August is here, which means that busy season is right around the corner. You’re about to have a lot on your plate: seeking new clients, retaining current clients, solving coverage issues, providing advice, creating benefits structures and more!

Here are 2 things to think about now to help you out once busy season arrives.

Don’t Go In Blind

By this time, you’ve hopefully gotten the chance to have an off-cycle meeting with your clients to gauge how they are feeling about their current health plan(s), any changes from the previous plan year that they were unhappy with, and any changes they may be looking to make.

For the clients that you haven’t been able to meet with: Take the next month to check in and make sure you come away from that conversation with an understanding of what they’re looking for in the coming year.

For the clients that you have met with: Review your notes from your off-cycle meeting. Be sure you aren’t missing anything that they may have mentioned so you aren’t surprised during your benefits planning meeting. Strategize in advance so that you can have a productive planning meeting instead of re-hashing out problems that you’ve already covered.

Be Prepared with Options

Your clients will want to see options and understand the potential impact of those options on their company. For you, this means coming prepared to your planning meeting with enough potential options and benefit structures so that you can find the right fit, which will of course will be different for each client.

What to do now: Take the remaining time before busy season really kicks in to explore products and solutions to add to your portfolio. Product differentiation is the easiest way to stand out among your competitors. Employers are typically looking for something new that can make a real impact. Bring them something they haven’t heard about (and may hear about from another broker).

Explore solutions that will solve your clients’ current business issues, like recruiting and retaining in a tight talent market. That’s where we come in. ArmadaCare’s supplemental products can boost benefits for just those difficult to recruit and retain employee classes and help keep your clients benefits budget in check.

Interested in learning more about a new supplemental product suite with carve-out capability? Email solutions@armadacare.com!