Online Health Insurance Quotes Allow You to Get the Best and Most Affordable Plan

Health insurance policies are one of those products that you don’t like to pay for but wish you did when you need it. Many who don’t have coverage either believe insurance is a waste of money or they simply can’t afford it. With new health care bill that was just passed, you may want to get online health insurance quotes to ensure you are getting the best plan at the best rates. The new plan will allow Americans to get an affordable health plan subsidized by the government. It’s also mandates that you must have a plan that complies with federal regulations or face a fine.If you have the belief that health insurance is a waste of money, you might want to think again. It’s difficult to continue paying premiums if you never need to use the insurance. However, accidents and illnesses can occur, even for the healthiest of individuals. The out of pocket expenses of medical care can be astronomical if you don’t have coverage. Even if you believe you won’t use your insurance, you might want to consider a limited coverage plan just in case an unfortunate event occurs. Online health insurance quotes provide an easy way to research such plans. With new bill expected to put into law by 2014, you have no choice but to get adequate coverage or face a fine.Online health insurance quotes provide a convenient way to research your different options. You can research plans without the presence of a salesperson. You can review plans at your own leisure and educate yourself on health insurance. Not all plans are the same. Each will vary in coverage, deductibles, co-pays, and premiums. You should first determine what level of coverage you need and select the plan that provides your coverage requirements. Online health insurance quotes will prevent you from overpaying or receiving inadequate coverage. It’s best to talk with a sales person when you are armed with the knowledge of various coverages to avoid purchasing provisions you don’t need.Whether you don’t believe in purchasing coverage or simply can’t afford it, eventually you will need to obtain insurance or face a fine by the government. At this time, it is unknown how affordable the state plan will be. By getting online health insurance quotes, you can ensure that you are getting the best plan at the best rates. If you do enough research, you are likely to find a plan that is more affordable than the government plan. It is best that you take control of your health coverage and not let the government dictate what type of policy you should have. Getting online health insurance quotes is the first step in being proactive about your health coverage.

Breaking Down Sales and Marketing

Revisiting the Sales and Marketing ConversationBack in October 2015 we shared an article called “5 Ways Marketing Departments Help Salespeople Catch Butterflies.” Recently a tenfold article was shared with us, titled “What is the Meaning of Sales & Marketing and Their Advantages?” and, I have to say, it does a pretty awesome job of breaking down the differences, responsibilities, and links between sales and marketing roles. Why revisit this now? Because it has never been more apparent that the relationship between sales and marketing is still just as misunderstood as ever, especially with advances in marketing technology.Setting the Record StraightMany in the business world, especially those who rely on sales and marketing for success, don’t actually have a concrete grasp on exactly what sales and marketing are. Yes, the two are linked, but they are not one and the same. Sales departments rely on marketing; marketing departments and strategies exist to feed sales (notice I didn’t say “make” sales). You wouldn’t engage in marketing if you had nothing to sell, and your sales strategy would be much less informed and successful if not for your marketing efforts. Yes, many old-school salespeople (or go-getter small business entrepreneurs) are quite capable of drumming up business on their own, and may even have some tried-and-true marketing tactics up their sleeve – but few have the time, skill, or technological resources to effectively capitalize on the true potential of their market.A common mistake made by older, more established businesses is to assume that salespeople are skilled at marketing and that marketing people are skilled at making sales. In some cases this may be true, but certainly not across the board. While trying to conserve capital, many of these companies will attempt to combine their sales and marketing departments, essentially tasking their employees with two job descriptions, and that’s usually a bad move. It’s no accident that more recently established companies, tech giants, and organizations that employ a large number of millennials are killing it with their marketing efforts.Breaking It DownAs the tenfold article explains, some of the key responsibilities of a sales team include:

Follow Up

Relationship Building

Closing

Retention

The mark of a great salesperson is the ability to cultivate a personal relationship. Many consumers who have stayed loyal to the same brand, dealership, or salon for years will say that they appreciate the personal attention they receive there. It is not a marketing employee’s responsibility to follow up with a salesperson’s existing customer once the lead has been handed off, nor is it their responsibility to convert a lead to a sale, “close the deal,” or make sure the client remains a client for many years. Short of having an outstanding relationship with a skilled salesperson, product quality and excellent overall experience are the main things that will bolster client retention.On the marketing side, primary efforts are:

Awareness

Engagement

Conversion (from anonymous to known)

