A Proven Way to Increase the Profitability of Your Insurance Practice

Dec 7, 2023 6 min read

Successful insurance agents are those who constantly watch for ways to differentiate themselves from the competition. Expanding the types of products you offer is a good way to do this because the more eclectic your portfolio, the more solutions you’ll be able to offer. You’ll be able to serve a wider base of clientele and increase your value to consumers.

Expanding into the ancillary markets is a relatively easy way to enlarge your product offering. What are ancillary products? How can you use them to gain sales? What resources and tools do you have to help you? This article answers these questions.

Ancillary Products Include:

Dental, Vision and Hearing (DVH) – Represents some of the most common types of ancillary insurance plans. Unfortunately, Original Medicare does not provide coverage for most DVH procedures other than some specific dental, vision and hearing costs.
Hospital Indemnity (HI) – This is a supplemental insurance plan designed to pay for the costs of hospital admission that may not be covered by other insurance.
Short-Term Recovery Care (STRC) – Plans designed to provide short-term coverage for additional care needed in a nursing home, assisted living or home health care environments.
Final Expense (FE) – These are policies that help reimburse for expenses surrounding a policyholder’s death.
Critical Illness (CI) – is a type of supplemental insurance that pays out a one-time lump sum cash benefit if diagnosed with a covered condition.
Cancer Heart Attack and Stroke (CHAS) – offers additional protection against unexpected health care events.
Disability Income (DI) - provides income in the event a policyholder is unable to earn an income due to disability.

Using ancillary products to increase sales:

DVH – works well as a door-opener. From there, you can transition to Medicare, retirement, etc. Also, DVH is an easy cross-sell and a great opportunity to revisit your existing clients and determine if there’s a need for this type of coverage.
HI – Revisit your existing Medicare Advantage clients to explore the HI cross-sell opportunity. Once you identify what their maximum out-of-pocket expenses are for things such as hospitalizations and outpatient procedures, you should have their interest.
STRC – Cross-sell to current long-term care (LTC) insurance clients for coverage during the LTC policy elimination period. Also, STRC plans appeal to those who may not be ready to commit to LTC insurance but want some coverage for an unexpected accident or illness.
FE – is suitable for those nearing retirement. FE offers fast turnaround times on issued policies and works well for those who don’t have a large budget to allocate for premiums.
CI, CHAS and DI – Selling CI, CHAS and DI together may provide more complete coverage. Policyholders can receive payouts for medical bills if they fall under the CI and CHAS umbrella while the DI elimination period is being satisfied. Then, once the elimination period has been satisfied, the DI benefits kick in.

By now, you should have an idea regarding the role ancillary products plays and how to incur additional sales by adding them to your business mix. The value that these products add to one’s practice is self-evident. But how do you get started?

Getting Started

If you’re interested in utilizing this information to increase production by adding ancillary products to your practice, then there’s good news. You don’t have to go it alone. Senior Market Sales^® (SMS) is here to help.

SMS is a national insurance marketing organization, representing top Medicare Supplement, Medicare Advantage, ancillary, annuity, life, long-term care and travel insurance carriers in all 50 states. Successful independent insurance agents rely on SMS for proprietary technology, competitive insurance products, expert training and service to help them leverage their time, make more money and put their business in a position of distinction. Founded in 1982, SMS is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. In 2020, SMS joined the Alliant Insurance Services family of companies.

How SMS Can Help You Increase Ancillary Production

SMS is adept at helping agents increase both health and wealth production. This includes ways to improve ancillary sales. Here are just a few tools and resources SMS provides to help specifically with ancillary production. This is not an exhaustive list. Contact SMS for all that’s available.

QuoteDental.com

Not sure if dental insurance is a good value for your clients? Run QuoteDental.com™ quotes for FREE and know you’re recommending the most suitable plan for them. This multi-carrier dental quoting tool compares benefits side by side, based on out-of-pocket costs, for the level of dental health needed. Plus, you’ll stand out because this tool is only available to agents contracted with SMS.

QuoteDental.com compares:

All participating SMS dental carriers
Expected cash out of pocket
Total cost in or out of network
Coverage over time

Agent-Facing Brochure

SMS provides an informational brochure for agents wanting to increase ancillary production. This resource is available at no cost and is a great way to review selling points and strategy.

Client Stream® Lead Exchange

Client Stream Lead Exchange is a first-of-its-kind lead acquisition platform available through SMS, providing quality final expense, dental and Medicare leads, including prequalified live-transfer calls. It’s exchange-driven to keep lead costs affordable and only allows prescreened vendors to participate. You can even earn free Client Stream Lead Exchange leads through SMS’ Level Up Marketing Assistance Program.

Features and benefits include:

Leads verified by TrustedForm
Multiple lead vendors in one platform
Integration capability with Lead Advantage Pro^®*
A way to set your bid price with system recommendations
Under-65 and over-65 lead availability*

Hospital Indemnity Sales Idea

SMS offers sales ideas designed specifically to enhance your ancillary production. For example, did you know you that by combining hospital indemnity insurance with specific low-premium Medicare Supplement plan options, you could offer a health insurance solution that differentiates yourself from the competition?

Your Team

SMS employs an entire team of licensed marketing consultants who are ready, able and willing to help you build your business to new heights. Plus, we have in-house team members in compliance, new business, contracting, etc. Together, we partner to develop your practice into a more profitable, highly differentiated business that prospects notice.

A Bonus Takeaway

SMS has developed an entire client-facing marketing library for your use in prospecting for qualified ancillary product clients. This library includes templates for letters, emails, flyers and more. If you are interested in gaining access to this library at no cost, then let’s talk.

SMS has the knowledge, experience and momentum to help drive your business to new heights. Since product availability varies by state for ancillary products, contact a licensed SMS marketing consultant at 1.888.747.3810 to get started with suitable options available in your area.

*May be limited to lead type.

For Licensed Insurance Agent/Advisor Use Only. Not for General Public.