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... such as benefits and Workers Comp to offer monthly Webinars to your "A " business insurance clients, creating "golden handcuffs" that give them a tangible reason to remain loyal to your agency. Don't forget your Personal Lines department. Schedule a series of "box lunch" Web clinics on topics such as employee benefits or caring for aging parents. Personal Lines prospects and customers can eat lunch at their desk while gaining valuable information. If your staff does not have expertise in a specific area, invite subject matter experts to participate from anywhere in the world. Create a direct mail and print media marketing campaign around your Web workshops. Even if attendance is light, the fact that you're advertising this creative idea sets you apart from your competition. Idea # 7: Put a TV in your reception area. Not all agencies have or encourage walk-in prospects and customers. If you do, make the most of a perfect opportunity to communicate the value of doing business with your agency by investing in a new flat screen TV for your reception area. For content, create PowerPoint presentations that show how clients and prospect can benefit from doing business with you. Add to the impact by including testimonies from your clients. Take this great idea to the next level by offering to let Commercial Lines clients purchase "spots" on your private TV marketing network. Idea # 8: Write a regular column in a local newspaper. Mark Von Moss of the Bomford, Couch & Wilson agency takes full advantage of the agency's relationship with the local newspaper by writing a regular column about various types ...

... are currently unavailable, according to Lee Van Vechten, the Freehold, N.J., publisher of The Van Vechten Report, a telemarketing management resource. However, says Van Vechten, recent studies of the attitudes and expansion plans of managers in a broad range of industries show that telemarketing in general is growing by leaps and bounds. WHY TELEMARKETING? A number of factors account for telemarketing's recent surge in popularity within the insurance industry. Economic trends, for example, have made many independent agents more marketing-oriented. The recent hard market in this area forced agents to look for new ways to stay competitive, ' says Jim Smith, a commercial producer at Leick, Marshall, Neal and Associates in Dallas. Moreover, ' adds Smith, many oil-related companies were eager to reduce their premiums and become much more receptive to what insurance telemarketers had to say. By using the telephone to spawn new leads, an agency often can lower the costs associated with face-to-face sales efforts. In today's market, it's simply too expensive for us to go out knocking on doors, ' says D. Scott Liebert, sales manager at the Liebert Group in Nanuet, N.Y. Our agency's producers are too valuable to send out to a prospect's premises only to be turned away because the prospect was unavailable. Moreover, a good telemarketer can call up to 200 people in a typical five hour period-or about 195 more than even the most seasoned producer could reasonably hope to contact during the course of an eight-hour day. We've generated about 650 viable leads during the eight months that our telemarketing program has been going, ' says Joe Martin of ...

... PM by CompleteMarkets Editor , Ted Silver This content has not been rated yet. &# 160 BOTTOM-UP PLANNING by Ted Silver When an agency understands what individual agency employees want to accomplish from a production standpoint in terms of new and renewal business as well as their objectives in the profit center they are associated with (Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, or Life insurance), a business plan as well as a risk-management plan my be implemented. These accomplishments tie into the goals of overall agency objectives and the role of a company marketing manager. Agencies can be broken down into three basic life cycles: the aspirers, the arrivers, and the decliners. These adjectives describe performance in relationship to a marketing manager. For marketing managers to be truly effective, they must deal with the workables-those who are receptive to assistance. This is where marketing managers are going to attain their highest degree of probable success. I have long advocated that, in the 90s and beyond, a marketing manager's role is to be a business consultant. As a business consultant, a marketing manager can help draft agency marketing plans if agency employees believe: 1) a marketing manager understands the planning process, and 2) how individual agencies function. Not every agency is going to allow a marketing manager to get involved in its operations; however, aspirers and arrivers will be receptive if they believe a marketing manager has the qualifications that are required to make a significant contribution. The first step is to make an arrangement with the agencies where you are well-received by the principal(s ) . Make an appointment to spend three ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Reactive And Proactive CSR's 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Mary Beth Bolen This content has not been rated yet. Some people believe things happen to them, while others believe things happen because of them. Sometimes, people fluctuate between the two extremes. CSRs need to have both a receptive and a take-charge personality. It's possible to make modifications in behavior-to focus on anticipating problems rather than sitting back and reacting after things have happened. If, on the other hand, you jump into a situation too quickly before listening carefully, it's possible to concentrate on learning to be more receptive. Are you proactive or reactive? Each chapter in the following Autobiography' represents an attitude. Which chapter or attitude best represents your state of mind? Chapter 1 I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost . . . I am helpless. It isn't my fault. It takes forever to find a way out. Chapter 2 I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it, I fall in, again. I can't believe I am in this same place. But it isn't my fault. It still takes a long time to get out. Chapter 3 I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I fall in . . . it's a habit . . . but my eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my ...

... it for them, you will step far ahead of the competition. Those agencies that understand their customers' needs and attempt to satisfy those needs will end up with all the business. Figure out what your customers want, what their dreams are, what their fears are, what their hopes are, what performance requirements they have, and what benefits they seek. Then take care of them. Understanding Behavior Styles Once you understand customers' wants and needs, the next step is to learn how to effectively communicate your solution to their needs in a manner that they will be willing to listen to. Interpersonal skills are absolutely mandatory to effectively address customers' wants and needs. To make a successful sales presentation, the message must be heard and understood by the prospect. The prospect must be receptive to your message, or you will not make the sale. Understanding behavioral traits and styles (yours and your prospects) will allow you to build a winning sales presentation customized to the style of your prospects. Behavioral traits fall into four general categories: D: Dominance-how you respond to problems or challenges. I: Influence-how you influence others to your point of view. S: Steadiness-how you respond to the pace of the environment. C: Compliance-how you respond to rules and procedures set by others. To blend your own particular selling style into customers' buying style, determine the buying characteristics of those customers. When you have made that determination, you can readily adjust the sales presentation to that of each customer. As a result, you'll be meeting prospects on their ground, they'll ...

