Scream Marketing by Patricia Berry Attracting the attention of customers becomes more complicated as the markets become overcrowded. Every seller looks the same. Buyers are con...

SECRETS OF THE SUCCESSFUL: FOCUS AND COMMITMENT by Al Diamond The IIABA publishes an excellent Best Practices study that prov...

SECURE CONSISTENCY! PROTECT YOUR AGENCY! by Grace Bauer A year has passed since I began talking full-time to agencies nationwide. I found the main concern of 99.9% of the agencies to b...

SELECTIVE CLAIMS SERVICE? by Jack Burke Relationship marketing includes caring that your clients claim is handled properly and that the 'other party' is properly taken ...

Here's a letter I received recently:
Dear Dave:
I work for a $3.5 million P/C agency with about 60% Commercial and 40% Personal in premium volume. One in-house Life producer handles Commercial and Personal lines, sometimes with outside help. But she doesn't write any Disability policies at all; she considers Disability insurance a specialty that she doesn't want to sell. Should I try to talk her into it, pressure her into it, or just let it go? I don't want to add another full-time Life agent unless he/she would become profitable early on; it took two years for my present Life agent to reach profitability. What are my alternatives?

SELLING INSIGHT: GROWING PAINS by Sharon Cunningham The number of large agencies is increasing, making changes in management practices more important than ever. In this document, Sharon...

Situation: Our agency has several thousand personal lines insureds, and we have written mortgage reduction life insurance-reducing term-on many. But we're not writing much of anything else in personal lines Life or Health, partly because our life producer is uncomfortable with that market.
I know there's more to life than reducing term, but what can I as agency president-not a Life expert at all-do about developing more business from that potential? (Our commercial accounts are handled well by other life producers.)

SELLING QUALITY IS QUALITY SELLING by Eric Moberg Hello Mr. Jones, Im John Smith with the Smith Agency. Id very much like to offer you a no obligation quote on your i...

SELLING STRATEGIES: HOW TO BE THE LEAD DOG IN SALES by Emily Huling 'How does she do it?' 'Do you think he'd share his secret?' 'I hear her name all over town.' 'He ...

SENDING THE WRONG MESSAGES: 18 WAYS TO BRAND A BUSINESS ... BADLY by John Graham In the West, cattle ranchers still brand cattle. Once the brand has been burned into the ...