The Waterlily Result: A New Sales Technique, Warmer Leads, and a Growing Book

Raymond Lavine has spent 16 years helping individuals, families, and businesses plan for long-term care. Since signing up for Waterlily in January 2025, he's rebuilt how he sells, how he presents, and how he generates leads.

"$672,000. They Say, That's an Expensive Policy. I Say, No — That's the Cost of Care."

Here's what changed:

• A signature sales technique built around personalized cost data. When a prospect asks "How much does long-term care insurance cost?", Raymond now answers with their Waterlily projection: "$672,000. They say, that's an expensive policy. I said, no, that's the cost of care." That single reframe shifts the conversation from premium sticker shock to the cost of going uninsured.

• Slideshows replaced with live, personalized visualizations. Raymond stopped using static presentations entirely. He now enters client information live in Waterlily and walks them through a personalized portrait of their future — projected life expectancy, when caregiving might begin, and what it will cost across each phase.

• Website integration generating warm, data-rich leads. Waterlily's intake form is embedded directly on lavineltcins.com. Podcast listeners and website visitors complete their own assessment before ever picking up the phone — giving Raymond a warm lead with real health and lifestyle data already captured.

• 71% intake completion rate. Of 14 clients invited to the platform, 10 completed full assessments. Activity is trending upward, with 3 new clients added in the most recent four-week period alone.

• Faster qualification and quoting. Digital health assessments and carrier comparison tools replace manual lookups across underwriting guides. Raymond moves qualified prospects from first conversation to application faster, with fewer administrative steps in between.

"It saves me time because it's doing a lot of things that I have to manually do."

Why Awareness Wasn't Enough

Raymond's clients aren't uninformed. They tell him caregiving stories about their parents and relatives. They understand the risk intellectually. But that understanding rarely translates into action.

"People will tell me stories that they know or have been in a caregiving situation. What they don't do is become concerned enough to do something for themselves to own a plan."

The problem wasn't awareness — it was urgency. And the tools available to Raymond weren't creating it.

Static slideshows and generic brochures fell flat. Industry-average statistics about "the general population" didn't move any individual client to act. Earlier generations bought LTC coverage without much persuading. Today's buyers are more skeptical and harder to convert.

"Generations now are more cautious about it, both financially. They're different kinds of insurance buyers."

Manual quoting consumed hours. Pulling underwriting guides, building illustrations one carrier at a time, and navigating the quoting process for each prospect ate into time that could have been spent selling.

"Doing it one individual or one family at a time. It's very time consuming."

Raymond needed something that could make caregiving costs feel personal and real for each client — while also cutting down the manual work behind every quote.

What He Built: Four Use Cases, One Platform

Raymond discovered Waterlily through LinkedIn in January 2025, reaching out directly to co-founder Lily Vittayarukskul. After a demo later that month, he signed up and began integrating the platform into four areas of his practice.

1. Live Visualizations That Replace Every Slideshow

Raymond enters a client's information live during meetings and walks them through their personalized portrait: projected life expectancy, likely caregiving onset, and costs broken out across each phase of care.

No more slides. No more averages. Each client sees their own story.

"Let's put in the information and let's visualize what this is. I don't have to go through slides. What I want to get into is, what is your life, and what do you want your caregiving to do?"

2. The "$672,000 Question" — A Reframed Cost Conversation

This is Raymond's signature technique, built entirely on Waterlily's personalized projections. When a prospect asks the inevitable question about premium cost, he answers with their projected cost of care instead.

The premium is no longer the sticker shock. The cost of going uninsured is. He reinforces it with a comparison his audience immediately understands:

"Other people will spend $700, $1,500 on a vehicle. Do you have any interest in investing in yourself? For $300 a month, $400 a month. Would you like to invest in your warranty? Because we all have a warranty and we all have an expiration date."

3. Website Embed + Podcast Funnel for Warm Lead Generation

Raymond integrated Waterlily's intake form directly on lavineltcins.com — prominently positioned so visitors can explore their personalized caregiving cost projections before ever making contact.

He actively drives traffic there during podcast guest appearances: "I say this on podcasts. Go to my website, go to the upper left-hand corner. Find out what your life expectancy is."

When a listener completes the intake form, Raymond receives a notification and gains a warm lead with real data already captured. The first conversation starts from a position of knowledge rather than cold outreach.

While most LTC specialist websites offer what Raymond describes as "how wonderful they are and how wonderful they are and how long we've been in business" — his site offers a personalized, interactive experience that converts.

4. Faster Health Assessment and Carrier Quoting

Rather than manually pulling underwriting guides for each carrier, Raymond uses Waterlily's health qualification tools to assess where a client is most likely to be approved — then narrows options to two or three carriers. He learned the hard way that more isn't better:

"I did one time years ago, I did six, and they never bought because of paradox of choice."

He now moves from health assessment through quoting to application in a single workflow.

How He Operationalized It

Raymond didn't just adopt a tool — he restructured his practice around it:

1. Replaced all slideshow presentations with live Waterlily walkthroughs during client meetings

2. Built the "$672,000 question" into every sales conversation — leading with personalized cost of care before discussing premiums

3. Embedded the Waterlily intake form on his website (lavineltcins.com) for passive lead generation

4. Directs podcast audiences to the intake form — turning every guest appearance into a lead funnel

5. Uses health qualification tools to pre-screen carriers — narrows to 2–3 options to avoid paradox of choice

6. Averages 2 new intake assessments per month with activity trending upward

Why This Matters for LTC Specialists and Insurance Agents

The challenge Raymond faced isn't unique. Most LTC specialists know their prospects understand the risk of long-term care intellectually. The gap is between understanding and action.

What Waterlily gave Raymond was:

• A way to make the abstract personal — live visualizations that show this client's future, not a population average

• A reframing tool — the cost of care becomes the anchor, not the premium

• A lead generation mechanism — the website embed and podcast funnel create warm leads with data already captured

• An operational shortcut — health assessments, carrier comparison, and quoting in one workflow instead of hours of manual work

"People don't like to feel invisible and people definitely do not like to feel vulnerable. Waterlily gives each person's situation something specific and concrete."

Ready to turn your LTC conversations from generic to personal? Raymond replaced slideshows, built a lead funnel, and created a signature sales technique — all with one platform.

Schedule a Demo →

About Raymond Lavine

Lavine LTC Benefits · Gig Harbor, Washington · 16 years specializing in long-term care planning for individuals, families, and businesses · Waterlily user since January 2025.

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