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...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...

... 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 ...

... you undoubtedly have customers that will suffer, or at least witness, tragic accidents. How can you help them deal with this trauma? If it's you, a family member, or an employee who have experienced a dire event, how can you surmount the stressful reaction and resume a productive, happy life? TYPICAL RESPONSE TO STRESS People who witness a tragic accident have a wide variety of reactions. About 10 years ago, I saw one-and fell victim to the attitude that I did not need help. The following 90 days were a blur of mixed emotions. I had periodic flashbacks, wild emotional swings, nightmare-interrupted sleep, decreased productivity, anger, and depression. Now I'm keenly aware of the importance of critical-incident stress counseling and strongly recommend that anyone witnessing such an event contact a trained counselor as soon as possible after an incident (24 to 72 hours) . If the person experienced the trauma without actually witnessing it, there may be feelings of guilt and responsibility that also need to be dealt with. In Critical Incident Stress Debriefing, Mitchell and Everly write, Critical-incident stress debriefing accelerates the rate of normal recovery in normal people who are having normal reactions to abnormal events. If the event has happened to you or a co-worker, realize that it may have a ripple effect that will touch all your employees. Many companies have brought in a stress counselor to speak to their employees about the incident and some of the residual effects to expect. This counseling brings a great deal of comfort to the company and facilitates an internal support system that will see people through the crisis. You ...

... 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) ...

...ssionals such as grief counselors, public relations firms, and disast...

... decision of the entire process. Is your perpetuation candidate capable of running your agency in such a manner that shows every indication of success? You must make a good decision at this point. Your future and the future of your family and agency depend on it. If, after two years of training and two years of running the agency, you reluctantly come to the decision that the situation will not work out as you had hoped, you still have a year remaining in your five-year plan to work out some alternative solution, such as a merger or even the actual sale of your agency. THE FIFTH YEAR Assuming, however, that everything has worked as you had expected, you should begin the process of preparing the buy/sell agreement through your attorney with the use of your financial counselor. You have the final year of your five-year plan to accomplish all of the legal and technical work so that at the end of the fifth year you are prepared to turn the reins over entirely to your son of daughter. The perpetuation procedure I see working most effectively in family agencies is the most common form of buy-sell agreement, in which the parent puts the child in a position of minority ownership in the agency by giving him or her a small portion of stock. Then the agency corporation buys the remaining stock of the parent and retires it as treasury. If the parent/owner had the foresight to fund his or her own retirement through some form of deferred compensation plan, the buy-sell agreement would consist of the children paying the book value for the agency and the parent receiving ...

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

...is is that few psychologists or counselors possess the writing and design skil...

... 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 ...

... the agency managed in the way that's most comfortable for them. If the new owners want to take the agency in a different direction, they must understand the difference between their assumption of leadership and management and their assumption of ownership. Management authority is given. Leadership is earned. Ownership is paid for. The retiring owner should gradually yield management responsibilities to the new owners. If the retiring owner follows this process, any time a management decision is to be made, they will yield the decision to the new owners (with some input, if requested) . The new owners earn leadership by depending on how they manage the agency while the retiring owner is still in place. Asking questions and considering the retiring owner's opinion is a sign of strength. The retiring owner assumes the position of counselor while still owning the agency. Employees, companies, and customers realize that the new and old owners are in partnership through the transition. This is a healthy approach. When the retirement date finally arrives, the transition is natural and the only change that takes place at that time is the ownership of stock. Unfortunately, some management, leadership, and ownership transitions are made poorly by either the retiring owner or incoming owners, inevitably leading to stress, anxiety and crisis. SCENARIOS TO AVOID The owner can't or won't give up control. The ego drive of owners is legendary. Some owners find it difficult to yield control of their agencies to others, even if they understand the logic of management succession. If control is held until the ownership change takes place, the new owner will ...