COMPULIFE®
Software, Inc.
(800) 798-3488
COMPULIFE®
Software, Inc.
(800) 798-3488
This bulletin is a "must read" because it sets forth a series of VERY important changes that Compulife will be making to our product, infrastructure and marketing plans for the next year. Some of these changes will have a direct impact/benefit for you, and we hope you do not miss the important opportunities that we are offering to our subscribers and future subscribers.
Here is a quick run-down on the upcoming changes:
Price Cuts for Software (agents now pay only $149 / year)
Downsizing/Improvements to Compulife's Infrastructure
New Rules for Sub-user discounts
These topics will be dealt with in more detail throughout this
bulletin. We would encourage you to read on.
We plan to post the August 2005 Internet monthly update to our six monthly update web sites on Friday, July 29th.
The disk update will be processed Friday, July 29th and the disks will be shipped on that day. You should have the disk update by Monday, August 1st.
Effective immediately Compulife is cutting the price for Term4Sale - Agent Edition from $99 to $69 per year.
We would also like to reduce the price for our Personal Use - Agent Edition of Compulife, but we are holding off on that until we see what impact the other changes that we are making have on our subscriber volume.
We should point out that volume is now becoming a KEY component in our pricing strategy. As more and more customers take delivery of software by Internet, and as we expand our use of the Internet for updating and servicing our customers, our cost per unit is dropping. As volume goes up, and cost per unit drops, it allows us to lower pricing, which in and of itself should have a positive impact on volume.
Here in the U.S., we have lowered the price for the Term4Sale - Agent Edition and using that as a way to "test the water" to see just how much of an impact lower pricing has on sales.
In Canada we decided to eliminate the Term4Sale Agent Edition and we have dropped the price of Compulife's Personal Use Edition from $199 to $149 per year (in Canada!). We are sharing that news with our U.S. subscribers to say that we would like to make a similar price reduction here but we cannot afford to do so unless we know there will be a corresponding increase in subscriber volume.
To those who wonder why we cut Personal Use pricing in Canada first, the answer is that we have fewer Canadian subscribers. The population of Canada is about the same as the state of California and so there are about 1/10 the life insurance agents that are in the U.S.
The other reason we are cutting our Canadian price first is because the Canadian life insurance industry has been going through a large number of mergers and acquisitions. At one time we compared the products of over 60 Canadian life companies; now the number is closer to 20. While we have seen a similar trend in mergers and acquisitions in the U.S., the pace of those mergers has been much slower and we supply a lot more information, for a lot more companies, in our U.S. software.
Having noted these points, we share this with you to say that we also want to lower our software pricing in the U.S. We believe that the U.S. can support a lot more subscribers. Te question is how do we get there? Once again, to get to lower pricing, we need to boost subscriber volume. As you read on, there is a tangible way for you to help us and at the same time as you help us, we will immediately give you easy to earn credits that will cut YOUR own cost for software.
We believe that the combination of the new $69 per year price for Term4Sale - Agent Edition, combined with the new "Dare to Compare" marketing program, should see a sharp rise in the volume of U.S. subscriptions to Compulife. If price is an issue, we also expect to see a much greater percentage of new purchases be Term4Sale - Agent Edition versus the Personal Use Agent Edition.
As a further test of our theory, we believe that our new lower prices in Canada should also result in a sharp increase in numbers of subscribers there.
If it turns out that we are correct, then we will begin ratcheting down the price for our Personal Use Edition of the full program.
VERY IMPORTANT: Any future price reductions to the Personal Use version of Compulife will be accompanied by a "top up" offer that permits existing subscribers to take immediate advantage of price reductions by taking into account subscription fees paid but not yet used. This month Canadian subscribers are being offered the "top up opportunity".
Once again, if and when we cut pricing in the U.S., we will provide a top up opportunity for subscribers. Please don't feel you will lose out if you take advantage of our discounted prices for two or three year subscriptions. If you do, and we cut prices, you will not be unhappy.
