How to run a medicare information seminar

How to Plan and Run a
Successful Medicare
Informational Seminar
3/04/19
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By: ARC Systems, Inc
Prospecting in groups is a very different method from meeting
individually with people in their home, or at your office. Using a
seminar environment is great way to put yourself in front of a
crowd of people, position yourself as an expert, and set up a long
term prospecting funnel. One thing to remember about seminar
prospecting, is that it doesn't always lead to an influx of new
prospects right away. Seminar business may come days, weeks,
months, or even years down the road. In this guide, we'll show
you some of the best practices we've learned to host and gain
business from Medicare informational seminars.
In this article you’ll learn about
l The cost of seminars
l Locations to host
l Putting together a message and getting it out
l What kind of equipment you’ll need
l How to present information
l And more!
Seminar costs
Seminars are not the cheapest form of prospecting, nor are they
the most expensive. Using the right tips, you can actually run a
seminar for far less than you might think. Let’s look at some of
the common costs you might run into when planning your
seminar, and as we go through the guide, we’ll show you how to
keep those costs as low as possible. But, as the saying goes, you
do need to spend some money to make money.

l Mailers: This will likely be your biggest expense, because
postage doesn’t come cheap, and neither does printing. Despite
what you may think, though, there are many ways to keep your
mailing and printing costs to a minimum.
l Location costs: Some locations you will have to pay a fee for,
but there are many locations that you can get for very little to
nothing.
l Data: In order to mail things, you need to have people to mail
them to. This means lists of data for your target market.
l Equipment: Do you need a projector to display your
presentation? Do you have a laptop to run the presentation with?
Does your laptop have the right outputs to connect to your
projector? Are you going to use a TV screen at your location, and
does the TV have inputs that are compatible with your laptop?
There are a lot of equipment factors to consider in your seminar,
but don’t worry. We’ll cover them.
l Hand outs: People that attend your seminar want to take
something home that they can read later. This means additional
printing costs of a multi-page document.
l Refreshments and giveaways: Will you be providing snacks or
giveaway items at your seminar? At the least, you should provide
beverages for the attendees. Also, keep compliance in mind if
you’re giving things away. Review the annual compliance
guidelines to ensure that you’re doing things legally when you are
giving out anything, or planning food and drinks.
l Advertising: Are you going to advertise your seminar on local
radio, magazines, papers, or online with social media or search
ads?
Finding your prospects

Before you put the time and expense into your seminar, you'll
want to determine the area where you'll host it. You want to reach
as many prospects as possible in a single area. That means
working an area with an abundance of seniors that are turning 65,
and looking into Medicare. We recommend targeting prospects
that are turning 65 in the 6 months prior to your seminar, and for
next 12 followings following your seminar date. This is because
there are many people who may not have taken a Medicare plan,
but are now considering it. Perhaps they stayed under an
employer plan for a few extra months, or just put it off because
they didn't want to be bothered. There are many reasons one
might delay enrolling in a plan. Likewise, prospecting a year out
puts you in front of people that have the decision to make at any
point in the next year.
*Agent Tip: To widen your prospecting pool, you can include
invitations for those who are turning 66. They may not be happy
with the first choice of plan they took, and they still have special
enrollment options to make changes, such as the Medicare
Advantage Trial Period*
Now that you have an idea of how to target prospects, where do
you actually get the names, and addresses? This is where data
comes in. Having a reliable source of marketing data can make an
incredible change in your business. There are many reliable data

companies that provide lists. You can also find data lists in our
services section. You'll simply need to purchase a data list from
your chosen company. Contact the company first, and provide
them with the area and type of data you are looking for. This will
give you an idea of how much data, or how many prospects, are
available in a given area. Get quotes from multiple companies.
Data companies, typically, charge between $0.10-0.15 per name
you purchase. How big a list you buy depends on your seminar
budget. Just keep in mind that your seminar investment can return
far more than what you spend, if conducted properly.
*Agent Tip: Every ARC Expert subscription comes with the
prospecting database, which allows for unlimited data downloads.
No need to spend hundreds of dollars on a data list.*
Your average contact rate, when sending your mailer, will be
about 1-3%. That's based on historical performance of direct mail
marketing. That means that you'll need to mail a lot of people to
fill a room, but don't despair. If you can get a list of 2,000-5,000
people, you can still put yourself in front of 20-50 prospects, who
will also invite friends, spouses, and co-workers.
Crafting your message
You know the old saying, “it’s not what you say, but how you say
it,” right? It’s mostly true in this respect. Part of it is about what
you say, but more of it is in the wording you use for you
invitation. Much of this comes down to what kind of seminar you
want to do. In the realm of Medicare seminars, there are different
types that will have compliance ramifications.
Sales seminar: Our personal feeling is to avoid the sales seminar.
It isn’t that they don’t work. In fact, they can work well if you

