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... insurance organizations marketing meeting began, the president stated, We need more sales. This might see.. All Articles by John Graham Comments (0 ) Advice On Developing A Producer Recruitment Program This content has not been rated yet. CompleteMarkets Editor , Peggy Mika 4/30/2013 10:42:47 PM ADVICE ON DEVELOPING A PRODUCER RECRUITMENT PROGRAM What advice would you offer an independent agency on a step-by-step basis, for deve.. All Articles by CompleteMarkets Editor Comments (0 ) Are You A Deadbeat Shareholder? This content has not been rated yet. CompleteMarkets Editor , Kevin Stipe 4/30/2013 12:00:00 AM If you're a principal in a privately held insurance agency, establish a value creation quota for each shareholder. Here's how: A month before your next planning retreat, provide each shareholders with a statement showing the value of his or her share of the agency's stock. If you don't have an appraisal, simply use your best estimate. All Articles by CompleteMarkets Editor Comments (0 ) Ask Questions Before Taking Your Next Sales Job This content has not been rated yet. John Graham 12/16/2014 12:00:00 AM If you're in sales, you know the feeling. It's the middle of the night about two weeks after starting a new job. You were enthusiastic and could hardly wait to get going. Now, your head is full of doubts. You try to shove them aside, but they don't go away. "Everything is new," you tell yourself. "I just need to give it a little more ...

... 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 many agency principals Articles tagged with many agency principals Back Are You A Deadbeat Shareholder? This content has not been rated yet. CompleteMarkets Editor , Kevin Stipe 4/30/2013 12:00:00 AM If you're a principal in a privately held insurance agency, establish a value creation quota for each shareholder. Here's how: A month before your next planning retreat, provide each shareholders with a statement showing the value of his or her share of the agency's stock. If you don't have an appraisal, simply use your best estimate. All Articles by CompleteMarkets Editor Comments (0 ) Considerations For Hiring A Producer This content has not been rated yet. CompleteMarkets Editor , Kevin Stipe 4/30/2013 12:00:00 AM Here's a quick investment quiz: Which of the following investments will provide the best financial return over the next five years? A.Microsoft stock B.Coca-Cola stock C.Citigroup stock D.A newly hired Property & Casualty producer The answer is D. No kidding. All Articles by CompleteMarkets Editor Comments (0 ) Managing Personal Lines This content has not been rated yet. CompleteMarkets Editor , Carol Hammes 4/30/2013 10:36: ...

... , they are successful because they employ many of the top producers in their community. On the other hand, since many of the community's top prospects already work in their agency, there's not much sales talent left to hire. They're ready, willing, and able to invest in future growth, but don't know quite how. If only they could find a way to replicate their top producers, their agency's market share would balloon. All Articles by CompleteMarkets Editor Comments (0 ) Are You A Deadbeat Shareholder? This content has not been rated yet. CompleteMarkets Editor , Kevin Stipe 4/30/2013 12:00:00 AM If you're a principal in a privately held insurance agency, establish a value creation quota for each shareholder. Here's how: A month before your next planning retreat, provide each shareholders with a statement showing the value of his or her share of the agency's stock. If you don't have an appraisal, simply use your best estimate. All Articles by CompleteMarkets Editor Comments (0 ) Merge Or Acquire With Caution This content has not been rated yet. CompleteMarkets Editor , Sherri Stein 4/30/2013 12:00:00 AM Six reasons why mergers and acquisitions fail. Few business transactions pack the high-stakes potential of a merger or acquisition. Done well, the deal can help an agency attain new levels of prosperity. Done poorly, it can be crippling. All Articles by CompleteMarkets Editor Comments (0 ) x No Thanks Loading.. Loading.. x No Thanks Loading.. ...

... insurance in their portfolio' of fixed returns, since Life insurance paid as much or more than passbook savings accounts. Many Life agents who entered the business in the 1950s through the 70s came to believe in the sanctity of the ever-increasing dividend scale. The longer you kept the policy, the better it got; dividend scales in general never went down, rarely leveled out, but just kept going up. So it's understandable that long-standing traditional agents didn't question the continued rise in dividend scales as interest rates in the economy began to decline. Although mathematically legitimate (a composite portfolio rate will continue to rise until the current rates fall below the portfolio rate), the other side of the equation was that the more current rates fell, the more certain it was the dividend scales would have to retreat in the near future. That's exactly what happened. Although mutual companies could take advantage of the favorable math' between rising long-term portfolios and falling short term rates from 1979 through 1986, one or two brave mutual companies began to announce dividend decreases in 1986 and 1987 (to the derision of their agents) . Industry-wide dividend scale decreases began in earnest in 1988. As interest rates and dividend scales began to move in the same direction, the Life insurance industry felt intense economic pressure. Older bonds with 4% -6% yields were worth a fraction of their purchase price, but were carried on the books' at their original value. Companies could borrow money and add it to their capital account, but not count it as a liability (surplus relief) . These and other ...

