• What would their voluntary business look like if they changed just one-third of their business plan to better reflect today's employee benefit environment?
• Is their view of voluntary benefits simply following the status quo?
• Are they taking the same approach to voluntary sales as they did many years ago?

Related: Hi, my name is Eric, and I'm a recovering carrier rep

• Ignore the products unless a client asks about them;
• Outsource sales to a single carrier;
• Hire an in-house VP of voluntary or equivalent position;
• Partner with a carrier-agnostic firm.

Long-term strategy enhanced benefits employer strategy

• A mission to shop and analyze the market.
• A goal to discover best-in-breed products and services.
• A search for findings about the competitiveness of the market, including most-favored benefits by employers and employees.
• A proposed solution that includes a strategy complementing the existing health plan design that avoids wasteful employer and/or employee overspending.
• A plan of action for the next steps moving forward.

How to compete Also: Young brokers get to the heart of the issues facing today's industry can

• Will you or your sales reps compete directly with me?
• Who do you represent, yourself or me?
• Are you carrier agnostic?
• Do you use shelf product and product dump?
• Do you create and customize plans and ensure they dovetail with my health benefit strategy?
• Do you provide access to a single point consolidated invoice? Do you charge extra for it?
• Do you handle initial strategy to service and claims?
• Can you handle multi-location and multi-state enrollments?
• Do you have an enrollment arm with vetted, agnostic counselors who are bilingual?
• What kind of enrollment platform do you use? Do you charge extra for it?
• Do you provide access to ben admin and HRIS systems for the broker and the employer?
• Do you have enrollment tools such as auto-schedulers, ringless voicemail, text messaging and videos? Do you charge extra for it?
• Are you fully transparent with every aspect of enhanced benefits?
• Do you have industry-best contracts for compensation and underwriting?
• Do you audit enhanced benefit compensation?
• Do you share compensation, including renewals, from the top down?
• Do you share carrier bonuses and allow brokers to earn their own?