The Medicare market continues to boom despite the recent compliance changes from CMS, and Medicare sales skyrocketed this year due to all the major changes! After spending millions on Medicare leads we consistently recommend insurance agents speak to these lead generation vendors whether you’re in field sales or call center as they have proven to compliantly generate quality Medicare leads that fit into standard acquisition cost targets.
8 Vendors for Medicare Supplement and Medicare Advantage Leads
RGI Solutions – Highly Recommend!
RGI Solutions has been a major player in the insurance lead business for nearly 40 years across various insurance product lines. Their data centric foundation has provided them the ability to lead the insurance industry in fixed, cost per lead direct mail. Yes, you heard that correctly, they are the ones who pioneered cost per lead direct mail programs for insurance. They take the risk and your agency gets a predetermined amount of leads per week. They continue to deliver on this model while also evolving with technology. In fact, over the last nearly 40 years, they have historically averaged a 25% lead to sales conversion rate!
Primary Types of Leads:
- Direct Mail – Cost Per Lead (This is far and above the best value for agencies we have ever found.)
- Direct Mail – Cost Per Thousand
Categories:
- Medicare Advantage
- Medicare Supplement
- Turning 65
- Final Expense
- Mortgage Protection
CRM Posting Capability: Yes
TCPA Compliance: Yes
CMS Compliance: Yes
Sales Model:
- Field
- Telesales
Want to use Redbird’s direct mail discount with no strings attached?
LeadStar Marketplace
LeadStar Marketplace is a proprietary, private leads platform created with and exclusively for Amerilife affiliated agents. It’s unlike any other Medicare lead program and has an incredible user experience which enables approved users to get started extremely quickly.
Primary Lead Types:
- Live transfers
- Data leads
- Aged data
Categories:
- Medicare Supplement
- Medicare Advantage
- Final Expense
CRM Capability: Yes
Recording compliance capability: Yes
TCPA Compliance: Yes
CMS Compliance: Yes
Sales Model:
- Field
- Telesales
PolicyScout (formerly known as Cege)
Primary Lead Types:
- Internet leads
- Social media
- Warm transfers
- Aged leads
Categories:
- Medicare Supplement
- Medicare Advantage
- Final Expense
- Under 65 Health Insurance
- Real-Time Live Transfers
CRM posting available: Yes’
Recording compliance capability: Unknown
TCPA Compliance: Requires third party validation
CMS Compliance: Requires third party validation
Sales Model: Call center telesales
Milestone Marketing
Primary Lead Types:
- Direct mail leads with multiple mailer types.
- Custom marketing campaigns
Categories:
- Exclusive Medicare leads
- Medicare Advantage
- Real-Time Inbound Phone Calls
- Remailing
- Remarketing
- Seminars
CRM Capability: No
Recording compliance capability: Unknown
TCPA Compliance: Requires third party validation
CMS Compliance: Requires third party validation
Sales Model: Call center telesales
Lead Heroes
Primary Lead Types:
- Telemarketed
Categories:
- Medicare Supplement
- Medicare Advantage
- Final Expense
- Real-Time Live Transfers
CRM Capability: Unknown
Recording compliance capability: Unknown
TCPA Compliance: Requires third party validation
CMS Compliance: Requires third party validation
Sales Model:
- Call center telesales
- Field sales
Target Leads
Primary Types of Leads:
- Direct mail leads with multiple mailer types for the senior market and historical response rate data.
Categories:
- Exclusive Medicare leads
- Medicare Supplement
- Medicare Advantage
- Final Expense
- Real-Time Transfers
CRM posting available: Yes. This vendor actually has a very user friendly crm for insurance agents to track their enrollments and follow ups.
Recording compliance capability: Unknown
TCPA Compliance: Requires third party validation
CMS Compliance: Requires third party validation
Sales Model: Field sales
Excel Impact
Primary Lead Types:
- Internet Leads
- Social media
- Warm Transfers
- Aged leads
Categories:
- Medicare Supplement
- Medicare Advantage
- Final Expense
- Real-Time Transfers
CRM posting available: Yes
Recording compliance capability: Unknown
TCPA Compliance: Requires third party validation
CMS Compliance: Requires third party validation
Sales Model: Call center telesales
Need-A-Lead
Primary Types of Leads:
- Direct mail leads with multiple mailer types, historical response rate data, and demographic flexibility.
