 Think a lot of people think that they could if they've done sales before that they could they could sell Medicare supplements and The reality is when when you remove the ability for somebody to actually see your face and see the gestures You make and and help to convey the whatever empathy or sympathy you're feeling That becomes a lot more difficult for Trying to transact to sales. So that's why I think a lot of people struggle plus It doesn't the game has a change in that you still got to go through a lot of nos to get yeses And I think a lot of people struggle with that still they think that oh with Automation with all the new tools we have at our disposals with the perfect sales script We can eliminate that and we should only have to go through two nos to get a yes, and it's just not true You are listening to the 8% nation podcast created to help you become a top producer in the insurance industry enjoy the show This week's 8% nation podcast. We have a very very special guest Eric Fierro friends of I mean close friends We are all friends the medicare hefe He's Hispanic Well, you know I'm gonna give you a quick intro Eric for those of you that don't know you've spoken in 8% two times Or once panel keynote. So 8% speaker You know really big-time medicare Tela sales powerhouse tens of millions in premium in the last 24 months You are the guru the man of Tela sales We are honored and excited to have you here with us Cody do you have anything else to say about this this gentleman? He's a he's a you know what he is What is okay? He's a he's a Secret monster, okay, you know what I mean like there's people in our industry that I Think need to be more well-known He's one of them. You know, I also think people are industry that are Even more talented than they know He's one of them because he's you know dude's super humble man, you know, like I was just talented as you I'd be beating my chest like every day It's true Cody you are you're freaking more talented than me Medicare tell sales is hard hard hard dude. There's no doubt like it is not easy dude Like I work with a lot of call centers of Medicare specifically Yeah, and I mean it's tough to get those cost-per-academy to be to make sure they keep the wheels turning So, you know, you guys over have four call centers Medicare call centers, you know 10, you know 50 people between all the different Organizations tens of millions of premium. I think you're you're running the one in you know in well Phoenix, I don't know if it's actually Phoenix, but well, it's Chandler is Chandler But it's 20 minutes from feet, but nobody knows Chandler home of the first ever retreat that we had You know a special story real quick before we get into this so Eric and Eric fiero and Justin Brock Hold two very special places in my heart because my first my first ever event with Cody askings as a business partner Was the retreat that we did in Phoenix and I was super intimidated about the insurance industry So I'm like certainly not everyone's like Cody where it's like just chill and casual that everybody's probably suits and buttoned up And then in come, you know Eric fiero and Justin Brock, and it's like chill dudes easy-going guys But monsters. Yeah, I'm like, oh, okay So you don't have to be all suited up and like thank you this you know something special You can actually be a chill dude that is a human being Eric water on bathing suit. No shirt. Oh Love you Eric love you Well, let's let's get into the content with our friends. So, you know, Cody, I figured you guys have a long relationship How'd you guys meet like what's your what's your background? It was actually it was it was because of the very first 8% I started seeing Cody posting a lot of content online and And I would follow it and I would watch it and then when he announced the first 8% I just said I wanted to be a part of it and and so I think that he had done You you had either done an interview or you had talked to Justin because of the at the time It was the Medicare coach Facebook page Yeah, so he's the one who introduced me to you and then we got on to a couple of conversations got I think we hit it off right away and then From there, we just kept finding reasons to keep chatting keep talking and then Text together and we just started joking together and then we just yeah, it just it went crazy from there Yeah, now our families have hung out, you know, I mean, yeah, I say family for you I it's just me and Lauren, but you know But it's it's been it's been it's been great and that you know, it was one of the It's it was for me one of the proudest moments At last year's 8% nation to be on that stage And and that was one of the first things I did is I kind of just laid out for everybody How often I had seen you just in the past couple of years and to see the culmination of Where we're at right there with all those agents sitting in front of us here I am on stage at an event my good buddy had, you know put on and it was just it was such a cool experience Man, I loved it. I had so much fun on that stage. I think that's one of the coolest things about Everything that we're all doing, you know Is I've become challenged and motivated when I get around big-time people and have some fun Every time we hang out I leave saying dang I got to do more I agree, you know And so I think a lot of people are like that too. That's a power of like retreats and events at 8% and you know Freelive training that's everything else we do everything you do is Most people They stay in their own little bubble man, and if you do that, I think you're gonna see in your little bubble forever And you think you're all that because your little bubble is like, you know Yeah, you're probably the most impressive dude, but then you get around other guys You're like, oh wow These guys are awesome. Like how do I get on their level? Yeah That happened to you in the past, you know, because you you will you will agree You should be farther ahead than you are right now. Absolutely. Absolutely. There's a lot of There's been you know there's I think there's always a lot of setbacks as well that maybe you don't expect them but they happen and so you have to roll with the punches and You know, it's just part of business as part of growth is that you're gonna try things You're gonna fail at things and when you fail you can either sit there and wallow or you say that sucks Time to move past it. Let's try something else. You always need to continually be growing, right? I think at the end of the day One