Selling

IS CUSTOMER LOYALTY DEAD? by JoAnna Brandi When an agency meets some or all of our expectations we usually say that we're satisfied. When an agency goes a few steps further ...

IS THIS STILL YOUR FATHER'S AGENCY? by Pegi Flahault To paraphrase an automobile advertising slogan: Is this still your father's agency? Are you trying to run the agency the same way it was ru...

IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL SERVICE? by Pegi Flahault Insurance agents are always talking about service. Service to the customer-what does that mean? There's a huge gap between available technology...

When I ask agency owners this question I get mixed responses that fall mainly into three categories:

“No, but we have not changed our website in years and need to ASAP and get more traffic

“No. We spent a lot of money and time on a recent redesign, but we are not getting the results we expected.”

“Well, we recently redesigned and we like the look of it, it’s cool, but it doesn’t seem to be working for us in terms of traffic.”

The common theme among all of them is this ROI – “We are not getting great results.”

Marketing may be second-nature in large companies, but smaller firms often have a tough time implementing, managing, and monitoring an effective marketing strategy. The 'marketing director' title is often conferred on the person designated to answer requests for sales literature, or given as an afterthought to the sales manager (who thinks that marketing is just another way of spelling s-a-l-e-s).

Selling isn’t about making sales — it’s about engaging customers, entering into a conversation with them, and letting them respond when they’re ready to buy. That’s called marketing, and marketing makes sales. In this article, John Graham uses Krispy Kreme Donuts as an example of how a company finds ways to create excitement and build customer loyalty.

ITS TIME TO HIRE PRODUCERS! by Preston Diamond With so many people unemployed and others hanging on to jobs with which theyre dissatisfied, it should be easy to find new su...

Improved communication has turned us into less adroit communicators. With e-mail, voice-mail, and cell phones, getting the message to another party is so easy that we no longer worry about the content of the message. Poor communications skills translate into lost business. This article by John Graham discusses these consequences and offers guidelines for improving communications.

JOB DESCRIPTION: MARKETING MANAGER OBJECTIVE: Under the direction of the agency manager, plan, lead and control an effective marketing function to ensure the development, maintenance and gr...

JOB DESCRIPTION: PRODUCER OBJECTIVE: Under the direction of the production manager, plan, lead, and control personal p...