Frequently Asked Questions Selling Medicare With Duford Insurance Group

Who Is Our Target Market For Medicare Policy Sales?

Our target market for Medicare sales is the Senior Citizen/Baby Boomer demographic.

Roughly, this refers to people 50 and older who have low to moderate levels of income. The vast majority of our market is either:

• Disabled and cannot work, or,
• Retired and chooses not to work.

We love this demographic because of its long-term fundamental strengths, and believe there exists decades of sales opportunity for agents who commit to it.

Some benefits of the Senior Citizen/Baby Boomer market include:

• 11,000 people turn 65 each DAY between 2020 and 2030.
• The 65 and older population will increase 50% from 2020 to 2040 (from approximately 50 million to 75 million).
• Social Security pays our prospects no matter what the economy does, providing sales opportunities to prospects with less income sensitivity compared to working people.
• Medicare supplemental insurance companies invest millions upon millions of dollars to promote purchasing Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement policies, which conditions Medicare recipients into thinking buying an additional Medicare policy is a must-have purchase.
• Social Security and Medicare are political third rails. Few politicians will risk their careers attempting to reform either program as voters in older age brackets will vote them out if either program is even threatened.

We believe this is an under-served, highly lucrative market, of which we use our proprietary sales and marketing system to target.

How Is Duford Insurance Group Different From Other Agencies and IMOs Offering Medicare Sales Opportunities?

Duford Insurance Group is unique relative to other Medicare sales opportunities for the following reasons:

1. Belief In The Independent Model Of Insurance Sales

We teach agents to sell multiple insurance carriers as opposed to a single carrier.

More carriers means more options, providing us better opportunities to help our clients with better quality of coverage.

2. Producer-Oriented, Not Recruitment-Oriented

Bottom line, DIG is NOT an insurance multi-level marketing company.

Our passion is in training you on the craft of SELLING Medicare policies, and not recruiting agents.

Not to say we do not support agents recruiting (we do, agents need experience selling first), but our focus is on developing you into an insurance sales machine above all else.

3. Designed For The Entrepreneurial Agent

Duford Insurance Group is not right for everyone.

To succeed, you must possess higher levels of self-responsibility and self-discipline than the average agent.

You MUST be a self-starter. This is NOT a babysitting, micromanaging agency. You truly run your own insurance sales business and are treated as an independent business owner.

4. Top Commissions

Since DIG is not an MLM agency with 10 people between you and the top of the company feeding off your production, DIG is able to extend more commission to its agents than the vast majority of its competition (continue reading to get specific commission levels for various final expense products).

This means agents are actually paid VERY good commissions relative to most agencies with the ability to grow commission rates with production history. Specifics on commission levels are discussed further below on this FAQ page.

5. Top Quality Leads

DIG has relationships with top-quality Medicare lead vendors, connecting you to lead providers already proven to work.

Our preference are for vendors that sell you EXCLUSIVE and FRESH leads, not old and resold. This means fresher leads with more interest in buying. More specifics on how our lead generation strategies below.

6. A Fair And Balanced Agent-Agency Relationship

DIG founder David Duford knows exactly what it’s like as an agent. And the last thing he wants is to screw you over like so many other agencies do.

As an agent with DIG, we promise to do the following:

• Release upon request as long as you do not owe chargeback money.
• Fully vested 100% from the first day. You own your own book of business and continue to get paid into the future no matter your long-term working arrangements with DIG.
• You are paid directly from the insurance company.

7. Support For BOTH Face-To-Face And Telesales Agents

Whether you want to sell Medicare face-to-face or over the phone, Duford Insurance Group can help!

We have many agents successfully selling in both and can teach you the inner workings of which ever you choose is best-suited for your goals.

What Kind Of Results Do Duford Insurance Group Medicare Agents Get?

While results vary, we have documented dozens of success stories on agents:

• Selling Medicare face-to-face, and,
• Selling Medicare over the phone.

Scroll down to the Testimonials and Case Study section for examples of successul DIG Medicare agents.

Your success is our primary directive, and we want you to know many have come before you who have experienced success.