thing I have seen a lot in the agent industry is that agents will grow to a certain point Where they get comfortable with a nice paycheck. They got 500 clients and and then they kind of stop growing They just really focus more on just how referral business and servicing my existing clientele But I think that even in this industry, even if with result residual income You always have to keep growing because clients will pass away. Some clients will get taken by other agents It doesn't they don't just stay there, you know So that complacency is gonna lead to you know, to to a loss of income and clientele if you just sit there You always have to try to keep growing keep pushing keep trying new things well And you're you're the you're the epitome of that considering you started you're in charge of or I'm not sure what your exact role was But two years ago is when your guys is you know, tell sales organization Got off the ground. So why don't you if you don't mind like once you walk us through sort of a little bit of your Journey on you know, how starting that what went through your mind. Maybe some of your setbacks It sounds like maybe we've had some setbacks. Maybe there's some people listening that have had similar setback Maybe you can share some of those Anything you can share man. We'd love to hear buddy. And before you start that's that's what's unique about you, too is You're like Crazy transparent, you know, I mean you'll talk about the bad stuff You know people are trying to give me to open up and actually talk about the bad stuff You know more like our musters be a perfect world, you know, but never is everything you touch turns the gold Yeah, but I love that you do that. So thank you. Yeah, I think it's it's very much It's a it's a product of social media that a lot of times We only see the good right because that's what we know mostly who wants to show the bad It's not something that's gonna catch a lot of attention But there's so many people who do need to hear that part. They need to hear that man There's struggles there struggles in this game and and it's not like hey because I follow this exact system that somebody laid out Whether it be you guys or me or anyone else You'll still come up against struggles, you know, there's a the reality is that It's starting a new call center It helps that we that that I got to partner with an amazing group with Heartland Financial And and it also helps that that I'm not I'm not actually in it alone Like I get to do this with a team of amazing guys who Who we get to collaborate on a weekly basis to really Hash out what's working. What's not what can we do better? How can we get better results? How can we lower our CPA? How can we you know, how do we convert better? How do we get better sales training to our agents like everything that you could think of we're constantly trying to work on right to try to To try to get better results and grow and at the same time we all have that same vigor like we're excited About what we're doing. We're really passionate about the industry that we're in and as a result We get to translate that to anybody any of our team members who are on the daily grind talking to our consumers and trying to get Them to to to join our organization, right? So I think that having it having an awesome team and Understanding that you can't do it all is one huge factor in anyone's ability to grow and I feel that I've been really fortunate that I didn't pick the team that I ended up working with but Heartland did a great job picking them and I think as a result. I really lucked out that I really enjoy the The camaraderie we have the time we get to spend together the and the idea that we both that we all have Very similar mindsets in how we want to grow what direction we want to go and how we go about doing it You know and the cool thing is is there is sometimes there's some there's some Clashing of ideas, but that's good. You need that right if everybody was thinking the exact same thing then I Still think that you could that's a hindrance to both you need friction You need that friction so that you can think and see things from other perspectives and say, you know what that actually makes sense I probably wouldn't have thought of that or I maybe wouldn't have thought of that for another year or two You know But because you have another another team member who who has seen things that you may not have seen that experience comes in handy So that's what I love about teams. I love that because you can really Work off each other and use each other's experiences to to shorten that timeline of growth You know and I think that's why you guys Provide so much great and valuable content because you're just trying to do the same thing for agents You're trying to shorten that that that learning curve and so am I with the university I'm trying to shorten the learning curve for a lot of people so they don't have to necessarily go through all that and They can learn from our experience Right on one another thing too that I feel like you represent we were talking about off air early I really feel like another one of at least my passions has become really Brazing up a new generation of insurance professionals that are using insurance as a vehicle to make a lot of money Yeah, you know because I just I always think about this and I maybe say this too much, but Nobody visited the insurance booth on career day You know I'm saying but there's more millionaires on the in the insurance industry than any other industry in the world And why is that I think it's because you know, we just need to be more vocal that there This is a huge opportunity. I think ultimately it's not sexy. Well, let's bring that Bring sexy back. That's what you're doing, man. You're making insurance sexy There's a hat. There's a hat right making sure it's sexy again. I don't know if it ever was but Well, you know, but you know what you know what's sexy You know what's sexy the the trips that you can win from these insurance carriers You guys have ever been on those I mean any producer listening Strive to hit the mark and go on one of these excursions or one of these conventions that the insurance carriers put on because I will tell you what when I first got in the business It was about man I would love to do something that I enjoy and I can make money at but when the first Convention was offered by a carrier that I was representing. I was just like that'd be amazing if I could go to Aruba, you know That'd be really cool. And we qualified