Categories:
- Exclusive Medicare leads
- Medicare Supplement
- Medicare Advantage
- Final Expense
- Fixed-cost direct mail
- Real-Time Transfers
CRM Capability: Unknown
Recording compliance capability: Unknown
TCPA Compliance: Requires third party validation
CMS Compliance: Requires third party validation
Sales Model: Field Sales
Each of these lead provider’s volume will always shift through out the year based on the lead source, especially during AEP, so it’s important you always use a few lead companies to ensure you can maintain enough high-quality insurance lead flow for your agency.
Quality leads always fluctuate so it’s important to build strong relationships with your lead generation partners to ensure you are staying compliant and consistently adapting to the market.
Types of Medicare Leads
Direct Mail Medicare Supplement Leads
Direct mail is the most common lead source and some of the best Medicare Supplement leads for agents. Here’s how to generate Medicare Supplement insurance leads using direct mail:
- Find a lead vendor.
- Pick your territory and buy your list from a T-65 Lead database.
- Choose a format, typically a tri-fold self-mailer or lead cards.
- Determine how many T-65 mailers you want to send out (at minimum you should be sending out 1,000 per week; we’ll get to the math on this a little later)
- Choose first or third-class mail (this will impact your price per thousand, but potentially also impact the effectiveness of your mail campaigns)
- Make sure your data includes phone numbers scrubbed to the do not call list.
- Get a copy of your turning 65 Medicare leads list once the order has been processed.
You should expect an average annual response rate of 1.5%-3% on direct mail for Medicare Supplements. Some say 1% is average, but we’ve found that direct mail response rates are always higher for Medicare than life insurance.
If you sent out 1,000 direct mail cards, you should expect to get 15-30 Medicare Supplement leads in return.
Direct mail lead campaigns cost anywhere from $420-$600 per 1,000 mailers.
There are also companies that will offer a fixed cost Medicare Supplement lead in the $35-$60 range. These are usually tied to a minimum order of 15-20 leads per week.
Turning 65 Medicare Supplement Leads (T-65 Lists)
What are T-65 Medicare Supplement leads?
T-65 leads are lists of people who are turning 65 in the next three to six-nine months. It’s a great way to constantly have someone to call.
You can order T-65 leads from virtually any good Medicare lead provider and have a list produced the same day.
Yes, it might seem boring or antiquated, but it works. Pick up the phone, smile and start setting Medicare Supplement sales appointments.
You’ll never get what you don’t ask for!
Tele-Marketed Medicare Supplement Leads
Generated by a call center, these leads typically come from a T-65 list.
You need to make sure the data you are purchasing is clean and in compliance with the do not call list. Any reputable data company has this capability.
Calls are made to your target demographic and interest is generated by letting the prospect know that someone is available in their area to educate them on the choices they have for Medicare Supplements as they get closer to turning 65.
If you’re just learning how to sell Medicare Supplements over the phone, then the approach would be more directed to qualifying the prospect for a new plan for a lower premium.
Either way, each call is recorded and uploaded to a database for you to access and begin following up to set your sales appointments. You should also ask if the telemarketing company offers live transfer Medicare Supplement leads.
Tele-marketed Medicare Supplement leads are cheaper than direct mail, but they have a much shorter life span because with a phone call, the prospect hasn’t invested the time in the process the way they do with direct mail by filling out the card and getting it mailed. They are much more likely to forget a quick phone call from someone they don’t know.
When you work telemarketed leads, you have to work them quickly!
You can expect to spend in the neighborhood of $15-$24 per lead, but ask the lead company for a bulk order discount.
Generating your own telemarketed Medicare Leads.
Below is a quick look at how lead quality can vary from vendor to vendor. This can be due to language barrier, script language, or many other factors. You’ll noticed we compared 2 third party lead vendors to our own internal telemarketers following an identical script.
Sample Size: 2520 Telemarketed leads from 3 separate lead sources.
Vendor 1: 1,287 leads and set 628 appointments (48% appointments set) which resulted in 288 sales (45% closing).
Vendor 2: 350 leads and set 112 appointments (32% appointments set) which resulted in 51 sales (45% closing).
Internally Controlled: 883 leads and set 463 appointments (52% appointments set) which resulted in 201 sales (43% closing).
What’s the take away here?
