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... you on the back and buy you a beer. The best advertising is word-of-mouth, and the conventions are one way to get that. Regnier recently added two more dbas to her agency-Municipal Services Agency of Texas and Ambulance Insurance Services of Texas-after CIGNA opened two new markets: municipalities with less than 10,000 people and privately owned ambulance companies. Nobody wants to mess with small municipalities, but after Glatfelter designed a program for them, ' she says. We think this will let us pick up a few of the fire departments and ... Basically, you have to show a company that you can make money for them. They have to have confidence in you. The summer-camps program, which began five years ago, is less labor intensive than the workers' compensation program, although it, too, required solid market research. The agency found that most companies were reluctant to handle summer camps because of the large number of children involved and the high risk of injury. It also found that camp operators were frustrated by wild fluctuations in premiums, last-minute restrictions and other aggravations ... high advertising and marketing expenses taking a big chunk out of commissions. But some agencies are reducing or eliminating competition by entering niche markets. Companies often pay higher commissions for niche-market programs, and because there are few competitors-and in some cases, none at all-there are few wasted sales calls. Niches are windows of opportunity. They often begin with a request for special coverages from a single customer. If the agent seizes the opportunity, that one request can blossom into a fertile market. In fact, the opportunities are so numerous and ...

...dded two more dbas to her agency-Municipal Services Agency of Texas and Ambu...afety evaluations of equipment and facilities, among other things) and arrange...