Like most people, my ultimate goal is to work from home. In November of 2006, I stumbled across Ameriplan USA. I spoke with a lady from Texas, she told me about all the money I would make and how easy it is to quit your job and work from home. I bought every word and signed up immediately. I forked over $50 and became an Ameriplan Independent Business Owner (IBO).
The concept of the program sounds great, and Ameriplan gives its IBOs plenty of support, daily emails and websites loaded with information. However, to have to pick up the phone and call complete strangers and try to sell a product that you don’t even really know what it is, that’s another story. Ameriplan tells you to talk to your “warm market”, but I found it very uncomfortable to pester my friends and family with a scheme that I wasn’t totally sure about myself.
Also, the plan (an alternative to health insurance, a discount health plan, if you will) is very vague. People always want to know how much money they are going to save on the plans, which is a totally legitimate concern, and as an IBO, you cannot give them an answer. You have to say that you can save between 20% and 80%, people need to call their doctor or dentist to find out for sure.
It is also really hard to find doctors and dentists who are part of the Ameriplan network. Ameriplan tells their IBOs that they have tens of thousands of service providers, but that is really not true. The website that contains a list of providers is not updated frequently, I called all of the doctors and dentists in my area and about 70% said that they did not take Ameriplan. So, in essence, you are trying to sell a health plan that has no providers.
On the recruiting side, trying to get people to part with $50 per month so they can maybe make money is no easy task. When you purchase leads that are so-called “hot” leads, the people you call are usually rude and have no idea what you are talking about. It gives you a complex about talking on the phone. That is a side effect of the Ameriplan business, I am afraid to call people.
The Ameriplan home business recruiting and discount health plan opportunity is not packaged as a sales position, all Ameriplan ads specifically say, “no selling”, but that is exactly what you are doing. This is a sales job and you are not even selling a tangible product, you are selling a dream, and that is a very tough sell.
In order to be a good salesperson, you need to believe in your product and after learning more about Ameriplan, I really did not believe in the product. Ameriplan tells its IBOs that doctors and dentists are clamoring to sign up with Ameriplan and nothing could be further from the truth. The organization is losing providers right and left and not updating their website to reflect that. It is also worth mentioning that Ameriplan is banned from providing services in several states, including Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota.
I personally spent a lot of money on my Ameriplan business and have nothing to show for it except debt. I am not going to say that it is a scam, because it is a legitimate company and has a legitimate product, but take a good, hard look and really do some research before you sign up because it is a tough market. If anyone tries to tell you that Ameriplan is not a sales business, they are not telling you the truth.
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2 comments:
I wanted to write and tell you about the wonderful experience I had using Ameriplan Health. This was my first opportunity to use it. I needed some lab work done and called the number for a lab provider. They transferred me to Medstat-Ameriplan Health where I was fortunate to talk to a rep named Chris Nall. He explained the process to me in detail. I told him all the tests I needed and he gave me the prices for each one. Without Ameriplan Health I would have paid $547, with it I only paid $132, a savings of $415!! Not only that but he faxed over all information to the lab, gave me instructions to fast and provided me with a location only a few miles from my house. The whole process went very smoothly. My belief in this product has soared. ”
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