How Has Covid-19, Recessions/Depressions Affected Selling The Senior Citizen/Baby Boomer Market?

Believe it or not, little to none!

In fact, some agents’ sales results have only improved since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

Here’s a few reasons why pandemics, recessions, and Depressions have less impact in our market than others:

• Guaranteed Income. Almost all our clients receive Social Security income payments. The US Government has never been late paying Social Security at any time since its inception nearly 100 years ago. And this means when the economy goes bad and workers lose their jobs, our prospects continue to get paid, on time and without reduction. This translates into a business model with less swings up and down and more consistency.
• Gaps In Medicare Coverage. When a senior turns 65 and starts Medicare, most feel additional coverage is necessary to fill the gaps in their coverage. And naturally, being older and closer to life’s end, there is more concern (especially as we’ve seen during the pandemic) about having quality health insurance coverage than in earlier years.
• Business Model Flexibility. For Medicare, we can successfully sell either face-to-face or over the phone. If there is some sort of lockdown or restrictions face-to-face, it is within reason to sell over the phone with similar success.

All About Medicare Commissions

How Does Compensation Work?

Medicare commission varies by what type of product you sell, either Medicare Advantage or Medicare supplements.

Since most of our work in the Medicare sales and marketing space centers around the Medicare Advantage sale, we’re going to spend more time discussing how Medicare Advantage commission works in detail, while also briefly describing how Medicare supplement commission works.

Also, we’ll explain both the agent commission levels, as well as the agency commissions too.

Medicare Advantage Commissions FAQ

Medicare Advantage commission levels are set by CMS, which regulates Medicare and commissions for Medicare Advantage agents.

We offer the maximal allowable amount of commissions that the government approves of to each of our agents who enroll, no matter what kind of lead programs they do. You’ll see a full detailed analysis of Medicare Advantage commission if you scroll down further.

Medicare pays an upfront commission, as well as a lifetime renewal for Medicare Advantage. For Medicare renewals for Medicare Advantage first year commissions on replacements, you will be paid a prorated commission based off of the renewal rate that you would receive.

For aspiring agency owners, total agency production plus agent recruitment drives the ability to increase commission levels.

For the sake of protecting the information the carriers require us of, we’ve not revealed specific commission levels and production requirements for each specific carrier, but we’re happy to disclose those over a conversation.

Medicare Supplement Commissions FAQ

Generally speaking, Medicare supplements pay a residual in the 18 to 20% commission range years one through six of the policy.

This comes around 250 to $300 a year for six years. Keep in mind, however, that certain states don’t pay this six year residual stream, with some states paying higher or some states paying lower.

Again, because our focus is on Medicare Advantage, we’re not going to write too many Medicare supplements with probably one out of every 10 to 20 deals closed in the Medicare space being Medicare Supplement.

Lastly, we do have Medicare Supplement agency contracts available too to support you if your aspirations are to build an agency.

This tells our contracting people what your commission levels are, and alerts them to begin submitting your producer contracts to each carrier.

Commission Grids

Click Here For Medicare Supplement, Hospital Indemnity, Home Health Care, and Dental/Vision/Hearing Commissions

For Medicare Advantage commissions, see the grid below:

Here’s How We Approach Generating Quality Medicare Advantage Leads…

Direct Mail Leads

Direct mail is our flagship Medicare lead generation system.

These leads are fresh and exclusive and specifically target either the special election period market or the turning 65 year old market.

Our preference is for agents to target the special election period market, as that is a year round sales opportunity with lots of opportunity and less pressure or competition than other Medicare based markets.

Direct mail is king, provides the best quality leads, and for most of our top producers, they use a direct mail lead generation system just as we’ve described here. And that’s our firm recommendation for all of our agents, whether they decide to do telesales or face to face.

Facebook and digital leads

We also have access to lower price digital and Facebook leads.

While these leads are quick turn leads, they tend to be lower in quality compared to direct mail and are predominantly recommended when you need leads fast or you’re getting started and want to use a “practice lead”.