have the backing of a big carrier behind you, and the resources to
pull it off. Sales seminars, though, smack of, well, sales. They
push a particular company’s plan. Think about your end consumer.
They’re bombarded with choices from dozens of companies. Some
will pick a company that’s well known, while others are hunting
for value. That value may be monetary, or it may be service-
related.
In our experience, seminars that take the sales approach and pitch
a particular company’s product are less likely to draw visitors.
This is due to the comparison shopping mindset of today’s
consumer. They want to know what their options are, not just an
option. Especially if they’re going to devote an hour or more of
their time to hearing about it.
Sales seminars, also, come with a compliance requirement. As of
the time of this writing, you are required to report all sales
seminars to the carrier you are representing, and follow your
State and CMS’ regulations when it comes to seminar invitations,
materials, and the content of your seminar presentation. These
materials all must be approved before they can be used.
Educational seminar: In our opinion, this is the format you’ll
want to use for the best turn out, and long term gains. This
approach works best if you are an independent agent, and can
offer products from multiple companies. However, it can still
work well if you are a captive, and have a well-known brand
behind you, as long as you are not seen to be pushing that brand.
Educational seminars do not have to be reported. You are still
required to use accurate information in your presentation, and you
can be secret shopped in any seminar environment, however, the
compliance requirements are not as strict for this type of seminar.

Be sure to review the CMS guidelines on educational events
before proceeding, as these requirements may change from year to
year.
*Agent Tip: Educational seminars are a great way to establish
yourself as an expert in the community, rather than a sales
person. Information in your seminar should be general
information regarding Medicare, how it works, what types of
plans are available, and what steps a prospective beneficiary
needs to take in order to make sense of it all.
Now, once you have determined what sort of seminar you will
host, it’s time to create a message that sets the expectation of
what the attendees will gain from coming to your seminar. When
you’re reaching out with invitations, keep these things in mind.
Your consumer wants to know:
l Who are you?
l What’s in it for me?
l Why should I listen?
Your invitation should be informative, yet brief enough that it
won’t get discarded. It should be no longer than a page, and
highlight the aforementioned areas of concern. Make sure to
carefully proof-read your invitation, to ensure that there are no
misspellings, typos, and that you are using proper grammar. You
must present yourself as a professional. If you are uncomfortable
with writing, you can find copy editors that will review your
invitation for you for $5 or less on services such as Fiverr or
Upwork. You can even hire a freelancer to write the invitation for
you.
Here is an example:

My Agency invites you to attend our Medicare Informational
Seminar on January 16th, 2019. This event will be hosted at the
J.K. Rowling Community Center at 6:00 PM. Light snacks will be
provided.
Who we are
My Agency is a local team of Licensed Medicare Specialists. We
sponsor informational events, such as this, to educate our
neighbors on the intricacies of Medicare, and the many options
available. Our goal is to ensure that you will know exactly which
steps you may, or may not, need to take in regard to your health
care. Medicare can be a complex program that may have effects
on your health care choices for the rest of your life. We will
guide you, step-by-step through the process, so that you can make
the most informed choice possible.
What you can expect
We will not ask you to enroll into any plan at this event. We will
not present, or endorse any particular plan, company, product, or
course of action at this event. Our seminars are purely
educational in nature.
We make you the expert
You will learn:
l What Medicare is
l What are the different parts, and what do they mean
l What Medicare covers, and does not cover
l Medicare’s enrollment periods
l Medicare penalties for late enrollment, and how to avoid them.
l What are Medicare Supplements, Prescription Drug Plans, and
Medicare Advantage Plans

