Instead of hiring telemarketers to work within your agency just for you, you could choose to pay an outside vendor to provide telemarketing services. These...

OUTSOURCED CLAIMS MANAGEMENT ONE WAY FOR AGENCIES AND CARRIERS TO REDUCE COSTS AND IMPROVE SERVICE by Paul Di Stefano and G. Edward Kalbaugh Within most agencies and insurance companies, cla...

It’s often difficult for an agency to hire an in-house PR specialist. And assigning PR responsibilities to an existing employee has its drawbacks. This document by Henry Stimpson examines the advantages and disadvantages to hiring an out-sourced PR consultant.

OVERCOMING OBJECTIONS: MODULE IV-A Life insurance must be sold-it is seldom simply purchased because it's needed or mandatory, like Auto insurance often is. And any time you sell, you'...

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES TO AGENCY GROWTH by Carol Hammes Deal with agency growth problems before they reach a crisis point. Unfortunately, this agency scenario is all too common. Enough new bu...

All producers know that overcoming objections is part of the selling process. However, many forget that making objections is just as intrinsic to the buying process.

To identify the root causes of objections, producers should put themselves into the buyer's shoes. You also buy in your personal life, so use your own experiences to sharpen your expertise.

Though faced with the realities of dramatic economic change, the reconfiguration of the business landscape, and globalization, U.S. companies continue to go down the wrong path. Former U.S. Treasury Department official Michael Jacobs calls it "business myopia."

It may be argued that "enhancing shareholder value" drives the myopic vision of publicly-traded companies, but "shareholder demand" is perhaps more accurate. In privately held companies, myopic thinking results from a desire to increase market share or simply beat last month's figures.

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OWNERSHIP ISSUES AND COMPENSATION by Carol Hammes During the past several months we have been addressing methods for compensating agency staff, managers, and salespeople. How should...

OWNERSHIP OF A PRODUCER'S BOOK: A BETTER WAY by Larry Morrison and Gary Jacobson Some agencies choose to offer key producers an 'ownership' interest in the producer's b...