Call it branding. Call it marketing. Call it whatever you want. But it has the singular objective of motivating the right customer to want to do business with a particular company or to buy a particular product or service. In this document, John Graham lays to rest some common misconceptions on the role of marketing.

NINE STEPS IN AGENCY ACQUISITION by Al Diamond This systematic, proven approach works. Agency Consulting Group, Inc. assists many agencies in their acquisition trail. The 'slam-dunks' ...

NO EXCEPTIONS by Grace Bauer 'Harm me once, shame on you. Harm me twice, shame on me.' In other words, we should learn from our mistakes. Better still, learn before you ever make...

NOW IS ALWAYS THE BEST TIME TO SELL YOUR AGENCY, RIGHT? by Chris Burand According to a number of recent articles, small business owners should sell their businesses today to avoid large i...

NURTURING CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS by Jack Burke I opened the book Relationship Aspect Marketing with some statistics that have withstood the test of time in relation to why businesses lose t...

Remember, as salespeople we want to hear objections. When buyers send out these signals, they're giving you clues about their interest. Give the buyer a chance to make the decision based on the information you've provided. If you've done a good job throughout the sales process, the objections you hear should enable you to reconfirm your value to the buyer and close the sale.

OFFENSE OR DEFENSE? CONVERTING MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS TO OPPORTUNITIES by Virginia Bates The great teams in any sport succeed with a great offense that gets them points. While they ne...

In the next few years, you'll probably be devoting more time and resources to Life and Health insurance products - that is, if you're at all like the estimated 2,000 independent agents who participated in the "Future One Agency Universe Study."

The study shows that independent agents are increasingly aware of the need to be full-service insurance providers. Agents who have traditionally focused on Property/Casualty insurance see the need to expand more aggressively into Life and other types of insurance products. In fact, slightly more than half the agencies surveyed said that over the next three years, they'll devote a higher proportion of agency resources to Life and Health products.

ONE SOURCE WAREHOUSE STOCKS ONLY DRUG-FREE EMPLOYEES WORKING PARTNERS One Source Warehouse is a wholesale auto parts company in Houston, Texas, owned and operated by the Albee family. The Albees...

ONE-MINUTE WEB ADVICE by Jack Fries Your Web site is the first thing that many people will ever discover about your business. In this document, Jack Fries tells you how to make ...