l How does Medicare work with long term care?
l Getting dental and vision coverage with Medicare
You will also receive a take home package with this information,
so that you can refer back to it as you make your choice, as well
as our contact information in case you have any questions after
you leave. Please share it with friends or family that you may rely
on in making your decision. We would be happy to walk them
through this information as well. We have the capability to
compare dozens of the nation’s top-rated companies and plans for
you, so that you can sure you’re getting the greatest benefits, for
the least amount.
To reserve your seat for this event, you may contact John Smith at
(555) 555-5252 with a call or text message. You may also email
us at info@myagency.com, or visit our website at
www.myagencyforyou.com.
We’ll see you, and your friends on January 19, 2019 at 6:00 pm!
You can see, in the example, that we hit the key points.
Who are you?
“We are a local team of Licensed Medicare Specialists.”
This means that we’re your neighbors, and we know what we’re
talking about. And, we know that we’re the experts.
What’s in it for me?
“light snacks”
What more could you possibly want?
“We make you the expert”

People like to share what they know. Educate them, so they can
tell their friends. They’ll also tell them where they heard it,
which means referrals.
“...late enrollment penalties, and how to avoid them”.
Nobody likes to get penalized. They may think they know about
the penalties, but many people worry they may be subject to
them, even if the penalty does not apply to their circumstance.
Why should I listen?
“We will not ask you to enroll into any plan…”
We’re not here to sell you anything, unlike those guys that call
you on the phone every day. We want to educate you. We can
compare all of those plans and companies for you in one place, so
that you don’t have to meet with 5 different agents to get the
whole picture. We bring you value.
Where to host your seminar
Now we have people to invite to our seminar, and we have a
message to send them. Now, we need somewhere to host the
event. The choice of location is important for several reasons.
You don’t want a location that is too far for your prospects to
attend. People shouldn’t need to drive more than 15 minutes to
reach your location. Your chances of attendance drop significantly
if they have to go further.
Consider, also, the time of year you’ll host your seminar. If
you’re hosting in the dead of winter, turnout will be much lower,
since people don’t want to be cold, wet, or covered in snow.
Spring, Summer, and Early fall are great times for seminar
hosting. Spring is particularly good, because everyone has been

cooped up inside for months, and they are ready to go out
somewhere.
The next factor is type of location. Is this going to be at an office
location, or a public venue? While office locations do tend to
inspire a sense of professionalism, they may turn some people
away, because it is a more “sales” type of environment. However,
if you have an office location with a nice conference room, this
can work well in keeping your budget down, over renting a
location. Just make sure that if you’re hosting in your office, you
don’t have a lot of sales material in the room, or reports on the
walls showing sales activity. Your goal is to be as unsalesy as
possible.
Another option is to reach out to a carrier you write a lot of
business with. Some carriers will have relationships with local
hospitals or other venues. They may be able to arrange for you to
use a public room at the venue for free. One example that we
were able to use was Blue Cross/Blue Shield, who worked
extensively with a local hospital network with locations across
the city. Talking to our local rep allowed us access to the public
rooms at all of their facilities. This had the dual advantage of
finding a large location that was publicly well-known, at no cost.
Locations, such as the public library, can also work for you,
under certain circumstances. Libraries will often have public
meeting rooms that you can use, if you’re a library card holder.
However, you need to speak with your library’s event coordinator.
Each library, we found, has different rules for the types of
meetings you can hold. Some strictly forbid any type of
presentation that has sales attached to it in any way. Some will
allow it, but require a small fee if you are for-profit company.

Now, you might find this a strange option, but consider your local
Panera Bread. Many Panera locations have a public meeting room
that you can use, as long as you agree to spend $50 on food and
drinks. This has the added advantage that you can pick up $50
worth of snacks or drinks for your attendees at the hosting
location, and Panera is a very well-known place that many people
like. $50 is far less to spend on a location than some other venues
will charge. Some of the biggest crowds in our seminars came by
way of Panera locations.
Another useful option is community centers. Community centers
are, in general, very interested in anything that draws attention
and creates value for the communities they work in. Developing a
relationship with a community center can lead to many
opportunities to sponsor events of various kinds and get your
name out in the general area. Community centers also like to have
local experts in various fields that can provide regular talks or
presentations on important topics, like insurance, saving money,
college funding, and retirement. One particular center we
developed a relationship with led to regular presentations to
groups about the importance of life insurance. These presentations
yielded years of recurring final expense, and supplementary
product sales, such as dental insurance.
Finally, consider what equipment your location has to present. If
you’re going to connect a laptop and give a slide show
presentation, you need to know if your location has a projector
screen. The other possibility is a TV. Can you connect your
laptop to the TV and give your presentation on the screen? Do
you have a portable projector you will use, or does the location
have a projector for you? Will you be giving a whiteboard
presentation (not recommended)? We’ll address various types of
equipment in a later section. Just be familiar with what your

