Ethan Sheffield’s first day as vice president of marketing for Cox HealthPlans was March 15. A week earlier, he made the move to Springfield from Searcy, Ark., about 50 miles north of Little Rock. In Arkansas, Sheffield managed Mercy Health Plans’ sales operations for the state. He has more than 15 years’ experience in the industry.
Q: What does your new position entail?
A: In the beginning, I’ll be doing some more brand awareness in the community, to be able to get people to understand who Cox HealthPlans is, what we offer and how we actually relate to the community and how that ties in with CoxHealth itself. ... The next thing is looking at ways to help us grow as an organization (using) marketing techniques, from the Internet to mobile marketing to more face-to-face promotion of the organization in the community. I think they’ve done a good job of that so far and I just want to enhance that a little bit. The other thing we’re going to end up doing is we’re working on creating a third-party administrator here – that’s in the works, it’s not done yet – to address the needs of large employers looking to be self-funded.
Q: What misconceptions do you think people have about health insurance?
A: People feel like insurance is too high because of insurance companies. And you know, some of that is true, in some cases. I think it’s difficult unless someone really understands how rates are developed, and what creates a rate for an employer, it’s hard for them to understand really how you get to those numbers. So, they’re saying, “My rate’s $300, but I didn’t use it at all last year.” But you’re really looking at a block of people that you’re insuring and the actual average cost of an individual. And while you might not have spent anything on your insurance last year other than your premium, the potential is there. It’s a risk product.
Q: Have you found a way to help people get around that type of thinking?
A: Just being able to sit down and explain to people how you get from point A to point B, to show where you got the rates, that’s the part when they finally understand it. It makes more sense when you can walk through it. Not from an individual perspective, but from a perspective of the whole industry. … If you look at Cox HealthPlans, that’s one of the things that really drew me to them. The model that they use, it’s very streamlined, very effective and it’s very transparent. So people see what we’re doing, how we’re coming up with our rates, and what the profitability of it is, or lack thereof, in some cases. But it’s a very transparent model and we’re actually coming out with a new reporting product that will actually go even more in-depth to show that.
Q: Are you planning anything to help educate businesses about health care reform?
A: If you look at everything right now, you see certain things that are impacted now or going to be impacted in six months. But the things that are further out, you really don’t have the detail yet because the regulations have not been written to really determine how you’re actually supposed to do it. We sent an e-mail out to all of our customers and agents and we’re going to hold a forum for our customers and agents in a couple of months. But we sent one out to talk about the impact of the immediate things from today up and through the next year. … As more details of the plan come out, we’ll have the capability to address that and how it’s going to affect the community.
Q: What’s the best sales advice you’ve ever received?A: Education is the best key to earning somebody’s business. Not selling is the best sales advice I’ve ever received. From a perspective of sales, when somebody’s being sold something, they can usually sense that. Your goal is to always complete a sale, but not at the expense of a customer. So what you do is you learn through conversation what they’re looking for, what it is that they’re lacking, and then you figure out a way that your organization can fill those holes. And if you can do that from an educational perspective and show them how you’re a better fit, that, to me, has ultimately been the best thing for me. While I am a salesperson, I feel like I have more of a consultative approach.
