Many seniors rely on Medicare for their health coverage, but the stark reality is that Medicare doesn’t cover everything. Helping your clients find the right plan for their needs is only half the battle. To truly cover their needs, you may need to offer additional products – and cross-selling is also a great way to expand your portfolio and grow your business.
The Many Advantages of Cross-Selling
Cross-selling can be good for both you and your clients.
Your clients benefit from:
- Protection. A Nationwide survey found that 58% of Americans falsely believe that Medicare covers long-term care expenses. By educating your clients about the other policies they may need, such as long-term care insurance or hybrid life insurance, you can help them secure the coverage they need.
- Convenience. For clients, it’s easier to deal with one agent instead of having to meet with multiple different advisors.
You benefit from:
- Stronger client relationships. The more policies you have with a client, the easier it is to retain them because they don’t have any reason to go to another agent. Having multiple policies with a client can also increase the odds of referral business. For example, a client may not know anyone who needs Medicare, but they may have friends who need annuities or life insurance.
- Increased revenue. Finding new clients is a lot of work. Selling multiple policies to a single client is a much easier way to grow your book of business and boost your profits.
- Stability. Medicare is a reliable line of insurance, but there’s no saying what the future will hold in terms of regulations and insurance needs. If some drastic changes and your Medicare sales dry up, you’ll need to pivot to another product, and that’s easier if you’re already selling a wide range of solutions.
But What About CMS Compliance?
Before you run out to start cross-selling to all your Medicare clients, take some time to read up on CMS regulations. Agents face some serious restrictions when it comes to cross-selling during Medicare appointments, including:
- You CAN’T market non-health related products during a Medicare appointment.
- You CAN market other health-related products during your Medicare appointment AS LONG AS they are covered in your Scope of Appointment.
To comply with these rules, you’ll sometimes need to schedule a separate appointment, especially if you want to cross-sell non-health products like annuities.
Which Products Should You Cross-Sell?
The more products you offer, the better positioned you’ll be to serve all your clients and to capture as much business opportunity as possible. When identifying products to add to your portfolio, focus on needs that many seniors have that aren’t met by Medicare plans. Good options to consider include:
- Annuities. As seniors look for retirement income solutions that can help them avoid running out of money, annuities are becoming popular. There’s a good chance that some of your clients are thinking about buying annuities, and if you don’t sell them, they’ll have to go to another agent.
- Life Insurance. While many young adults buy life insurance to provide for their children, seniors may buy life insurance as part of their estate planning strategy. There are also life insurance options that build a cash value or offer other benefits, such as long-term care coverage.
- Final Expense Insurance. Seniors who don’t want to spend money on an expensive life insurance policy may still be interested in a low-cost final expense insurance policy.
- Supplemental Health. A critical illness policy can supplement Medicare coverage to help with out-of-pocket costs associated with a serious illness. Depending on your clients needs and current coverage, vision, dental and travel health insurance may also be useful.
How to Start Cross-Selling
Before you start cross-selling other insurance products, you’ll need to do a few things.
- Meet any licensing requirements. If you’re already licensed to sell Medicare policies, you probably meet the life and health insurance licensing requirements for many other products as well. However, some products, like annuities, may have additional education requirements. Check with your state licensing board.
- Contract with carriers. You need top-notch products to offer your clients, so you’ll need to contract with carriers.
- Learn about the products you’re selling. Just as two Medicare Advantage plans can differ in significant ways, different life insurance plans, or annuities, or supplemental health insurance plans can also differ significantly. Learn about the differences so you can help your clients effectively.
- Spread the word. Once you’re ready to start selling, you need to let your clients know. Put this information on your business card, social media accounts, website, and email signature, and make sure your clients know what you offer.
Need help expanding your portfolio? PTT offers contracts for life and ancillary products as well as Medicare plans. See how PTT can help.