location has, what equipment you have, and how you can bring
the two together. You’ll also want to test the equipment, if
possible, to make sure you know how to connect your
laptop/projector/dry erase marker, and how to operate it when the
day comes.
Getting the message out
Now that you have a message to convey, a location for your
seminar, and a list of prospects to send the message to, it’s time
to get it out there. We’re going to discuss methods to disseminate
your message, as well as the timing of the message.
When to send your message
Timing when to get your message out can vary depending on a
few different factors. Sending too far ahead of the event can lead
to reduced attendance, because people forget about it. Sending too
close to the event doesn’t give people enough time to arrange
their schedule for it. Another consideration is how you’re sending
your message out.
If you’re using something like a bulk mail service, such as USPS,
or a printing company using bulk mail with their bulk mailing
permit, these types of mail are sent standard delivery. That means

they can take up to 10 days to arrive at your prospect’s home.
However, sending first class mail will see your invitations arrive
within 2-3 days. So, the type of mail service you’re using can
influence when to send your mailer. In general, we recommend
sending it out about 3-4 weeks ahead of your event, 4 weeks
being the maximum.
Mailing your message
We’ll just say it up front: mailing a lot of letters is not cheap.
The rates for postage, if you are sending these letters yourself, is
higher than if you’re using bulk mail. First class postage at the
time of this writing is $0.48 per piece. So, for a 2,000 piece
mailing you could spend almost $1,000 just on stamps for your
envelopes. Then, you figure in the cost of printing them, paper,
and envelopes. This doesn’t even factor in the added time cost of
folding all those letters yourself, putting stamps on them, and
addressing envelopes. All told, you could be costing yourself a
lot of money by choosing to mail letters yourself.
One option to reduce your postage cost, if you’ll be doing a lot of
seminars, is to have your own bulk mail permit and endicia. This
still means that you’ll need to have all of your letters printed,
addressed, and stamped with your permit, so this option (while it
saves on postage) still isn’t the most efficient.
The best option that we found was developing a relationship with
a local small printing company, who had their own bulk mail
permit. Doing it this way, we were able to send over a
spreadsheet file of our address data, and they could check it
against the most recent Post Office address verification list, to
remove any addresses that were no longer valid. This is a

requirement for doing bulk mail, so if even if you have your own
permit, you still have to do this step, too.
Once the company had our list scrubbed, they could print, stamp,
and address all our mailers within a day, at a cost that was far
less than what we could do on our own. Even sending out a
mailer to over 2,000 people, we would generally spend under
$500 for everything. So, if you are going to print, a printing
company with a permit is a great solution.
Yet another option is through a lead generation company, like
Target Leads. This option will end up costing you a little more
than a printing company, in our experience. However, if you’re
doing the seminar with a sponsoring company, they may require
you to use their vendor.
Other media to get your message out
While direct mail is still the most effective way of getting your
message out in your local area, there are many other avenues you
can use in conjunction to spread the word about your seminar.
The great thing about technology is that you can use every
channel available to you to spread your message far and wide to
attract attendees.
Your website
If you have a company website, you should have a section where
you share articles or announcement. This is the place to start.
Write a brief article about your upcoming seminar, and post in on
your blog. This has the added value of generating traffic to your
site, where you probably have a way of capturing leads or getting
people to contact you.

Social media
Social media is where people hang out, now. You can share your
recent post about the seminar on your social media profiles. Do
this on your business profile or page, as well as your personal
channels. Even seniors are on Facebook, and this is a no-cost way
that you can share your seminar with your connections in a few
seconds.
Another way to do this is with Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads can
be a very cheap form of advertising that you can set up to only
display locally, and to certain groups. This way, you can tailor
your ad to show only to a certain age group, like 64-70 year olds,
who are in your city. You can run an ad campaign for as little as
$5 a day. Of course, the more you spend, the more often your ad
will get in front of people.
If you are going to do a Facebook ad, you can do either a
standard ad with a form or a landing page (like your website), or
do a Facebook Lead Ad. Lead Ads have the added bonus of
generating a lead form that is filled out with the person’s
information from Facebook. That means that the quality of the
lead is higher, since they can’t put in a bunch of bogus
information that you’ll never be able to follow up on. So, if your
prospect is Harold Smith, he can’t become Mickey Mouse on his
lead form.
Print and radio advertising
Advertising is not cheap, so be prepared to spend more if you
want to advertise your seminar. This is especially true of radio
ads. However, if you really want to put the word out, find a

