name influencers” to publish content until they opened up the option to all LinkedIn members.

For years, insurance experts have used LASIK surgery as proof that “consumerism” in health care can actually improve outcomes. Over the past couple decades of the popular eye surgery, quality has gone up while costs have gone down, and most experts attribute these results to the fact that Lasik isn’t covered by most insurance plans. With no third-party payer in the middle to distort the price or hide it from consumers, LASIK providers actually have to compete for business.

Benjamin Franklin said, “When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.” Almost 250 years later, Ben’s quote is truer than ever. What I mean is, your willingness and ability to keep changing is your market advantage. As I keep a close eye on the horizon for hints at where employee benefit trends are headed, I’ve been drawn to two recent pieces:

Can we just admit it? Healthcare and insurance are confusing! I was a broker for over three years, and I still couldn’t parse a medical bill to save my life. As an Employee Benefits Consultant, no one knows your groups better than you. But, if an advocacy program can help take some of the load off your desk by answering many of those employee questions during fourth quarter, wouldn’t that be nice for your groups' HR teams, employees AND you?

Have you heard of HonestSlogans.com? They create more, shall we say, “direct,” catchphrases for well-known companies. For instance, WebMD’s honest slogan is, “Convince yourself you have a terminal illness” – so true! For LinkedIn, they’ve come up with, “Connect with people for no good reason at all.”

A few years ago, I would’ve agreed. I’ve been a LinkedIn member since 2007 and have really only been using LinkedIn as an online resume and a place to connect with other professionals – again, for no real reason other than it might come in handy someday.

We all learned about the 3 Rs in grade school (two of which, ironically, don’t begin with the letter R). And those of us who took business classes in college learned about the 4 Ps of marketing (product, place, price, promotion). In this article, I’ll introduce a new success strategy for agents and brokers: the 5 Cs of insurance sales. 

Have you sold a telehealth case and experienced the two user extremes? These are typical responses when an employee first hears of telehealth and how it works… 

Boy, this defined contribution thing just won’t go away! Though the IRS and DOL have repeatedly told us that employers absolutely, positively cannot pay for individual health plans for their employees, some people just didn’t like that answer. A lot of people, actually – on both sides of the aisle. And they decided to do something about it.