Art of Selling Employee Benefit Plans

The Art Of Selling
Employee Benefits
How to achieve success as an advisor in the
competitive group health industry
beneplan.ca

Art of Selling Employee Benefits
The Sales Cycle
• Also known as a funnel, it’s one of the most exciting experiences in the business
world
• It’s a systematic process. It doesn’t end after the first close.
• Each step offers many twists and turns with the ultimate objective being winning the
account
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Prospecting First Meeting Proposal
Closing Process Roll-Out Renewal
1 2 3
4 5 6

• The process to find potential customers who are a good fit
• Involves research and consistent outreach
• Central principle is “Contacts = Contracts”
• Prospecting has changed over the years with new channels and
technology but central principle still holds true
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1. Prospecting

5
Prospecting Methods
There are many approaches to prospecting, but the most important
thing is to choose a channel that you have strength in and can
consistently execute on.
Cold Calling Door Knocking Email/Linkedin
Networking Referral LeadsDirect Mail

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Research First!
The difference between a poor first time connect and a successful one is context!
Having context of the individual’s or company’s background gives you a better
frame for conversation
1. Identify who qualifies as a prospect
- What do your current customers look like?
- Think about traits such as industry, company type, size
- Niches your company excels at
2. Get to know the prospect & their pain points
- Who are decision makers? (Linkedin is great for this)
- Company news and industry trends (Blog, social media, google search)
- Job postings are great indicator for signs of expansion and type of people they
need

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Cold Calling
A few basic principles to follow:
• Do your home work and try and get to the right person that makes
decisions on benefits (HR Manager, CFO, Owner/CEO)
• You only have 30 seconds to captivate your audience, get them curious
• You must distinguish yourself from the other Advisors that are calling
• Use the 3 P’s, Polite, Professional, to the Point
The ultimate objective of Cold Calling is to obtain information or obtain another
interaction or appointment, nothing more!
Once secured, make sure to file, track and be prompted to follow up at the
appropriate time.

Door Knocking
Traditional but very underutilized*
• Cut travel time by focusing business clusters such as industrial parks
• 1 chance at making a good impression, make your 1st impression count
• Look the part, clean shaven, dressed appropriately, act confidently
• Use the 3 P’s : Polite, Professional and to the Point.
• Have a good brochure handy
• Be prepared to do an on the spot presentation
Ultimate objective is to make impression on decision maker and secure
appropriate date to talk about benefits. Nothing more at this stage.
*Note: This type of prospecting may not be appropriate during COVID-19
pandemic
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6
Email & Linkedin
If your audience is active on Linkedin, connect with them there
• Great place to see who are decision makers in company
• Make a personalized connection (or ask mutual connection to make intro!)
• Like/comment on their posts,
• Share interesting content regularly, DM to your leads
Cold email can be super effective as avg. open rates range from 15-28% 1
• Enticing subject line is key!
• Get to the point, don’t waste time with introductions
• Focus on their pain point
• Personalize what you can (name, insight about their business)
• Follow up! But don’t spam.
• Pro tip: make it easy to book a time with scheduling tool like Calendly
1. Source: MailChimp

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Direct Mail
Direct mail campaigns are a traditional channel but untapped place to
cultivate leads.*
• When’s the last time you got something personalized in the mail?
• Has 90% open rate! (compare to emails)
• Can be a letter, pamphlet, package or something that represents their
problem or what you can do for them
• Be creative, focus on 1 single message
• All you need is a response
*Note: This type of prospecting may not be appropriate during COVID-19
pandemic

Networking
This is a long term play that can produce huge yields
• Joining clubs, associations or groups can produce leads (online and F2F)
• Focus to add value, advice, spend time
• People will see through you if your only in it for the leads
• If there’s genuine interest you will meet like minded people with common interests which will
then provide opportunities
• Centers of influence refers to individuals or corporations such as accountants, lawyers or
freelance professionals that have their own clients that they would be willing to introduce you
and your product or services to
• This type of networking can produce huge returns as long as you are engaged, contribute and
offer value
16

Referrals
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A referral lead is when your customer suggests your service to one of their contacts:
• Highest sales closing ratio from all other channels
• Big compliment and must treated with special care because the referrer’s reputation
is at stake
• If you drop the ball, then you run the risk of losing both clients.
• Timing of when to ask for referral must be strategic
• The best time to is when you have come through for them in a big way (securing
better price or better plan, resolving an important issue for the client).
• At Beneplan, we typically ask for referrals when we issue clients a healthy refund
cheque

