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Case Study

How Strategic Talent Development Doubled
AEP Medicare Sales,
Exceeded Targets

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Doubled Medicare Sales, Exceeded AEP Targets
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The Client

The client is a leading health insurance broker and benefits administrator that supports millions of employees across the country by guiding them through complex benefit choices, helping employers optimize their health and wellness programs.

That commitment includes guiding members through high-stakes decisions like those made during the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP).

The Challenge
During AEP, the client must hit aggressive Medicare sales targets while controlling costs. To meet the seasonal spike in demand, they follow the industry norm of hiring licensed agents and sales coaches for outbound calls. However, despite filling all seats, this approach hasn't translated to strong conversions—enrollment targets consistently fall short.
The Strategy

After analyzing call recordings and live coaching sessions during AEP, Everise found that:

  • The highest-performing individuals all had prior experience in AEP-specific licensed sales.
  • The most effective coaches were those who’ve had success working as licensed agents during AEP themselves.

To improve outcomes, Everise piloted a leadership accelerator program.

Leadership Accelerator Program: How It Works
Identify Potential
1    Identify Potential
Agents who exceeded sales targets and showed strong empathy and willingness to help, were selected to join the program.
Develop Talent
2    Develop Talent
Leader Candidates undergo a month’s worth of training to build the coaching and management skills needed to lead successful teams.
Promote Leaders
3    Promote Leaders
Those who pass training are promoted to Team Leaders, with their own teams of licensed sales agents to coach and guide through AEP.
“Medicare telesales, especially for a broker exchange client, are difficult at the best of times... By making sure that our entire leadership pool were once successful sales agents, we ensure our agents are always led by leaders that know the processes as closely as the agents do.”
— Zachary Mellin, AEP Operations Manager
The Results
2x plans sold
per agent after two years
10% above
enrollment targets
87.6 CSAT
in 2024

After two years of implementing the talent strategy, 100% of AEP licensed sales leaders are homegrown and possess skills and techniques that made their sales coaching more effective.

This led to year-over-year improvement in conversions per agent from AEP 2022 to 2024, doubling plans sold per agent in just two years.

%Homegrown leaders Sales/agent
2022 50% 34.32
2023 60% 48.65
2024 100% 68.27
graph

This improvement enabled Everise to exceed Medicare sales targets by 10%, achieving 110% of their conversion goal and outperforming both a competitor (71%) and the client’s internal team (86%).

Member experience also improved, with a 1-point increase in CSAT from 86.1 (2023) to 87.6 (2024).