Individual Health and the Multi-Line Producer

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If You're a Multi-Line Producer, Make Sure Your “One-Stop Shop” Includes Individual Health Options

If you’re selling a range of insurance and financial products to your clients, you’re the person they turn to for help finding affordable, high-quality solutions when an insurance need arises. You deliver trustworthy and timely advice, expert product recommendations and service for whatever their need may be. After all, as a multi-line producer, your “one-stop shop” has the merchandise your clients are shopping for – and keeps them coming back.

The 2007 Brokerage Study conducted in September 2007 by Agent Media and the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (NAILBA) suggests that there’s a high earnings-potential for health insurance sales, which includes individual health (IH). In fact, according to a nationwide survey of licensed health agents conducted in March 2008 by Agent Media, the Association of Health Insurance Advisors (AHIA), the Council for Disability Awareness (CDA), and the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU), individual major medical insurance was chosen by 42% of the agents as the type of health insurance they sell the most. This was ahead of group health (22%), Medigap/Medicare supplement (11%), LTC (7%) and other various forms of health insurance.

Multi-line producers have access to a wide range of carriers and plans—and arguably have a lot to “juggle” when it comes to keeping track of your clients’ IH options. That’s why it’s helpful to keep up-to-date on carriers’ plans and take advantage of their training and sales tools - particularly those focused on helping you sell online where many consumers are going for information, quotes and applications.

In a marketplace increasingly dependent on the Internet, an agent’s advantage is a human touch. By getting to know your clients, you can anticipate their needs and uncover opportunities that add value to their insurance and financial portfolios. You can work with them through their families’ or business’ life stages as their coverage needs change. And that includes protection from the rising costs of health care.

Make sure you’re including individual health care plans in your sales portfolio. You may primarily sell life insurance, group health or financial products, but look out for opportunities to sell individual health coverage. With a decline in employer-sponsored health insurance, chances are good you have clients who are ideal candidates for purchasing individual health insurance.

Build your multi-line agency by maintaining relationships and asking your clients (whether they’re individuals, companies or associations) the right questions. Keep abreast of industry trends, consistently cross-sell different product lines, and use a referral system to keep new business coming in. And remember, individual health insurance is a great door-opener!

Mix-and-Match IH Plans for Affordability

The Agent Media/AHIA/CDA/NAHU study found that agents’ main challenge with selling health insurance is their clients believe they can’t afford it. You can change this perception and help your clients control health costs by finding creative ways to meet their coverage needs, affordably!

An advantage with individual health insurance is that you can mix-and-match plans within a family to save them money. For example, put mom and the kids on a comprehensive individual major medical health insurance plan and put dad (who won’t utilize the benefits on a comprehensive plan) on a plan offering economical basic health coverage or one of the popular HSA qualified health plans that may be more suited to his needs.

Building Your Individual Health Business through Referrals

With individual health insurance, a good referral from a client can carry its weight in gold. People take their health coverage seriously, and those who trust an agent to help them find the right plan are apt to give your name to friends and associates who are losing their group coverage, retiring early, or need to insure dependents.

When a client has a good experience with you and they feel you’ve met their needs, they can spread some positive word-of-mouth advertising about you. This form of publicity is ideal: it’s free, it’s from a trusted source, and it’s targeted towards potential clients who could find value from your expertise.

It’s likely you already acquire many new clients from referrals. Two-thirds (66%) of agents in the 2007 Brokerage Study conducted by Agent Media and NAILBA said using referrals was the most effective method for prospecting for new insurance clients, likewise for 50 percent of licensed health agents in the Agent Media/AHIA/CDA/NAHU study.

If you’re not getting a steady flow of referrals coming in, all you need to do is talk to your clients (associates and friends, too) and remind them you’d be complimented if they’d refer business to you. When you receive a referral from any source, quickly follow up with product information, quotes, and education materials to expedite sales!

Make it a habit to ask after every individual health sale. After a sale, ask if your client is satisfied and pleased with the choices they made and tell them you’re always looking for clients like them—people who care about the financial future and health of their families.

Schedule an annual referral campaign. Ask all of your clients for referrals on an annual basis. You can send them an e-mail or snail-mail letter telling them that you appreciate their business and you’d like to make your services available to their family and friends. Tell them what products you sell – and make sure they know you sell individual health insurance! You can even reward clients who refer business to you by giving them a small gift, such as a $10 gift card for a coffee shop.

Set up a reciprocal referral arrangement. Consider partnering with an agent who doesn’t sell individual health. Make an agreement that she’ll refer her clients to you when they ask her about individual health coverage, and you’ll send her your clients who are interested in the type of product in which she specializes. This creates a win-win situation and ensures your clients are getting serviced from advisors who can best meet their needs. What’s more, referrals such as these are easily put into action through links on your websites – with the click of a mouse, clients can move from your partner’s site to yours, and vice versa.

Cross-Selling Individual Health

Getting in front of qualified individual health prospects is as easy as talking to your clients. When you and a client discuss homeowner’s insurance, life insurance or investments, take some time to find out how their health insurance needs are being met. Ask them if they’re satisfied with the coverage and costs of their current health insurance policy.

For example, while talking with a client who just bought a new home and needs to increase his homeowner’s insurance, you learn he recently changed jobs. Using cross-selling-savvy probing questions you discover that the dependent coverage on his new group health insurance plan is inadequate and expensive. Here’s your chance to sell more than an upgraded homeowner’s insurance policy: solve his health insurance dilemma by matching his needs with an individual health plan, too!

Are you identifying opportunities in your book of business to cross-sell? If individual health insurance isn’t your focus, keep it in your back pocket. Here are some cross-selling ideas you can try today:

If your focus is...

Group Health – Offer individual health as a more affordable solution for some of your small business clients or as an alternative to group plans’ dependent coverage.

Life Insurance – Protect your clients with more than additional life insurance when their family grows. Individual health coverage may be richer and more affordable than their existing coverage.

P&C – if a client is looking to save money on car insurance, ask them if they’d like to save money on their health insurance premiums. Quote an IH plan.

Financial Planning – Sell HSA qualified high deductible health insurance plans to early retirees or other clients who appreciate coupling health coverage with a tax-advantaged investment vehicle.

Sources: 2007 Brokerage Study, Insurance Marketing, November 2007. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-09 Edition, Insurance Sales Agents; Advisor Today; The Multiline Advantage by Dave Willis; The Agents Sales Journal; Insurance Journal

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Return to the Celtic Education Series articles on individual health insurance.

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