U.S. Update News August 2002
The September 2002 Internet monthly update will be posted to our five monthly update websites on Saturday, August 24th.
Unless you have made arrangements to purchase your diskettes, please return your “July” disks ONLY AFTER you have successfully installed this August 2002 Update. July disks are your backup in case you should have problems installing the August edition.
That’s not bad for a little internet service which doesn’t advertise and which generates very little revenue upon which to operate. The snowball is gradually getting larger.
NOTE: You will not be inundated with telephone calls.
Unlike a lead generating service, which requires you to purchase leads and call consumers, this works the other way around. Consumers click a button and get a list of 3 agents listed closes to their zip codes and if they want to, can call anyone on that list. Consumers call you.
As you know most consumers do not buy life insurance they are sold life insurance. While a consumer calling you is clearly the exception to the rule, and there are few who will do so, those that do call are certainly not afraid to talk to a salesperson. These are exactly the type of people you want. Most are successful, business-like, take charge people. They don’t buy $50,000 policies.
It is our belief that the people calling Compulife subscribers as a result of www.term4sale.com are the cream of the crop. You only need one successful call like that every 3 or 4 years to make being listed worthwhile.
It is our hope that more and more subscribers will become involved in this important and growing service. Once again, if you have not taken advantage of your free listing, please consider doing so.
IMPORTANT: We do not list you unless you request the listing.
For those who want greater exposure than just their home zip code (your free zip code) and the area that may surround it, you can purchase additional zip code listings for $12 per year. This assumes that you are not using the Term4Sale agent edition or Compulife Lite software. For full details go to www.term4sale.com, enter the zip code that you are interested in, do a comparison and click the “Get Agent” button. Print out the current listing which includes about 7 pages of instructions about how you can purchase additional zip code listings.
Compulife’s Internet updating feature, built right into our software, makes updating by internet easy. We’ve noticed a big drop in the number of technical support calls requesting assistance with updates. Our software does it all by itself.
For those of you who still obtain disks each month, and who have your reasons for not switching over to getting updates by Internet, then you still must return your disks each month. Having noted that, there is a way to eliminate the problem of having to mail back disks. Please go to the end of this bulletin for full details.
We are happy to say that we have had no reported errors regarding the changes that we have made. No one noticed anything which is exactly the way it was supposed to work.
Our software development is now focused on the next series of changes planned for our software.
2) Multiple options for multiple lives. You will be able to run a multiple life comparison and get monthly premiums for individuals and total premiums.
3) Pick 12 will be modified to allow the filing of multiple life quotes reflecting discounts for companies which offer multi-life options. You will be able to print pages showing total premiums for all lives and then subsequent pages for each individual life. Discounts, where available, will be noted. As the Pick 12 features become available they will be posted to our mid-month update site.
4) Pick 12 will allow multiple options. For example you will be able to quote modal premiums together with waiver of premium. Currently, when you click on waiver of premium, the spreadsheet defaults to annual premium. If you switch to another premium mode, the waiver of premium is dropped.
All the above changes are in progress as I write. They will not be released until they are all completed and tested.
Our current software is working very well and because we would like to enjoy a quiet summer, we have no intention of introducing new software that may require bug repairs or additional technical support. Once we get past the September monthly update, we will start releasing these changes, on a mid-month basis, as they are ready.
In the meantime, we are closely following rate changes in the market and posting them as soon as they become available. Our commitment to you is to get you that new information as quickly as possible.
Two year subscription pricing for those receiving disk updates has been eliminated. This reflects the fact that we would like to see more customers switch over to obtaining updates from Internet. Internet saves us money which we like to pass on to you. We are doing everything we can to be as competitively priced as possible.
Internet updates help us manage costs so well that we have now added a three, four or five year subscription pricing option. Agents or agencies can save $99 per year for each additional year that they purchase when renewing a one year subscription.
For example: A personal use subscription to Compulife is $199, but a second year can be added by paying an additional $100 for a total price of $299. A third year can be added by paying an additional $100 for a total price of $399 for 3 years, $499 for four years, $599 for five years.
The strategy behind these pricing changes is quite simple. Those who obtain their monthly updates by disk represent the most work and expense for Compulife. By contrast, we do not have to ship or handle disk returns for Internet subscribers.
Further, each year, when we invoice you for your subscription renewal, and have to process your subscription payment, there is substantial administrative work that is entailed. We must invoice you. Frequently our customers move and they do not advise us. We must track them down. When we receive your payment we have to process it. Next we issue you an Internet Master Disk authorizing you to obtain updates for another year. Then many call to ask, “What do I do with this disk?” And of course there are those subscribers who pay late. The Internet Master Disk is not shipped until payment is received and so those who pay late have found that their subscription expired and they can’t get their latest update. At that point the phone starts ringing and there is a mad scramble to get the customer back up and running. Nobody is happy.
Add it up and it’s a lot of time and work not to mention a lot of frustration and expense. When you purchase a two year (or now 3, 4 or 5 year) subscription, we can eliminate all that work and hassle for the additional years that you buy. That saves us money and it enhances our customer relations, retention and satisfaction.
IMPORTANT NOTE: there are no subscription refunds for early cancellation but subscriptions may be transferred (resold).
ANOTHER NOTE: We do not automatically invoice 2, 3, 4 or 5 year subscriptions. If you want the option, you must take the initiative when you get your one year renewal invoice. Most don’t read these bulletins, so most miss the opportunity.
All of this adds up to us affording to be able to offer very deep price cuts for 2, 3, 4 and 5 year subscriptions. You want to save money? There it is, go for it.
For those doing monthly updates by Internet, we relay on three other websites 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 $80 per year in subscription fees.
To switch to Internet monthly updates, go to our webpage www.compulife.com and select the last menu choice “Forms, applications, instruction tutorials, etc.” Under the section “License Agreements”, the third license is the “Internet Update Endorsement”. Print the endorsement. Once you have it, please read it carefully, 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 take 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.
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