• Congrats you booked your first meeting! Now what?
• What do you do in order to increase your odds of winning the
account?
• Let’s take a look things to consider before and after the meeting
4
2. First Meeting

18
Arrive 10 minutes earlier so that it gives you time to observe everything around you:
• The waiting room, awards, sponsorship plaques, pictures, paintings, trophies, framed
newspaper articles. You must try and get a sense of what this company is all about
• Sports paraphernalia, framed jerseys, autographed pictures, anything you can use to
break the ice and establish instant rapport
• See if the person you are meeting with is in any of the articles or photos
• See if there are any charities or organizations the company contributes to or belongs to
i.e. industry associations etc.
Arriving At The Meeting

The Power of Observation
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Observe this waiting room, what do you notice?

19
The Power of Observation
Observe this waiting room, what do you notice?

20
Now you begin the presentation. Here are some tips to have a successful meeting:
• Establish a warm rapport within 1-2 minutes by conversing about anything you researched or observed
previously
• The next 3-5 sentences from you will begin to build the context of who you are and what your company
specializes in
• Ask many questions to uncover all your clients’ pain points
• Take notes and read in between the lines. If they say the issue is the price but all of the examples they
give you are about service issues, show them how you can fix the service issues and save on the price
During The Meeting

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During The Meeting
“If I can deliver your issues in a clear and systemic
way and save you enough money to make it worth
your while, will you be able to make the decision
to come on board?”
previously
specializes in

20
During The Meeting
previously
specializes in
Observe how this question is answered.
• Eyes, body language
• Vague or direct answers?
• Can they make the decision? If not, who can?

Objective of the 1st Meeting ?
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 Establish a rapport with this contact
 Uncover the “pain points” the contact has about the plan
 Create enough curiosity about your product or service in order to produce an analysis and/or
proposal addressing the pain points
 Gather as much information as possible about the company and the benefit plan i.e. Renewal
date, type of funding fully insured or self insured
 Find out who is the current broker? Friend of the owner? Family member? How long have they
been servicing the account? Do they like the broker?
 Try and ascertain what level of service does the broker provide? i.e. Provide quarterly claims
experience reports, innovative plan designs, always ready to jump in and resolve issues?

21
3. Proposal
When returning with proposal, most important success factor is
 “Have you solved the “issue(s)” or “pain points”?
 If you have, the next obstacle is the price “are you able to
provide an equal or better price”? If price has been dealt with
then you can start the closing process.
Be Prepared
Anticipate
the Objections
Watch & Listen
Know the proposal, know the pain points and how
you plan on getting them resolved
• Rehearse what your going to say. Expect the
unexpected.
Ask yourself: if you were listening to this presentation
why would I not move forward? :
• Are their any risk elements?
• Are their any plan deviations?
• Savings not significant?
• Technology not as good as current?
• Too much work to switch!
Ears - listen very carefully to objections or questions:
• Questions around “how long does it take to switch’?
or “can an electronic data transmission be used to
input employees information”? These are good
questions.
Eyes - watch very closely to body language.
• If arms are crossed or eyebrows are lifted,
generally means the prospect is not buying.
• Smiling, laughing a relax body language or intent
listening means that there is interest.

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4. The Closing Process
The closing process is where everything either comes together or doesn’t. To
successfully win an account you need to address all of the following below:
Resolve
all pain pints
Justify
the price Eliminate the incumbent
Show value add
services
Map out an seamless
roll out plan

After The Sale
Once the sale is made now the real work begins.
• Common moment where many advisors drop the ball
• Critical to quarterback the set up process, involve the your team to handle their respective
responsibilities and report to you.
• Weekly meetings with the client and your team so that items are on schedule
• Making sure that all forms that need to be handed out and or signed are sent out on time and that a
date for their completion is also set up. If any unforeseen issues come up they can be dealt with in a
timely fashion.
• A by-product of this process is that everyone begins to know each other and become more comfortable,
this leads to building better rapports which help in the satisfaction level of the new client.
25

5. Smooth Plan Migration
& Roll-Out
Make sure you match the same benefits employees currently enjoy and can
grandfather pooled benefits such as Life and Long Term Disability so no
one loses any coverage. You must work hard to ensure migration to your
plan causes least disruption and learning curve to employer team.
Clear
Communication
Drug/Dental Card
For All Employees
No Interruption
of Coverage
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Simple Migration
of Employee Details