NOTE: Top up pricing is NOT offered for Term4Sale Agent Edition customers.
Another reason for Compulife's ability to begin to roll down prices are the changes that we have been and will be making to our infrastructure. As you know, we have been aggressively moving our customers away from obtaining updates by disk to obtaining updates by Internet. Apart from saving the cost of mailing and handling disks, shipping disks required our maintaining sufficient numbers of staff and adequate office space. Over the past two years we have gradually cut the number of our staff and we are now ready to start cutting office space. We expect that both the U.S. and Canadian offices will move in the next year, with the Canadian address being the first to change. Our new quarters will be less expensive and we intend to pass those cost saving on to you. Once again, expect to see an address change in the next few months.
We have also designed and are in the process of developing a new Internet Delivery system for your annual subscription renewals. At this point, once you have paid for your subscription renewal, Compulife ships you a CD which you install on your computer, and which then enables your computer to obtain monthly updates by Internet for the balance of your subscription period.
Some time in the late summer or early fall we will switch over to permitting you to install your subscription renewal from our web site.
Once you have paid for your subscription, as you do now, we will e-mail you a link to a password protected web page. Once you have accessed that web page, you will be able to run a "setup.exe" program right from the Internet. This will be very similar to the program you see when you install the CD but this will be better. Currently, after running the CD, you must get the current monthly update. With the introduction of the new Internet "setup.exe" software, the monthly update will be installed at the same time, making it a one step process instead of two steps.
This password protected way of downloading your subscription and monthly update will be available throughout your subscription. If you purchase a new computer, and need to install, you can go back and do it later.
This is a big advantage because subscribers routinely lose their CDs. If that happened, we would need to ship another CD (more money gone). With this new system, if you accidentally delete the e-mail which contained your password, you will be able to call us and with a single click in our database we will instantly ship you a replacement e-mail.
Needless to say, this new internet subscription renewal delivery system will cut our costs in that we will not have to purchase, prepare and mail CD's. Those cost reductions put us in a position to lower the pricing for software.
Compulife is replacing our "Take the $5 Challenge" marketing program with a new program called take the "Dare to Compare" Challenge. The new marketing program is focused on daring agents to try using our software to compare insurance and see what impact it has on their insurance sales. In order to give them sufficient time to see the impact of our software on their sales, we are now offering trial users the opportunity to extend their 30 day free trial to a FREE 4 month Personal Use subscription.
You can read more about this offer by going to:
Some will say, "Well that's not fair, I never got 3 free months of service".
Here's how you can earn important $5 credit coupons that you can use to pay for up to a full year of Compulife when you renew.
If you refer a prospect to Compulife, and that prospective user completes the "Dare to Compare" challenge, Compulife will give your prospect a FREE 4 month subscription and send you a credit coupon for $5.
IMPORTANT: It doesn't matter if the prospect buys or doesn't buy the software. They just have to do the "Dare to Compare" tutorial and e- mail Compulife a quote.
Think about this! For your referral to get their FREE 4 months, they need to do a simple 5 minute tutorial. If they do that 5 minute tutorial, you will get a $5 credit coupon which you can use against your next subscription purchase.
The tutorial is a 5 minute exercise where the prospect e-mails or faxes us a Pick 5 Policy Analysis.
To make a referral:
 |
Click Here to e-mail your referral to Compulife |
Make sure you identify your referral's name and location, and make sure we
have your name, address and phone number.
If your referral completes the "Dare to Compare" challenge by the end of
30 days, they will receive a CD with a 3 month free subscription (in
addition to their original 30 day trial). At the time that we are
shipping the CD, we will check to see if they were referred. If they
were, you will get a credit coupon for $5.
If you order 20 trials for other agents, and 10 of those trials do the challenge, you will get 5 - $5 coupons which will give you $50 to use as a credit against your next subscription to Compulife. Credit coupons can be submitted with payment of any new subscription. Coupons are issued in the name of the referring subscribers and are not transferrable; meaning they can only be used by those to whom they are issued.