station that appeals to your target audience, and contact their
advertising department for their rates.
Print advertising can also be expensive, but costs will vary based
on size and placement of your ad. Front page, with a big space
costs a lot more than a stamp-sized ad on the classified listings.
However, there are many different print options that you can use.
Popular local newspapers will probably be your most expensive
option, while local senior publications will be less, and are
already targeted at your audience.
Flyers are a very low cost method of print advertising. Think of
all the places in your community that you see announcement
boards. In the front of grocery stores, in coffee shops and cafes,
at libraries, the YMCA, community centers, and others. If you’re
up for an afternoon of driving, print up a nice 1-page flyer with
the bullet points of your seminar, and stop by every Starbucks,
Panera, and library in the area you’re hosting. Make sure your
flyer contains the date, time, and location of your seminar, as
well as how people can contact you to RSVP. It’s also a good
idea to include your website and email address.
Google Ads
Google Ads, like Facebook, can be a low cost way of advertising
your seminar. You’ll spend more with Google than Facebook, but
you’ll also reach a wider audience. Think about this: you’re
turning 65, and you’re looking for Medicare quotes and
information. You go to Google and you search. The first two
results that come up on Google are ads related to the search
keyword. Google ads, like Facebook, can be tailored to fit a
specific area, which reduces your overall budget and increases

results, because Google knows to only show your ad to people in
your city who are searching for the information you have.
Reminding your attendees
Now, we’ve gone through all the trouble of getting prospects,
creating a letter, sending it out, and blanketing every conceivable
channel out there with information about our seminar. The calls
and emails are starting to come in, and people are actually going
to come to your seminar! But, it’s still 3 weeks away. People get
busy, they lose the invitation, can’t remember the contact number
or email, or their cat spontaneously combusted a week before the
event, and they completely forgot while they were caring for Mr.
Pickles and his singed fur.
The point is, we can’t rely on people who said they were coming
to actually come, without being prompted. There’s nothing quite
so disheartening as going through all the work, having 30 people
tell you they’re coming, and only getting 2 people to show up,
both of which are in wheelchairs with oxygen tanks. You need a
system for sending a friendly reminder about your event. This
system should be two-fold. The first step happens when they
RSVP for the seminar. Of course, this only works for the ones
that actually did RSVP. Count on a few to just show up.
When your prospect calls to tell you they’re coming, you need to
collect a little information, and use it to follow up.
l What is your name
l Will anyone be attending with you
l What is the best phone number to reach you, and do I have
permission to call as a reminder, or in case there is an emergency
that warrants rescheduling the event? Think sudden blizzard, ice

storm, hurricane, flood, problem at the location, personal injury
or accident, or any number of other possibilities. Just be prepared
l Give them your name and contact information again. This may
seem redundant, since they are calling you to confirm, however,
it’s an extra step to cement the information in their mind that,
yes, this is actually happening.
l Prompt them, “If for any reason you’re unable to attend, please
let us know, so that we can inform those who may be waiting. We
want to make sure that everyone who is ready to attend, will be
able to. It’s also important that we can get this information out to
you, if you aren’t able to make it”. Most people are generally
courteous of other people’s time. While insurance agents aren’t
people (we’re vampires), most folks will give you a heads up if
they can’t make it, when they hear that others are waiting. This
also serves the purpose of opening up a follow up, in which you
can send them a copy of the seminar hand out by mail, if they
can’t make it.
l Remind them, again, of the date and time. “We’ll look forward
to seeing you at Chuck E’ Cheese on Easy St, at 6:00 PM on the
23rd. If you have any trouble with the location, please let us
know, and we’ll be happy to give you directions. You’ll find our
group in the plastic ball pit, and there will be a sign in front to
direct you.”
l Ask permission to send them an email reminder. This is part of
the 3-touch strategy. Touch one, the phone, touch 2 send an
email. It’s not as intrusive as the phone call. It’s a gentle
reminder. And, most importantly, it adds them to your email list
(which you should definitely have) so that you can continue to
market to them.
Part 2 of your follow up, and touch 3, will be by mail, however,
it will be a little different this time. In sending your mass mailer,
you had a ton of stuff to send. Now, you have a much smaller list

