Tips For Hosting a Medicare AEP Walmart Retail Sales Event – Part 2
Lists, Questions & Things You Might Need – Plus Final Tips and Thoughts
For my Walmart Sales Event I made a list of event questions, a list of items I thought I might need, and sales materials I would need. It was a lot. I am going to share some of my lists with you to give you a head start on being prepared.
You should make your own list of questions you have about running a retail sales event to ask your up-line or save them for one of the online training webinars. Also, make a list of needed items, you can start with my list and personalize it with your needs.
Your FMOR should provide you with a name badge and some buttons, like “Ask Me About Insurance”.
My FMO provided me with face masks that were imprinted with “Ask Me About Medicare”.
Important – If you are new, make a cheat sheet of the confusing stuff, like Medicare dates, and how many days for this, and how long for that, when can someone apply for this or that. Even make some copies from the medicare.gov website of things like, how long on disability to get Medicare, info about Veterans and Medicare, and so on, to help you remember. Then, when someone asks a question, just let them know you just want to double-check and look at your notes or print-offs, most will appreciate your checking to be accurate. Remember to get your information only from Medicare-approved resources for the current year and upcoming year.
Items you might need.
Briefcase & Bag (Or rolling tote if you like.)
Plan books – I put copies of the current and upcoming year’s plans that I most often sell in my briefcase. In my extra tote bag I put a single copy of some other plans I felt I might need. And in my pickup truck, I had multiple copies of a variety of possible plans.
The tricky thing is that during AEP you will have people who are just becoming eligible for Medicare, and people looking to change plans for the upcoming year, forcing you to have two sets of enrollment materials: the current year and the upcoming year.
Items you might consider buying, with an explanation below.
Sign Stands
Brochure and Business Cardholders
Lock and Cable
Tiny Purse
Hand Sanitizer
Wipes
Jacket or Wrap
Face Mask
Case / Holder for iPad or Tablet or Cell Phone
Sign Stands – I was required to have a schedule sign posted with my hours, and a “Be Back Shortly” type sign so I had to buy sign stands for each.
Lock & Cable – I bought a lock with a cable to attach my briefcase to the backdrop stand for when I needed to go to the restroom, so I didn’t have to lug my briefcase around. I took my iPad with me though.
Tiny Purse – I also bought a tiny purse with just enough room for my cell phone, a pen, a couple of cards, and folding money, I did not want to worry about my purse lying around, and I wanted a nearly weightless purse to wear cross-body all day, so as not to hurt my shoulder and neck. The tiny purse I bought had a transparent window so I could easily see my cell phone calls.
Jacket or Wrap – My Walmart kiosk location was always cold, so I kept a wrap in my truck, though I often wore a jacket.
iPad or Tablet & Cell Phone Case or Holder
I did not want to have to worry about carrying my computer, so I set up my iPad and I also had my iPhone. I bought a carry arrangement for my iPad, so when I needed to go to the restroom I could wear it cross-body along with my tiny purse.
Office supplies – The Usual Suspects.
Index Cards
Safety Pins
Paper Clips
Folders
Pens and Pencils
Some Tips and Notes
While you know from your Medicare training you can not sell a Medicare Advantage Plan before October 15th, you can begin marketing starting October 1st. Your FMOR may allow you to start working your retail store location after October 1st (or whenever your kiosk setup arrives), but remember that you can only chat with people, you just can not sell MA, MAPD, or PDP insurance plans until October 15th.
Retail stores are notorious for losing things, so your kiosk will ship to arrive only about a week before AEP. And it is your job to go to the store to verify that it has arrived and to make sure they don’t lose it or worse, throw it away. Yes, they do that. The kiosk set up should go to the Pharmacy, but if not there, check with other department managers.
Retail store employees are overworked, they are expected to do 16 hours of stocking and display set-ups during their 8-hour shift. I know this to be true. I have worked in various retail stores doing retail merchandising for national companies. Employees flat don’t care about your kiosk, and probably wish it had never come, just more work for them in an already overloaded day. If it gets lost or thrown away… oh well! So check that your kiosk arrived so they don’t throw it away.
Per your FMORs instructions, go to your retail store and ask at the service desk to speak with the store manager. Like any organization stores have a hierarchy, start at the top. If the store manager is not there ask to speak with the “Manager On Duty”. The MOD may be a front-end or back-end manager, or team leader, etc., simply ask for the Manager On Duty, they will understand. You may be instructed to go somewhere in the store to find the manager, they often do not come to their numerous vendor visitors, you go to them. After you make this contact, you will also need to meet and speak with the pharmacy manager, who will be your main contact going forward, the person you will check in and out with each time you come to work your hours. This is what my FMOR required.
