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Insurance for Counselors, Therapists, Home Healthcare and Mo...

...if it’s right for you. School Counselors If you have a kid, their school ha...l healthcare, but only for certain counselors or therapists. Look them up and...

...w Pages under 'public relations counselors' or the business-services advertisi...

... either your reactive or proactive efforts to serve their needs, that client's value diminishes for your agency. If you attempt to prospect your own client to mature their needs for insurance with you as the default insurance agent, you will certainly grow the lifetime earnings from that client. This brings us to our second point. All customers are not the same and should not be valued (or treated) similarly. A customer should be valued by you if he brings value to you. If you do not prospect your customers for all of their insurance needs, shame on you, but that still means that the client is worth $150 per year. If you prospect regularly, but the client does not react and places insurance coverage elsewhere, shame on them! They have passed up an excellent counselor that could protect their family and their assets throughout their life, but either way, the client is worth a minimal amount to your agency and cannot be logically treated as you would treat a $60,000 client. How much service can you afford to give a client? The best way to answer this is financially. Using Personal Lines as an example, compute the number of transactions generated in the department during a year. Those numbers are available to any agency using a standard agency management system (such as AMS, Applied, Ebix, etc) . Yes, I know that there are many transactions that do not hit' the computer, but the total transactions will be a factor of the computer transactions, even if they are actually double the number. Next take the ...

... by CompleteMarkets Editor This content has not been rated yet. PRINTING COMPANY IMPLEMENTS A LOW-COST EAP WORKING PARTNERS Rapid Bind, a trade binder in Portland, Oregon that deals only with printers, is described by its owner John Goche as a sliver of the printing business. During the company's 13-year history, its work force has grown to 35 employees. Late in 1985, Goche realized that severe drug problems had developed among his 21 employees. Several were suspected of using drugs on the job and during breaks. After the daily shifts, evidence of drug use could be found near the company parking area. The younger employees, new to the world of work, were drawn to this group, for whom the peer-pressure message was use' rather than don't use. Goche's efforts to find help led him to a counselor who agreed to talk to the crew. Thereafter, peer pressure started to work in reverse. But, the problem persisted. The need for intervention became fully apparent in July 1989 when a six-year term employee who was 25, married, and had a nine-month-old child committed suicide. The other employees were emotionally drained and simply could not produce a product. Again, a counselor was brought in to talk with employees, collectively and individually. With this help, It was amazing how quickly we healed, ' said Goche. Late in 1989, drug testing and employee assistance programs (EAPs) were subjects discussed at trade meetings Goche attended. Goche obtained further information from the Oregon Small Business Council and drafted his own statement. At a meeting sponsored by the Pacific Printing Industries (PPI) ...

... their local bank branch or access their account any time online or by phone. The insurance industry must follow suit. This would give clients ease of access to their insurance products and will enhance agency and company profitability. In the insurance industry, downloads from carrier systems will continue to populate the agency management system with current data for its clients. Automated responses will alert agency staff to any changes and inquiries made by their clients to permit them to contact the client if needed. Although we're still some years away from client access to their companies and policies through the agency portal, the remote capabilities of the agency management system vendors and even the carrier Service Centers are steps in the right direction. Agency owners must concentrate their Strategic Plans on converting their agencies from processing shops to relationship managers and insurance counselors for their clients. If they concentrate on actions that will lower their running costs without losing control of their clients, they'll make the right decisions about the progress of automation within their agencies. CONCLUSION Remember, if you use the tides to your advantage, you become a proficient surfer. If you try to stand firm and fight the tide, you'll end up drowning. Learn the future direction of your agency automation system and of the industry and surf the wave to greater efficiency and greater profit. The industry is changing - and automation is one of the primary vehicles speeding this change. E. Al Diamond is president of Agency Consulting Group, Inc., 507 North Kings Hwy., C., Cherry Hill, NJ 08034. You can reach him at (856) 779-2430 ...

... and browse through our library. We have thousands of articles, checklists, tip sheets, sales letters, and more! Communications Marketing Customer Service Planning Finance/Accounting Risk Management Human Resources Selling Legal and E&O Technology Life/Financial Services Glossaries Management Resources & Links Categories Popular Recent All Back Do These Trends Pertain To You?4/30/2013 10:44:08 PM by CompleteMarkets Editor , Curtis Pearsall This content has not been rated yet. DO THESE TRENDS PERTAIN TO YOU? by Curtis Pearsall Do you know what makes your business vulnerable to an E&O claim? This document by Curtis Pearsall helps you see what might be right under your nose, and what you should do to keep yourself out of trouble. &# 160 Recently, I asked a Utica counselor for his perspective on any trends emerging in his specialty. After reviewing the information, I conclude that his observations probably don't amount to trends. The errors that he pointed out have probably been around for years. In fact, the real trend is that some agents continue to do things the way they always have while expecting different results, which some say is a definition of insanity. A particularly troublesome area for large Commercial agencies is the delegation of policy reviews and proposal preparations to a CSR without verifying that the policy/proposal provides the requested coverage. This scenario reared its ugly head in a recent claim in which a carrier increased the co-insurance requirement from 80% to 100%, deleted the coverage amount, and changed the coverage from actual cash value to replacement cost. The agent failed ...

... why. By definition, these people are effective producers. Even though they may be satisfied in their present position for the moment, they may be ripe for prospecting in the future. This method is also a valuable way to find out who your best competitors are and how they're operating. Choose your centers of influence carefully to develop qualified leads from this source. In general, the quality of the referrer will determine the quality of recruits. Pick only the best sources: those who respect you and will be respected by those they refer. Students can be recruited from high schools as well as colleges. Every spring ask each agency employee to list five graduating high school seniors who they believe might make good producers. Select the top 10 from this group, with help from the school's guidance counselor. Invite these students to a dinner where you and your leading producers describe sales career opportunities with your agency. Let them know that you're looking for one or two producers to join the firm and that you have an internship program available if they are planning on college. This approach may provide some high-quality candidates and will help build your agency's image in the schools and the community. Let the placement offices of colleges in your area know that you're interested in both graduating seniors and alumni who may have been out of school for several years. Try to choose candidates with a B' average (those with higher grades tend to be product- rather than sales-oriented) who have proven their motivation by earning at least half of the money to put themselves through school. Free sales seminars in your ...

...tionship managers and insurance counselors for their clients. If they concentr...

... their heads of kitchens, baths, floors, custom appliances, lighting, and outdoor living. It isn't all the appliances and lighting fixtures and floor tiles that make the difference — it's placing them in appealing and compelling settings that connect with the customer. In creating what's nothing less than a Disney World of the Home, the Expo stores achieved a marketing triumph. The objective of marketing is to seal the deal, while the goal of sales is to facilitate the order. Separate and distinct as the two functions might be, they are also two sides of the same coin. If the marketing is on target, making the purchase makes sense to the customer. The role of sales in this process is to stay close to the customer, interact appropriately, and serve as a guide and counselor. In this way, marketing and sales complement each other in a way that results in creating willing and at times eager customers. The failure of companies to harness the full power of marketing inhibits growth. Getting rid of these myths can open the way to benefiting from marketing, as well as sales. 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 (800) 659-0069, fax (617) 471-1504, e-mail [email protected] , or visit www.grahamcomm.com . Login or Register (for FREE) to gain access to thousands ...