It is my fervent hope that the moment you saw the title of this article you felt compelled to see what I am talking about. The first thing that you should know is that this assumption has absolutely nothing to do with any potential health reform. Regardless of health reform, the days of the health insurance agent are about to come to an end.

It is not that group health will not be purchased through licensed health insurance agents, because that will not change.

What has already changed is that the consumer recognizes that every insurance agent is going to present that the same products. The fact is that many of you are already finding that calling employers and asking for an opportunity to quote their health plan is not quite as effective a strategy as it was five years ago.

A common response to this inquiry is: "So, what carriers are you going to quote that my current broker cannot?"

With rare exception, the only honest answer is that you will be quoting the same plans and the same carriers as every other agent.

Virtually every agent that I have spoken with over the past six months has lost at least one long-term group client to an Agent of Record letter.

A long-term client is a client that has been with you for three years or longer. In the last two weeks, I have spoken with one agent who has lost four groups to other brokers, another agent who has lost two large clients in the past 60 days and a third one who has lost one large group by an AOR letter in the past month.

I know all three of these agents very well and can tell you that they are extremely knowledgeable and client-focused. Nonetheless, each one lost the account without even being contacted by the client.

Last month, I had the opportunity to speak to the Houston Association of Health Underwriters. At dinner the prior night, an extremely adept group health agent shared her frustration with losing an account because, as she put it: "Clients have no idea what agents do for them." Sadly, she is 100% correct in her assessment.

Birth of the employer solution

Back in 1988, it was incredibly easy to secure opportunities to quote on a group's health insurance. As we moved into the '90s, it remained relatively easy to get the chance to provide a proposal. Not only were there numerous carriers to go to, but there were also a lot of options. Agents could present a straight indemnity product, a health maintenance organization or a preferred provider organization. More importantly, there were very important differences between the PPO and the HMO in both coverage and network access.

Today, the indemnity plan is gone and there is very little difference between the PPO and the HMO.

We do have health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements, but most agents do an incredibly poor job of positioning those options, so few companies have actually adopted them. At the end of the day if an employer gets proposals from five different agents it is a good bet that there will be a lot of redundancy in plan design and carrier choice.

To create differentiation, smart agents began to provide value-added services.

In the beginning, the value-added services consisted of premium-only plans and COBRA. Soon those agents expanded into online portals for employees and benefit communication.

Today, more and more smart agents are expanding the scope of what they do to include payroll services and human resource information systems.

Where the old group health insurance agent focused on trying to save money by getting multiple quotes and seeking to retain the best benefits at the lowest premium, today's benefit professional seeks to help employers with systems that make their human resources team more effective.

Saving money has become about more than just the health insurance premium.

One of my coaching clients called me because he lost a fairly large group and was told by the president of the company that, while he really liked my client, the time had come to begin looking at agents through the prism of the value-added services they can provide.

The future

Many health insurance agents talk a lot about transparency in health care costs. I believe that the time has come for transparency in commissions and the ability to negotiate compensation with the client.

Agents working in groups with 10 or more employees are averaging $25 per employee, per month. In a group with 20 employees, that equates to $500 per month.

Here is a question to ponder: If I asked any of your clients whether you deliver $500 worth of value a month, what would they say?

Notice I did not ask whether you believe you are worth $500 per month, but what your clients believe.

One of my coaching clients has recently started using this in his sales process: During the first meeting he generally asks the employer how much they would be willing pay for the services of their broker and why.

In virtually every case the employer cites a dollar figure that is considerably less than the current agent is actually being paid in commission.

From there, getting the AOR letter is fairly easy, particularly in groups with 50 employees or more, where commissions are negotiable.

If you are resistant to the idea of commission disclosure I would ask you why that is. As a sales coach, my fees are my fees and every client knows what they will pay me and what they can expect.

As we move forward, agents who believe their value is in getting quotes annually and handling problems when they arise will be in trouble.

The new benefit professionals will be open about their compensation and will help their clients identify the services they want in return for it.

The new benefit professionals will identify areas where they can help improve a client's situation and will charge fees for those services - in addition to commissions on insurance products - and be proud of the income per group they generate.

The 21st century benefit professional will stop using spreadsheets and start providing solutions. Some agents are already there. The others will either join them or be gone within five years. EBA

Schlesinger has more than 26 years of insurance sales experience and provides sales and marketing coaching to both life and health insurance agents. He recently launched Cold Calls Made Easy, a marketing program designed to fill your calendar with high-quality prospects. You can learn more at coldcallsmadeeasy.com or reach him at (336) 774-3075.

Empower the consumer through transparency, says AmWINS Group Benefits' Sam Fleet. Tune in to eba.benefitnews.com/podcasts to hear the veteran consultant share three ways consumerism can lower health care costs. Social networking Web sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Linkedln are all the rage, particularly within the past year, but most worksite marketers don't believe these popular online destinations are worth their while as a tool for reaching customers.

Only about 20% of voluntary benefit brokers, carriers and other players use these sites to promote themselves and troll for new business, according to a recent Eastbridge Consulting survey. In addition, nearly half the respondents are considering this course of action, with 64% expecting to do so within the coming year, while most who shun these sites doubt that they will ever use them.

Those who are not pursuing this route lack the time, funds and/or personnel to operate and monitor these sites. Moreover, 83% believe that social networking sites do an average job of communicating with their target audience.

Bonnie Brazzell, vice president of Eastbridge, believes more brokers and carriers will give social networking a try, but that "the jury is still out as to whether it will become the 'norm' or if the usage will be effective. If I were to guess, I think carriers will primarily use it for communicating with current and prospective brokers, not customers."

The research, "Social Networking Websites and Voluntary Companies," is the latest in a series of Eastbridge Frontline Reports. Another such recent report, "Voluntary Dental Products - 2009," found that voluntary dental sales among 13 leading carriers exceeded $565 million and accounted for 11% of total voluntary sales in 2008. The major players are said to change their products regularly to improve their competitive position, as well as stay on top of medical or dental technologies and changes.

This enables carriers to better understand how their product compares with competitors based on factors including product specifics, plan design options, enrollment practices and options, participation requirements, premium structure and commissions.