... ." Until they become dissatisfied, there's no reason for them to change what they're doing. Taking the time to tell your story to these people is not a high-payoff use of your most precious resource, time. There's good news, however: Satisfied people eventually become dissatisfied. The best you'll do with a satisfied person is inform them or make them aware of something they don't know. This information might get them to realize they're in phase 2: dissatisfied. Even so, they're still far from being ready to do something about their dissatisfaction. We all have problems, challenges, and difficulties, but we don't solve them all. We live with many of them. If you offer a solution to a problem that I'm content to live with and I'm not ready to change, I'll retreat. I'll object to the change you propose-and the game is over (for now) . If you're not careful and choose to persist, you might extinguish any chance of future business. Remember, prospects act when they're ready, not when you want them to. Fish eat when they're hungry! Your goal is to find as many hungry fish as you can-phase-3 people who are ready to make a change and committed to seeing it through. The question then becomes, is what you offer the solution they want? They want an adequate solution, not the best. (There is no best.) They want not only an adequate solution, but added value from a trusted advisor. They want to be cared for and cared about. They want to be led to water, and ...

... of renting them out. Popular online vacation rental companies like Airbnb can make the rental process easy. It may sound like a simple way to produce some extra income. When purchasing that ski cabin amidst the pines of the San Bernardino Mountains many homeowners don't think about what kind of insurance do you need for your short-term rental property? Many second homeowners may not even be aware that companies like Airbnb and HomeAway offer their own insurance policies. Airbnb's Host Protection is here to help I decided to rent out my home through Airbnb a few years back. After months of successfully profiting off of my vacant second home, I had no idea what to do when a guest purposely damaged my home. Should I use my personal homeowner's insurance? Should I contact Airbnb and open a claim? My mountain retreat under the tall Jeffrey Pines near Big Bear Lake was my serene cabin to escape to. I decided to rent it out to skiers and travelers for some extra income one ski season. After my renter moved out, I discovered my furniture was vandalized. My carpet was destroyed and the whole cabin (A non-smoking property) reeked of cigarettes. It was thousands of dollars worth of damage. I was so shocked (and pleased) when I called my rental agency, Airbnb, to hear about their host protection policy. Short-term rental insurance plans to the rescue Your second home is your sanctuary. What do you do when a guest damages your property? When listing a home you have purchased for rental through companies like Airbnb their host protection program takes all the guesswork out of what to ...

... go on, to share what got you there in the first place and push others to their time in the spotlight. When you're in a dry spell, an award is the focus that allows you to say, I did it once and, by golly, I can do it again! ' Tonight, we honor the paths of some of us who have reached a fork in the road. There is a gleaming crystal prize for a job well done. My challenge to these exemplary people is this: Can you take this beautiful icon and lend its shining light to others? Can you help others arrive at this fork in the road and take their turn? After all, a prism that does not reflect light is just a piece of glass. Christina Ward is now conducting personal retreats around the country on personal and leadership growth. You can reach her at (512) 346-3488. Jack Burke is the president of Sound Marketing, Inc., which specializes in audio and video productions for corporate marketing, communications, and education. He may be reached (800) 451-TAPE. 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 - Save yourself a whole lot of time & money when you use our directory of carriers, wholesalers and service providers. Negotiate lucrative contracts with carriers and wholesalers. Net result. More revenue for your agency! Clients & Prospects will research you, your co-workers and your agency here. The most ...

... ever. Revenue and profit growth are strong and outside investors — especially banks — continue to show strong interest in the business. Even the bust of the new economy' has helped by leveling the playing field in the battle for talent, providing agency owners with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to recruit new blood into the insurance industry. If you already own, or are considering owning, an interest in an insurance agency, here are two points to consider: During the next decade, the return potential of stock in a private business might well exceed that of the S&P 500. Analysts are cautioning the current generation of investors that historically there have been long periods in which stocks moved sideways. For example, in early 1966 the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit the 1,000 level, then retreated. It bobbed up and down for years, and didn't cross the 1,000 level for good until 17 years later, in 1983! If history were to repeat itself, even a slow growth agency during the next 10 years might appreciate faster than the overall stock market. Stock in a privately held business offers tax advantages that are better than those of a qualified retirement plan, such as a 401(k ) . Does this sound too good to be true? Consider that when an individual sets money aside in a 401(k ), the contribution is tax deductible and any dividends or capital gains within the plan grow on a tax-deferred basis until they're withdrawn and taxed as ordinary income. The tax-deduction on contributions, combined with the tax-deferral on money in the plan, have ...

... that's in decline: The role played by many traditional carriers (headed by many of the very people, presumably, to whom the researchers sent the questionnaire) who've been in denial about what's really happening or who are unable to shift their entrenched cultures in response. This was a novel and provocative observation a few years ago, but it has now become obvious. People who don't know the insurance business very well look at the Property/Casualty marketplace and conclude that agents and brokers are in decline. It reminds me of a child watching a beach erode and concluding that there's no more sand, unaware that it's just moved elsewhere and formed a new beach. I don't mean to imply that insurance agencies and brokerages are rising in unison and marching in some victory parade. Many agencies are in retreat, and there are big changes afoot, along with some failures, heartbreak, and lots of consolidation. Firms that are focused on the customer, willing to learn continuously, and building capital to invest in people and systems can ignore our clucking friends. The sky is not falling. 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 - Save yourself a whole lot of time & money when you use our directory of carriers, wholesalers and service providers. Negotiate lucrative contracts with carriers and wholesalers. Net result. More revenue for your agency! Clients & Prospects will research you, your co-workers and your agency here. The most comprehensive online ...

...gued with living — quietly retreats.   A monke...