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... x No Thanks Loading.. Your Local High School - A Pool Of Telemarketing Talent 4/30/2014 by CompleteMarkets Editor This content has not been rated yet. When it comes to prospecting, every agent has done his or her fair share cold calling on the phone, the White Pages in hand, furiously dialing for dollars. Godwin & Johnson, an agency in Oak Lawn, IL, solved this problem by diving into a pool of local talent to implement what the agency calls the most important element in its Personal Lines marketing program. WHAT THEY DO Under the producers' supervision, a part-time staff of four high school juniors (11th graders) works for two hours per evening Monday through Thursday. They develop 80 to 100 X-dates per evening, which is a lot for a relatively small cash outlay. The agency learned through trial and error what type of person was best suited to the job. Says Bob Godwin, agency principal, We use four high school girls, preferably juniors and we use only A and B students. We pay them $4 per hour as independent contractors, and each girl obtains an average of 20 X-dates per night. Why the bias toward high school girls? Young men didn't work out because they were too combative. Older persons didn't fit in because the pay was insufficient. Thus, responsible high school females proved to be just the ticket. The girls appear to handle the mentally brutal' work that cold calling can be. They just keep shaking off the abuse and forging ahead, ' says principal Ron Johnson. Another bonus: They also don't ...

... performance this relatively simple approach of calculating a raise or bonus will generally provide the results you want: rewarding people for the agency's and for their individual performance over the past year. But if you have a lot of long-term employees, calculating their raise or bonus as a percentage of their already high compensation might not be a good idea. You might shortchange newer and lower paid employees who might've outperformed others during the year, because you'll calculate their raise or bonus from a lower base. This situation can create morale problems and cause top performers to shut down. Instituting a performance point system of calculating raises or bonuses can eliminate the negative effects of setting increases as a percentage of base salary. This can also facilitate tying the increase to overall agency results. In this approach you create a bonus pool based on agency profit, annual growth, or any combination of factors. Some agencies set up the pool based on entire agency results. This is particularly popular with smaller firms. Others create a pool based on the results of a department, specialty line of business, or team. Or you can personalize a bonus program for each employee, again usually as part of the performance evaluation plan. It's important to set the rules in advance, establish a formula for creating the bonus pool, and a method for dividing it. Be sure to test the calculations against some hypothetical situations before you announce the results to employees. You don't want to find at the end of the year that you've agreed to pay a lot more than you'd anticipated. There are several ways to create an agency ...

... performance this relatively simple approach of calculating a raise or bonus will generally provide the results you want: rewarding people for the agency's and for their individual performance over the past year. But if you have a lot of long-term employees, calculating their raise or bonus as a percentage of their already high compensation might not be a good idea. You might shortchange newer and lower paid employees who might've outperformed others during the year, because you'll calculate their raise or bonus from a lower base. This situation can create morale problems and cause top performers to shut down. Instituting a performance point system of calculating raises or bonuses can eliminate the negative effects of setting increases as a percentage of base salary. This can also facilitate tying the increase to overall agency results. In this approach you create a bonus pool based on agency profit, annual growth, or any combination of factors. Some agencies set up the pool based on entire agency results. This is particularly popular with smaller firms. Others create a pool based on the results of a department, specialty line of business, or team. Or you can personalize a bonus program for each employee, again usually as part of the performance evaluation plan. It's important to set the rules in advance, establish a formula for creating the bonus pool, and a method for dividing it. Be sure to test the calculations against some hypothetical situations before you announce the results to employees. You don't want to find at the end of the year that you've agreed to pay a lot more than you'd anticipated. There are several ways to create an agency ...

... you sure you want to deactivate your CompleteMarkets Company Profile Deactivate Cancel Loading.. About Us Services Jobs PR Newsletters Employees Articles Blog Photos Group Connections Reviews IMMS Library Immerse yourself in our stacks. Take some time and browse through our library. We have thousands of articles, checklists, tip sheets, sales letters, and more! Communications Marketing Customer Service Planning Finance/Accounting Risk Management Human Resources Selling Legal and E&O Technology Life/Financial Services Glossaries Management Resources & Links Categories Popular Recent All Back Communicating With The Media 4/30/2013 10:44:59 PM by CompleteMarkets Editor , Sally Praskey This content has not been rated yet. COMMUNICATING WITH THE MEDIA by Sally Praskey Reporters are like alligators; you don't have to love them, but you DO have to feed them. Steven Poole, director of corporate communications, Gerber Products  The media have been called many things, perhaps the most colorful of which was the description coined by entrepreneur-and media magnate-Conrad Black, who likened reporters to a swarming, grunting mass of jackals. But, like them or hate them, the media play an influential role in society and must be dealt with appropriately. As respected newscaster and journalist Knowlton Nash puts it, the media are not perfect, but they are a necessity. Conceding that reporters often thrive on crisis in a sort of feeding frenzy, ' Nash told attendees at a Canadian Risk & Insurance Management Conference in Halifax that the media's job was not to be your friend-or to be your enemy. The media's job is not to respect your self-image or to shape our reporting to your ...

