COMPENSATING YOUR SALES CENTER COORDINATOR By Darren Clevenger One of the most critical factors that can make the difference between an average sales center coordinator and a great ...

After an automated sales center is up and running, it's up to producers to act on the qualified leads that the sales center coordinator, assistant, and support staff have worked on.

Prospecting is an old term; replace it with "business development."

Business development requires a positive attitude, confidence, and discipline. The business development mind-set can be picked up by anyone who has a desire to step to the front line and just do what must be done. Commit to a business development plan of action, then organize and follow through.

HIRING, COMPENSATING, AND TRAINING TELEMARKETERS Hiring Telemarketers What do you look for when setting out to hire a telemarketer? Your first thought might be to go out and hire an experi...

CSR: Hello, (PROSPECT NAME). This is (NAME) from (ABC AGENCY). (PRODUCER NAME) looks after your Commercial business...

MONITORING RESULTS OF A TELEMARKETING DEPARTMENT Keeping track of your telemarketing efforts is important for many management reasons. By monitoring results, you can ascertain which of y...

The following section is a varied and important one to a profitable independent agency. In it, you will learn the basis of the Sales Center concept and how Sales Centers have brought increased profitability, retention, and total-account sales into many agencies.

Many agencies establish a Sales Center with their existing personnel, or hire an additional administrative or customer service person to take over additional duties. Others find that the increased efficiency of a Sales Center allows them to expand their marketing efforts, and they hire an in-house or outside telemarketing staff to keep leads coming in to producers.

In Canada, they call them "expiry dates." In the U.S., they are called "expiration dates."

No matter what name they are given-"renewal dates," "anniversary dates," or any other name-one point is abundantly clear: People are more willing to change their agent or broker at renewal time than at any other time of year.

That is the way it has been in the past, particularly in Personal Lines, and surely that is the way it is going to be in the future.

X-dating is the name of the game. If you anticipate to grow; if you expect to even maintain last year's volume in this price cutting market; then you'd better believe X-dating is a must.

Expiration Date! Renewal Date! Anniversary Date! Call it whatever you wish. But without a pocket full of X-dates, you are "whistling Dixie" while some direct writer or, even worse, your fellow association contemporary, is marching off with your share of the market.