Get Ready to Make This Your Highest-Producing AEP Yet!
Everything Senior Insurance Virtual AEP 2027 Kickoff
replay
Christian Brindle
Marketing Offense During AEP
Main topics: Market disruption context, lead sources ESI avoids, Facebook ad strategy, seminar model, and AI-assisted marketing.
Key Points
Frames this AEP as high disruption but lower competition since many agents have pulled back, making it a strong window to go on offense.
Skips inbound call leads, pre-filled apps, agency-managed ad spend, high-cost SEO, and Walmart booths, favoring Lead Heroes preset appointments and strategic Facebook ads instead.
Facebook strategy: paid ads (not direct mail) drive seminar opt-ins, a VA confirms attendance beforehand, and ESI reports 70 to 80% show rates plus strong permission-to-contact conversion.
Best practices: run multiple ad creatives (2 to 10 depending on budget), widen geographic targeting to lower cost per lead, and use AI for ad copy and images.
Glen Shelton
Preset Appointments (Lead Heroes)
Main topics: How Lead Heroes’ preset appointment program works, compliance mechanics, the removal of the 48-hour scope rule, pricing, and FAQs.
Key Points
Lead Heroes sells pre-scheduled Medicare appointments, not leads or pre-filled apps. A call center captures a recorded verbal scope of appointment and puts it straight on the agent's calendar.
Big change this AEP: the 48-hour scope-of-appointment rule is gone as of October 1, enabling same-day/next-day appointments and expected to boost show and close rates.
Best fit for telesales agents, IMOs, and agents in dense population areas with a marketing budget; not a good fit for rural areas or brand-new agents.
Pricing starts at a 10-appointment minimum, with volume discounts at 100+, a limited-time 15% pre-order discount, and 50% off for ESI “Premier Agents.”
Agent Panel
ESI Agent Panel (Ina, Carrie, Erica) — Frontline Perspective
Main topics: What AEP feels like day-to-day, pacing, team support structure, retention philosophy, and appointment management.
Key Points
AEP is described as intense but rewarding; the team copes by prioritizing terming or changing plans first and pushing routine claims work to later in the season.
Shared workload across teammates, VAs, and trained support staff frees up agent time for actual appointments and comps.
Retention is driven by staying reachable year-round and handling claims/billing questions personally, which builds loyalty and drives referrals.
Appointment efficiency tips: review notes the night before, steer clients back on track, and make sure clients bring key info (Medicare number, effective dates) to save time.
Mitch Paras & Nikki Bautista
VA Segment (Hire Heroes) — Delegation Framework & App Walkthrough
Main topics: The “I-DO” delegation framework and a walkthrough of the Hire Heroes VA management platform/app.
Key Points
Introduces the “I-DO” framework: Identify tasks that don't require you, Delegate them early so the VA has time to learn your business, then hand over full Ownership of the responsibility.
Best VA use cases during AEP: appointment management, CRM/lead follow-up, and admin/client support.
Walks through the Hire Heroes app: training video library, activity tracking, calendar/chat integration, and a wallet for buying and managing VA hours.
Promotion: 40 free hours with a 160+ hour purchase, 2 to 3 business day VA delivery, and bilingual VAs available.
Becky Stoddard
Systems & Processes for AEP
Main topics: Client communication cadence, call list management, call scripts, the client tracker, and monthly workflow from September through December.
Key Points
Multi-channel outreach: an August letter, emails in August/October 1/November, and outbound calls to all Medicare Advantage clients, prioritized by leads with permission to contact, plans leaving the market, plans with big changes, then stable plans (email only).
Call list is organized by plan with a preferred contact method column, backed by a tabbed call script (live answer, voicemail, email copy, FAQ scripts, resource links).
Every call gets logged and pushed into a shared client tracker with a comparison status pipeline (info requested, added to CRM, contact client, completed, written/stayed). VAs handle Rx and doctor comps, and someone reviews the tracker daily.
Goal is finishing all client contact by end of October to avoid a December crunch, while staying adaptable when plans change mid-season.
Lester Conn
Agent Pipeline — Navigating Industry Disruption
Main topics: Root causes of market disruption, service area reduction (SAR) data, cross-selling opportunities, Medicare Supplement disruption, and long-term market growth.
Key Points
Root causes of disruption: Inflation Reduction Act cost pressure, rising utilization, and reimbursement rates not keeping pace, driving more non-commissionable plans and benefit cuts.
Service area reductions are trending back toward 2026's 2.8 million level, and any SAR or plan degradation should be treated as a trigger to re-engage the client.
Pushes cross-selling (dental/vision/hearing, hospital indemnity, cancer, home health) whenever a client's plan changes, since it also boosts referrals.
Notes long-term growth: Medicare Advantage is projected to hit 64% penetration by 2034, so today's disruption is really an opportunity to build market share.
Tyler and Jessica McDaniel
Retention Automation System
Main topics: A 5-step retention system using CMS plan data, personalized video outreach, and automation for client communication.
Key Points
Built a 5-step retention system: build an “AEP list” year-round, tag every policy with its CMS Plan ID and county, cross-reference against CMS's public crosswalk/landscape files with AI, rank top plans, then send personalized videos.
Uses AI (ChatGPT/Claude) to compare the book of business against CMS data and flag renewing, crosswalked, terminated, and SAR-affected plans.
Sends short Loom or phone videos per top plan (or one general video) to every client by October 1, explaining ANOC changes and prompting terming clients to book an appointment.
The system can be replicated with just a spreadsheet and AI, no special software required; a VA can help with the data sorting.
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