Tips for Working Remotely

Tips for Working Remotely

Tips for Working Remotely
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Pinnacle Financial Services wants to make sure that all their partner agents have the tools, technology, and know-how when it comes to working remotely.  As social distancing measures continue to be the norm insurance professionals need to adjust how they are going to market, working with clients and generating sales. 

A recurring theme these days is getting back to basics, whether it is in life or in work. Virtual selling is not “business as usual” for most but it can be a way to continue to manage your business.

Here are a few basic tips to ramp up socially distanced virtual selling.

  • Call all your top clients. Keep it simple. Be direct and confident when discussing important issues virtually. Useful information can be found:
  • Send email messages to all your clients to see if they have any questions and whether they would like to schedule a short phone or Zoom (online) appointment.
  • When you contact a client it  should be personal, questions like “How are you doing?” Business will take care of itself if you are looking at helping clients during this stressful time.
  • Do not recreate the wheel. Use pre-done carrier materials such as the United Healthcare’s Virtual Selling Support documents.
  • Remember that prospecting is more important that ever. Reach out to some prospects you were working on. Everyone has concerns and questions.
  • Consider hosting a Zoom (online) educational group meeting. Ask your clients to invite friends. You can make it a straight presentation or make it a question/answer discussion. This can be an excellent networking opportunity as well for well face to face sales once again become more of an option.
  • Sales are live. Telephonic and e-app technology are readily available such as Connect4Medicare from Pinnacle Financial Services.

Making a concerted effort to adjusting to prospecting, selling, and doing most things remotely will take time. Your tone, knowledge, and energy are more important than ever. Just like most things practice makes all the difference. Consider setting up Zoom calls with family to make sure you have a firm grasp of the technology and get feedback on your demeanor and the visual. How is your appearance? What is in the background that clients will be able to see?

The experts at Pinnacle Financial Services are here to help. Call for one on one training and for access to all our training videos. You do not have to go at it alone.

For more information, contact a Pinnacle Financial Services representative today

1 (800) 772-6881 x7731 | sales@pfsinsurance.com

VP - Marketing & Business Development

Contact a Pinnacle Representative if you have any questions.

1 (800) 772-6881
support@pfsinsurance.com

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Indexed Annuities – Opportunity in a Down Market

Indexed Annuities – Opportunity in a Down Market

Indexed Annuities – Opportunity in a Down Market
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Now is a time that a lot of Americans are hurting financially. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some have lost jobs, some have sick family members, and many have retirement plans that have recently lost money. The effects of the pandemic are so significant, that February’s market downturn is now being referred to as the 2020 Stock Market Crash. This is the worst drop since the 2008 financial crisis.

While so many Americans have recently lost money, those with assets invested in Fixed Indexed Annuities are totally protected. This is due to the principle protection component of indexed annuities. These fixed annuities earn interest when the index shows a positive change but will show no loss when the index shows a negative change (Ex: S&P Index). So, clients with indexed annuities may not earn interest in 2020, however, they did not lose any money in February!

Not only are indexed annuity clients protected right now, but they are positioned for growth. Within any crisis, there is an opportunity. Indexing strategies operate on a point-to-point basis, meaning clients will earn interest in any given year independent of the prior year (annual point-to-point). So, it does not matter what the index did in 2020… if it shows a positive in 2021, clients will earn interest based on the 2021 change. Bottom line – clients buying indexed annuities at a time like this (when indexes are low), have a high likelihood of earning strong interest moving forward.

Indexed Annuities also offer product features that can assist clients in re-cooping recent losses. An FIA with a Premium Bonus, a Lifetime Income Rider, or some type of LTC multiplier might help improve your client’s current financial situation. Let’s say you have a prospect who lost 15% of their IRA recently. You can tell them, “Mr. Client, I know you’re upset that your portfolio lost 15%, what if I could show you a product that would give you 10% guaranteed just for transferring the funds? With no risk of principle… Would you be interested in something like that?”

Perhaps your IRA prospect who recently lost 15% was planning on retiring soon but relying on that IRA to supplement income. You could talk to them about an FIA with a Guaranteed Lifetime Income Rider. Some Income Rider products offer bonuses to the income account of up to 20% in the first year. You could help them recapture that 15% loss with respect to their income payments moving forward. Many of these income riders will also double income payments for LTC or Nursing Home confinement.

At Pinnacle Financial we offer direct contracts and top-level commissions with dozens of A-Rated Annuity Carriers. Our team assists our Advisors with the entire Annuity sale from start to finish. This includes leads/marketing, illustrations/case design, CRM, and business processing. Please contact us today to learn more about the indexed annuity products that we offer here at Pinnacle Financial Services!

