How Senior Market Sales® Supports Agents During AEP

The Annual Election Period (AEP) is upon us. AEP is always a challenging time for agents, but even more so this year with the pandemic changing how producers meet with clients. Those who are best prepared and who make the most of their resources, are those most likely to see the greatest AEP success.

Agents who work through Senior Market Sales^® (SMS) find themselves at an advantage during the AEP season. That’s because SMS offers a plethora of exclusive resources and services designed to help maximize sales. Many of these are custom-made specifically to help with socially distanced selling strategies.

1 —Make Sure You Are Able to do Business in the Correct Jurisdictions 

By now, you should have your contracting, licensing and carrier certification complete. But maybe you want to expand your business to a neighboring state or add a new product or carrier. An SMS marketing consultant can help. SMS has already done a lot of the legwork so that you don’t need to hunt down carrier certification sites. The AEP Agent Central section of the SMS website has this information assembled and organized by carrier. SMS is top-notch in contracting due to the fact that our contracting department is in-house and works closely with the marketing consultants in order to maximize efficiency.

2 – Get Your Supplies

During AEP, efficiency is the key, and SMS is here to help by getting you supplies like marketing materials and enrollment kits. There’s even a useful “cheat sheet” in AEP Agent Central that provides step-by-step directions to ordering supplies from every carrier that works with SMS.

3 – Lead Sources and Prospecting Tools

Leads are critical to AEP success. Whether you're looking for solutions for email, website and social marketing, vendors that help you find leads, direct mail marketing campaigns or other types of lead generation; SMS has you covered. Call an SMS marketing consultant to learn more about the available Lead Generation programs.

4 – Proprietary Technology Tools

SMS has a complete suite of exclusive tools offered at no cost. These tools are designed to help you leverage time, make more money and put your business in a position of distinction. Some of these tools include Lead Advantage Pro^® and Medicare Insurance Direct^® (MID).

Lead Advantage Pro

Lead Advantage Pro is the proprietary tool from SMS that lets you take prospects from lead to enrollment in one place. In essence, this platform is designed to simplify your day and maximize your time. In addition, it works well as a means to meet clients’ needs in a compliant way while maintaining social distancing guidelines.

Ways that Lead Advantage Pro can improve your productivity during the pandemic, AEP and beyond:

1. Agent Initiated Consumer Online Enrollment (AICOE^®) and fillable PDF features help you compliantly sell to socially distanced clients.
2. Tired of going to different carrier websites to see if providers are in-network for Medicare Advantage plans? Check out the exclusive PLANS tool.
3. Run out of supplies? You can download the application for every carrier SMS works with.
4. Frustrated by Scope of Appointment (SOA) forms? See how easy it is to complete the SOA in less than three minutes.
5. Both the Blue Button and Rx Import features allow Medicare participants the ability to share their prescription drug lists, pharmacies and providers directly with you. Once you’ve obtained your client’s permission, this list can be accurately compiled in minutes.

Medicare Insurance Direct (MID)

Medicare Insurance Direct is a tool that allows you to help clients help themselves, thus avoiding the need to meet in-person. The idea of MID is to pair your good, sound advice regarding a client’s Medicare solution with the convenience of self-enrollment. You can use MID to match beneficiaries with available plans based on individual healthcare, prescription drug needs and estimated out-of-pocket expenses. You send a Personalized Universal Resource Locator (PURL) to your clients that take them to a micro-site displaying the states and carriers that you are properly credentialed to sell, including Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans, Part D and Medicare Supplements.

Here’s how MID works to help make sales without increasing a client’s coronavirus risk:

1. You set up a consumer-facing web site through Medicare Insurance Direct, and personalize it for your business (your site will only show plans you’re licensed and appointed to offer).
2. Your clients get the convenience of quoting and enrolling in Medicare Advantage and Part D plans online, at their leisure.
3. You get credit for every sale because you have a custom URL and your agent writing number is associated with the site.

5 – Carrier Enrollment Technology Options

In addition to SMS technology solutions, many carriers that work with SMS have their own technology options, some of which don’t even require the client to have access to the internet. Click here to view specific carrier requirements and options.

6 – Utilize Your Dedicated Medicare Solutions Team

SMS offers access to a full-time, dedicated, licensed and knowledgeable Medicare Solutions team. They are here to help you every step of the way throughout the AEP season and beyond. In addition to access to your marketing consultant, our case management is in-house. Your entire SMS team works hand-in-hand to ensure efficiency is maximized especially during the all-important AEP season.

As part of the dedicated Medicare Solutions team, SMS allows you access to our in-house pharmacist, Ryan Vlasin. He specializes in helping agents develop creative Part D strategies, designed to save your clients money. Ryan can be reached via email at pharmacist@seniormarketsales.com.

This can be your most successful AEP ever if you utilize what SMS has to offer. Contact a marketing consultant if you have any questions about carriers, certification, supplies, leads or SMS technology. Call 1.877.645.0147 to get connected.

###

For Licensed Insurance Agent / Advisor Use Only. Not for General Public.