How Our Optional Medicare Lead Subsidy Program Works

In addition to providing a fixed price lead program for our Medicare agents, we also offer an optional lead subsidy program to help offset the higher costs of doing business in the Medicare space. Here’s how it works...

For every Medicare Advantage sale you make, we credit $75 into your future lead purchases to deduct the overall cost of your weekly lead purchase.

The Medicare plan has to go into effect, and once it does, we apply the lead subsidy from prior sales to the future cost of leads.

With enough production, you’ll greatly reduce, if not completely eliminate, your cost associated with doing business, making the Medicare space much more lucrative and higher cash flow than without this lead subsidy.

What’s the catch?

As always, there are some conditions to doing this optional program, and at the creation of this FAQ section, we require an agent to be committed to Duford Insurance Group for no less than five years to do all of their Medicare business with us.

The reason we ask this is because we must financially invest in you through the lead subsidies for a number of years before breaking even. So it only makes sense for us to require a longer term commitment in order to make sure our investment in you pans out.

Bottom line, we’re investing in and we ask that you invest back in us in the form of time and building your Medicare business through Duford Insurance Group.

To stress, this program is optional. You can join our agency, have all the benefits of training and the highest commission levels without the requirement of doing the lead subsidy, as well as having access to our fixed price lead program, without having to do the lead subsidy.

So understand you don’t have to make the decision to do this today. It will be available as far as we can see into the foreseeable future. If it’s something that you decide to do ultimately, the opportunity always stands.

What Previous Career Paths Work Well With Selling Medicare Policies?

Literally, everything and anything.

We do not recruit on work experience, instead focusing on character first and foremost.

Average Income Of A Producing Agent?

We hate to say it, but understand most insurance agents fail within their first 12 months of getting started. So average incomes aren’t that great.

However, for those that follow our system and work hard, we believe a first-year income of $50,000 to $75,000 is possible selling Medicare, with the definite possibility of earning $100,000 to $200,000 in income between the third and fifth year of selling Medicare.

For Medicare sales, since the product is renewal-driven, the first few years pays less income than other products like final expense. However, with consistent sales for the first 5 years, many times Medicare commissions far exceed final expense commissions.

For example, it is conceivable for an agent to have 1,000 Medicare Advantage clients in 3 to 5 years, which would pay $270,000 each year FOR LIFE, as long as the clients stay on the books.

Can I Recruit From Day 1?

No. While recruiting is great, it does not make sense until you’ve developed “street cred.”

We recommend 6 to 12 months of consistent success selling insurance before recruiting.

Newly recruited agents require your attention and wisdom, and if you cannot provide it, they will understandably leave.

However, if you have existing experience selling insurance when you join DIG, then recruiting is OK.

Hours In The Field Weekly?

We want you working as much as possible.

Selling our products is primarily a game of numbers, meaning the more time in the field with prospects, the more likely you’ll make sales.

Nevertheless, this is YOUR insurance sales business, so you have full discretion over how many hours daily and days weekly you want to work.

David Duford’s recommendations are for full-time agents new to Medicare to work 5 to 6 days with a few of those days late nights, and part-time agents to work multiple days during the week and all-day Saturday.

Can I sell Medicare Face To Face Or Telesales?

At Duford Insurance Group, we support both face to face and telesales Medicare Advantage sales.

Here’s the reason why:

• Medicare Advantage is one of the simplest products to sell. Most plans have zero premiums, they have zero underwriting requirements, and they’re a tangible good that everybody understands.

If you’re interested in the telesales world, most of our prospects as of 2022 have bought a Medicare plan over the phone at some point in their life. So they’re already familiar with the telephonic approach to doing business and getting it approved.

If you decide to go the telesales route, the good news is that the product itself is simpler to manage, and therefore the opportunity is ripe to become a local agent that just happens to sell over the phone, to get both the benefits of in person sales by being local, but being able to do it out of the comfort of your own home.

Likewise, if you’re interested in traditional face to face sales, we absolutely support that at Duford Insurance Group for Medicare sales too.

If you need help deciding on which is better, my recommendation is to come to our Q and A calls, ask me, and then I’ll give you some feedback on what would be best for you.

