The First Five Section 125 Demo Calls: What New Brokers Prepare For and What David Walks Through With You

Your first five Section 125 demo calls are the most important meetings of your first 60 days. They are where you go from “I have learned the math” to “I have closed real prospects.” New brokers who walk into those meetings unprepared lose 4 out of 5 of them and start questioning whether the niche is right for them. New brokers who use the BG network at Toves Financial Group for pre-meeting prep and debriefs hit close rates that compound across the rest of their first year.

This article covers what to prepare, what David walks through with you in the support calls, and what to never do on a first demo.

What a Section 125 Demo Call Is

A demo call is the prospect meeting where you walk an owner, CFO, or HR director through:

• The Section 125 mechanic in plain English (the Three-Bucket Pitch)
• The FICA savings math for their specific workforce
• The participation rate framing
• The implementation timeline
• The compliance services included

Most demo calls run 30 to 45 minutes. The goal is not to close on the call. The goal is to earn the follow-up meeting where you bring a formal proposal.

A demo call where the prospect says “this is interesting, what is the next step?” is a successful demo. A demo call where you push for a close and they push back is a failed demo.

What to Prepare Solo

Four things, on your own, before any pre-meeting prep call with David.

1. The prospect’s specifics

From your qualifying call and payroll register review:

• Headcount (W-2 employees)
• Wage band (median wage, hourly vs salaried split)
• Workforce demographic mix (working-parent percentage, age bands)
• Existing benefits structure (group health, existing Section 125 if any, voluntary)
• Industry vertical
• Decision-maker structure (who is in the meeting, who else weighs in)

Write these on a one-page prep sheet you bring to the meeting.

2. The FICA savings math

Calculate annual employer FICA savings at three participation scenarios:

• Current participation (estimated based on what they have today)
• 50 percent participation (single-tier or low-engagement baseline)
• 75 percent participation (target for multi-tier with strong enrollment)

For each scenario:

• Enrolled employees x average pre-tax contribution x 7.65 percent = annual employer FICA savings

Use IRS-anchored 2026 figures: Health FSA $3,400, DCFSA $7,500, HSA $4,400 / $8,750. The contribution assumptions vary by workforce; lean toward conservative average contributions ($2,000 to $3,000 for FSA on a wage-sensitive workforce).

Bring all three numbers to the meeting. The range matters more than any single number.

3. The Three-Bucket Pitch, rehearsed

Practice the 30-second pitch out loud at least 10 times before the demo. The pitch is the same every meeting; the audience-specific opening is what changes.

Owner-operator: lead with the savings number. CFO: stay in standard order and add structural framing. HR director: lead with the take-home pay angle for employees. CPA: lead with compliance and non-discrimination testing.

(Full breakdown in the Three-Bucket Pitch article, video 5 of the curriculum.)

4. The audience-specific objection prep

Anticipate the top 2 to 3 objections the specific audience is likely to raise:

• Owner-operator: “we tried this before” or “our employees will not enroll”
• CFO: “what about compliance” or “what is the administrative load”
• HR director: “we cannot afford new HR work” or “our payroll system cannot handle this”
• CPA: “what about the highly compensated employee concentration test”

Have the LAER response ready for each (Listen, Acknowledge, Explore, Respond).

What David Walks Through With You: The Pre-Meeting Prep Call

Schedule a 15-minute call with David Toves at Toves Financial Group before each of your first 5 demo calls. David is a licensed benefits consultant and Partner at Toves Financial Group who has run hundreds of Section 125 conversations across industries.

What David covers in the prep call:

1. Industry-specific patterns. If the prospect is in senior care, restaurants, contracting, or any vertical David has seen before, he will tell you what participation rates that industry typically delivers, what objections are most common, and what carrier products fit best. This is information you cannot get from articles or videos. It comes from David’s actual book.

2. Expected objections for this specific prospect. David will look at the prospect’s profile (industry, size, geography) and predict which 2 to 3 objections will come up. He will walk through how he would handle each one. You absorb his framing and adapt it to your voice.

3. The right account to lead with. Based on the workforce mix, David will tell you whether to lead with the Health FSA, DCFSA, or HSA. He will explain why for this specific prospect.

