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... pull a file; just type Alt/F . Looking up the profits of a company during its fourth quarter was just a few more keystrokes away. And so it continued — until a condition called carpal tunnel syndrome became the primary injury faced by office personnel. Other computer-related injuries include neck and low-back pain. Most of these complaints can be resolved with a little ergonomic education and a change of habits. Correcting your posture, taking reasonable breaks, and using good equipment properly will go a long way toward preventing the pains-and expenses-of these injuries. DESIGN YOUR HOME' Set the top of your monitor at eye level directly in front of you. Adjust the height of your chair so that your feet are on the ground, your back is against the seat back, and your knees are level ... extended or flexed. Fit the low back support into the curve of your lower back. Do not place it so low as to push your buttocks forward, forcing your lumbar spine away from the supporting cushion. Adjust the armrests so that, with your arms at 90 degrees and yours shoulders completely relaxed and dropped, your forearms will rest comfortably upon them. The armrests should not be too wide apart, forcing you to hold your arms away from your side. Rest against your chair. Sit straight and allow yourself to tilt back whenever it feels comfortable. Use a wrist cushion, and avoid bending your wrists forward or backward or resting them on a hard surface. Avoid wrist deviations either to the little finger or thumb side; instead, move your forearm. Tap lightly on the keyboard ...

... pull a file; just type Alt/F . Looking up the profits of a company during its fourth quarter was just a few more keystrokes away. And so it continued — until a condition called carpal tunnel syndrome became the primary injury faced by office personnel. Other computer-related injuries include neck and low-back pain. Most of these complaints can be resolved with a little ergonomic education and a change of habits. Correcting your posture, taking reasonable breaks, and using good equipment properly will go a long way toward preventing the pains-and expenses-of these injuries. DESIGN YOUR HOME' Set the top of your monitor at eye level directly in front of you. Adjust the height of your chair so that your feet are on the ground, your back is against the seat back, and your knees are level ... extended or flexed. Fit the low back support into the curve of your lower back. Do not place it so low as to push your buttocks forward, forcing your lumbar spine away from the supporting cushion. Adjust the armrests so that, with your arms at 90 degrees and yours shoulders completely relaxed and dropped, your forearms will rest comfortably upon them. The armrests should not be too wide apart, forcing you to hold your arms away from your side. Rest against your chair. Sit straight and allow yourself to tilt back whenever it feels comfortable. Use a wrist cushion, and avoid bending your wrists forward or backward or resting them on a hard surface. Avoid wrist deviations either to the little finger or thumb side; instead, move your forearm. Tap lightly on the keyboard ...

... the time. We withhold our thoughts and feelings from our loved ones, friends, clients, suppliers, and colleagues. And, they (including our clients) withhold information from us all the time. Let's look into this a little further. We need to create a business culture in which our clients feel totally comfortable with telling us "everything." So, I hope you're in the habit of checking in with your clients on a regular basis to make sure that they're completely forthcoming with how they feel about doing business with you. Want a gutsy way to ask this? Say to your clients, "Let's forget about the market for a minute. We believe we have strong strategies in place for moving forward. Looking at our relationship and my level of service, on a ... one or more of the parties don't express their truth. I'll illustrate this with another brief story and then let you get back to work. Hank was a buddy of mine for more than 20 years. We hung out in high school and college together. We were best friends. Then he did something I didn't like. I was angry. And I didn't tell him. We slowly drifted apart. Why didn't I tell him how I felt? Not sure. I guess I was just into being right and angry with him. Then, about a year ago, after seven years of not talking to him, he called me up and asked to meet with me. He asked me if I was angry with him. We talked about it and cleared the air. He apologized ...

... how to prospect, arrange interviews, conduct interviews, close sales, obtain referred leads, and so on. Your producer may already have the skills needed to sell Life insurance, but a certain amount of training should still take place. Your Sales and Marketing' section contains a complete outline of the sales process, including scripts, that can also be used in training producers to sell. Work habits: The market the producer will be working with may determine his or her hours. Some markets require evening hours, some require weekend time. Establish hours and check-in procedures. Set up a Weekly Activity Target (see the Training' section for more information) . Planning: Planning involves annual goalsetting and setting up regular planning sessions. Yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily check points should ... ultimately want the applicants to work with professionals in the higher-income markets of your customer base. Find out how much they already know about these markets. Do they have any contacts in the professions? Any business potential that could bring new-new' business to your agency? New-new' business is defined as Life business that is generated in your agency with no previous dealings with your agency and as leads generated apart from your internal prospecting efforts. I = Interest In and Attitude Toward Life Insurance Selling. Life insurance selling is mainly a commission business in your agency. How do they feel about that? It may take time for them to get off the ground, learning the agency's methods, sales techniques, and so on. Let them know it may take up to three years before they can really ...

... owner yourself. This advice is particularly important if you're the only owner or the one with the lion's share of the equity. It's not uncommon for a major principal to become so closely associated with the agency that he or she starts to identify with it on a personal level. The longer you do everything yourself, the harder it will be to delegate even the smallest of responsibilities. Ego and habit form a psychological barrier that makes it increasingly more difficult to share clients and decision-making with even the best of potential successors. This phenomenon is even more pronounced when family relationships enter into the business environment. The tendency to put off perpetuation planning until tomorrow has been developed into an art form by thousands of agency principals around the country. There's definitely a reason why insurance companies are so anxious to ... the book's value. After making sure that the buy-sell agreement is providing a good basis for the perpetuation plan, start working on the other key elements. Will there be enough time to get the respective buyouts accomplished? If there are three owners, all over age 55, who want to start their retirements by age 65, you have a serious problem. Even if the owners are 10 years apart in age, unless there are already some good younger candidates in the wings, when the first one is ready to get out, there might not be enough time to build the necessary depth of willing buyers. It's hard enough to find good producers, let alone ones that have the entrepreneurial qualities you would like to see in fellow owners. No matter how good their sales performance, unless ...

... lot of discussion and activity related to both agent and company duties with respect to notification. Here are three suggestions for handling this exposure: Determine how each of your carriers handles this type of exposure. Get their procedures in writing, and ask them to notify you in writing if they change. Once you know how individual carriers each handle the exposure, you can proceed accordingly; Get in the habit of conveying to the carrier, in writing, instances in which proper notice has not been sent to the various parties involved. In other words, document your file and always leave a trail; If the carrier elects not to notify, ask if you can send a letter notifying the interest that the policy has been canceled. As long as that's your procedure and you're consistent, you would ... . Fourth, once you've discussed the coverage and the cost with the client, your role as an advisor is over and the client has only to make a business decision. Finally, the checklist demonstrates your professionalism to the client. Once you've initiated a discussion of the risk-management process with them, you're in a position to talk about insurance and non-insurance methods of dealing with risk. This sets you apart as a competent professional able to present alternatives, rather than the stereotypical salesperson interested only in making a sale. This builds the strong trust relationship that's essential for a long-term relationship. The beauty of this activity is that almost all systems have built-in account checklists and if you use a Notebook computer, you should be able to do this as you visit with the client or at least complete the ...