Here is a quick run-down on what you will find in this bulletin: Put This…
U.S. Update News March 2004
We plan to post the April 2004 Internet monthly update to our five monthly update web sites on March 26th.
The April 2004 disk update will be processed Friday, March 26th and Monday, March 29th.
Disks will be shipped Monday, March 29th. You should have the April Update in your office by Wednesday, March 31st. Unless you have made arrangements to purchase your diskettes, please return your February disks ONLY AFTER you have successfully installed this March 2004 Update. February disks are your backup in case you should have problems installing the March edition.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Subscribers who are receiving disks can save up to $100 per year by switching to updates by Internet. Please read the last part of this bulletin for complete details. Don’t wait for your next subscription invoice to make the change. Compulife will bonus your subscription renewal deadline for switching from disks to internet.
We are very pleased with the way the design and implementation of these new changes has gone. While we did not depart from the simple design of the web pages, they have been “freshened up” and we think you will find the look a little cleaner.
We particularly like the way that we have integrated the Health Analysis into the site. The first entry screen which the client completes is relatively unchanged. This means it is still extremely easy for a consumer to get a simple and fast comparison. This is important. One of the problems that many sites have (in my opinion) is that they ask too many questions before the consumer is looking at results. I think most users of the Internet have relatively short attention spans, particularly with all the various sites that they can surf around and look at. For a site to hold someone’s attention important things have to happen quickly without the consumer having to get bogged down in a lot or reading or entry. Term4Sale produces comparisons quick and easy.
Once the comparison screen displays, there is an intriguing new question in the middle of the screen which asks:
It is our belief that giving this listing at this point, and crediting our subscribers with making the site possible, will give subscribers much more exposure than they have had prior to this. We expect that many more consumers who visit term4sale will now see the agent listings.
By way of explanation, when we first began designing term4sale in the late 90’s, we had hoped to actually have agent names appear in comparisons to ensure that agents received maximum exposure. The reason subscriber names do not appear in comparisons is because we do not want to associate subscribers with lists of companies which they may or may not sell. This can present a legal problem in some states and it is why, when a list of subscribers is displayed, it is never on a comparison where companies and products appear.
We believe that a majority of consumers will use the new health analysis function and because consumers must complete this new health analysis web page in order to have their comparison results refined, a majority will see the subscriber listings.
If you are a Compulife subscriber, and you are not listed at term4sale.com, we strongly recommend that you get listed. All Compulife subscribers are entitled to one free listing but the listing must be requested.
If you are not listed, please call Diane at 800-798-3488 and get that listing now. While we do not expect anyone to receive a lot of calls from consumers, many who receive calls have expressed their happiness with the quality of the insurance prospect. Many Compulife subscribers have made significant sales as a result of term4sale.
Please try out the new improved site. If you find something that you think is complicated or hard to understand, we would like to hear from you because we want the site to be as consumer friendly as possible.
If you are purchasing the term comparison engine directly, please contact me (Bob Barney) at (800) 798-3488 and request the new engine. The good news about the new engine is that it is plug and play compatible with the previous engine. Only if you elect to take advantage of the new features will changes be required.
If you are among the majority of our subscribers who obtain use of the Compulife Internet engine through one of our web providers, please contact your web provider to discuss adding the new features to your web site.
We have spoken to A.M. Best and have pointed out that we seriously question the need or fairness of requiring that amount of money for each of our subscribers who simply wants to add A.M. Best ratings to their term comparisons on the Internet. After all, most pay an additional fee of only $99 per year to add the term quotes through one of our web providers. $750 seems to be a particularly expensive add- on particularly when consumers can go to ambest.com and get ratings for FREE!
On top of the fact A.M. Best gives ratings away free at its web site, we have also pointed out to A.M. Best that there are a number of existing web sites that do not pay A.M. Best license fees or comply with the A.M. Best requirements for having A.M. Best ratings in their web sites. Please note, the term4sale.com web site is compliant with the A.M. Best license agreement, displaying the Best ratings with the date they were verified, and displaying a Guide to A.M. Best ratings when ratings are clicked on.
Having noted the cost issues to A.M. Best, the company has yet to indicate on what basis they are prepared to allow our subscribers, who use Compulife at their web sites, to offer the A.M. Best ratings in their term comparisons. For that reason the new Internet engine, which is being provided to our Internet engine customers, WILL NOT access the A.M. Best ratings.