... educate a client and the client didn't get it. KM mentions that she never had to be exceedingly pleasant at her previous job and now is finding that her letters are too businesslike and that she is too assertive on the phone. However, she is viewed as being extremely professional. Her question is: How can I brush up on my new phone skills and letter-writing techniques? ' Refine Communication Skills This is a question asked by many industry employees. What KM needs to do is refine her communication skills. Or, in other words, to adapt more readily to the style of a particular customer, company representative, or associate. She may not need new telephone skills; rather, by expanding the basic telephone skills she already has to include a customer-friendly focus, she'll achieve a better reception while retaining a professional and businesslike manner. In her previous job, the agents and their representatives she dealt with were customers and probably more knowledgeable about insurance and various work procedures. They were probably more tolerant of a professional and businesslike manner, as they deal with company' people on a regular basis. In fact, they may have preferred it. The difference now is that KM is dealing with the general public, most likely with clients who aren't as educated or knowledgeable about the procedures involved in effecting coverage and solving insurance problems. While the general public will accept professional behavior, the information must be disseminated at a level the customer can comprehend. This customer is a lay person, not an insurance professional, and must be handled differently than a business owner or industry professional. ...

... 2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Ted Silver This content has not been rated yet. &# 160 BOTTOM-UP PLANNING by Ted Silver When an agency understands what individual agency employees want to accomplish from a production standpoint in terms of new and renewal business as well as their objectives in the profit center they are associated with (Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, or Life insurance), a business plan as well as a risk-management plan my be implemented. These accomplishments tie into the goals of overall agency objectives and the role of a company marketing manager. Agencies can be broken down into three basic life cycles: the aspirers, the arrivers, and the decliners. These adjectives describe performance in relationship to a marketing manager. For marketing managers to be truly effective, they must deal with the workables-those who are receptive to assistance. This is where marketing managers are going to attain their highest degree of probable success. I have long advocated that, in the 90s and beyond, a marketing manager's role is to be a business consultant. As a business consultant, a marketing manager can help draft agency marketing plans if agency employees believe: 1) a marketing manager understands the planning process, and 2) how individual agencies function. Not every agency is going to allow a marketing manager to get involved in its operations; however, aspirers and arrivers will be receptive if they believe a marketing manager has the qualifications that are required to make a significant contribution. The first step is to make an arrangement with the agencies where you are well-received by the principal(s ) . Make an appointment to spend three ...

... his agency grow. He seriously researched the Internet, hardware, and software-and the ways these technologies could be used together to operate his agency. He found the Internet to be a great icebreaker with hard-to-reach prospects. Once he establishes contact, most prospects and customers he finds through the Internet are more than willing to talk about insurance face to face. Using the Internet allows Gordon to: Continuously increase new business writings Attract new multi-line clients Attract hard-to-reach clients Generate an outstanding bank of X-dates Build a sales bank six to 12 months ahead Reduce his agency expenses INTERNET CUSTOMERS The Internet has not only changed the way agencies and insurers do business, but presents them with a new kind of customer. Today's insurance customers are: Younger as a group (21 to 35) Harder to reach as clients Less receptive to cold calling Technically advanced and better educated Experienced in using the Internet Comfortable buying on the Internet The most compelling reason for agents to use the Web is to convert these "cyber-prospects" into traditional policyholders. Currently substandard Auto, Health, and Term Life coverages offer the greatest potential business-but remember, the Web is tomorrow's window of opportunity. Think of the Web as a worldwide collection of interconnected pages that are often linked to other pages. The links are highlighted for easy recognition and are easily accessed by the click of the mouse. HOW WIDE IS THE WEB? Many agents wonder about the scope of the Web. Here are some of the facts: The Internet is growing faster than all other technologies before it. Radio took 38 years to attract an audience of 50 million. Television ...

... carrier believes the allegations are true, only that it won't have liability for any of the uncovered allegations. Subject to the reservation, assigned counsel defends the insured. Assigned counsel is required to defend all aspects of the case and advise the insured accordingly. In the majority of cases, fraud allegations are unfounded and subject to dismissal by the court. However, if the court determines that you committed fraud, there's no coverage under the E&O policy for those acts. You'd be responsible for the judgment made against you or your agency. Does this end your troubles with your E&O carrier? Definitely not. As the long-term manager of the Utica program, I have no desire to provide coverage for agents convicted of fraud. And I doubt that any other carriers would be particularly receptive, either. Without E&O , you expose your agency to future claims and also risk losing good carrier contracts, because many companies require E&O protection. When dealing with fraud, it's a no-win situation. A version of this article originally appeared in the Utica National Insurance Co. E&O Bulletin and is reproduced with permission. Curtis M. Pearsall, CPCU, AIAF, can be reached at Utica National Insurance Group, P.O. Box 530, Utica, NY 13503, (800) 274-1914, fax (315) 734-2807, or e-mail [email protected] . Login or Register (for FREE) to gain access to thousands of other great articles. Need more reasons to join? Need insurance for you, your business or your family? Get quality appointments ...