2025 presents an extraordinary opportunity for agents who are ready to shift their mindset and adopt a holistic selling approach.
I’ve found it amazing that so many agents push back on this idea, but maybe because they were never trained. When I first started selling Medicare plans in 2008 in St. Louis, I was taught the combination tri-close from the onset, so I didn’t know anything different. And, it turns out, I started building a diversified product book of business very quickly.
Beyond simply offering Medicare Advantage plans, you can position yourself as a trusted advisor (I’m pretty sure the folks at Sandler Sales coined that term) by educating your prospects on the broader financial risk seniors face, which are living too long, dieing too soon and getting diagnosed with a critical or chronic condition.
This not only builds stronger client relationships but also leads to increased productivity and a more robust core book of business.
Here’s how adopting a holistic approach and presenting bundled solutions will help maximize your Medicare product sales in 2025.
Reframe Your Sales Mindset and Embrace Holistic Selling
We are making the customer experience cool again, and this is one of the easiest ways to do it!
Holistic selling simply means reframing your mindset from a single product and begin offering packaged deals that support your prospect’s needs. Average Medicare bennys often face the same areas of financial concerns with medical expenses being at the top of the list as well as disabilities, chronic and critical illness, living too long and running out of money and lastly, having enough savings to cover the cost of a funeral.
Here is what you should do.
- You are the Expert, Position Yourself as One: Help your prospects and clients navigate their Medicare options while addressing educating them on the other areas of financial risk. Why? Because it’s your job.
- Listen: When you start your presentation and explain the main areas of financial risk seniors face, you will undoubtedly uncover concerns that they may not have otherwise associated with Medicare coverage, such as unexpected costs or gaps in coverage such as inpatient hospital expenses.
- Education Breeds Trust: This is sales 101, a client who clearly understands (logical certainty) their options you have presented is more likely to view you as a trusted advisor, leading to higher retention and referrals. And, improved closing rates which is driven by a prospects emotional certainty of the product you are presenting. Said another way, not until you truly educate and a prospect understands what you are presenting, will they have the emotional connection to make a purchase decision.
It’s simple, holistic selling allows you to build a value-based approach that your prospects and clients appreciate.
Present Bundled Solutions to Address Financial Concerns
I love the bundle!
Bundled solutions demonstrate your ability to provide comprehensive coverage that solves multiple problems, making it easier for your clients to to make decisions based on their specific needs.
- Discus the Areas of Financial Concern that Seniors Face: Seniors often worry about expenses like high prescription drug costs, hospital bills, and long-term care. Offering add-ons or supplemental plans make sense, so you shouldn’t be hesitant to delivering a standardized offering after explaining to them that you help seniors understand the main areas of financial concern.
- Core Products + Ancillary Plans: You need to present this in 100% of your sales presentation with no exception. Bundle Medicare Advantage with Hospital Indemnity and Medicare Supplements with dental, vision, and hearing. In both situations you can also add a lump sum cancer benefit.
- Keep it Simple: Clients often appreciate a one-stop solution. Offering bundled packages reduces the complexity of managing multiple providers or policies, which can be overwhelming. Emphasize your role in the relationship as their single point of contact when they have questions or concerns about their insurance.
Focus on Areas of Financial Risk Beyond Health Insurance
This is the most crucial step that sets the foundation.
The main areas of financial concern that senior’s face extends beyond their health insurance plan. Agents who address these broader issues at the onset of their presentation position themselves as advisors, the experts. Even if you don’t sell these products at scale, educating your customer is key part of your sales presentation that has a direct impact on your close rates.
- Living to long: Seniors are scared of running out of money, which I like to refer as outliving your money. There are great solutions they can learn about to guarantee they will never outlive their money. But remember, you are there for the health insurance, so you are using this moment to plant the seed with them about the broader way you support your customers. It’s as simple as saying “solutions to not outliving your money is one of the primary ways I support my customers, but we can discuss that at a later time as we need to dig into the changes you’re potentially facing today with your health insurance.”
- Dying too Soon: Seniors don’t want to burden their families with burial costs and often use low cost burial plans to finance that risk vs. paying a lump sum for a traditional pre-paid funeral. Help your clients understand there are various solutions that you can help them with.
Using this approach will firmly plant the seed and solidify your reputation as a critical thinker that your clients can rely on, ensuring your are viewed as their go-to resource for more than just Medicare.
Expand Your Expertise and Build Credibility
Hard to argue this one. A Medicare agent who positions themselves as an expert will naturally attract more clients. People instinctively value professionals who can simply explain their solutions and offer customized solutions that match their pain points.
- Stay Updated: Keep up with CMS updates, product changes, and compliance requirements for Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplements. A good way to do this is setup google alerts and have them delivered to your inbox on a weekly basis. This is a great way to understand what’s happening and trigger you to dive deeper when necessary.
- Invest in Training: Pursue certifications and attend workshops that improve your knowledge of needs based selling, Medicare products and senior market demographic trends. You need to be able to resonate with your customer audience, so the quicker you can become their expert, the sooner your sales will scale.
- Provide Tailored Advice: The more specific your recommendations, the more confident clients will feel. Using a standardized presentation around the main areas of financial concern still allows you to customize your recommendation. As you present, your prospects will tell you their pain points which you’ll use to create their customized solution that directly addresses the main areas of financial concern that seniors face.
If you want to set yourself apart, you should do this.
Full Commitment to Holistic Selling Will Skyrocket Your Productivity
Adopting a holistic sales presentation is nearly guaranteed to have a measurable impact on your close rate productivity and book of business retention.
- Retention Rates: When you are viewed as a trusted senior market advisor, your customers won’t want to lose you as a resource and retention will be very stable.
- Increased Referrals: When you’re a trusted advisors, your clients are commonly happy and love to share how please they are with your service when talking to their friends and family. And, when they do, your phone will begin to ring with high converting referrals.
- Cross-Selling Opportunities: Every new client presents an opportunity to introduce additional products, increasing your revenue per client. This will happen organically when you start your presentation off with educating them about the main areas of financial concern, and your approach to solving their problems will instill confidence you are the right agent to help them protect their livelihood.
Ultimately, holistic selling transforms your role from a salesperson to a trusted advisor, a shift that benefits both your clients and your business.
Conclusion
The reason our company is called Senior Market Advisors, is because we teach our partners to be exactly that, trusted Senior Market Advisors.
We teach our agency and agent partners how to present the main areas of financial risk that their customers will face, and with that comes a diversified book of business, strong retention and cash flow stability.
If you want to maximize your Medicare Advantage sales, it’s going to require embracing holistic selling. This approach not only helps clients feel more secure but also positions you as the expert. You’ll begin to predict your sales percentage of supplementary solutions and likely see your general close rate increase simply due to changing how your customer’s view your expertise and approach to helping them problem solve.
When you put the time in to learn this business and master the processes and truly believe that you are an expert, you will rapidly start building trust and loyalty which will create a steady flow of new business and renewal income.