The FMOR will provide you with an introductory letter. Make 3-4 copies. One for each manager and extra copies in case a manager is not in, so you can leave a copy with someone in hopes to avert them losing your kiosk, the kiosk will most likely be delivered to the pharmacy department. The extra letter copies are to bring for a second attempt to meet with the managers.
Speak with the “Store” manager (or MOD), about the kiosk set up location, and if needed give a gentle reminder of where the kiosk is supposed to be located (such as at the front near the registers). In most stores, the Pharmacy manager will default to whatever the store manager wants, who is the boss of the store. Store managers receive so many store messages, they probably at best only skimmed the communication about your in-store arrangement. Here is a big tip. If you want to ingratiate yourself with the managers, offer to come set up the kiosk.
Why make the offer to set up your kiosk? First off, it’s yours, you should care that it is done, done on time, and done right, and set in the correct location. In addition, by making this offer, you will make the store manager very happy, one less task for them to deal with.
My kiosk could have been done by myself, but my husband graciously offered to help me, which was great, because while I could have assembled it myself, the size of the banner frame was easier to handle with two sets of hands.
When my husband and I arrived to set up my kiosk, there was a pallet of water where the store manager and I had discussed locating the kiosk. The store manager was not in, so I spoke with one of the assistant managers (MOD), who kindly came, saw the issue, and got a pallet jack to move the stacks of water.
The setup of my kiosk did not go without a hitch. On my initial visit to my small Walmart Neighborhood store, the manager had already told me they had no tables or chairs to spare for me to use with the kiosk. Well okay, at home I had a nice 4’ table and a padded folding chair, I would just bring my own.
My husband and I arrived at the store to set up the kiosk, and I grabbed a shopping cart and picked up the kiosk shipping carton from the pharmacy. We assembled the banner frame and hung the banner backdrop. Going good. We set up our 4’ table and draped the table cover that came with the kiosk setup kit, ugh, it was shaped for a 6’ table. I knew the table cover was going to be for a 6’ table, but I had not expected it to have sewn corners designed to hug 6’ table corners, and it looked really sad on my 4’ table.
There was a large Walmart store just 3 or 4 miles away, so we zipped over there and picked up a 6’ folding table, and I decide to grab one more folding chair just in case I needed it.
We zipped back to my Walmart store, set up the 6’ table and I have to say, the setup looked great! Better than I even imagined, very professional. Due to the Covid virus, we were provided with a plastic sheet to go over the table cover, but it still looked good. We did have to pin the plastic to the table cover, as the plastic kept blowing in a breeze that kept sneaking in each time the front doors opened.
And speaking of breeze, I was cold at my kiosk location, no matter the outside temperature. October in Texas is still very warm, but the store A/C vents blew right at me. As the weather cooled moving into November the front entrance doors allowed cold air to pour in. The cashiers working the registers were in the same boat, they all wore warm clothing. I usually wore a jacket, and I kept a shawl in my pickup truck.
I want to add an additional tip here about working in a retail store. Retail stores like to know who is in their store and why. To that end, they all have a “Vendor Login Book”. This login book will normally be at the service counter, just ask the service desk employee and they will show you where it is. It is usually sitting out on the counter for easy access by vendors. Stores like vendors to sign in and out each day. If you forget to sign out, it’s not a big deal, you can do it next trip. The vendor log book was not mentioned as a requirement by my FMOR, but I know retail store managers appreciate vendors logging in. This also provides you with a great record of your attendance, if the need were ever to arise, to verify your compliance with your scheduled Sales Events. Due to the Covid virus, the logbook during my Sales Event had few vendors, but still, enough sprinkled in to show I was there each of my scheduled days.
The kiosk set up came with some nice advertising literature, but I also wanted additional carrier literature. With other insurance kiosks I’ve seen, the insurance agent only puts out business cards. Be sure to have at least 100 business cards ready to give out. Note here – Looking back I do not know if it was a good idea or not to put out literature. I had a couple of people take the literature and come back later and tell me that they had signed up via the carrier, would they have done that anyway if I had not put out literature, I’ll never know.
United Healthcare was kind enough to automatically send a box of literature specifically for my kiosk, although I did have to order more. For the other carriers, I both ordered some material via my agent portal and also contacted my agent broker managers to ask for some literature. You can see from my kiosk photos below that some of my agent brokers were very forthcoming with advertising literature, especially Amerigroup.