Until we hear further from A.M. Best, any of our Internet engine users who want A.M. Best ratings from the engine will need to provide Compulife with a copy of written proof of their agreement with A.M. Best in order to be able to use A.M. Best ratings on their web site. If we receive a copy of that agreement, Compulife will provide you with the version of the engine which accesses the ratings.
First, you can simply incorporate the health questions in the initial client entry page, and provide the comparison results once the questions are completed.
Second, you can do as Compulife does at term4sale.com. You can ask a small number of questions, display a comparison, then offer to refine the comparison based upon further information.
We strongly recommend you consider using the latter approach. We believe it is important to demonstrate to the consumer that you’ve got the goods, and then, having proven that you’ve got the goods, request additional information before telling them move. At that point we think you can also insist that the consumer provide personal contact information and we think that the consumer will be more likely to do so having seen the comparison. We think that will turn more of your visitors into prospects which will net you more insurance sales.
Once again, QuickerQuoter will be a Compulife-like quote system for a single life insurance company and its products. What we think will make this new product attractive to life insurance companies is the fact that it will be FREE.
That’s FREE as in NO COST.
It is our hope this will be an added incentive for life companies to help us with keeping our rates and database up to date, which has obvious benefits to our subscribers at large.
The QuickerQuoter menu will appear just as the Compulife menu does now, but the “Display Single Product” button will be replaced by the “Display Product Comparison” button. After entering in client information, clicking the “Display Product Comparison” will display every product premium, for that single company, in the comparison window. From that single company comparison of all products, agents will be able to double click on any individual result and display the single product window. From there the quote can be printed or e-mailed.
For those who think that would be a great feature to have in Compulife for our regular subscribers, it’s been been there for quite some time. You access that feature by picking any individual company from a comparison, going to the “options” at the top of the “Display Single Product” window, and selecting “compare products for this company”. Try it, it will give you a good idea what it is that we will be giving to life companies as the default comparison.
First, we think a large number of companies, particularly smaller companies, will be delighted to have access to free software for their agents. Distribution and use of the free software will get the Compulife name better known in the market. IMPORTANT: The software will only be given to life companies. Compulife will not distribute this product to anyone but life companies. Life companies will be free to give it to anyone they want.
Second, we think a number of companies will say, “Heh, we like what you’ve got, but before we use this we need changes.”
Ah yes… changes.
The answer to the question, “Will Compulife customize this software further?” is “Yes“. Compulife will be more than happy to develop and customize this software on a time and materials basis.
We think the custom software market for life insurance illustration software has been over priced and that it is in need of some healthy and serious competition. We intend to see that the market gets that competition. What should be highly appealing to life companies considering our services is that we will be charging to MODIFY what is already tried and true software. We will not be building from scratch.
Compulife expects to have “QuickerQuoter” ready for delivery by the end of March or the beginning of April. We will be building and distributing versions of it to those companies who have made the most recent rate changes and who have given copies of their material to Compulife.
Regardless of whether a company further distributes the product, we will be providing it to companies as a “pre-release” way to check rates and quotes in cases where a company gives us rates well in advance of their targeted release dates.
In the meantime, companies interested in retaining Compulife for custom software work are welcome to contact me, Bob Barney, at 800-798-3488. I’ll direct you to the project consultant and programming staff who are in charge of this new service.
For those doing monthly updates by Internet, we rely on three other web site to supply monthly updates. These are automatically checked and used by our automatic Internet update software.
1. Switch to obtaining monthly updates by Internet.
Not only will you eliminate the expense and hassle of returning disks, you will save $100 per year in subscription fees.
To switch to Internet monthly updates, go to our web page www.compulife.com and select the last menu choice “Forms, applications, instruction tutorials, etc.” Under the section “License Agreements” you will need to select and complete a new License Agreement for the type of license you have. After you have printed the new agreement, please read it, especially the part where you agree that you have successfully downloaded and processed our “mid-month updates”. If you haven’t done that before, call us and we’ll be happy to step you through the procedure. It’s easy.
2. Disk Purchase Program
The other way to avoid returning the disks and the disk box each month is to pre-purchase them for $21 per year ($1.75 per month). Once you do that you can keep them for future reference, throw them away or return them for a credit (once each year) when you are invoiced for the following year. $21 costs you less than mailing back disks each month.