Avoiding Being Stood Up on Health Insurance Appointments

As a new health insurance agent your budget is usually very tight and your schedule is packed full of new things to learn, new prospects to get in contact with, and having to fit in personal time so that you don’t get burned out, and, by the way, you need to fit in some time for making income.

Nothing is more frustrating than slotting a time in your busy schedule to drive and see a health insurance prospect, do a full presentation, and return home, just to have some inconsiderate person not even bother to show up (or even worse, be in the house and refuse to answer the door). The wase of expensive gas certainly does not ease the pain either…

In this article we will go over a few tips that work well to reduce no shows.

1. Do you ask for directions?

It is now so easy to find our way to a potential health insurance prospect’s home or business.  All one has to do is mapquest or rely on a GPS device.  Remember when you had to ask for directions to get where you were going?

Now imagine giving someone directions to your house from a town at least one hour away.  I bet you could visualize each turn and some landmarks along the way.  The same is true when you ask for directions from a health insurance prospect.  They visualize the trip you will have to make to get to them.  This makes them realize to a greater extent the time and effort that you are putting forth to help them and to make a living as a health insurance agent.

It also doesn’t hurt to ask if there is a gas station nearby because you might need to refuel on the way home.

2.  Do not give your health insurance prospect an instant out when giving your contact info.

This one is simple.  Too many time I have heard new health insurance agents make the mistake at the end of setting an appointment:  “here is my cell phone number xxx-xxx-xxxx.  Please call me if anything comes up.”

This gives the health insurance prospect an instant out.  Instead give them your contact info in the following way: “here is my cell phone number, xxx-xxx-xxxx, please call me with any questions you might have for me, or better yet write them down so i can answer them all when I get there.  That way nothing gets left out.”

This sets the expectation to the health insurance prospect that you intend on seeing them and that you will be there to help.

3.  Don’t make confirmation calls too early.

Wait until you are actually in the car and have just cranked it up to make your confirmation call.  Tell the prospect you are in the car and on your way.

This also creates a visualization for your health insurance prospect of the effort you are putting in to come and help them.

These three tips combined every time will greatly reduce the number of no shows you have and make your health insurance business more profitable by not wasting so much gas and your most valuable asset: TIME