and I went and I got hooked like I literally I Never had so much fun because look I Don't know about you guys, but I've traveled on my own dime and I've traveled on the insurance carriers dime It is so much more fun to travel on an insurance carriers dime. I'll tell you guys what they always Do So, I mean, it's it's definitely a lot of fun and it's a huge motivating factor for me Whenever I see that a carrier is gonna put out a convention. It's like well, I want to qualify, you know For a little while. I was actually able to go on at least three to four trips a year Because we were just qualifying for so many things and it was you know, it was it was so much fun It's awesome. I think it's great and it it it makes you not want to miss it Like when I when we like what we've been on a few together when you go You don't want to not go again. Like yeah, it's like it's like making a hundred grand and then going backwards It's like who wants that nobody, you know, it's like having a hot wife and then having a not hot wife It's like you want that But it's it's the same thing, you know, that you were saying earlier Cody where Going to these conventions. It's like when you go to the in like an 8% nation You're surrounded by elite producers doing some amazing things So not only are you enjoying the view of food and and the ambiance You're also getting to talk with some amazing people and that you can learn from make new relationships and and have a lot of Fun doing it. So it's the same reason why I want to go is that I want to learn it helps me to learn more You know what you just gave me an idea for something. I don't know why this is a random move today practicing any sleep and I was here late and I got up early at 5 30 worked out, but You just gave me an idea of something. I think we should do and I'm sorry if I'm Not asking any good questions. I Think that I'm gonna throw maybe ought to kick off the year or something like a power networking retreat and Invite some of the biggest players I know in the industry to come and hang out For a weekend and just be around each other like how sick would that be? Yeah, that's that's that would be a blast You get the credit you gave me the idea so well. Hey, let's let's let's just talk about let's break down You know in Medicare tell sales, you know, why do you think it's so hard first off What you know because it is a struggle man, I don't know what why it's so difficult, but why do you think it's so difficult? Yeah, I think well, man, there's there's a lot to it I think a lot of people think that they could if they've done sales before that they could they could sell Medicare supplements And the reality is when when you remove the ability for somebody to actually see your face and see the gestures You make and and help to convey the whatever empathy or sympathy you're feeling That becomes a lot more difficult for Trying to transact to sales. So that's why I think a lot of people struggle plus It doesn't the game has a change in that you still got to go through a lot of knows to get yeses And I think a lot of people struggle with that still they think that oh with automation With all the new tools we have at our disposals with the perfect sales script We can eliminate that and we should only have to go through two knows to get a yes And it's just not true. I mean it helps automation helps and all that stuff helps But at the end of the day you are you have to realize that if you're in the industry that we're in if you're in the senior industry There's a lot of people who are trying to get in front of those people and have conversations in person and over the phone so you have a lot of competition you have to stand out and One of the big things to stand out is that you have to make sure that you take advantage of every moment You have on the phone with them because they're gonna only give you a few precious ones, right? The most the most expensive things now are our time and attention that really what that's what it comes down to So we have to make sure that if we get them on the line We say the right things to try to keep the conversation going that we ask a lot of questions Which I go hark back to a great training that Cody did when he came down to Phoenix where he hit the same marks He was like you got to ask these questions. You got to keep staying in charge of the conversation By asking questions. It's non-threatening to be honest And I think a lot of people think that in order to be Successful and sales you have to have that type a dominant personality and you don't but you do have to be brave enough To keep asking questions and you do have to be smart enough to know how to respond when they when they actually Answered these questions so that you can follow up with another question That's what I love so much what you're doing when you're putting out those videos of you and your team's training in the morning Doing those those, you know those those question answer Trainings because that's that's the kind of stuff that agents need to be training on daily so that they can get better that's part of being a good sales agent is you do have to train all the time and And you have to really sharpen your your ability to ask questions on the drop of a dime So that you can keep that conversation flowing So I think a lot of people quit because it's hard, you know They're hoping that somebody out there has a magic pill or a magic bullet or magic something That would make it so that you only have to get two nos to get to a yes I haven't found it. I don't think anyone's found it. And so, you know, I think that that's that's really Again, it comes down to the social media perception where you everyone is trying to sell something online So that's part of what they're tagging is, you know, hey, we got the perfect system and roll here and you're gonna be Making six figures in no time I just I haven't found that to be a reality Well, hey, so, you know, you guys have been on a rocket trajectory, you know, just crushing it in premiums and you know It helped me understand. What have you done? Is there anything you can share? That would help, you know, some, you know, how'd you guys start first off? Was it one one call center? Yeah, yeah, so it originally started with a call center in in Kansas City Um at out of the heartland home office because they just they had the space and They decided they wanted to get into that marketplace So they started it off and at the time that I was I was a marketing director at another organization