For more information, contact a Pinnacle Financial Services representative today

1 (800) 772-6881 x7731 | sales@pfsinsurance.com

Senior Sales Director - LIfe, Annity, & LTC

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1 (800) 772-6881 x7707
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Three Best Ways to Market Life Insurance to Current Customers

Three Best Ways to Market Life Insurance to Current Customers

Three Best Ways to Market Life Insurance to Current Customers
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Every salesperson is always trying to find ways to add on more policies within the same household. Statistics show that when an agent has more then one policy in the same house, retention rates tend to be better. There are many ways that you can approach your client to keep them engaged and keep yourself relevant as their agent. These 3 simple steps below will not only help you sell more insurance but will also cement your place as their center of influence. This way, when another agent approaches your client, they won’t be able to replace the business you have them in. Here are the 3 steps:

Complete a “Card” Campaign

Send personalized cards to your client. There are a variety of cards that you can send your clients throughout the year. You can send a “Thank You” card after the sale. Remember not to thank them for doing business with you, as that may come off as tacky. Instead, thank them for taking the time to meet with you. Time is a valuable resource for everyone. You could send them a birthday or anniversary card when it’s their special day. Or you could send them a “Holiday” card. This creates a personal touch and makes your clients feel like they are part of the family.    

Complete an Annual Policy Review

You sold your client a policy a year ago. Many things can change throughout the year. A major life event could have occurred like your client could have gotten married, had a baby, or bought a home. It could be advisable that they need to either update their coverage amount, add a beneficiary, or update their address. What better way to add more sales then to add more life insurance to what your own clients already have.

Create a Social Media Group

Social media is an incredible, and potentially inexpensive, way to generate more business. Start by creating a Facebook group or LinkedIn page, or even an Instagram account, strictly for your current clients. You can post anything that’s relative to insurance, such as company updates, changes with policies, or even statistical insight that could be beneficial to your clients. You can also post recipes or helpful household tips as the information needs to just be relative to your followers. Be a resource, not just a salesman.

Pinnacle Financial Services is an FMO that wants to partner with agents, and not just be an “upline.” We offer top-level contracts, back-office support for every aspect of your business, and the best technology in the business like our Connect4Medicare online enrollment platform for Medicare products. We can help you move through this increasingly difficult time so contact us now to take advantage of everything we have to offer!

For more information, contact a Pinnacle Financial Services representative today

1 (800) 772-6881 x6003 | lifesales@pfsinsurance.com

Director of Sales - Life & Final Expense

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1 (800) 772-6881
support@pfsinsurance.com

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Personal Branding

Personal Branding

Personal Branding
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What is Personal Branding? Well if you search the term online, you might find definitions like this one listed by Wikipedia:

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Personal branding is the practice of marketing people and their careers as brands. It is an ongoing process of developing and maintaining a reputation and impression of an individual, group, or organization.

Some may begin to wonder how this can apply to insurance agents. Well, first and foremost, it helps you get discovered by your prospective audience.  Establishing your personal brand within a certain specialty also provides value to your prospects. Your prospect isn’t going to work with you just because you can enroll them. Most have the availability of online tools and services, such as medicare.gov, to enroll themselves without an agent. A prospect would choose you because you have established your name as a Medicare expert because of the content you have put out. The bottom line is, if personal branding is done the right way, it will create sales and referrals.

When it comes to creating a brand for yourself, it is often difficult to figure out where to begin. Most agents fail when trying to use the same tagline of “reliable insurance services.” This will not make you stand out from your competition. You need to use your own connections through memberships, hobbies, or affiliations to start. Some great examples of those would be; if you are a veteran, do you play golf or belong to a country club if you belong to a church or synagogue, or really any center of influences. By having that commonality, you can build trust with your prospects which could lead to referrals beyond your initial connection.

The next step is to enhance your brand. You can connect to every senior in the world, but if you don’t offer good customer service or lack product knowledge you will not build trust or earn renewals. Some key customer service traits are being readily available, educated about your topic, and to be ready to go above and beyond to make your clients happy and make their lives easier.

Now once you have achieved some of these things, you would need to build on your brand and be able to get recognized by people who you have not yet connected with. Some things you can do is making sure your word holds a certain weight for a specific subject, using Medicare as an example. You should also be publishing or producing helpful information for your target market. Examples would be publishing an informative article, host an in-person or radio question and answer session, or holding educational seminars within a local community or senior center.

The last thing is making sure you are making sure your online presence is up to date and you have a partner to help you grow it. More and more seniors are becoming competent on computers, especially with the current world climate with the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. Pinnacle Financial Services can help you grow your online presence by organizing key strategies to get your name out there on senior’s online searches without paying a dime! All of our contracted agents get access to an all-in-one agent, and client-facing, online enrollment system called Connect4Medicare. With this powerful platform, you will be able to send an electronic scope of appointment, enroll your clients directly over the phone, and utilize a personal URL to help create a website for less than $20. With the right online brand, seniors could come across your website, run their own quote, and enroll themselves to make sure you aren’t missing out on any sale! Pinnacle Financial Services is here to help you take that next step so what are you waiting for?

