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...ay exercises-first using some role plays unrelated to your product, then using your own scripts. The role plays are critical because they focus on th...lso a good idea to do some group role plays so that everyone gains an apprecia...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Smart Agencies Should Stay On Offense In A Soft Market 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Robert Reagan This content has not been rated yet. SMART AGENCIES SHOULD STAY ON OFFENSE IN A SOFT MARKET by Bobby Reagan and Brian McNeely With no end in sight to the soft market, the question that agency leaders must ask themselves is: "Are we going to play offense or defense?" The answer is going to depend on the agency's situation — and everybody's situation is different. The public brokers must maintain their earnings or they will be penalized by Wall Street. Therefore, they will turn to acquisitions to drive earnings growth and focus on cost containment strategies. Private equity firms are also under pressure to generate the same level of earnings to satisfy the returns promised to their investors. However, privately held agencies with no debt are in a far different position. In fact, they have a tremendous amount of freedom and can develop a strategy to capitalize on the soft market. ON THE DEFENSIVE During downcycles in business, leaders across all industries often turn to a strategy of playing defense, which includes multiple cost-containment strategies such as headcount reductions, hiring freezes, and the suspension of discretionary spending. The focus of playing defense is maintaining current profitability at lower revenue levels. The challenge with this strategy is implementing it while maintaining customer service levels and the ability to grow your revenues in the future. This is especially true in our industry. We're seeing lots of defense being played in the insurance distribution arena — cutbacks in advertising, program development, ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Playing Team 5/18/2015 by Don Phin This content has not been rated yet. During recent months, I've been asked to do a number of workshops on team building. These principles cover the basics. The team comes first. A recent Men's Health magazine interviewed Navy SEALS about what's critical to their success. They said that the most important thing was understanding that the team comes first. Because we live in a society that prizes rugged individualism, this can be a difficult concept to grasp fully. Often, the most difficult challenge for management is the employee who's productive, but not a team player. Is it worth keeping the Prima Donna at the cost of destroying the team? That's the question. You know the answer. Teams need leadership and a sense of direction. What are the vision, mission, and goals for the team? Who's in charge of communicating them and making sure they get accomplished? Is the person in charge a good leader, or just someone with the most experience? Are they motivating or demotivating, by nature? Do they spend most of their time praising or criticizing? All team members must lead by example. Can you honestly say that you gave it your best today? Do genuinely care about other team members? Are you committed to constant improvement of your skill sets? Do you enjoy playing team or would you rather be a solo flier? One of the things I teach is understanding the "processional" effect of our actions. For example, how we treat a team member impacts how ...

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... x No Thanks Loading.. 11 Ways the Internet is Playing Havoc with Every Business 2/28/2018 by CompleteMarkets Editor , John Graham This content has not been rated yet. Referring to Wal-Mart's upcoming redesign of its Web site, one analyst said it will give retailing a "jolt" and another said it will "change Internet retailing." Evie Black Dykem, of Forrester Research, Inc., said, "It will be the shot heard round the retail world." When the world's largest retailer stakes its claim on the Internet, many predict that life will never again be the same. "The power to navigate the world at the click of a mouse is a force that is transforming our lives like none before," wrote the editors of Business Week. A few paragraphs later, they added, "Anyone with a computer is a citizen of the world-and a richer world at that." The extent of the Internet's impact on life and business can be measured by Merrill Lynch's willingness to place at risk its sales force of 14,800 stockbrokers as the company heads straight into the E-economy. When all of Merrill Lynch's explanations and assurances of protecting its brokers are stripped away, it's clear that the company sees its future on the Net. Auto manufacturers are right there, too. The move to cut costs by cutting out dealers is clear, and it's driven by the possibilities created by the Internet. Whether it's real estate sales or travel agencies, these functions will soon be Net-based. Beyond the obvious impact, such as displacing stockbrokers or bookstore clerks ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Service Excellence: Anticipating Needs 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Mary Beth Bolen This content has not been rated yet. Making a movie requires several types of people: Directors, Producers, Actors, and Crew Members Each have specific roles to play in expediting the desired outcome. In the insurance industry, the agency and customers also have specific roles to play to achieve a desired result. But service consumers, not agency staff members, are the players that determine results. Service consumers play varying roles, depending on certain personality traits. Some like to direct, some like to control from afar, some like to follow. Service consumers can be categorized into three distinct types: producers, directors, and camera operators. The role of a customer service representative (CSR) is that of the assistant director-the person who interacts with and takes care of others to ensure the operation runs smoothly and efficiently. To do so, the CSR/assistant director must first determine which categories customers fall into in order to know how best to interact with them. Awareness of personality types and their corresponding roles allows a CSR to maximize the time and energy required to satisfy customer needs. Check past call records to find out who has called, how often, and why. Call records provide excellent clues to character. Then establish a proactive service contact schedule accordingly. The three types of customers along with appropriate handling strategies are: THE DIRECTOR: This type of service consumer is a regular' caller, a constant complainer. Directors are the ones who need ...