for an fmo Um, you know, we were kind of at a crossroads where the company was getting bought out and I could choose to either Uh, continue on with the bought out company or I was actually thinking about just going off on my own and being an independent agent You know, uh, I got a hold of my buddy tag gray and I told him what was my plan and he said Dude, what if we partner and open up a call center? And I said that takes a lot of money and he said again What if we partner and open up a call center and I said, are you serious? He's he's I said absolutely absolutely and so that's uh, you know to me It was a perfect fit because obviously I I felt like I had the skill set necessary to make it successful And I just really love the idea of starting something and building up something from scratch again So yeah, I had to start all over again. Uh, I think I was at my last organization 12 or 12 or 13 years So I had to start all over again But because I partnered with the right people I think that really helped us to get onto this rocket trajectory But it was no it's no easy feat like I'm telling you guys it's it's it's there's a lot of There's been a lot of setbacks along the way There's been a lot of things that we had to learn in terms of the quality of the people we're hiring What type of personality we should hire, uh, you know, and that comes in all sorts of You know different ways what's funny is I I hired some people that I thought were going to be stellar salespeople and they were They ended up being some stellar salespeople But the reason I felt like it was the wrong fit is because they wanted to be me So instead of being happy within the organization, they wanted to instead Open their own, you know do their own So so it was kind of like all I was doing was renting their time for a little bit and uh, and then they moved on So it's kind of that thing where you're trying to find that perfect balance if it even exists Where you have people who are are excited about what you're doing you're excited about your vision excited about You're in the environment you've created for them and they want to be loyal to that and they want to grow within it That's that's what I'm looking for and and it hasn't been easy to find You know, we've also in some of our other agencies We found some uh some of the hurdles that we have is that uh, the demographic isn't isn't large enough For us to really find licensed agents. So we actually have to go and Train from complete scratch new people hire them with no licenses get them through the the exams It takes to get state licensed and then from there have to train them in the business I again, I have an internal version of the university So that platform has been pretty integral in uh in training up these agents as quickly as possible And really has helped the managers and the other call centers as well Because they can basically sit down for two weeks Live and breathe that university and by the time they're done They know quite a bit more than most agents out there selling Medicare today to be honest So it's been it's been a I think a really cool part about what we're doing But again, it hasn't been easy and we've made we've made some mistakes and learn from them But that's life, you know, what's the biggest mistake you've made? Or that you or the company? I I think that maybe maybe the one of the mistakes that we've probably made is that uh We we I guess I would phrase it as we took our our foot off the gas a little bit um, and I think that with With a call center There needs to always be a constant flow of leads coming in right there always needs to be a constant flow of leads We got to a point where we thought we might have overproduced some leads Uh, and so we wanted our guys to just start working them and we stopped bringing in new leads for a little while And and I think that that was that that it was it was uh Something that I hope we don't do again because I don't think that we ended up getting the results we had hoped for So, uh, I think that one of the that's that's one of the things that I feel like I've learned is that We always need to have a flow of leads coming in whether it's the Christmas season or not You know because a lot of people think hey It's you know, you know who posted about this earlier today was Michael McCormick. Um, what does he not post about? Exactly, but it was real timely right because that's that's exactly what it is It's a lot of people think because aep's over and because the Christmas season is here That you're not going to make any more sales So they took they take their foot off the gas They stopped focusing on it and that's kind of what i'm trying to allude to right now is that That's what I feel like we did we took our foot off the gas But I think we need to keep it on the gas throughout the entire year in order for us to continually grow And I think that was kind of one of the the things that I that that we could have probably done better last year That we we're gonna hopefully do better this year That's good. That's really good. So it sounds like you what I like to try and do is try and kind of separate out What I would say the ingredients of what's made you successful It sounds like one of the things you hammered on is an amazing team, you know around you Another thing is don't take your foot off the gas. What are some other crucial ingredients to your success? Yeah, I think uh There has to be a constant desire to get better Even even for the top agents in our organization There has to be a constant desire to want to do better set a higher goal So what we try to do is uh on a micro level we have a daily goal We have a weekly goal. We have a monthly goal and any time that an agent hits said goal It's time to increase right and so and I don't care if it gets to a point where they're like, that's not feasible Who cares go for it, right? What do they say if you shoot for the stars? At least you'll get to the moon So keep setting keep you have to keep increasing your goals and man Who better to say that to than the guys that I'm talking to you right now? Jesus You guys keep doing that same thing you live that out, right? You keep increasing your goals You meet one you increase it higher and higher and higher. So uh, that's that's I think a crucial ingredient as well To the growth of of an organization is you have to keep setting those goals a little higher all the time Right on what you know, you seem to have a heavy hand like training. How what walk me through um How important