For more information, contact a Pinnacle Financial Services representative today

1 (800) 772-6881 x7731 | sales@pfsinsurance.com

Director of Sales - Health

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1 (800) 772-6881
support@pfsinsurance.com

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Oregon Medicare Options

Oregon Medicare Options

Oregon Medicare Options
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Just in 2018 alone, the state of Oregon had close to 900,000 Medicare-eligible people, which could have risen since then as well. Due to the sheer number of Medicare eligibles, Oregon has a diverse number of carrier and product options, such as Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug Plans (MAPD), stand-alone Prescription Drug Plans (PDP), and Medicare Supplements (Medigap)

Something that differentiates Oregon from most states would be their Medicare Supplement birthday rule. Oregon’s birthday rule, which is applicable only for Medicare Supplements, occurs annually and gives clients an opportunity to reevaluate their plan. This can occur 30 days before, and 30 days after their birthday, which allows them to switch to a different plan with no underwriting. For example, if your client has a birthday on May 1st and they reside in Oregon, their birthday rule enrollment period would start on April 1st through the month of their birthday and end on June 1st. You can see more details on Oregon’s healthcare page here. Due to some limited opportunities in Oregon, like in the dual-eligible special needs (D-SNP) market, the birthday rule offers an alternative for agents to grow their Medicare book of business and potentially cross-sell other products.

How much does it cost to sell insurance in Oregon you ask? Oregon offers a $0 residential appointment fee.  So, if you are an insurance agent with your life and health license, you could get appointed at no cost. Here at Pinnacle Financial Services, we have been working around the clock holding webinars teaching Medicare 101, cross-selling opportunities, and how to effectively use our proprietary, online enrollment platform Connect4Medicare. If you would like to access a recorded webinar on Connect4Medicare to see what you are missing, check that out here. Using connect4medicare allows you to still practice social distancing from home while conducting CMS-compliant sales over the phone for all Medicare products (this includes Medicare Advantage and PDP’s). 

Not only is it crucial to have an online enrollment platform like Connect4Medicare, but it is important to have an FMO partner dedicated to your success. COVID-19 (Coronavirus) has changed the way all of us do business but has not altered our approach to helping agents grow their book. Join us now to take advantage of all our free tools and training to get ahead of your competition.

Stay healthy!

For more information, contact a Pinnacle Financial Services representative today

1 (800) 772-6881 x7731 | sales@pfsinsurance.com

Director of Sales - Health

Contact a Pinnacle Representative if you have any questions.

1 (800) 772-6881
support@pfsinsurance.com

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Cross-Selling Annuities to Medicare Clients

Cross-Selling Annuities to Medicare Clients

Cross-Selling Annuities to Medicare Clients
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Financial security amongst your Medicare clients is typically one of the most talked-about topics during your consultations. So, how do we go about creating that conversation and directing them towards a solution like, for instance, an annuity? For starters, what is an annuity? An annuity is a financial product that pays out a fixed stream of payments to an individual, and these financial products are primarily used as an income stream for retirees.

What makes an annuity an attractive option to market to your Medicare clients? Here are a few reasons:

  • The annuity was originally designed to provide income that you could never outlive. It seems a pretty important solution considering that all seniors are living longer, which means needing more assets to sustain them for a longer period of time either while continuing to work, to supplement social security, or in retirement in general.
  • In providing a solution that is required like Medicare, why not suggest to the client a guaranteed lifetime revenue stream? Annuities can be advertised in the media as being a negative way to invest your money. Educating our clients about their benefits is important as you want to make sure your clients understand the positives and potential drawbacks of annuities.
  • The clients who you are presenting Medicare to may have money in the bank. What are they earning on that money currently? Others might have a retirement plan like a 401k, IRA, SEP, 403(b), or other such plans. With the recent market volatility, have these clients lost money? Will this loss affect their standard of living in retirement? All we need to do is ask them a few simple questions to determine if they have money that is not benefitting them financially.
  • Would these clients like a solution that is guaranteed to earn interest, guarantee them the income they can’t outlive, and potentially provide for a long-term care need, or just simply supplement their social security income? I would say in most instances that your client will answer those questions with a yes.
  • Why leave potential sales on the table for these clients that might not even know about the benefits an annuity provides or have been given incorrect information from the media about these solutions?

We here at Pinnacle Financial Services, we are a full-service FMO that understands the nuances and benefits that these products can provide. We have specialized sales and support that can help you sell from submission to commission. We offer top-level contracts, as well as a unique lead program that guarantees an appointment for an annuity sale. Don’t waste another minute looking for a broker. You deserve an opportunity to grow with one of the best. Join us at the top!

For more information, contact a Pinnacle Financial Services representative today

1 (800) 772-6881 x6003 | annuity@pfsinsurance.com

Senior Sales Director - Life, Annuity, & LTC

Contact a Pinnacle Representative if you have any questions.

1 (800) 772-6881
support@pfsinsurance.com

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