'So dawn goes down today, nothing gold can stay.'
Robert Frost
'There are no more power elites.'
Manuel Castels in The Information Age
The painfully obvious implication of these quotes can be seen in the business world: IBM pulls its PCs out of retail venues because it no longer considers them profitable. The Wall Street Journal reported that in 1998, there were $301 billion in sales via the Internet, while the manufacturing sector did $350 billion in overall business. It took the Internet roughly 36 months to reach this figure; manufacturing needed 150 years.

AGENCY MANAGEMENT 202 by Carol Hammes Often, its not money that motivates people as much as it is the environment. Few people will leave a job for additional compensation unless other...

AGENTS AND CLIENTS: CLOSING THE GAP by Emily Huling Agents and clients have different priorities. A recent Independent Insurance Agents of America study revealed that 59% of Personal Line...

'BOOT CAMP' FOR INSURANCE AGENCIES by Dana Falardeau Why does the Army hire people with no experience? Could it be that they want to train them the right way at the start? Coul...

If more salespeople were as good at making sales as they are at losing them, they could write their own ticket just about anywhere. Unfortunately, just the opposite holds true.
It happens so frequently that it almost seems as if someone out there is training salespeople to fail. For example, the woman calling launches into her sales spiel. “Our station is a perfect fit for your client. When can we set up a time to get together so I can show you what we can do?”

LEADERSHIP FOR DUMMIES by Mike Manes Since this article is for Dummies, Mike Manes is writing it simply. If this...

THE CLIENT-FOCUSED PRACTICE ITS ALL ABOUT PEOPLE by Michael Lovas During months of extensive research into what makes an advisor succeed, were discovering several si...

THE SYNERGY OF SUCCESS by Annie Knox In todays competitive environment, how can your agency harness the synergy of success? Annie Knox explains that the success or failure of an organizat...

John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm. Mr. Graham is the author of The New Magnet Marketing and of 203 Ways to Be Supremely Successful in the New World of Selling. He can be contacted at 40 Oval Rd., Quincy, MA 02170, (617) 328-0069, fax (617) 471-1504, e-mail [email protected], or visit www.grahamcomm.com.