of attendees, so your mailing cost is way down. It’s time to get a
little more personal. While you might spend a little time on this
one, it can be worth it.
Draft a personalized letter to each attendee, now. If you’re
familiar with the Mail Merge function of most office programs
like Microsoft Word or others, you can do this pretty quickly in
one printing. If not, just type up standard letter, print a copy,
change the recipient’s name, print again, and so forth. When you
have a personalized letter for each attendee, address an envelope
and stamp it.
Your personal letter is very short, and contains just a few vital
pieces of information.
l Your name and contact information
l Date, time and location
l A screenshot of the location on a Google Map (optional but a
nice touch).
l A quick thank you for their interest in attending, and a reminder
to contact you if they can’t make it.
Sign the letter, using your hand and a pen. Don’t stamp it or print
it with your signature. Be personal. Send the letter out one week
before the event.
The final step is to make a quick phone call 48 hours before the
event. Using the best contact number you picked up in the contact
step, just give your attendees a quick call, and tell them you are
calling as a quick reminder for the Medicare Informational
Seminar on the 23rd, at 6:00 pm, at the Chuck E’ Cheese on Easy
St. Thank them again for attending. Leave a message if they don’t
answer. The idea is the cement the seminar in their mind in the
most courteous way you can.

Prepping your seminar
Prior to actually conducting seminar, you’ll need to scout and
prep the location. If you’ve been following the guide, you already
know what type of equipment your location has to present with,
and you have compatible equipment to use with it. If you’ve been
very diligent, you already tested the equipment on your scouting
visit to ensure you know how to operate it, and that it actually
works. There’s nothing quite like going through all the work and
cost of putting the event together, and then being stalled trying to
get your presentation to show up on the projection screen in a
way that everyone can read it.
Next, have all your printed materials ready in packets that you
can set out at each seat. Your location should have some kind of
writing area, where people can take notes as you talk. This would,
ideally, be tables or desks of some kind. You should also provide
pens, and a scratch sheet or two of paper, along with your hand
out, business cards, and any other promotional items. Have these
all laid out, so people have something to read while you’re
waiting to start.
*Agent Tip: One of the best giveaway items you can do is coffee
mugs with your company name, logo, and contact info. Almost
everyone can use a mug for coffee or tea. They don’t get thrown
away, and you can put small items, such as a pen and business
cards in them for a nice, presentable little package.
Finally, have your chosen refreshments set out, as well as paper
plates, napkins, and the like. Try to avoid anything messy, or that
will require plastic ware to use. No sloppy joes.

Running your seminar
So, we’ve come to the big event. You have people lined up
outside the door like an Apple Store on iPhone release day.
They’re outside in sleeping bags and tents a week before, just so
they can be the first! Once you throw those doors wide, and they
come trampling in like a crazed herd of buffalo, it’s your time in
the spotlight. Shine, shine, you crazy diamond. Now that those
attendees are grabbing their cookies and juice from your snack
table, though, a few things need to happen.
In fact, before they can grab the cookies and juice, they need to
find their way through the location to the cookie and juice table.
This is easier to do if you’re working as a team, because you can
have someone greeting them at the door, directing them to the
right place, and another person meeting them at the
room/auditorium/pitcher’s mound of baseball field, or wherever
you will give your presentation.
If you’re just a lone wolf, though, you can still make it happen.
You’ll just need the assistance of navigational cues. Perhaps one
of the best investments we ever made for our seminars was a
retractable, standing banner. You see these at events all the time.
It’s a standing sign with your company name on it, and an event
description. It looks professional, is big enough that it catches
people’s attention without being a billboard, and is very
affordable, as well as portable. It retracts into a case that can
easily be swung onto your shoulder to take with you.
Still another option is printed signs.
Don’t: Write them by hand with markers, or paint them on poster
board with glitter and glue. Unless, you have the finely styled

