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... storefront signs. I recall a printing shop in Cleveland that was along the bus route I took to high school. Each week the printer would put a new sign in the window — a joke, a political comment, or an advertising slogan. Regardless of the topic, the sign was always witty. It's a miracle that the bus didn't tip over on Monday mornings, as everyone would move to one side to get a better look at the new weekly message. Decades later, I was visiting Cleveland and drove down that same street. As I approached the intersection where the print shop had been located, I found myself looking for a sign in the window. Unfortunately the printer was long gone, but the impact of his advertising remained. More recently here in Los Angeles , two lumberyards located across the street from each other developed dueling signs' One was a commercial lumberyard, the other retail — and what the general public didn't know was that they both shared the same owner. This wise entrepreneur has kept that fact a secret and built a humorous, attention-getting battle of the signs between the two. One's sign might say: Holy Flash Flood! Noah received his lumber from us. The other's sign would quickly reply: The truth is that Noah returned their lumber, and bought ours. When the commercial yard posted a sign saying, Open Saturdays till Noon, ' the retail yard replied with Only Wimps Close at Noon on Saturdays. Sometimes they'd call a cease-fire, such as after 9/11 when a sign went up saying, Our Bins Are Ladin with Nuts and Loose ...

...ntly here in Los Angeles , two lumberyards located across the street from eac...

...e: “Prepare a list of all lumberyards in our marketing area. Assigned to...

... . An agency will usually have one or two major sales and marketing strategies, with other growth needs addressed in strategies that relate to the financial operation and support mechanism. These categories that should form the framework for your agency's specific list of goals and objectives: Sales and Marketing Sales Support Services External Communications Company Relations Financial Stability Personnel Development Automation Internal Communications Space Planning Perpetuation Set the specific goals in a format that facilitates monitoring their completion. Each goal must be measurable, time bound, and have someone with the ultimate responsibility for carrying it out. List all of the goals that apply to a particular strategy; then put them in chronological order, assign responsibilities, and determine due dates. For example, a goal of the Sales and Marketing Strategy might be: "Prepare a list of all lumberyards in our marketing area. Assigned to Sally. Due by February 1." For every goal that has more than one step, the responsible individual should develop a specific action plan with interim tasks and completion dates. The format for the action plan would be similar to that for the overall goals. Let's say that management has determined that it wants the agency to grow 10% next year, net of new business, attrition, account expansion, rate increases/decreases, etc. The responsibility for this goal is placed with the Sales Manager and they have until December 31 to complete it. The first step is to translate the percentage growth rate into commission dollars and figure out how much each producer is going to have to produce. Every salesperson should complete a Growth Analysis Sheet such ...