do you guys put? You know an equity stake on training like how how important is that to you guys? It is it is probably one of the most important I mean when you put out your name into the into the into the world And I think that when you are a a call center, you essentially Can end up having a target painted on your back, right? There's a lot of negative comments that are made out there by by the broker world Regarding call centers and you know to some extent maybe some of the claims they've made have been true But we're trying what I've always said is I want to be I want to be I want to be an organization that has the call center reach But the agency feel right so the local agent feel so I still I want to send out anytime we write write up somebody on a policy We want to send out the holiday cards want to send out birthday cards We want to send out. Thank you cards. We want to keep in touch with them But we get to also Integrate the the aspect of where where right now an independent agent has to be the salesperson the customer service person The you know they have to wear all these different hats We get to parse that out and actually have people who specialize in each of those things Which can be a very big benefit to a consumer So, you know, I think that there's definitely enough room for both Types to to operate in this world right in this Medicare space Especially because I think we actually have a shortage of agents to take care of all the silver tsunami that's here but And I think and I do and I think we just need to kind of respect each other more You know, I think call centers and brokers like me to kind of respect each other more in that aspect that Hey, we're all trying to do the same job. You know, we just We we might have a bigger reach But we're still trying to make sure that when we talk to somebody we deliver accurate information That we are very well trained in terms of our knowledge so that when we are providing that info if they Go and tell the the local agent. Oh, well this agent told me this or that that we don't have egg on our face You know that we're not disseminating bad information. So training is huge huge part of what we do huge I mean, we're guessing you do it every day. Yeah Walk us through what you do with your team because I think that's a valuable piece that you said Also, the the you know national call center reach agency feel There's a lot of agents out there that feel alone They're not training every day Most are failing and I think that's the toughest time to fail when you're just all by yourself What do you what do you do with your team that you think everybody should be doing? Yeah, so I think that it's important Again, it's funny. I've been doing as long as I've been doing this. There's still some things that I forget I may have been an expert in it Five years ago, but because I haven't used it in a while I might have forgotten So if you have a resource like if you have an online training resource, it's good to go through it You know, even if it's just one module a day just to refresh your memory and and be aware of of that But it's also good Like I said to sharpen your skills the way that you do with your team So we've adopted some of the stuff that you guys do with your teams We've adopted that here just to be faster at You know, you guys call it something different I call it arping because I read a book called the conversion code where they talk about answer respond pivot And so That's that's basically it's the same exact thing that you do Just different words, but that that's a big thing that we like to practice is when we get an objection answer the objection You know, so you just or acknowledge. I'm sorry to acknowledge respond pivot So you acknowledge the objection Respond to the objection then pivot with the question to keep the conversation going because again that pivot puts you back in control So we practice constantly trying to stay in control of the sales conversations because and again on the phone It's so easy to just hang up on somebody You know, so In person at least they got to kick you out of the house, but on the phone they can just hang up on you and end that conversation So it's it's for us relationship building and getting that place where we can become relatable to a client Is is what we're constantly working on so that we can build trust and make a sale That's good. That's good. That's very similar to the three a's. That's awesome. That's really good. Yeah That's right. The three a's. That's what you called it. What are the three a's? Agreed answer ask. Oh, which is acknowledge respond and pivot. I didn't even know that existed, but it's literally the exact same thing That's good Well, is there anything um that you're seeing on the horizon trending, you know, like Like my perception maybe you can just correct me if i'm wrong But my perception is is that a lot of medicare sales is actually moving it's moving towards tell sales Would you consider that a true statement? I think a lot of people are getting a lot more comfortable with the idea of making transactions over the phone It's definitely uh more convenient, you know, and again, i'm not talking trash on any anybody who still goes to the kitchen table By no means. I think that that's there's a lot of uh, it's still a really big uh growth sector To be able to go into the home and make sales and build a book of business that way And obviously it's it it can be to an extent easier Because you get to be face-to-face and you get to to read the the physical cues that somebody has but Again, it kind of goes back to scaling depending on your goals and how quickly you want to scale It's a lot easier if you sell over the phone to scale and start selling in three or four different states Versus just where being limited by where you can drive to right? There's a lot of people who are getting into this business that live in very rural areas And they don't have a very big footprint that they can try to go reach So they really have no choice but to either drive a lot or they can look to get into tele sales and master that craft So that they can they can scale faster than than they would if they just went house to house Right on how much of your lead development is digital? It's all digital 100. Yeah, it's all digital. So it's either it's either through google traffic. It's got facebook youtube um I don't I don't think we do any any any mailers for well. I take that back We I think we did do a mailer for aep for medicare advantage Because that