We were able to bring our lead generation capability in house and nearly replicate the results of Vendor 1 and cut our cost by nearly 70%. We couldn’t do this if we didn’t have a team to help manage the process, but the point here is you can certainly help contain your costs by controlling your own lead source.
Digital Leads
What are digital Medicare leads?
Digital leads are generically generated through websites or social media via paid campaigns or organic keyword ranking. Most of the time the advertisement will direct a consumer to a landing page to allow them to request information while acknowledging the proper compliance disclosures.
Digital leads will come in the form of a form filled request, inbound call, or warm transfer from a lead vendor.
Warm Transfers
What are warm transfers?
Warm transfers are live phone calls received from a third party that has made contact with a prospect who has subsequently agreed to speak with a licensed agent. These are typically sold by third party lead vendors who have a team of unlicensed phone reps calling digital leads and converting those to warm transfers to licensed agents.
Warm transfers are not considered inbound calls and must follow the inbound calling compliance requirements for Medicare Advantage enrollments.
Inbound Calls
What are inbound calls?
These are exactly what they sound like, your prospective customers are calling you directly. Inbound calls are generated from TV commercials, radio, online advertisements, google business pages, websites, etc. A customer finds your information and calls you directly.
How to work Medicare supplement insurance leads
What does “work your Medicare supplement leads” mean? It’s the strategy and tactics required to maximize your ability to get in front of your prospects and make weekly sales.
What keeps you from reaching your Medicare Supplement insurance prospects?
- They don’t answer the phone (most common excuse)
- They’re on the Do Not Call (DNC) list
- You are number 157 to send them a direct mail letter
This is exactly why you need a strong marketing strategy and process when working your leads.
Below is an example of how to work each T-65 list using a combination of telemarketing, direct mail and door knocking, and digital marketing to maximize your results.
Step 1: Buy a T-65 lead list that is scrubbed against the do not call list (this means every listing that includes a phone number is safe for you to call)
Step 2: If a phone number is listed, give them a call, introduce yourself and attempt to set an appointment. Repeat until you have exhausted your list and hit your goals.
Step 3: If a phone number isn’t listed (this means they are on the do not call list), add them to your direct mail list.
Step 4: Send direct mail cards to all the listings on your T65 list that don’t have a phone number. You can also include your website on your mailer for those that want to do their research. By including your website, you can take advantage of more advantage digital retargeting strategies to maximize conversion.
Step 5: If you receive a completed direct mail card with consent to call, then make the call and set the appointment. Repeat until you have made contact.
Step 6: If you receive a direct mail card but cannot reach them by phone, swing by, introduce yourself, and give them a Medicare buyers guide. (Make sure you take the direct mail card you received so they can connect the dots that you’re the one they sent it to.)
Selling Medicare Supplement takes tenacity. Working your T65 leads is the most critical step when you first learn to sell Medicare Supplements, don’t cut corners!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- How do I get Medicare leads? Agents can either get leads from the FMO (wholesaler), insurance agency (those who are captive), or work with common lead vendors like the ones listed above.
- How much do Medicare leads cost? Medicare insurance lead costs vary greatly based on lead type. You can expect to spend anywhere from $1.50 – $70 per lead.
- How do I get Medicare leads for free? The only way to get free leads is by either a) giving up a significant amount of commission to your insurance agency in exchange for leads or being an incredibly strong and consistent sales agent and negotiating a deal with your FMO to cover those costs. Most agents who get free leads are those who cannot afford leads on their own and instead join an agency at a reduced compensation in exchange for leads.
- Where do Medicare leads come from? Leads in the Medicare market are generated across multiple platforms such as TV, radio, online landing pages, social media, telemarketing, etc…
- What are the benefits of Medicare leads? Utilizing compliant leads is a great way to maintain consistent growth of your client base, especially starting out when you do not have a residual income to fall back on.
- What is the difference between Medicare leads and Medicare data? Many people have different definitions of the word “lead”. The best way to think about this is a lead is someone who has expressed interest and expecting someone to reach out, and data is simply someone’s contact information.
- How do I know if the Medicare leads I’m getting are worth it? This comes down to understanding your acquisition costs. For example, if you have 20 leads that you purchased for $40 per lead and sell policies 5 of them, your total cost was $800 to acquire 5 new customers, making your acquisition cost per customer $160. If your sales conversion and lead costs are within your predetermined budget, then you can assume that lead program is viable to continue using. Too many agents over complicate this, it’s a simple math problem.
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