4. The participation rate to quote. Industry-typical participation rate ranges for multi-tier products (often 70 percent and up) are useful, but David will narrow that to a specific number based on the carrier you would recommend and the prospect’s workforce. The specifics on the carriers in the BG/Toves network get reviewed on this call.

5. The implementation timeline you can credibly promise. Different carriers have different setup speeds. David tells you what is realistic for this prospect.

Pre-meeting prep calls run 15 minutes. Skipping them costs you the meeting roughly 30 percent of the time in your first 5 demos. Using them turns the same meetings into proposals.

During the Meeting: Async Backup

Some new brokers benefit from texting David or Jerek live during the demo if a tricky question comes up that they cannot answer on the spot. The protocol:

• Excuse yourself briefly: “Great question - one moment, let me make sure I have the most current answer for you.”
• Text David or Jerek the specific question.
• Return with the answer (David typically responds within 5 minutes for live demo support).

This is not a crutch to lean on permanently. It is a safety net for the first 5 meetings while your reflexes develop. By demo 6 or 7, you handle the questions on your own.

After the Meeting: The Debrief

Within 24 hours of every first-5 demo, schedule a 10-minute debrief with David or Jerek. Cover:

• What worked? Which parts of the pitch landed cleanly?
• What did not work? Which objections caught you flat-footed?
• What is the right follow-up move? Send a proposal in 3 days? Wait for the prospect to confirm next steps? Schedule a follow-up with a different decision-maker?

The debrief is where the steepest learning happens. Brokers who do the debriefs after every meeting are running their fifth demo at a level that brokers without debriefs reach at demo fifteen.

The Plan Administrator Intro

When a prospect is ready for a formal proposal after a successful demo, you do not navigate the plan administrator relationship alone. David provides the intro to the plan administrator in the BG/Toves network. The administrator quotes the plan, drafts the document, sets up testing, and handles enrollment communication. You stay in the relationship as the broker of record.

The administrator intro happens after the demo but before the formal proposal goes out. David walks you through which administrator fits the specific prospect.

Common New-Broker Demo Mistakes

Mistake 1: Walking in cold without pre-meeting prep. Either solo prep or with David. Cold demos lose at a high rate.

Mistake 2: Leading with the IRS code. Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code is the way to lose the owner in sentence one. Lead with the math.

Mistake 3: Quoting your commission. Off-putting and irrelevant. Save for state-required disclosure in the proposal.

Mistake 4: Trying to close on the first demo. The first demo is for the prospect to verify you know the math. The second meeting (with the proposal) is the close. Pushing too early breaks trust.

Mistake 5: Skipping the debrief. The debrief is where you get better fastest. Skipping it costs you the next 5 meetings worth of learning compressed into one.

Mistake 6: Failing to use David’s network. New brokers sometimes feel they need to prove they can run a demo alone before asking for help. The opposite is true. The brokers who use David’s prep and debrief network are the ones who graduate to running their own meetings unsupported by month 3 or 4.

What to Do This Week

Pick a near-term prospect call that could become a Section 125 demo. Schedule the 15-minute discovery call with David Toves now, even before you have the demo booked. Use the discovery call to:

1. Walk David through your prospect pipeline
2. Decide which 2 to 3 prospects are most likely to convert
3. Schedule David’s prep calls for those specific demos
4. Set up the debrief cadence in advance

The 15-minute discovery call is at benefitsgenius.co/contact?ref=new-broker-recruit. Free, no obligation.

Where to Go Next in the Curriculum

The first 5 demos are the bridge between the curriculum (which loads the math) and a working book (which produces commissions). The articles and videos that pair with this stage:

• The Three-Bucket Pitch (video 5; the pitch you will deliver in every demo)
• The 5 objections (video 6; what comes back at you)
• The first 30 to 60 days (video 8; how the demos fit into the broader plan)
• CPA partnerships (video 7; the channel that feeds the demos)

Watch the full curriculum free at benefitsgenius.co/for/new-brokers/.

Related Articles

If this article was useful, here are three more from the BG broker library that build on the same skills:

• Your First 30 to 60 Days
• The Three-Bucket Pitch Framework
• Pricing Your First Proposal

For the full library: benefitsgenius.co/learn/for-brokers/

---

Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal, or benefits advice. The BG/Toves network support described is available to brokers in the network. Consult a qualified benefits professional for niche-specific guidance.