How to Efficiently Quote, Propose, & Enroll Small Groups at Your Benefits Agency

Discover how to streamline your quoting, proposal, and enrollment processes for group benefits.

Quoting and enrollment take up a significant amount of your time as a small group broker. We’ve found that brokers spend 18 hours per client each year on quoting and enrollment. But with a tool that can help your team streamline those processes, that time can be cut in half.

In this blog, we’ll discuss the tools health and group benefits agencies use to quote and enroll clients, how AgencyBloc’s Quote+ solution can help streamline this process, and how general agencies can also take advantage of Quote+.

What Health and Group Benefits Agencies Use to Quote & Enroll

One solution that health and group benefits agencies have found to manage their quoting, enrollment, and proposal processes is AgencyBloc’s Quote+ solution. So, how exactly do benefits agencies use it to quote and enroll their employer groups?

One part of the quoting process that can take up a lot of a broker’s time is collecting employee health information. It is a huge task to ensure the sensitive data is organized, appropriately formatted, and up-to-date.

With the built-in Medical Health Questionnaire (MHQ) in Quote+, you can ensure the information is correct before submitting a quote for Medically underwritten, level-funded, and self-funded plans. Instead of filling out multiple carrier applications with similar questions, the MHQ in Quote+ only needs to be filled out once. Then, the information is mapped to each carrier application, eliminating the need to input the information manually. The employee’s data is also checked for errors before signing to ensure data accuracy. Brokers can rest assured that the information is correct and don’t have to spend time scrubbing the data themselves. Plus, Quote+ meets HIPAA and HITECH regulations, meaning you have peace of mind that your clients’ sensitive data is safe and secure.

Finding quotes that meet your clients’ needs (coverage, budget, etc.) can be time-consuming and tedious. And wading through all the options available can be overwhelming. Quote+ makes this part of the process simple. 

Once you have all the employer and employee information entered, you can view the plans and products available in a straightforward way — filter by pricing types, carriers, price, deductibles, and more. You can also compare different plans to help you decide which products and plans you want to include in your proposal. Then, once you have your products selected, generate a ready-to-present proposal in seconds.

Beyond helping your team save time finding quotes and putting together proposals, Quote+ can also increase your speed to lead and better your chances at closing the deal. Why? A Lead Connect survey showed that 78% of customers purchased from the vendor that responded first. Quickly finding quotes and creating proposals increases your chances of being the first broker to come back to the employer group with a response, thus resulting in a better shot at closing the deal.

Beyond being able to quickly provide prospects and clients with quotes, Quote+ can also allow your team to pivot and pull new quotes at the drop of a hat. The ability to do this and do it in a timely manner gives you an advantage over your competitors who might not have the tools to provide new quotes quickly.

How to Use AgencyBloc’s Quote+ Solution

So, how exactly can your team use Quote+? We’ve broken it down into six easy-to-digest steps.

Step 1: Add Employer Basics

The first step to using Quote+ is inputting the employer’s information. You will input tax ID, SIC and NAICS codes, number of employees, employer contact information, current coverage lines, and more.

Step 2: Add Employee Demographics

After all the employer information is input, you will enter all employee data. You can either add employees manually or import employee information via a spreadsheet. Alternatively, this is made even easier if you also use AgencyBloc’s AMS+ solution. With the integration, you can send employee data to Quote+ from AMS+, eliminating the need to manually enter data or manipulate a spreadsheet. With this integration, steps one and two are ultimately eliminated, streamlining your quoting and enrollment process even further.

Employee information needed in this step includes name, date of birth, tobacco usage information, location, the last four digits of their social security number (especially to use the MHQ), and more.

Step 3: Configure Proposal Setup

Next, you’ll configure how you’d like your proposal to be set up. What coverage lines will this proposal cover for all employees? Is the MHQ required for employees? What other pre-screen information is needed? You’ll also determine what employer communication will look like to each employee. This could include sending alerts to employees to make their elections or fill out the MHQ.

Step 4: Select Employee Coverage Lines

In step four, you’ll select which coverage lines each employee needs. For example, one employee might only need medical coverage, while another might require medical, dental, and vision coverage. Here is where you can make the determinations.

Step 5: View & Compare Products

Source | AgencyBloc

When you think about quoting your small groups, what does the process typically look like? You and your team are most likely visiting many carrier portals and searching for plans and products that match your prospects’ and clients’ needs. Then your team will manually compare the options before presenting them to the employer. This can be extremely tedious and time-consuming, especially if the employer group wants to explore medically underwritten options. But what if you could simplify that step and view all the available options in one centralized place?

In Quote+, you’ll see a grid of products and plans you can filter by various criteria, as mentioned earlier. If you are quoting multiple coverage lines, each one will have filters that vary depending on that specific coverage type. Then, you can compare plans to help you select the best options for your employer group.

Step 6: Generate Proposal

Generating proposals to present to your employers can also be a time-intensive task. You’re likely entering in the details of each plan you select into your proposal manually, which means you run the risk of missing important details or including inaccurate information. With Quote+, you eliminate the need for manual proposal creation and instead can generate a professional proposal instantly.

Once you have selected which plans you’d like to present to your client as options, then comes the last step: generating the proposal. At the click of a button, you’ll have a ready-to-present proposal that you can send to the employer immediately for them to review or to review with them on a call.

To personalize proposals in Quote+, create a template that includes the information you’d like on each proposal and is customized with your brand’s colors to make it more professional and cohesive.

How Uplines Use Quote+

If you’re an upline with downline agents, you, too, can use Quote+! AgencyBloc recently announced expanded capabilities that give uplines more visibility into their downline networks and agents.

In one convenient location, general agencies can get invaluable quoting and enrollment data, performance, and insights into individual downline books of business. With this new offering, your upline receives a new standard of transparency.

In just six steps, your group benefits agency can save time and increase your chances of converting more leads into loyal clients. Plus, benefits uplines can now also offer additional support and take advantage of the data and reporting benefits that Quote+ can offer when reviewing their downlines’ books of business.

With a tool like Quote+ at your team’s disposal, the quoting, enrollment, and proposal-generating process becomes infinitely more straightforward, efficient, and streamlined.

Posted by Sarah Rosonke on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 in Quote+

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2. quoting