David and Goliath is no longer news. These days, all a boy needs to kill a big man is a gun instead of a sling and a rock. Similarly, technology has created a new world of competition. A David who understands technology can successfully compete against any corporate Goliath.

In decades past, specialty insurance programs were often fraught with folly. Today, underwriters know that a combination of inexperienced underwriting with an ineffective national sales organization can kill almost any program. How do you create or participate in one with a significant life span? Thomas Gillingham’s document should answer all of your questions.

CREATING INITIATIVES AND OBJECTIVES Your planning meeting should focus on the areas that need atte...

What you want will only get done if you make it an A+ priority. Jack Fries tells you how a business plan can reward you with survival, planned growth, and profit.

CREATIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE HOURS by Mary Beth Bolen Agencies have traditionally operated as other offices do. The Monday-through-Friday, 9-to-5 workday, designed for administrative operations, ...

CREDIT SCORES: CATCH 22 by Fred Dent Its important to build and maintain good credit reports. In addition, its now essential to monitor credit reports faithfully ...

Every company faces crises that have the potential for doing serious damage to its reputation, image, and/or financial stability. Events that might’ve been minor or even unnoticed a few years ago could now wind up on the evening news or on page one of the newspaper. While some incidents are insignificant, others can be devastating. Yet when they occur it’s often difficult, if not impossible, to know whether the problem will evaporate or escalate, blow over or boomerang.

CRM OR MARKETING? by Patricia Czech Customer relationship management is a broad term that includes everything from call center routers to complex analytics, and budget allocations and d...

CRM: THE 80/20 RULE by Patricia Czech Have you heard about the 80/20 rule of customer relationship management (CRM)? Many vendors and consultants are using this rule as a popular sales p...

CROSS-SELLING: ARE YOU MAXIMIZING YOUR INCOME POTENTIAL? by Harlan Warthen Too many agencies are missing out on this key marketing opportunity. The income potential from cross-...