4 Reasons Why You Need to Make Time for Medicare Training

Marathoners don’t prepare to run their next marathon overnight, and they don’t stop working to better themselves after completing their first race.

Medicare insurance agents should take a similar approach to their sales training! Whether you’re a new or experienced agent, making time for Medicare training is important, especially if you want to grow your book of business and expand your profit margin.

“Why?” you might ask? We’ve got four great reasons! Plus, we’ve listed some of the best Medicare training resources out there to help you effectively spend your time.

1. To Stay Up to Date on New Medicare Products

The insurance industry, and yes, the Medicare industry, is always changing. Insurers are constantly innovating and producing new products to better meet their members’ unique needs.

You need to be on top of any new products that come out. What if they’re super competitive and fill a unique void in your portfolio?

The best way to stay up to date on fresh carrier offerings and discover their nuances is by attending training webinars hosted by the carriers themselves!

Interested in a brief overview of what’s new in your market? Contact our Sales team!

2. To Stay Up to Date on Medicare Certifications & Compliance

If you sell Medicare Advantage or prescription drug plans, you have to complete AHIP Medicare training, or an equivalent type of compliance training, each year. You likely also have to complete product trainings for most, if not all, of your carriers to get certified to sell their products.

Missing out on these agent trainings can mean missing out on new commission, as well as renewals!

3. To Better Your Portfolio and Your Bottom Line

Certain Medicare training opportunities can help you discover products that you’ll want in your portfolio for the upcoming plan year.

A lot of carriers introduce their new and improved products before AEP, so you’ll want to keep that (and Ritter Insurance Marketing’s Medicare Summits!) in mind for next year.

Certain Medicare training opportunities can help you discover products that you’ll want in your portfolio for the upcoming year.

Many carriers will also hold product trainings throughout the year, so it’s not too late to get a better idea of what’s out there! There may be products in your local market that weren’t very competitive last year, but are this year, or vice versa.

You’ll want to update your portfolio accordingly in order to maximize your sales success this year.

4. To Better Serve Your Clients

Your clients likely aren’t experts on Medicare. However, they probably believe you are! That’s why they’ve come to you for help with sorting through their options and picking a plan.

The only way you can live up to that status is to always refresh yourself on what you already know and strive to increase your knowledge about Medicare.

The more knowledge you have, the more informed recommendations you can make for your clients! And happy clients are often loyal clients.

Top Medicare Training Resources

Here are a few sites with training resources that will help you make the most of your pre-AEP, during AEP, and post-AEP time!

CMS.gov

What better place to get Medicare training than from the website of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services themselves?

CMS.gov is a great site to frequent if you’d like to stay current on industry news and major Medicare changes. They also have important compliance-related documents, like the Medicare Advantage & Part D Communication Requirements, as well as data and statistics!

AHIP.org

Better bookmark this site now. If you sell Medicare Advantage and prescription drug plans, you’ll likely need to complete the AHIP Medicare training and test annually.

AHIP.org also boasts health policy news and information, research reports, continuing education events, online educational courses, and more!

RitterIM.com

Shameless plug here… Our site is a fantastic place to visit to expand your knowledge about specific Medicare, life, and ancillary products, the Integrity technology that can make your job easier, or ways to generate more leads, close more sales, and make more money.

In addition to our blog, which contains posts like this, we have Knight School — a self-paced video training experience — and free in-depth eBooks and quick guides on how to sell different products!

Want to really maximize your time? Try listening to our ASG Podcast episodes while driving to and from appointments!

In addition to posts like this, we have infographics, free in-depth eBooks and quick guides on how to sell different products, videos, and more!

Ready to learn more about how Knight School can help you elevate your career? Download our Knight School guide and start preparing today!

You can also visit our really handy training Events page that’s chock-full of upcoming webinars and in-person meetings for Medicare agents that range from being general to carrier/product specific.

Some events are hosted by carrier reps, while others are hosted by product specialists at Ritter, and some even offer CE credits! We bet new and experienced agents alike can find something to attend that will be beneficial!

See all our training and educational resources in one place. Download your free copy of Ritter’s Training & Educational Resources guide and learn how you can read, watch, listen, collaborate, and grow with us!

Even if you’ve run a dozen marathons before, you never stop your training preparations for the next one.

For those new to selling Medicare, training is important to establishing a knowledge bank and building a reputation and book of business.

If you’ve been selling Medicare for years, training can help you stay up to date on what’s new, as well as help you expand your product offerings and services.

Insurance agents who make time for training should be the most successful in the long run.