OVERCOMING OBSTACLES TO AGENCY GROWTH by Carol Hammes Deal with agency growth problems before they reach a crisis point. Unfortunately, this agency scenario is all too common. Enough new bu...

PERPETUATION: IS YOUR AGENCY PREPARED? by Grace Bauer ...

PERSONAL LINES RECORDS INCREASE REVENUE! by Grace Bauer People don't pay much attention to Personal Lines when it comes to account rounding, the yearly renewal review, and new busin...

POSITIONING IS AN E&O ISSUE by Phyllis Van Wyhe The way you position yourself with your clients impacts your E&O exposure. Fast Phil sells cheap, hassle-free insurance. He says, ...

PRODUCER COMPENSATION Producer compensation plans among independent agencies vary tremendously. Pick up several compensation surveys and you'll observe variations that seem to confuse m...

PRODUCER COMPENSATION: A COMMON-SENSE APPROACH by Paige Proctor The basis for a good producer compensation system for today's independent agencies and brokerages rests on two very...

PRODUCER COMPENSATION: A PRIMER by Al Diamond One of the most common questions that we get each week is 'How much should we pay producers?' The range that weve encountere...

PRODUCER COMPENSATION: YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR by Pamela Millard In spite of the continuing soft market (the permanent soft market?) and the troubling economy, there are opportunities fo...

Most insurance agencies would like to be driven by a regular flow of new business from their producer force. However, most agencies find that their producers (owners or not) spend most of their time caring for existing customers, with production relegated to a secondary position. They only have time to prospect and sell when they can break away from service tasks.

However, the producers feel that they should be making more money, whether for non-sales tasks they perform for the agency, for servicing existing customers, or from sales to new customers. Unfortunately, if an agency isn’t growing through the efforts of its producers, it has little additional income available to further compensate these key employees.

PRODUCTIVITY UP, PROFITS DOWN by Carol Hammes It's common wisdom that profitability should track directly with productivity. Often this is true: If the employees are more productiv...