seems they seem to pull a little bit better Uh for the medicare advantage space not the med subspace so much anymore But uh, that's that's probably the only time we do a mailer drop is is going to be during aep for a medicare advantage Outside of that 100 digital And is the focus on those to drive an inbound call instead of a response Actually, no, we get a lot of response cards. Although we do get some inbound calls. Um, we do get uh We it's a lot of response cards that we have to try to call and reach and got a lot of bad numbers and all that stuff That you got to deal with with direct mail well any any lead any big Tele sales centers that I did they have a percentage of their leads that they just almost throw away from badly or bad numbers and all that but Um, this isn't that weird that like they went to the effort to respond to the direct mail piece or whatever And they gave the wrong number. It is I never understood it. I never understood it I mean, I remember there's I think some of it is they get upset about all the mail they get So they're just like, oh, well, I'm gonna cost them money They rip it off and just send it back where they think you're gonna mail them something back instead of call them You know, I don't know who knows I don't know at the end of the day like I said, I'm constantly trying to think about new ways to To get in front of the consumer because obviously it is difficult I think it's getting more difficult because of the amount of phone calls people are getting But there's got to be there's always going to be a way right and it might be through mediums that we don't even know Are going to be popular with seniors yet You know, I don't know what if all that talk that Gary v says about tiktok You know all of a sudden you have the senior population starting to start to go to the tiktok And that could be another new medium to to advertise on What if it's actually going to be more based on text communication? You know, it could be that the future is based on text communication. And so I've been kind of Planning on doing some things in that arena as well where I instead of you know, Just sending him a text. I want to text over a link to a personalized video That we make so for easily you can get some kind of video from from each of our agents You know, depending on who the lead is gender is sent to I don't know I'm always thinking about a bunch of different ways But I'm trying to stay ahead of it because at the end of the day That's that's just what we got to do is marketers, right? Nothing's going to be tried and true forever things will constantly change. That is the only constant Well, the silver tsunami as you say which is hilarious and I'm going to start saying that now Is uh the the trends on google are are representing that as well So the the people that Didn't used to get on google and look for answers on plan f g lm and op Um, they didn't used to go to google used to pick up the phone or talk to a relationship Well, now they are actually savvy enough to go do the research online and the keyword traffic is is massive Yeah on that note. Do you guys do some seo or some or some organic youtube videos and stuff? Yeah, yeah, we do we so we have we have a We have a couple of sites that we use for for more of the organic Google traffic and also for google adwords Um, and so we we're trying to capture As much of as much as we can from the digital markets and obviously based on our budget we determined where we're going to Hedge more of our bets so that we can again at the end of the day feed The amount of agents that we have to feed every day. So it's kind of the balance for us, right? We have so many agents. They have to have so many leads a day. So we got a Yeah, we got to figure out what's going to give us the best results Are you comfortable sharing the number of leads per day or per week or per month per person? Is that is that is that uh Well right now, I think we're kind of probably on the lower end of that I've asked around to a lot of call centers to kind of be like, hey What are you what are you providing your agents per day? Um, and so for us, it's normally going to be somewhere in the range of I don't know depending on the time of year Maybe eight to ten leads a day is what we'll try to feed them Which that's going to add up, you know, I think it's I mean that's pretty similar to our guys out here You know, it's not they're not selling medicare, but they're still talking people and trying to close them So yeah, it helps you build your pipeline for sure Yeah, and those would be your eight to ten a leads right newly generated New leads and then they have a database of pipeline and they also have age b leads and most likely is that how you guys do it Yeah, yeah So after after so many attempts of trying to reach the a lead then it becomes a b lead And then we actually have a different team that focuses on calling those b leads and if they can get them on the phone They'll transfer them back to a live agent Okay, I see a lot of people doing transfers just in some capacity It's just a it's a good way to try to make something out of that still right because I get at the end of the day We spent money on all those leads. So we're just trying to see if we could still turn it into something Because there's a lot of people who will just fill out the information so that they can Read or see or get a quote or whatever, but they're not actually ready until three months later Yeah, I've got a lot a lot of people working right now about age leads and how they want to call them And then live transfer them to a closer and all that kind of stuff that's happened More than they used to so I wonder if it's like a shift that's happening because I'm noticing an age lead sort of Boost as well I wonder if it's a shift that's happening because so many people are doing digital That now there's like this massive amount of well usually you've seen the cost go up too, you know On the new side. So it's like then you got to start to you know either adopt some of that or tweak what you're doing which we always do and obviously you do too Some amount most call centers use some amount of just volume type lead whether it's age lead or low fire intent You know digital lead, whatever that ends up being just to kind of fill the gaps and have enough people to call I see that happen. Yeah, well, I mean if you if you if you fed your reps Just brand new leads Daily it wouldn't keep them busy, you know, right, right? Eventually they have to end up working