The only conditions attached to trials is that the person you are referring to Compulife must be a life insurance agent and must not have been a subscriber to Compulife in the past 3 years or have had a trial in the past 3 years.
REMEMBER: There is NO LIMIT to the number of names that you can provide, or the credit coupons that we issue to you.
Because trials are shipped by e-mail, there is very little cost for Compulife providing trials. Therefore, if you send us a list of 200 agents, and we ship 200 trials, and only 5 or 6 actually use the trial and complete the tutorial to get their 4 FREE months of software - we don't care. For your part, you will still have earned $25 or $30 for the effort.
Let's review how hard it is for you to earn $5. You need to e-mail us the name, address and e-mail address of a fellow agent who does not use Compulife. Make sure you provide us with your name and address, and make sure the subject line has "30 day free trial" or "Dare to Compare" in it.
We will send the 30 day trial to your referral and a copy of the "Dare to Compare" offer for 3 more months of FREE software. If they take the challenge to get the additional 3 months of software, you get a coupon for $5.
Apart from paying you for referrals, we want to again remind you that our overall objective is to dramatically increase subscriber volume, with the view of being able to reduce our prices for software. As we have in Canada, we would like to cut Personal Use subscription prices to $149 per year. Can we do that? We can if we can increase subscription volume. You can help by providing us with referrals.
Feel free to add the trial request to your web site, and automate the e-mail order process to Compulife.
One of Compulife's authorized web providers, Insurance Squared , is matching our dare to compare program with 4 free months of on-line comparisons for web sites. Of greater importance to existing subscribers, Insurance Squared is now offering FREE on-line quotes in exchange for a promotional link back to Insurance Squared. CLICK HERE to read more about that offer.
Last month we advised Compulife subscribers that their opportunity to extend their disk update subscription at the old prices would be gone on July 1st. We are extending that deadline until July 10th to ensure that everyone has had one final chance to take advantage of the old prices should they need to continue getting disk updates.
Here is what we told you last month:
There remains a minority of Compulife subscribers who still get disk updates rather than Internet updates.
During April Compulife removed the opportunity for NEW subscribers to purchase updates on disks. The only disks we are now shipping are those to existing subscribers who still get their updates by disks.
However, effective July 1, 2005, EXISTING customers will be faced with higher prices and new conditions when they renew their subscription for updates on disks. If you are getting disk updates, and want to hold off on switching to updates by Internet, you need to read this carefully.
First, renewal prices for disks will increase. To ensure that all disk update customers stop receiving disk updates after December 2006, all disk update customers renewing after July 1, 2005 will be invoiced for the total number of months left to December 2006. This will ensure that each disk subscription is paid to the end of 2006. It will not be renewed past that point as a disk subscription.
From July 1, 2005 forward, personal use disk subscription renewals will be priced at $29 per month, payable in a lump sum to the end of December 2006.
Agency use disk subscriptions will be $39 per month, payable in a lump sum in advance to the end of December 2006.
VERY IMPORTANT: The absolute last date anyone will be able to obtain a monthly update by disk will be December 2006. From January 2007 and forward, ALL Compulife subscribers will need to receive updates by Internet. If you are not connected to the Internet by January 2007, you will no longer be able to get Compulife updates.
PAY ATTENTION TO THIS!
If you act before July 1, 2005 (NOW JULY 10, 2005), the cost of your renewal will be based upon the total number of months left times the average cost per month based upon the current annual fees of:
Personal Use - $25 per month (rather than $29)
Agency Use - $33.25 per month (rather than $39)
If you wait until AFTER July 1, 2005 (NOW JULY 10, 2005) to renew disk updates, you will pay the higher prices.
Last month we told you about rule changes for how many FREE listings each subscriber is allowed at the Term4Sale web site. This month we want to point out that Compulife has been making internal changes to the database that we use to track subscriber records. One of the changes is that are now integrating the zip code database listings into our main database of subscribers. Prior to this the zip code listings were kept in a separate database.
