In the 19th century, businesses had three communication options: The Pony Express, Western Union, and (rarely) the telephone. With the Pony Express, at best you had to wait days or weeks for a response — a lot like a producer trying to cold-call senior executives today.

With Western Union, telegrams had to convey their message in a limited number of words. Today a marketing letter might get through, but the executive has little time to read it and it doesn’t display your verbal communication skills.

PUTTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT PLACE: EXECUTE! by Chris Burand The cover of a recent issue of Fortune boasted a picture of a small army of spiffily dressed, famous CEOs under the tit...

RECRUIT THE RIGHT PRODUCERS At seminars and conventions, business spokespersons stress the need for high-caliber personnel and lament the difficulty of finding them. It could be said that recruiting ...

SELF-PROMOTION NO ONE ELSE WILL DO IT FOR YOU by Lisbeth Wiley Chapman Producers can make certain that the right people see them, hear about them, read about them, and buy their products or ser...

THE 10 MOST COMMON INSURANCE AGENCY MARKETING MISTAKES: I by John Graham ...

THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY: DOES IT APPLY TO YOUR AGENCY? by Becky Lathrop It has been said that lsquo;attitude will be the deciding factor in your failure or success. ...

THE MIXED-PERPETUATION SANDWICH: INSERTING A NON-FAMILY LAYER by Brian Burke Discussions about the perpetuation of family-owned agencies often assume that the offspring always bu...

Now is the season to be on the lookout for the thieves. In rocky economic times, they come out to prey on companies eager to hold on to current customers and find new ones, introduce new products and services, or simply increase their market share.