A couple of notes here. Do not leave very much literature out when you are not at your kiosk. I came in one day and all of my United Healthcare literature was gone – every single piece. This happened about once a week. Now I did not have all my literature out by any means, but I still lost more than I would have liked. That is one reason I had to order more UHC literature. After the loss of my UHC literature I decided to only leave one piece of each out and the rest I stored on a bag on one of my chairs when I left each day. I pushed my table back each day when I left, to get the table out of the store traffic, and so my bag of literature was not visible. Note, I never left carrier insurance plan books, those I took with me each day when I left, per my FMOR instructions.
Second note. Remember you can only have literature for your Sales Event sponsors. If you are contracted with six carriers, but only four are your sponsors for your Sales Event, then you should not promote the non-sponsor carriers. And truly, that’s only right anyway. I did have people ask me about carriers I was contracted that were not one of my sponsors, and I honestly told those people that while I was contracted with many carriers, I am only representing carriers who are sponsoring me for this Sales Event. I also had people ask about carriers that I was not contracted with. And I honestly explained that I was not associated with those carriers, nothing against them, I was a newer agent and simply not contracted with all the carriers yet.
And a final note related to give-outs and promotional items. First, be sure to only use carrier-approved and supplied literature. Second, do not give out candy, promotional gifts, or any other non-approved items. Two reasons for this. Walmart does not want junk turning up around the store and in the parking lot. Walmart does not want agents giving out any items. Also, you should only be promoting the carriers which are sponsoring you, not your main FMO, nor showing favoritism to certain carriers using their gift items. During my Walmart event, all the above-mentioned items were banned by the FMOR I was under for my Sales Event. I only gave out FMOR supplied literature and carrier supplied literature from my sponsoring carriers.
Tip. Literature holders come in handy to double your table space, as you can have a front row of insurance brochures lying down and the second row of plastic brochure stands containing more literature. Nice! It also gives you a little private workroom for when it is slow. Now I know people will tell you not to sit down and do any work, rather be attentive to passerby’s, and I totally agree, but the hours can get long and also you may need to do some research for a potential customer. I attentively stood and greeted people alternating with some sitting since my legs were not used to standing such long hours. I found that people who were interested approached me just as well when I took a break and was seated. Even seated I continued to wave to people and smile, beneath my virus mask. Standing to greet people is the preferred way, but if you are not used to standing, you might want to alternate sitting and standing.
A funny thing happened, after my first day, that evening at home I was bothered by my face kinda hurting and a subtle twitching. By morning my face discomfort was improved, but once I arrived back at my Walmart store and started smiling at people, my face began the subtle twitching under my face mask. Smiling, that was the answer, excessive smiling and greeting people for hours at a time had given my face muscles a real workout? After a few days, my face muscles settled down, thankfully.
Reporting each day’s Sales Event is a must. I discovered that the process was very easy with my cell phone, and no, there was no big brother monitoring my every login/logout as I had feared.
Each day that I worked my table at Walmart, I check-in and out with the Pharmacy, and although not FMOR required, I signed in and out of the store’s vendor logbook, remember that store managers like to know who is in their store.
At the end of a day’s event, I simply went to my pickup truck and whipped out my cell phone, and registered my day’s Sales Event. It was truly easy.
You simply log in to your account, but for my FMOR website, it strangely opened in the center of a page. So I had to scroll to the top each time and open the hamburger menu and scroll down and select “Reporting”.
Reporting is very simple or it was using my FMOR’s portal. Select a start and end date, the end date may already be filled in since it is the same day. Input the number of hours worked for that day’s event, the number of interactions (people that stopped and spoke with you), the number of appointments, and the number of presentations, and sales. – Note: You may not get any presentations or sales in-store, it’s noisy and people are in a hurry and may have frozen products. But I was told I could add my out-of-store sales when reporting my next daily Sales Event. Yes, you are to report any sales that were generated from your in-store Sales Event, no matter when or where the sales are actually made. Note: There may also be a question on a carrier’s online enrollment form to designate that a sale was due to your in-store Sales Event contact.
Daily Sales Event reporting and sales enrollment reporting are important and required. Don’t forget them. I set my phone alarm each day for about 15 minutes after my shift end time to remind me when I got to my pickup truck to do my reporting right then and there, I never waited until I got home, and got busy, I was concerned I might forget.
The best customer interaction times for me were about noon to 2 pm and again around 3 pm – 6 pm. This was a small neighborhood Walmart, so larger stores may be different. I only worked weekdays, so I have no idea about the best times for weekends.
The most common question I got was about dental, was there any dental included with insurance plans. Also, Medicare for Veterans is good knowledge to have. Questions about disability and Medicare, and DSNP were sometimes asked. Just remember if you don’t know, don’t panic, you can look it up on your cell phone or tablet, call your up-line, and the FMOR will probably have given you brochures, with their phone number, to give out if a person’s needs are not something you can help with.
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