One of the results of this integration is the fact that a subscriber, who does not renew their subscription, will automatically be deleted from the listings at www.term4sale.com. Prior to this we cross checked lists in November when we were invoicing paid listings for the following year. At that time we removed subscribers who had not renewed their software subscription. With the change that we have made, term4sale listings will be automatically deleted when the subscriber does not renew.
There is a negative implication as a result of this change. It affects those who have paid to be listed in additional zip codes at www.term4sale.com. When a subscription is not renewed, and the term4sale listings are removed, paid zip code listings are also removed. We need to clarify that if paid zip codes are deleted due to non-renewal of a subscription there is no refund for unused zip code listing fees.
If the subscriber subsequently renews their subscription, then their paid listings are automatically reactivated.
Last month we told you that you may now be eligible for two or three free listings, rather than just one, depending upon the type of subscription that you have.
Based upon the small number of requests for additional free listings, we assume most subscribers have not read the offer. Here it is again:
1. Term4Sale - Agent edition
An individual subscribing to the lowest cost version of Compulife will continue to be entitled to one free listing at www.term4sale.com. There is no change for Term4Sale subscribers.
2. Personal Use subscription
An individual agent subscribing to the full version of the Compulife Quotation System will now be entitled to have two free listings at www.term4sale.com. Prior to this change, the maximum number of free listings was one.
3. Agency Use subscription (Standard License)
Agency subscribers are now entitled to have up to three free listings at www.term4sale.com. Prior to this change, the maximum number of free listings was one. NOTE: There will still be the requirement that a single individual be listed as the contact person for the agency.
Free listings that are within a local phone call of the agent will be treated as "Home" zip codes. Home zip codes are given priority over those purchasing additional zip code listings. Home zip code rules are unchanged and explained in detail at the www.term4sale.com web site following the lists of three agents which are provided to consumers.
If you are a personal use or agency subscriber, and already have one free listing at www.term4sale.com, please send Diane an e-mail at dwelch@compulife.com indicating which other zip codes you would like to add. Alternately, you can give Diane a call at 800-798-3488. Please keep in mind that new listings requested during June will be posted on July 1st.
The July monthly update of Compulife no longer provides the DOS program. If you attempt to run the GO.EXE file your system will automatically transfer to the Windows program. While we have been warning about this for several months, we suspect that there will be those who do not read our bulletins and who will be somewhat upset by this development. We do have a temporary work around, but you will need to call for assistance.
More important, you need to learn the Windows version of the program. We think we have been very fair in continuing to offer the DOS program for as long as we have, and we hope that those who used and loved it, will make the effort to learn the Windows version. If there is something you used to do in DOS, that seems harder for you to do in Windows, call us. There is probably a short cut you aren't aware of.
Please keep in mind that part of the changes that we are making, such as reduced infrastructure and lower prices are directly tied to simplifying the way that we do business. Supporting an operating system that no one buying new software wants or is using, makes no sense.
For those who update by Internet, Compulife has gone to great lengths to provide you with redundancy in our web sites. Our main web site is:
However, we keep two other completely separate web sites, on two completely different servers, at:
Whatever we update to compulife.com, we are also updating to compulife.us and to compulife.cc. If one web site goes down, for whatever reason, either of the other two are ready to serve you. That includes both monthly and mid-month updates.
For those doing monthly updates by Internet, we rely on three other web sites to supply monthly updates. These are automatically checked and used by our automatic Internet update software.
For those receiving updates by disks, you are responsible to return those disks each month. Not returning disks can lead to the termination of your update service. For those not wanting to return disks there are two ways to eliminate the problem.
1. Switch to obtaining monthly updates by Internet.
Not only will you eliminate the expense and hassle of returning disks, you will save $100 per year in subscription fees.
To switch to Internet monthly updates, go to our web page www.compulife.com and select the last menu choice "Forms, applications, instruction tutorials, etc." Under the section "License Agreements" you will need to select and complete a new License Agreement for the type of license you have. After you have printed the new agreement, please read it, 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 step 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.