penmanship of a medieval monk.
Do: Print them on stiff, letter sized paper with your office printer,
or get card stock and adhesive letters to make them. They can be
very simple, such as “Medicare Seminar” with an arrow that
points in the correct direction, or “Medicare + Cookies”. Probably
not that one.
Put up just enough signage to get people there, but don’t go
overboard. Once they reach the room, direct them to the
refreshments, and let them know that you’ll be getting started
soon. Optionally, you can have a sign-in sheet where they can put
their name, so you can match it up later with follow up
marketing. No matter your seminar style, you can’t require people
to give you information, or permission to contact them. A nice
way to ask them for their information is to let them know that
you’ll be sending them a thank you card for attending. Make sure
to greet them at the door, and get their names, as well as
introducing yourself.
Introductions
Once you have all your attendees gathered, and they are eagerly
hanging on your every word, give a brief introduction that hits

the bullet points of what they can expect. Just reiterate what was
in your invitation, and expand a bit on who you are and what you
do. Keep the introduction brief, so that you can get to the
information.
Presentation
While we can’t make you an expert presenter, we can give you
some pointers on how to convey this information in a way that
makes sense, and won’t leave you a rambling mess of “um”
between each word. Some important things to note about
presenting Medicare are accuracy and compliance.
Your information should be current for this year. Don’t use
Medicare premiums and deductibles from 3 years ago in your
presentation. You can reference them, to show how Medicare’s
costs increase over time, but if you are giving figures, make sure
you have the current year’s figures memorized. The second point
is compliance. This is especially true if you’re using the Sales
Seminar style. Your information in a Sales Seminar must be
approved by compliance, prior to use.
In an educational event, you do not need to have your materials
pre-approved, but they should still be compliant in their
information. There are, actually, some great ways to get
presentations that are both compliant, informative, and well done.
It’s not something you have to make yourself. Perhaps one of
your greatest resources are the carriers you contract with.
Many carriers keep a sales material section on their website. You
can visit these sections on your agent portal, and look through the
materials. Almost every carrier has some kind of slide show
presentation that you can download, that covers general Medicare

information, without any plan specifics. These presentations may
have the company logo on them, but they will not discuss the
company or plans, which will hold you to your word.
One of the best Medicare presentations, in our opinion, comes
from Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield. They have a very fine
power point that is easy to get through, not too long, general in
its information, but detailed enough to be perfect for an
educational event. If you are not able to find a presentation from
one of your carriers, don’t fret. You can make a very simple one
with tools like Power Point, WPS Office, or Libre Office. If you
want to get more involved you can use something like Active
Presenter to build an interactive presentation that allows the use
of video, annotations, and much more. Active Presenter will even
allow you to export your presentation to an interactive video,
which you can play for an audience, or send as a link to your
attendees, so that they can view it later, or share it with friends.
As an aside, this is also a great tool to use to create a YouTube
video of your Medicare knowledge, and use it for your website
and social media marketing.
When presenting your information, it’s important to pause on
occasion and answer questions. The format of a Medicare seminar
makes this easy to do. Since Medicare has four basic parts, you
can stop at the end of each part and take questions.
Pacing of your information is also very important. You do not
want to sound as if you are in a hurry to get this out, so that you
can get away from being the center of attention. It’s alright to be
uncomfortable in front of an audience, but do your best to calm
your nerves and realize that presenting to your seminar is no
different from presenting at someone’s kitchen table. The

information is the same. The size of the audience is the primary
difference.
Do your best to throw in a little humor into the topic. You might
not think there’s much that’s funny about Medicare, but there is.
For example, here’s one we use every time that always get a
chuckle from the audience.
When talking about Medicare supplements:
“Now, just to make it more confusing, the government chose to
label all supplement plans by letters. So, not only do you have
Medicare Parts A, B, C, and D, you also have plan letters A, B,
C, D, F, G, L, M, N, and K”.
OR
When I introduce myself and my company
“You’ll find a few things in front of you. One is a hand out that
you can take home, since you’ll probably have more questions
later. The other is a small gift to you. The mug is a little harder
to lose than a business card and it has our contact information on
it, as well as a picture of our logo. We considered using my face,
but decided that we didn’t want to scare your grand kids.”
In the end, the most important thing you can do prior to your
presentation is to practice it, until it’s part of you. Think about
every time you meet a new prospect. You have a practiced routine
that you go through. The words might change a little bit, but it’s
always the same cycle. Warm up, introduction, fact finding,
presentation, close. Your seminar presentation is no different.
Learn what works, and then practice it until it’s natural.