older stuff because it's it's just the nature of the game. Otherwise, they wouldn't be busy Um But we actually do this we did this cool thing with our software that we called the pull program So whenever an agent runs out of leads to call for the day They can go to the pull program hit a button and it'll give them 10 leads They they can get up to 10 leads every five minutes or something like that So they get 10 leads they call them. They hopefully get a conversation They'll surpass that 10 minute window and then once they're out of leads They can hit it again and get 10 more leads But it's just a cool way where it took a little bit of stress off of us To make sure they keep they keep getting fed and instead now they just got to click a button And it'll feed more leads to their system. So again, that's not something that I did It's something that again having a great team behind us who can who got to execute that that it's really important to have a good team That's really smart. That's really cool. Do you have any uh scripting tips you can give us? You know the duration average, what's your average duration of your sale? Like what's your general script breakdown? I know you can't get specifics. No, nor should you target talk time So average sale time It's normally going to be a little just a little north of an hour And it depends if it's a Medicare Advantage call. You're probably looking at north of an hour and a half Because as a call center when we do advantage calls, there's a lot more We have to literally read a script word for word and can't deviate from it. So It makes it a lot more difficult But Medicare supplement calls can normally be just a little north of an hour Some of them are going to be a little shorter There's going to be always those people who are just like i'm ready to go right now And so that call could just take 30 minutes But in the majority of the time when you have to do a little bit more selling That's when those calls are going to probably be just north of an hour If you're doing a good job building relationship getting that rapport and then taking the application So it's and again, we do it all 100 over the phone like without any screen sharing Uh in against as we opened we haven't screen shared once even though I have it in my training On the university to show just in case you ever need it for any reason I I I can't think of the last time I actually did a screen share We say screen share are you talking about taking over their monitor and helping fill out what what do you mean? What do you mean by that? Well, so back back when telesales was first getting kicked off I think there was a lot of seniors who mistrust He had a lot of mistrust obviously because they weren't used to doing business this way So what I would do is I would say, uh, mrs. Jones What I can do during this application process is I can show you The portal I can show you my computer screen so that as I'm asking you for your name Your address your date of birth you can see that I'm plugging it right into the etna's electronic application And uh, and then you can also see that when it comes time for signature How we how we do the signature and all that stuff? So I would just share my computer screen as long as they could get to access to the internet on a computer I'd share my computer screen and they would just walk along with me and see me doing the app to give them more peace of mind that I'm not just hoarding the information and I have some nefarious use for it Got it. Cool Right on. Yeah, really? You said you had some funny questions for this guy. They're not funny, but just fun. Oh I can always go with the fun one for Eric uh Hmm what was uh Before you went up to on stage at 8% it's not funny, but Were you nervous? Oh, of course. Yeah, I I get nervous anytime. I'm about to speak it doesn't really matter about the size I I in fact just to just let you guys know it's funny and even if when I'm going to go talk in front of my own team Uh, if I'm going to give like some type of motivational speech or something I get nervous And it's not until I just start speaking out there that it's almost like I'm an actor I guess we're all of a sudden it's like game time and then I just turn it on and then from there I just go but yeah, I I am always nervous when I'm about to speak in front of the crowd That's good, man. Good. Um What's your what's your what's your favorite kind of food? Uh Chinese Chinese Yeah, is that what is that what you went to pf james our first first? Exactly That's probably not your favorite chinese place though. It's one of them actually It's one of my favorite chinese places, but there's obviously a lot more There's a few hole in the wall places as well that probably still put msg in their food that are real tasty Um, but yeah, I love I love asian foods. I even like I like fuh Uh, I love having a good soup and uh, I like Thai food. I like I like a lot of the asian flavors a lot You too, I do Yeah, yeah, I mean and don't get me wrong. Yes, I know i'm hispanic and I love Mexican food I love salmadorian food, but um, but it's not my favorite I don't know if that's a sin to say but it's not my favorite What uh, I have a question. What would you what would you get if you had like a young god like 19 year old Kid that's like Eric, what should I do in insurance? You know, what what should I do? What would you tell them? Uh I If they if they have the right the right mix of stuff right in terms of their desire their drive and a commitment I would say, you know, if they're can I guess let's let's let's juxtapose it to They they're considering college versus getting into the insurance business I would say absolutely save your money get into the insurance business That's what I would say. I would say I would say, you know, let's get get good training get a good mentor And and let's get into the insurance business I could have saved myself a fortune if I didn't if I just went straight into the insurance and didn't go and get my degree Well, and I was telling my son. Yeah, I have a 10 year old son I was well, I think almost and uh, I said I don't want you to get a business degree I said if you I mean you can do it if you want I'm not gonna say on your way But let's learn how to do business by doing business Right do not go to college to get a business degree. You know what I mean? And not that I'm like I love my college. I'm not saying anything against getting the degree if that's the direction you need to go But I feel like the in my industry in