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... 12:00:00 AM by CompleteMarkets Editor , Sherri Stein This content has not been rated yet. Are you trying to figure out how much to pay your producers by asking, What's the agency down the street paying? ' Beware! Pegging compensation to what the competition is doing can be a costly mistake. Your competitors may be paying too much and headed for bankruptcy-or paying too little and riding a merry-go-round in turnover. Every agency is different. Some provide their producers with leads, expense accounts, auto allowances, club memberships, sales management, and other costly direct-sales support. Others don't. Most agencies provide service support and invest in other retention-building tools. Some agencies are highly efficient and have low operating expenses. Others have very high overhead. Most are somewhere in between. A ... agencies make the fatal mistake of thinking they have $1 of commission to split with producers. They don't. They have $1 of commission minus the cost of operating the agency. A big percentage of that commission income usually goes to expenses other than production. Knowing where the money goes is essential for agencies trying to figure out how much they can afford to pay producers. The worksheet at the end of this article is an easy way to get a snapshot of where your agency stands. It's a good exercise for any agency at any time. It's especially helpful for an agency looking to bring in a new producer, turn around a dwindling profit picture, or boost its value as a going concern. Let's walk through the worksheet. ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSE Add up the cost of office payroll ...

... every Hertz location, corporate or franchised, the smart operators contact the local media and offer statements that enable the media to personalize the story with a local slant. You could be doing this with every release issued by each of your companies. A national release from a company stands a pretty good chance of making the papers, and by offering the local perspective, you can come along for the ride. This article is more of an investigation into public relations theory than a how-to manual. However, in Insurance Agency Promotion and Advertising, ' George and Jeffrey Nordhaus offer a list of possible press-release subjects, including: Accident Prevention Anniversaries (Business) Anything Unusual (Hobbies, Human Interest, Office Events, Trips) Automation Advances Awards Company Appointments Community Service Convention Attendance Disabled Workers Fire Prevention Foreign ... have one or more magazines dedicated to life in the city. Since these magazines are more feature oriented, with less emphasis on hard news, they are ideal for longer safety or special-interest articles, which you could submit. Let's break away from the traditional PR press releases and look at some of the alternatives for general public relations: CIVIC MEMBERSHIPS. Most agency owners view their membership in the Rotary Club, Optimists, or Kiwanas (to name only a few organizations) as networking or community marketing. Although such memberships are good for marketing and networking, try to think of them more in terms of public relations. Just as with trade associations, such memberships are only as good as your level of participation. Seek out elected offices, serve as a spokesperson, take on special interest committee ...