Annual Enrollment Period — October 15 to December 7 — is the 54 days that make or break a Medicare agency's year. It's the Super Bowl of Medicare sales, and the agencies that win are the ones that prepared months in advance.
If you wait until October to prepare for AEP, you've already lost. Here's the complete guide to preparing your agency for AEP 2026 — starting now.
90 Days Before AEP: Systems and Infrastructure
By mid-July, your systems should be locked and loaded. This means:
- ✓Your CRM is configured with AEP-specific pipelines and tags
- ✓Lead sources are identified and integrated — Facebook ads, landing pages, referral partners
- ✓AI follow-up automations are tested and ready to fire on every new lead
- ✓Annual review campaigns are running for existing clients whose renewals fall during AEP
- ✓Phone system and missed-call text-back are active and tested
- ✓Calendar and scheduling system is ready for high-volume appointment booking
If any of these aren't in place by August, you're already behind. AEP is not the time to be setting up systems — it's the time to be executing on them.
60 Days Before AEP: Team Preparation
By mid-August, your team should be trained and ready:
- ✓Every agent knows the CRM, the pipelines, and the AEP workflow
- ✓Agents have rehearsed the AEP sales script and plan comparison process
- ✓Compliance training is complete — every agent knows what they can and can't say
- ✓Roles are defined: who handles inbound calls, who handles outbound, who handles reviews
- ✓Capacity planning is done: how many leads per day, per agent, can your team handle?
30 Days Before AEP: Campaign Activation
By mid-September, your marketing campaigns should be ramping up:
- ✓T65 campaigns are running — reaching prospects turning 65 during or just after AEP
- ✓Existing client review campaigns are in full swing — don't lose your book during AEP
- ✓Facebook and digital ad campaigns are live and generating leads
- ✓Referral campaigns are asking happy clients for introductions before the rush
- ✓Lapsed client win-back campaigns are targeting prospects who went quiet
During AEP: Execution and Monitoring
Once AEP starts, your job shifts from preparation to execution and monitoring. This is where the Agency Scoreboard becomes critical. You need to see, in real time:
- ✓How many leads are coming in per day, and from which sources
- ✓How quickly each lead is being contacted (your speed-to-lead metric)
- ✓How many appointments are being set and kept
- ✓How many enrollments are being completed, by which agent
- ✓Where bottlenecks are forming — and where to redirect resources
Without a live scoreboard, you're flying blind during the most critical 54 days of the year. You'll find out in January what went wrong in October — when it's too late to fix it.
After AEP: Review and Optimize
The agencies that win AEP don't just prepare well — they also review well. Within two weeks of AEP ending, schedule a full debrief:
What lead sources performed best? Which agents closed the most? Where did leads fall through the cracks? What would you do differently next year? Document everything, because AEP 2027 will be here before you know it — and the agencies that learn from each AEP are the ones that compound their advantage year over year.