the marketing industry things change over so quickly I was speaking to a professor the other day that was saying we have no Case studies no peer reviewed Reports to talk about digital marketing at all. That's why they're inviting us to like speak at their Uh digital marketing classes because there isn't like it changes so quickly like imagine a professor talking about digital marketing Eric like imagine Like what what would they be able to add value to you on like no You're the guy that runs millions of dollars a budget through a system You need to be teaching them what's going on, you know, and so that's what I feel like is interesting about the business world Is it changes so quickly? I think it's tough. I feel that I feel that the um the educational system is gonna It's gonna it's already quickly changing but the more that uh that that professionals who are Who who don't necessarily have a professional designation to be able to teach but have the real world experience The more that those guys put together their own courses and put that info out there and sell it And and and people start consuming it and learning from it and putting it into practice The more that catches on the less Need there is for a traditional university because what are they going to have to offer at that point? I mean, I don't need to learn about You know Stuff that that isn't going to really apply to me people don't want to do that anymore They want to learn Something that's going to be tangible that they can use right away and can actually build a foundation on And that's why I think these courses that we're making that course creators make that are actually from people who are practicing in the business That's going to keep taking off more and more. I see that industry getting bigger and bigger well Tell us about your university before we uh wrap this thing up Yeah, so my university uh obviously has going to have a strong focus on selling medicare Medicare supplements medicare advantage plans It's going to show it's going to go real in depth on product knowledge so that you can be Like I said more proficient in the majority of medicare agents who are out there today Because so many medicare agents got a very small crash course on how to sell medicare And they really don't know all the ins and outs There's a really cool trend happening right now that there's a lot of great groups out there On facebook and stuff where you can go and get knowledge from other professionals who have been doing it for a long time And learn a lot of stuff and shorten your learning curve But what I like about courses is that it puts it it puts it in order for you It puts it in order and it teaches you what you should know Before you get out there and start selling so the university focuses on product training And then it focuses on sales training then it focuses on marketing with the intent that you first need to know what you're selling Then you need to know how to sell it and once you know how to sell it now You need to learn how to market it so that you can get in front of people to to utilize the selling of the product So, uh, it also has a bunch of great tools that are it that are included in the university that uh, I I think anybody who's going to be serious about selling should have at their disposal And it's uh, like I said, I think it's one of the best courses that are that's out there because it's it's truly Something that I I started with the foundation and then I started tweaking it like crazy Once I had masses of people going in there and saying hey Um, can I they would ask these questions and I'm like, oh that wasn't addressed in the university Let me make a quick video and I'd make a quick video and address it and I kept doing that over and over until the question stopped You know because at that point I'm just like, okay I've covered pretty much every base needed that people and and against while all the while still putting it in order So that you learn it when you should be learning it Yeah, what what's the name and web address for those that want to check it out? Uh medicare sales university. So you just go to medicare sales university dot net. It's a dot net Yeah, got it. I think I might have even forwarded the the medicare boss If you go to the medicare boss.com, I think you might have forwarded to uh We have to the medicare boss.com Medicare boss. Well, thanks for joining us Eric. Is there anything you want to leave? You know, we have a generally a younger audience. I in general Is there anything you want to leave with the uh, the up-and-comers of this industry or just, you know, yeah Yeah, I think uh, you know If you guys are listening and you're contemplating getting into the insurance industry This is the place to be I think for the next 15 years This is going to be a huge growth sector and the potential for you to make a lot of money while actually helping people And feeling good about what you do The potential is huge So I would say that if you're in the fence jump in just make sure that you find some great training along the way Make sure you have some good mentors who can help you And uh, and I think that us as resources were great resources to help you guys get hooked up in the right places For those who are already in the industry if you're in final expense, you know, I would say It's it's good to to diversify right? It's not it's not always good to be a one-trick pony. So Even in the medicare arena, that's why we don't just sell medicare We cross sell several products so that we're not necessarily a one-trick pony now The majority of our business will be in one arena, but again, it's because we love that residual income But outside of that we still want to make sure to diversify and have several different product offerings It makes you a better agent anyway. So, uh, yeah, best of luck to everybody again These two guys they're amazing at the content. They're putting out and I'm really thankful for them in this industry And so I just like keep following them keep keep learning from them. And uh, yeah, I think that's about it Cool youtube, bro. Thanks for that shout out man. It was great to see you We'll see you on the next one, man. Yeah for sure guys. Thanks a lot Hey, if you love this podcast, which you did and thank you so much for watching a personation podcast I got a couple quick videos for you to watch 2020 medicare updates with mr. Tony Merwin And how to start an insurance call center click on one of those podcasts check them out and I'll see you there