...ferent ways to establish the bonus pools and to divide up the available dollar.../supervisor). Several different bonus pools may be created, with some agency e...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Advice On Developing A Producer Recruitment Program 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Peggy Mika This content has not been rated yet. ADVICE ON DEVELOPING A PRODUCER RECRUITMENT PROGRAM What advice would you offer an independent agency on a step-by-step basis, for developing a producer recruitment program? ' Peggy Mika Mika Freelance Pensacola, FL A growing agency must have a producer recruitment program in place at all times. Even when there is no specific opening, the astute agency manager is looking for potential new producers. The ongoing plan should have two components: a pool of potential candidates and a method of recruiting on college campuses. The manager should keep a list or pool' of the names of potential recruits at all times. Each name should be kept in a separate file or on a card, and information about the candidate's qualifications should be recorded and updated on the card. The manager should stay in touch with the people in the pool on a regular basis - every quarter or every six months, for example. A phone call, letter, or a lunch meeting will do the trick. The size of the pool should be small and manageable. Names should be added and removed as the manager gets to know the candidates or finds better prospects. The candidates in the pool can be gathered from many sources: people in the office with potential; people in the competitor's office with potential; people who have been recommended by friends; sales agents who call at the agency (the copy machine salesperson); names of friends or their children who have ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Communicating With The Media 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Sally Praskey This content has not been rated yet. COMMUNICATING WITH THE MEDIA by Sally Praskey Reporters are like alligators; you don't have to love them, but you DO have to feed them. Steven Poole, director of corporate communications, Gerber Products  The media have been called many things, perhaps the most colorful of which was the description coined by entrepreneur-and media magnate-Conrad Black, who likened reporters to a swarming, grunting mass of jackals. But, like them or hate them, the media play an influential role in society and must be dealt with appropriately. As respected newscaster and journalist Knowlton Nash puts it, the media are not perfect, but they are a necessity. Conceding that reporters often thrive on crisis in a sort of feeding frenzy, ' Nash told attendees at a Canadian Risk & Insurance Management Conference in Halifax that the media's job was not to be your friend-or to be your enemy. The media's job is not to respect your self-image or to shape our reporting to your objectives and needs. Our job in the media is to be assertively independent, to be insatiably curious in chasing a story . . . and to provide a fair reflection of reality. Nowadays, a media-relations strategy is no longer a luxury of corporations, said Nash. The more you know the media and their objectives and their needs, the more insurance you're going to have to minimize the risk in a crisis situation, ' he explained. Pointing out that it was critical for senior management to buy ...

... , sales letters, and more! Communications Marketing Customer Service Planning Finance/Accounting Risk Management Human Resources Selling Legal and E&O Technology Life/Financial Services Glossaries Management Resources & Links Categories Popular Recent All Back Advice On Developing A Producer Recruitment Program 4/30/2013 10:42:47 PM by CompleteMarkets Editor , Peggy Mika This content has not been rated yet. ADVICE ON DEVELOPING A PRODUCER RECRUITMENT PROGRAM What advice would you offer an independent agency on a step-by-step basis, for developing a producer recruitment program? ' Peggy Mika Mika Freelance Pensacola, FL A growing agency must have a producer recruitment program in place at all times. Even when there is no specific opening, the astute agency manager is looking for potential new producers. The ongoing plan should have two components: a pool of potential candidates and a method of recruiting on college campuses. The manager should keep a list or pool' of the names of potential recruits at all times. Each name should be kept in a separate file or on a card, and information about the candidate's qualifications should be recorded and updated on the card. The manager should stay in touch with the people in the pool on a regular basis - every quarter or every six months, for example. A phone call, letter, or a lunch meeting will do the trick. The size of the pool should be small and manageable. Names should be added and removed as the manager gets to know the candidates or finds better prospects. The candidates in the pool can be gathered from many sources: people in the office with ...

... lot more difficult than applying an inflationary increase to existing salaries. Appropriate standards must be set and the achievement of those goals must be measured objectively. If the employees perceive that the program is not structured correctly or that it is not being administered fairly, the result will actually be a decline in productivity. All the principals must be committed to the incentive plan and must be willing to follow the rules, regardless of how it turns out. If the employees who have been with the agency for the longest period of time get the smallest bonuses after the computations have been made, so be it. Chances are that their salaries are probably higher than they should be by this time anyway, after all those years of automatic increases. There are literally hundreds of different ways to establish the bonus pools and to divide up the available dollars among employees. One of the main determinants of the type of program to be implemented should be the overall strategic plan. If the agency is trying to grow rapidly, the incentives should be directed towards new business written. If maintaining high levels of service for existing customers is your primary objective, then retention should be the focus of the plan. In agencies where company relations are paramount and loss ratios considered to be a true measure of success, bonus programs should emphasize contingents and growth bonuses. Incentives should be weighted toward encouraging employees to do what needs to be done to obtain and service the type of business that the agency principals have identified to be the most profitable and consistent with the agency's business plan. To a certain extent, the program ...

... want or if you have no such program, it is time to consider implementing one for next year. Even if you do have a good program now, chances are that it will need to be tweaked or changed entirely within a year or two. You should have a new plan ready when and if the results start becoming less than satisfactory. Examples of Performance-Based Programs Some agencies have one program for everyone. Some separate them out by department. Some have individualized plans for each employee. Some have a combination of all three. Some base the computations on profit, some on revenue growth, some on contingents, and some on a formula combining profits and revenues. For the agency or department programs, two basic decisions must be made: a formula must be devised for creating the bonus pool, and a method should be calculated for dividing it up among the employees. The following examples are provided to give you an idea of where the research and creativity has led other agencies. Remember that all the principals must agree with the plan and commit themselves to it. And be sure to test the formulas with some what if' situations before you announce the program to the employees. You Don't want to come down to the end of the year and find that you have agreed to give away the store. The sample formulas shown below have worked for a number of firms, but you may need to change them to fit your particular situation. Sample Agency/Department Bonus Pool Formulas 25% of increase in revenues from prior year 4% of increase in premiums from prior year ...