Marketing Worksite Benefits To Independent Contractors
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With the potential for thousands of individual sales, consumer companies that sell their products through independent contractors offer a potentially lucrative market. But how do you sell worksite benefits, which normally require payroll deductions for premium, to people who are working strictly on commission, with no regular paycheck?
Lawrence Prichard, a managing general agent in Dayton, Ohio, for Colonial Supplemental Insurance, says the answer is to use a third party administrator to take monthly premiums either directly out of the checking accounts of these "1099 employees," or to charge the premiums to their charge cards.
(They're called 1099 employees after the IRS form that's used to report their income.)
A new venture, Comprehensive Benefits Consultants of Ohio, formed by Prichard and two associates, is offering 8 supplemental products to 100,000 independent contractors working for Tupperware Corporation, Kissimmee, Fla.