What If I Have Insurance Products Elsewhere? Can I Still Sell Medicare With Duford Insurance Group?

In short, yes.

We don’t require you to sell all of your products with us to also sell Medicare.

If all you’re interested in working with us at the present time is the Medicare business, we’re absolutely happy to get you started on the Medicare side of things, and then look at possibly adding other products with us in the future.

All that we ask for you to do is to do all your Medicare with us because we plan on training and supporting you. But the other business, you’re not required to move to us in order to do Medicare sales with us.

What’s Better To Sell, Medicare Advantage Or Medicare Supplements?

At Duford Insurance Group, we’re squarely aligned with building agencies based off of Medicare Advantage and not Medicare supplements.

Here’s why we like Medicare Advantage better than Medicare supplements:

• Medicare Advantage pays better longer term. Medicare Advantage pays lifetime renewals, equivalent, if not higher, than Medicare supplement renewals, which only pay for several years, six years at max in most cases.
• More prospects available. There’s a growing trend towards people buying Medicare Advantage plans over Medicare supplements, and the opportunity is ripe to help more people with Medicare Advantage.
• Medicare Advantage is becoming more business friendly. It used to be many years ago that Medicare Advantage was, simply put, not business friendly.

There was lots of red tape and compliance issues, but thankfully the government has recognized that loosening and relaxing these rules is critical in order to help people maximally with their Medicare Advantage and Medicare needs.

So the business has gotten better overall and has made Medicare Advantage sales a lot easier to collect from lead generation and prospecting.

• It’s an easier sale. With Medicare Advantage, there are no premiums, no medical underwriting, and there’s lots of extra benefits that entice people to buy, like part B give backs or grocery cards or dental, vision and hearing benefits.

It’s simply a more accessible product for most prospects and has extra benefits in many cases attached to it that make it more appealing to buy than a simple Medicare supplement. At the end of the day, we support Medicare supplement sales too.

Understand while our focus is on Medicare Advantage, we absolutely support agents selling Medicare supplements when the need arises, and it certainly will at times, as you get into the Medicare space.

Again, probably nine out of 10, if not more, of our clients end up in Medicare Advantage products because of how we market, but that one out of nine will be, or one out of 10, will be a prospect for Medicare supplements.

So we definitely will equip you with several Medicare supplements, so when the opportunity arises, you can help people with supplements too.

How Does DIG’s Sales And Marketing Training Work?

Here’s how training works at Duford Insurance Group:

• Interactive Training Website. We have a training website that houses every conceivable training resource you’d ever need to master Medicare sales. Scripts, classroom training modules, live sales call analysis recordings, carrier cheat sheets, quoters, and on and on. If anything, there are TOO MANY training resources.
• Weekly Live Training Conferences. We host weekly training calls on all sorts of different subjects including script role-playing, live sales call analysis, carrier training, new agent onboarding, agency building, etc.
• One-on-one coaching. You have access to David Duford and Medicare trainer Luis Moreno and can schedule a coaching call anytime with him to discuss anything at all you need help with.
• Field training opportunities. We have a network of agents nationally that are willing to take new agents on 1-day ride-alongs to learn more and observe how the business is done.
• In-person boot camps. We host boot camps in various parts of the country on final expense, annuities, Medicare, and telesales.
• Direct access to trainer Luis Moreno and David Duford. As a DIG agent, you’ll get Luis Moreno’s and David Duford’s personal cell phone whenever you need help with anything. Just call and/or text and David is at your service.

I’ve Read Everything Above And Am Interested In Joining. What Happens Next?

Once you review how Duford Insurance Group works, follow these directions:

• • First, get your license and AHIP credentialing completed.
  • Next, apply to join our agency here. Make sure to complete the ENTIRE survey requirements to be considered.
  • Have more questions about joining Duford Insurance Group? Join our Insurance Sales Success free training site. In addition to a private forum where you can ask any questions you’d like about joining Duford Insurance Group, there’s 30+ hours of recorded sales and marketing training, numerous sales scripts, and more.