Retention

It is not a salesperson’s job to generate awareness or buzz about their brand, product or service. If they are expected to use their energy to make sales by nurturing leads and relationships, then how can they also be expected to have the time to do the leg-work up front that brings those leads to the table in the first place?The marketing department creates awareness, builds engagement by creating information that will invite audience members to take action, and targets and tracks engagement by motivating audience members to provide contact information or initiate a free trial or consultation (converting them from a cold prospect to a known lead or potential buyer). It is important to note here that the retention function of a marketing department doesn’t really overlap the retention efforts of a sales team.On the sales side, client retention refers more to the salesperson’s efforts to use the client relationship to continually check in with the client, attempt to engage them in further discussions about additional products or services they may be interested in, and seek referrals to the client’s friends and family members. On the marketing side, however, retention refers to maintaining a higher level of consistent engagement (through targeted marketing based on buying preferences, interests and history) so that the customer relationship doesn’t end at the initial purchase. Those email newsletters you receive after becoming a customer somewhere are not random – they have a purpose and are often tailored to things you’ve viewed or expressed interest in. A sales team simply doesn’t have the insights, time, or often the resources to execute these types of strategic campaigns.The Fine-Tuned Coexistence Of It AllThe ideal sales and marketing relationship is a symbiotic one. Marketers and salespeople work together to determine what consumers need and how to deliver it. Sales and marketing should motivate, inspire and feed one other. They should collaborate and coexist. In the hierarchy of the business food chain, sales and marketing should not be seen as rivals or equals, but counterparts. One truly cannot exist without the other, but their skill sets are not the same – especially today, where advances in technology require the modern marketer to have a very specific, honed, and competitive set of skills that most sales people simply do not need to have.For this reason many marketers are introverted, analytical, and deep-thinking individuals. Whether they’re crunching numbers and analyzing data, compiling reports on trends and conversion rates, or writing awesome ads and creating beautiful websites and collateral material, they are required to intensely focus on what works, what doesn’t, and adjust their creative efforts accordingly. Usually a marketing department will have creatives, analysts, and more tech-oriented people (who dive into the numbers and algorithms behind advanced marketing tools).In contrast though, many salespeople are extroverts – they light up a room, they have excellent “people skills,” can easily relate to others, and have the ability to pick up on social cues that might actually help them close a sale. Oftentimes salespeople have a broader focus, preferring to spend their days with appointments and meetings – activities that build relationships – rather than sitting behind a desk doing what a marketing department does best. For this reason, many salespeople have administrative assistants to help them with follow-up, paperwork, appointment setting, phone calls, proposals, and calendar management. This type of functional assistant role is less widespread in the marketing realm.Share Your ThoughtsBe sure to read the full article (and let us know how it compares to our post ) for additional insights on the relationship between sales and marketing teams. Join the conversation: in your experience, what have been some key components of a successful sales and marketing partnership?

Starting An Internet Marketing Business Online

Are you looking to start an internet marketing business online? If so, you need to know exactly what you’re getting yourself into. Don’t think you can just enter into this industry and expect to start making millions of dollars within the next 6 months. I get requests from people all the time telling me that they want to be making $5,000 per month within 3 months. And these are people who have never sold a thing online!One thing that you need to know is that when starting an internet marketing business online, you “kind of” have the world at your feet. There’s plenty of places to advertise, there’s plenty of ways to get free traffic to your site, there’s plenty of business owners looking to learn how to do effective marketing online, and etc. So you can be kind of spoiled once you get your hands on some training materials.But understand that you are operating in a HIGH competition arena. A smart thing that you could do is to offer internet marketing services to local small businesses in your area. Most offline small business owners don’t have a clue about how to market their business online. But in the online world, people have training thrown at them all the time.So I guess the best question to ask yourself is: “How am I different?” Right?? You don’t want to be a “me-too” person when marketing your products and services online. This applies if you choose to be a coach, consultant, or sell products such as books, CD’s, DVD’s, or even magazines. So how are you different? How will you separate yourself from the pack and differentiate yourself from everyone else online who are making the same claims as you?It’s something you need to think about when launching your own internet marketing business online. Where most people get tripped up at is when, they read someone’s free eBook about internet marketing, and then go and buy a large resell rights package that is ALL ABOUT internet marketing.Each product in the package contains something about internet marketing. More often than not, the resell rights bundle may contain products about:Email marketing
Forum marketing
YouTube marketing
General internet marketing
Consumer buying behavior
Copywriting
Etc (the list goes on and on)
And most of these people spend YEARS trying to figure out a way to sell these products – if not sell them as a bundle. OR if not resell the same offer that they bought to receive these items. After years of failure, they usually leave feeling depressed, broke, and convinced that making money online is impossible… if not a scam. And this is just not true.All of these kinds of products are supposed to teach people about niche marketing. Especially a general product about internet marketing. The real pros who sell internet marketing products successfully sell them primarily for a good reason: THEY SELL THEM FOR VERY HIGH PRICES.They sell one course about internet marketing at $200. Then they backend sell you for another similar course at $500. Then they sell you another similar course with huge bonuses for $1000. Then they sell their 3-day seminar and invite you to attend… for the price of $2000. THEN they convince you to sign up for their monthly newsletter or membership website, and charge you $50/month to join.How rich do you think you would be if you were to successfully get people to buy your products at these price ranges?Meanwhile, you’re being convinced that selling $19 eBooks will save you from your day job. This is just not the case. To make $100,000 by selling $19 eBooks, you would have to sell 5000 eBooks per year. That comes out to 416 eBooks per month. Which means you would have to sell 104 eBooks per week. Which thus means you would have to sell 14 eBooks per day.How are you going to sell 13 eBooks per day and you’re struggling to make even a dime of profit selling a $5 eBook on eBay? You have to learn a lot about internet marketing if you want to make a lot of money in this business. ESPECIALLY if you’re selling information about “internet marketing”. If you’re not a guru and have been selling other niche products successfully online, don’t enter into this broad arena.The gurus who are selling “internet marketing” products successfully have a plan that have worked well for them over the years. EVEN IF they lose money on the first sale of getting that first customer, they know how to recoup their lost, and then still profit on the next sale that they make from that customer.They know their numbers. They know their sales conversion rate, their cost per lead, cost per sale, and their average long term value of a customer. Let me ask you a question:If you knew that for every 1 customer you acquired, that you were going to make an average of $5000 over the lifetime of that customer spending money with you… would you care if you lost $5 just to acquire them in the first place? Of course you wouldn’t care.But I’m sure you would care if you were spending $5 to acquire them, and then not selling to them again to recoup your profits. That would mean that for every customer you get, you would be losing $5 per sale… forever. You have to market to these customers over and over again to recoup a frontend loss. This is called “backend marketing”.If you want to get started online in the internet marketing business, you have to bring your A-game and have a mathematical plan of how you’re going to make money. There’s a lot to learn, but once you gain an understanding of how marketing online works (and how marketing in general works)… you’ll be well on your way to success in your business.If you’re going to buy a resell rights bundle package, at least READ the information in the products you acquired so that you can know how to sell them successfully. Don’t be a hopeless cause.