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...professional golfer swinging their clubs while waiting for the group in front ...

...uest activities: equine, marine, shooting sports, and so on. This is provided ...

... and that outfit for that circumstance . . . and your attire always matches where you are, who you're supposed to be and what your hosts are wearing. Let's add five more rhetorical garments to our word' robe. 26. Have you ever wished.. This is a lyrical opening which can penetrate defenses which leap into position against more hard-boiled attacks. In use, too often even the most professional practitioners shoot a coat of dulling spray over Have you ever wished . .. by having an introduction so long, tedious, or dynamic the opening itself becomes ancillary instead of primary-a harsh switching of gears. Don't do that. Harshness destroys wistfulness. I'm looking at a letter selling computer software. The actual letter begins: Dear Friend. Have you ever wished that you could produce incredible-looking documents, construct ... a business-to-business or executive level, don't you dare let the look of a mass mailing peek through. To these targets, We've missed you' has to be one-on-one, with a hand-finished look. If you can't do this, don't waste the postage. Oh, a second qualifier: If you can't tie We've missed you' to a special resuscitation offer, don't waste the postage. A Video Club uses--quite properly--the mass' approach, complete with Johnson Box. (I've come to regard Johnson Boxes as de-personalizers.) A truly personal We've missed you' to somebody who dropped a negative option video deal would seem gushy and phony. Under the Johnson Box is another bulk' line, printed in Goudy hand-tooled: Take Any 6 Movies FOR 39c EACH. Okay, we now know this isn't ...

... as good as those employed to carry out the plan. You should critique those who produce in the firm, both CSRs and producers, to determine who is best equipped to develop new business from both existing and new clients. One of the biggest weaknesses in almost any firm is the lack of performance standards to measure the efforts of those who produce and service. Standards will give employees goals to shoot for. The performance standards also help determine when and how many new staff members need to be hired over time as the firm grows. You cannot manage in a vacuum. You need to set standards based on similar sized firms with similar sized accounts to judge performance properly. Standards should be set based on commissions and/or accounts to be handled for each of the following: • & ... to market that particular type of risk to obtain a competitive quote. In Personal Lines, ask for the names of the account's neighbors and/or best friends at close of sale. You can approach these referrals using your client's name as the referral source. Thank-you letters to referral sources, enclosing a few more business cards, are also quite effective. 4. Centers of Influence Which organizations, clubs or community events should your producers be involved in to generate new business? Make an effort to have producers participate in a variety of centers of influence to tap a number of these sources, depending on each producer's areas of interest. 5. Specialties Do your producers have special areas of expertise in certain classes of business or types of coverages? If there are carriers readily available to write those ...

... and that outfit for that circumstance . . . and your attire always matches where you are, who you're supposed to be and what your hosts are wearing. Let's add five more rhetorical garments to our word' robe. 26. Have you ever wished.. This is a lyrical opening which can penetrate defenses which leap into position against more hard-boiled attacks. In use, too often even the most professional practitioners shoot a coat of dulling spray over Have you ever wished . .. by having an introduction so long, tedious, or dynamic the opening itself becomes ancillary instead of primary-a harsh switching of gears. Don't do that. Harshness destroys wistfulness. I'm looking at a letter selling computer software. The actual letter begins: Dear Friend. Have you ever wished that you could produce incredible-looking documents, construct ... a business-to-business or executive level, don't you dare let the look of a mass mailing peek through. To these targets, We've missed you' has to be one-on-one, with a hand-finished look. If you can't do this, don't waste the postage. Oh, a second qualifier: If you can't tie We've missed you' to a special resuscitation offer, don't waste the postage. A Video Club uses--quite properly--the mass' approach, complete with Johnson Box. (I've come to regard Johnson Boxes as de-personalizers.) A truly personal We've missed you' to somebody who dropped a negative option video deal would seem gushy and phony. Under the Johnson Box is another bulk' line, printed in Goudy hand-tooled: Take Any 6 Movies FOR 39c EACH. Okay, we now know this isn't ...

... managing the agency, including the production staff. A sales manager or producer needs to be compensated because time allocated to management is time taken away from production for manager and agency. This typically costs 5% to 7% of an agency's total income. Profit The last piece in this puzzle is return for ownership. The target amount is highly individual and varies from agency to agency. Agencies often shoot for 10% profit, although many others are looking for 15% or even 20% . Production To get an idea how much your agency can afford to pay for production, add together your administrative expenses, management fee, and profit. Then subtract it from 100%- or $1 of income. An agency using 60% of every income dollar for administrative expenses, 5% ... 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 few agencies make the fatal mistake of thinking they have $1 of commission to split with producers. They don't. They have ...

...f Influence Which organizations, clubs or community events should your prod...