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...on a time, the airlines had local offices to permit travelers to purchase, pay...nded to be a personnel evaluation tool and should never be used as such.

...owes introduced the Personal Post Office-postage meters for individuals and ho...ith reality. Otherwise, the discomfort and dissonance raises a red flag. Faul...

...one dares to show up at someone's office without an appointment, no one seems ...em to confuse the selling task. Understanding them, however, opens the door to...

... greater than the carrier branch office's ratio, rollovers of books of busine... are other carriers pricing capacity, and risk selection impacting the marketplace? Track and review the results of agency submi...

...derwriters be established in your office? If yes, who will be responsible for establishing the procedure, and by when? 10. New business and expiration reviews. Take the lead here. Agency representatives and owners should begin meeting face-to-fa... quality products, competitive prices, and responsive service to satisfied cus...

... Lines and small Commercial, the overall percentage paid out will need to be lower. House business helps support higher commission rates for the other larger accounts. To determine the appropriate compensation for salespeople, subtract your targeted pretax profit and all operating/selling expenses, including office and management payroll, from agency revenues. Calculate the percentage of direct commissions for the remainder. This is the commission percentage that your agency can afford to pay to producers. For example, assume the agency has $1 million in total revenues, with 90 ... start to finish — doing almost everything in the sales, marketing, and servicing process. Likewise, in agencies where producer commissions are paid on all business, including renewals for Personal Lines and small Commercial, the overall percentage paid out will need to be lower. House business helps support higher commission rates for the other larger accounts. To determine the appropriate compensation for salespeople, subtract your targeted pretax profit and all operating/selling expenses, including office and management payroll, from agency revenues. Calculate the percentage of direct commissions for ... the loss of a large account or some other event could cause a reduction in the book. Asking a producer to give money back is hard, and can add to the demoralizing effect of the lost business. Setting the draw or salary for new producers is more complex. A scientific way to go about it is to determine what you jointly believe the book of business will be at the end of the third year. Then set the salary or draw at your renewal commission rate, applied against that future number. No commissions ...

... unless everything is done in the office and/or one of your people is present ...y-sell agreements for stock redemption and Disability Income. Distributi...

... business, etc. Review loss ratio results: If your agency's loss of ratio is greater than the carrier branch office's ratio, rollovers of books of business, etc., the agency must take corrective action. If your agency's loss ratio is less than the branch office ratio, but still unprofitable to the carrier, the branch must take corrective action. Share competitive information - How are other carriers pricing capacity, and risk selection impacting the marketplace? Track and review the results of agency submissions to discuss why the accounts were or ... Relationships at All Employee Levels - Begin to develop opportunities for personal lines CSR's, commercial lines CSR's and producers to meet socially or informally with their carrier counterparts in order to help build closer ties. Action: Use joint picnics, breakfast meetings, underwriter-of-the-year dinners, open houses, etc., to open communications and strengthen positive agent/carrier relations. Assist Carrier in Avoiding Excessively Low Pricing - When a risk has been quoted by two other carriers or competitors at $14,000 and $12,300, do not let ... . Effective Use of Telephone Screens with Underwriters -To reduce paperwork, heighten the ease of doing the business and increase hit ratios, your CSRs, producers and marketing personnel should no longer send an application in blind to their carriers. Action: Run new accounts and large complex renewals by the underwriters via phone, then follow up with the applications (or proposal) once the account passes the telephone screen. New Business and Expiration Reviews -Action: Agency representatives and owners should begin meeting face to face with their lead underwriters on a regular ...

... temptation to alter reality becomes increasingly severe. The same businesses that complain about job applicants who "enhance" their resumes do the same thing when presenting themselves. Their brochures are filled with hyperbole. How often has a company used a photograph of the building where its offices are located, implying that it owns the entire skyscraper? How many companies insist on including products and services that they can't deliver in their promotional literature? Irrational? Of course — and unnecessary, too. Inferiority complexes can cause businesses (like individuals) to ... costly action. In the final analysis, how we think is as important as what we do. John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm founded in 1976. He's the author of The New Magnet Marketing (Chandler House Press, 1998) and 203 Ways to Be Supremely Successful in the New World of Selling(Macmillan Spectrum, 1996) . Graham writes for a variety of publications and speaks on business, marketing, and sales topics for company and association meetings. He can ... producing nearly three times more registrations than in the past. If it looks like junk mail, it is junk mail. If the presentation looks second-rate, so will the product. Be genuine. Why do so many businesses (of all sizes) have an inferiority complex? Why do they want to portray themselves as something different than what they are? The answer: They're not sure that what they are is acceptable to someone else — especially to prospective customers. In a highly competitive business environment, the temptation to alter reality ...

... with the applications (or proposal) once the account passes the telephone screen. Does your agency ever send an application to two or three carriers at the same time without first screening the account with underwriters? Can a telephone underwriting screen with underwriters be established in your office? If yes, who will be responsible for establishing the procedure, and by when? 10. New business and expiration reviews. Take the lead here. Agency representatives and owners should begin meeting face-to-face with their lead underwriters on a regular basis to review new ... Establish personal relationships at all employee levels. Begin to develop opportunities for Personal Lines CSRs, Commercial Lines CSRs, and producers to meet socially or informally with their carrier counterparts in order to help build closer ties. Joint picnics, breakfast meetings, underwriter-of-the-year dinners, open houses, etc., can be used to open communications and strengthen positive agent/carrier relations. What informal events or opportunities are now being used to foster better relationships between agency and company personnel? What events will you schedule in the future to better facilitate communication ... 9. Effectively use telephone screens with underwriters. To reduce paperwork, heighten the ease of doing business, and increase hit ratios, your CSRs, producers, and marketing personnel should no longer send an application in blindly to their carriers. New accounts and large, complex renewals are run by the underwriter first via phone, then followed up with the applications (or proposal) once the account passes the telephone screen. Does your agency ever send an application to two or three carriers at the same time without first screening the account ...