Is My Job Done Now?
One of the biggest mistakes that sales people make is believing that
once the plan goes into effect that their job is done.
• Work done after the sale determines your true long term success
• A good sales person should check in to see how the first week went,
any issues or glitches must be dealt with immediately.
• Remind the client that if any issues come up, to call you asap so that
they can be rectified immediately.
• After a month this check in should occur again just to see how
everything is progressing along. Moving forward a quick phone call
now and again to simply check in to see how things are progressing
is the way to go.
26

Is My Job Done Now?
One of the biggest mistakes that sales people make is believing that
once the plan goes into effect that their job is done.
• Work done after the sale determines your true long term success
• A good sales person should check in to see how the first week went,
any issues or glitches must be dealt with immediately.
• Remind the client that if any issues come up, to call you asap so that
they can be rectified immediately.
• After a month this check in should occur again just to see how
everything is progressing along. Moving forward a quick phone call
now and again to simply check in to see how things are progressing
is the way to go.
26
An Onboarding Presentation is usually performed
with a representative of the carrier
• It is very important this is done by the person
who knows all of the “ins and outs” of the plan

Ongoing Service
It is important to stay in touch with the client on a regular basis. A
good way to do this is to send out “Quarterly Claims Experience
Reports”.
They provide the following:
Touch base
with client
Show how the
plan is performing
Bring any usage
issues to the attention
Eliminates any
surprises on renewal
Strengthens
your rapport
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Importance of
Client Education
Truly the biggest issue in the benefits industry is the lack of proper knowledge on
how benefit programs really work.
• Incredibly the vast majority of people who make decisions on their benefit
programs lack the proper education to make those decisions.
• Often, people take the lowest price on the spreadsheet only to have that cost
increase by more than the initial savings on the first renewal.
• To succeed, you must become an expert in this field first, then you need to
make your client as much of an expert as you are, especially when it come to
pricing.
• In fact, if you can also show them how to project the costs from one year to
another, it will be extremely difficult to ever lose that client.
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6. The First Renewal
Is The Most Important One!
The renewal process should go smoothly if you:
1. Select the right carrier that offered the proper pricing
2. Completed Premium Projection Analysis
3. Kept the client informed what the usage has been on a quarterly basis
4. Overall service has been very good
“The way you won the business is the way you will lose the business”
• If you won the account on providing a special concept, or promising fair pricing
and top notch service, then the way you will lose this client is if someone provides
those same services better than you have.
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Build Your Own Fan
Club at Each Client
Each client before making a decision on the benefit plan generally has one or more
people that are also involved in this process.
• Often times the owner will rely on the financial person and or the human resources
person opinions before making a change.
• It is very important that you try and win them over and keep them won over as you
grow with the client.
• Bringing in coffee and donuts now and again or speaking with them at the company
golf tournament or party is an excellent way for you to begin building a relationship
with these other company leaders
• Get to know who the players are in the company and build rapport with them.
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“Remember things change, companies are bought
and sold and the more people you have in your
corner the better chance you have of keeping that
client”

Be Proactive,
Not Reactive
• Staying on top of emerging trends in the industry or any changes in
legislation and or changes the insurer wishes to implement important to
communicate with your clients asap.
• If your client finds out about something new and exciting from another
source it starts the process of your client not trusting you to keeping
them informed of what’s happening and could ultimately lead to you
losing the client, the client has lost confidence in your abilities.
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Be Accountable And
Transparent
• Provide full transparency into the operations and financial
standing of their program through quarterly and annual reports.
• If a member of the Beneplan Employee Benefits Co-operative
emphasize that an independent auditor is engaged every year
to audit the co-operative’s financial statements.
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Add Value and Efficiency
Provide online tools that make benefits easy to use and
understand for both plan admins and employees.
On Demand
Reporting
Web & Mobile App
Claim Submission
Easy Billing, &
Account Changes
Web Based Plan
Administration

Thank You
If you have any questions, feel free to
reach out to me below.
Vince Principato
President, Beneplan Inc.
vprincipato@beneplan.ca
Desk: 416-863-6718 x235
Cell: 416-832-4797
500-150 Ferrand Dr. Toronto ON M3C 3E5 | Beneplan.ca

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