Seminar Equipment
In preparation for your seminar, you’ll need to have the proper
equipment. Fortunately, most equipment these days is pretty
standard. You might find locations that lack the latest technology,
but if it isn’t over 15 years old, it’s likely that most of the ports
and connections will be something that’s compatible with most
technology.
When presenting to an audience, you have a couple of options.
One is a projector screen, and the other is a TV. You could also
use something like a whiteboard or a wall, but you’ll be doing
yourself a disservice. Only resort to this method if you truly have
nothing else available.
Of the two main methods, the projector screen usually works best
overall. TVs do have some advantages, but the downside is
having a big enough TV that people in the back of the room can
actually see and read it. Remember your audience. Seniors aren’t
known for having eagle eye vision from afar. Projector screens
offer their own downsides, mostly coming from the projector
itself.
Projectors are not equal. Their intensity is measured in lumens or
ANSI lumens. The other factor at play is distance from the
projection screen. You need distance for a large enough image.
Moving further from your screen increases image size, but also
begins to degrade clarity of the image. It’s important to find a
good balance. Furthermore, resolution is equally as important.
Higher resolution leads to sharper images. The final piece is
connections.

So what does all this mean for your projector? Here’s what we’d
recommend. Don’t buy a pico or mini projector. Get a nice,
portable unit with a resolution no less than 800x600. An HD
projector would be ideal with a 1080p resolution.
For luminosity, we’d recommend nothing under 1,500 lumens.
3,000 would be excellent, but that can start to get expensive. If
you can keep the room dim enough, a 1,500 lumen projector will
work fine. Test your projector under various lighting, first, to get
an idea of how it performs best. For connections, you’ll want a
projector that is as universal as possible. It should have a VGA
output and an HDMI output. Most laptops will come with these
two connections as standard, now. Try to avoid mini-HDMI, as
you’ll likely need an additional converter or cable to use this
port.
Now, this guide assumes you will use a laptop for your
presentation. However, you can buy projectors with built-in
storage, on which you can save your presentation and avoid
connecting a laptop at all. Just make sure you can navigate the
projector’s interface before you try to do it in front of an
audience. Lastly, invest in a remote “clicker”. These are easy to
get for around $10, connect with a wireless transmitter via a USB
port on your laptop, and let you navigate your presentation
without standing by the computer using the mouse. You can also
find many that have a built-in laser pointer, so you can use them
to highlight areas in the presentation.
Make sure to carry both cable types with you, in case you have a
malfunctioning port on any of the equipment. It’s always good to
have a backup. A VGA cable is the standard cable that you use
with most monitors. It only conveys video signals. An HDMI
cable will allow for transfer of both audio and video signals on a

single cable. This is great if you’re using any audio in your
presentation, as you don’t have to connect a separate audio cable,
as you would using a VGA connection.
Finish the seminar
Now, you’ve rocked the presentation. The audience is, almost
certainly, applauding and throwing flowers (hopefully not
tomatoes). Some may have tears in their eyes, they were so
moved. So, finish strong. Thank the attendees for coming. Shake
hands on the way out the door, and stick around to answer
questions. Get your calendar ready to take some notes, and
schedule any appointments for the folks who are ready to meet
now. If you have a knowledgeable partner with you, it’s easier to
divide the efforts.
If any of the attendees have signed your sign-in sheet, which
should have a note that authorizes this form as a permission to
contact form, give them each a call after a couple of days, and
thank them again for coming. Briefly ask if they thought of any
additional questions. If you’re really going for it, you can land an
appointment on this call. Finally, the day after your seminar get
your thank you cards together and send them out. That way, they
should hit the mailboxes around the time you start calling to
thank your attendees.
This way you’ll create a great follow up funnel, and you’ve had a
lot of contacts to keep yourself front of mind when these
prospects are making their choice on who to work with.
Summary

To summarize, conducting a successful seminar, that will bring
you long term prospects, is not a super simple affair at the start.
There are a lot of components involved. However, as you become
more comfortable with planning them, you’ll be able to create
regular, productive seminars that yield business for you, and
valuable information for your clients. The key is in preparation,
and execution. So, just to hit the highlights, let’s cover the steps.
1. Determine a prospecting area.
2. Research the available prospects in the area.
3. Determine a location in the area.
4. Scout the location.
5. Create your message.
6. Decide how to disseminate your message.
7. Follow up on your message, and confirm your reservations.
8. Prep your location and equipment.
9. Deliver a great presentation.
10. Answer questions and send your follow ups.
11. Prepare for new clients!
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How to run a medicare information seminar

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