Although salespeople (and sales managers) might blame slow sales on the economy or the lack of company marketing, the truth is that everyone can be smarter and more productive. In this article, John Graham focuses on how salespeople — and everyone else in business — can become more productive. Graham challenges us to take a hard look at we do and, more importantly, what we’ve become accustomed to doing.

SELL YOURSELF AND YOUR AGENCY Karen Flaherty, president, Professional Training Systems, Inc., conducted a telephone survey of 50 independent insurance agencies to evaluate how well agencies responded...

We'd like to introduce ourselves. We're (Your Agency Name), and we've been in business in ( ) for more than ( ) years. It's been our...

SELLING CUSTOMER SERVICE by Carol Hammes When losing a major Commercial account or watching the Personal Lines attrition rate go up, many agency principals are tempted to write it off to price c...

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 HOPE by Patricia Berry 'Never suffer a sleepless night again!' Theres no shortage of such incredible claims in advertising. Not limited to psychic...

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...

Although the technology is in place to sell insurance via the Net, consumers aren’t giving up the one night a year when they sit in their living rooms and listen to their agent pontificate about the advantages of "Plan A" versus "Plan B."

This dynamic might be changing. Insurers have cleared a huge hurdle for online sales — the need for a customer signature — either by using credit cards to bind coverage until the policy can be issued or by legalizing electronic signatures. Despite this advance, a very low percentage of insurance transactions are being handled online.

Dear (Customer Name): Can your Auto or Homeowners coverage help you get a better deal on your Life insurance policy? The answer is YES - if your...

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.)