... While this may seem to be an easy problem to solve, it may be the most daunting issue facing salespeople today. Clearly, the Internet is taking more and more sales out of the hands of salespeople. It's an education in what great salesmanship is all about and leading the way is Amazon.com. Why not? Amazon.com makes it easy for customers to be their own salespeople. In fact, the buying experience is actually enjoyable: placing orders is easy (particularly with the instantaneous "one-click" button), there's plenty of information and reviews available, returns and refunds are uncomplicated and fast, customer communication is extraordinary, delivery is often ahead of schedule, and product recommendations arrive based on your buying habits. Of course, the customer is always in charge. 2. Customers like to play. Ironically, one of Apple's greatest home runs isn't electronic. At least this is the view of the company's CEO, Steve Jobs, who said at the introduction of the iPad 2 that Apple's retail stores played a major role in the immense success of the first iPad. Here's the world's leading technology company with an expanding bricks-and-mortar presence. While many retailers struggle, Apple continues to open new stores the world over, where customers are encouraged to play with the products, ask for help, and interact with the Apple folks. You'll never find "Do Not Touch" signs. Better yet, if you're an adult, you can look over the shoulder of an eight year old who uses a Mac as if were part of her DNA. Unlike any other retail store in the world ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Seven Ways To Kill Your Future Without Even Knowing It 5/12/2015 by John Graham This content has not been rated yet. We all know that doing business today is differs dramatically from even a few years ago. In spite of what might seem so obvious, many of us keep clinging to a familiar past with nothing less than stubborn tenacity. Although it's easy to spot others who have fallen behind, it takes almost desperate determination to drown out the noxious notion that we might be out of sync. We're out of luck, however; there's no more wiggle-room. There's no pleading for a second chance. Today, we're playing for keeps. Although we laud team effort, it becomes clear that individual players are expendable. Even if we're good at what we do, we might be undermining ourselves without even knowing it. More often than not, it's not the big stuff that sinks us. It's the little telltale things that silently add up until there comes a tipping point - and then it's all over. Most of the time, we can't figure out what happened. It wasn't someone else who had it in for us; we did ourselves in. Before saying, "No one needs such a dark dose of pessimism," consider seven thoughts that might help explain how our wounds are self-inflicted: 1. Little words. Big story. One business owner makes it a practice to ask job applicants to include a cover letter when submitting a resume. "I want to see how many times they use such words as I ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Producer Success Lesson 11: Visual Rapport 5/29/2015 by Randy Schwantz This content has not been rated yet. Nothing happens until somebody sells something. To make sales happen, IMMS.com Key Sales Consultant Randy Schwantz has created a comprehensive series of 43 Producer Success Lessons. Used singly or in combination, these powerful tools can help your producers build their skills - and grow their sales. I conducted a role play for a client a while ago. The group split into pairs, and one person played the salesperson while the other played the client. One of the teams was having a lot of trouble - the salesperson' couldn't establish rapport with the client. I asked what was wrong. The client said that the salesperson looked too eager - almost nervous. The salesperson also seemed tense. I asked the salesperson what he was trying to accomplish, and he said he wanted to appear professional. To him, professional' meant sitting up straight in his chair and getting down to business. I told the salesperson he was making the client nervous, which didn't promote trust or rapport a bit. When I asked him to relax to match the client's posture, he said he couldn't because it wouldn't be professional. So I asked him what his desired outcome was - to be professional or to get the client to buy something from him. When he finally did relax, the client immediately felt more at ease. The salesperson in this role play was concentrating so much on his own image that he couldn't get in tune with his client. It isn't ...

... others so that you can succeed is simply the nature of business. Not so if you want to have an effective team! Remember: "A rising tide floats all boats." In his eye-opening book, The Case Against Competition, Alfred Cohen points out that when it comes to teams, we should focus on cooperation, not competition. We can compete against those outside the team, but certainly not within it. Again, this doesn't mean that all team members have all the same responsibilities or the same compensation structures; it does mean that they should receive equal, and respectful, treatment. After all, they're teammates! 3. Be clear up front about your commitments. Assuming that everyone will follow team rules is guaranteed to produce failure and resentment. For example, if you've played team sports for your entire life, your perception of what constitutes team play will differ from that of someone who has never played on a sports team. Build mutual rules, commitments, values, or understandings through dialogue and consensus. In game theory, there's a classic story of the Prisoners' Dilemma. For example, assume that two men are arrested for robbing a bank. The police separate them immediately and offer each one a deal, saying, "we'll let you go or give you a lighter sentence if you rat out your partner." Because the prisoners failed to define their commitments under such circumstances up front, they now find themselves wondering what the other guy will do. Inevitably, one or both will crack, believing that they're more committed to the relationship than the ...