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... all of your products and services. Don't keep them a secret! Take a lesson from the banking industry: Market your products and services to your clients regularly. Create a marketing plan and stick with it. Time is the test. Repetition is the key. Be innovative and outrageous. Your marketing material doesn't have to look like it came from an insurance agency. Make it colorful, fun, entertaining, eye-catching, and easy to respond to. CONCLUSION You now have the basics of cross-selling. Remember, this is not a one-day, one-week, or one-month effort. It's a long-term commitment to be the best agent for your clients- which, not coincidentally, also means being the best agent for your agency. Cross-selling is about creating a win-win situation. You want to have many threads connecting you to your clients, each thread representing a product or service. You can't have too many. You want to create thick intertwined ropes from these threads. Your clients will never leave because the costs of severing those ropes will far exceed the benefits of working through any problems with your agency. Be forewarned, though: You must stay proactive. Remain on top of your cross-selling program. Gone are the days when you could be reactive and still grow a profitable agency. Relationships today need value-added services. Retention tools are the name of the game for winning. Reprinted with permission from The National Underwriter, P/C Edition. Lynn M. Thomas, JD is president of 21st Century Management Consulting, 56 A Charlesbank Way, Waltham, MA 02453-2519, (781) 899-4210 ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. General Agency Advertising 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , John Farr This content has not been rated yet. WHAT WE HAVE IN COMMON If there's any one common thread among independent agencies, it is that we are all very independent in the way we do things. For example, a new agency will have a totally different picture of how to advertise and promote its products than a well-established agency that dominates a market in a given community. So this discussion offers you tools and ideas to fit your own advertising needs rather than telling you how to advertise. CONSIDER COST $$ $ If you can't come up with all the money to complete a particular advertising job, then starting it wastes the money you do have. Before undertaking a project, you should consider the job you want to accomplish, your resources, and any outside help you can get from companies. UNIQUE' IS THE KEY WORD No one, not even an insurance agent, gets excited about buying insurance. People get excited about buying new clothes, a car, or a house. Insurance is definitely not on the list. Since insurance is not something people want,the purpose of agency advertising is to make prospects and customers believe that they need you and your products, and that they should be in touch with you. How you reach that feeling and opinion among prospects and clients depends on your agency. If your competition is using all the normal methods of advertising, then you may have to find newer, exotic methods of reaching the public. For example, ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. The Next Generation Of Insurance Agencies 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Bill Schoeffler This content has not been rated yet. THE NEXT GENERATION OF INSURANCE AGENCIES by Bill Schoeffler The common thread in all the advice given in today's business and management books is that we're going through a period of change. This is especially true for the insurance industry. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. These first lines from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities could come from any of the numerous management books today. We now need to consider chaos the norm. Commission rate changes, carriers withdrawing from various areas, alternative marketing strategies, and legislative changes are a few of the many challenges facing agents every day. We need to learn how to excel in this turmoil. The service industry, of which insurance is a part, should take a look at the manufacturing industry and learn from their hard-earned lessons. The companies that survived and thrived pay attention to quality and customer service. Today, these are the same thing. Quality is not just theory anymore. It's necessary for survival. If we improve quality, we'll lower costs and improve productivity. We can then lower our prices, which will increase our market potential, allowing us to stay in business and give everyone a return on their investment. OLD WAY VS. NEW WAY Fredrick W. Taylor was the driving force behind the movement known as Scientific Management. This is the foundation for ...

... own. Make a commitment to the process and you'll enjoy handsome rewards. To maximize your response rate, make it easy for clients to respond, and be sure to provide an incentive. Include a fax-back option or an 800 telephone number as well as your e-mail or Web page address. For the incentive, offer the first 20 who respond a coupon for a free ice cream at a local ice cream parlor in the summer months, a tour of a building of local interest, or delivery of a bouquet of balloons to the children's ward of a nearby hospital. A Long-Term Commitment You now have the basics to start a highly focused, thorough, and profitable cross-selling and up-selling program. Remember this is not a one-day or one-week or one-month effort - it's a long-term commitment. Create many threads, each representing a product or service that connects your agency and its clients. You can't have too many. Weave thick ropes that are too intertwined for your clients to sever. In other words, the cost of severing these ties will far exceed the difficulties of working through any problems with your agency. Finally, you must be and stay proactive. Stay on top of this program. The days of being a reactive agency and expecting to grow and become profitable are gone. They're history. Relationships today require proactive nurturing and management to thrive. Retention is the name of the profit game. Lynn M. Thomas, JD is president of 21st Century Management Consulting, 32 Coyne Road, Waban, MA 02468, (781) 899-4210, E-mail [email protected] , Web site ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Communicate With Employees!4/30/2013 by Al Diamond , CompleteMarkets Editor This content has not been rated yet. Treat your employees like customers - not children! Most agency principals have owned one or two agencies and have been in a few dozen others. I've visited thousands of agencies during the past 23 years and one common thread is a lack of communication among the owners and the employees. The exceptions to this rule are always happier, more productive, and more profitable agencies. Why can't communicative agents communicate with their own employees? Because they treat their customers like customers and their employees like children. Agents know that prospects and customers alike must be treated with respect and deference. Right or wrong, they pay the bills. But although a customer only influences the amount of commission their account produces, employees influence revenues from hundreds of customers. The way your CSRs treat customers could influence them to either accept or reject your relationship-building efforts. But do agents really treat their employees like children? In many cases, yes. Children are tolerated in spite of their flaws. Many agents tolerate employees who display unwarranted behavior because: They've been with the agency for years They've done such good work in the past They're not that bad' they do work hard and stay late The question is whether you'd hire the person if they left and returned looking for a job. If the employee cant meet your standards for a new employee, why are they still with you? Meanwhile, employees who do well regularly are rarely thanked because: They're doing their ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. The Origins Of Diminished Agency Value 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Roy Phillips This content has not been rated yet. THE ORIGINS OF DIMINISHED AGENCY VALUE by Roy Phillips and Dan King What factors contribute to the reduction of an agency's value? In our experience of evaluating hundreds of terminally ill agencies over the past decade, some common threads have emerged. It appears that the No. 1 cause of diminished agency value is poor management. An agency with skilled leadership is likely to be healthy. In the hands of its existing owners, the agency will probably continue to operate with consistent financial and market profiles, and hold its value. The relationships that develop between clients and owners over the years have an intangible, but real, value in goodwill. Conversely, a sick agency with plummeting market value might look to the following contributing causes: The agency suffers image damage with carriers due to underwriting losses, poor payment patterns, and sub-par knowledge of insurance coverage. Skill levels of staff personnel, including CSRs and producers, are below acceptable standards, and the agency doesn't conduct proper recruiting and training. Growth and attrition rates are inferior, with little emphasis on retention and account rounding. The agency depends on single-industry business and/or large-revenue accounts. Data-processing systems are absent or antiquated, with no online capability. Staff and producers are working without employment contracts. Agency owners and managers have few credentials in the areas of finances, sales, compensation, and marketing. There's a history of E&O allegations, arising from a lack of ...

... Life benefits. This statement was-and is- shocking and true. During the so-called normal' times, when P/C commissions ranged in the 30% field (plus contingencies), some P/C agents earned more on Life commissions than on P/C . Increasingly, surveys reveal agencies' Life income inching upward as a percentage of total income. Many agencies are showing 5% to 10% of the bottom line coming from Life production; more are in the 10% to 20% range, and a few are breaking the 25% mark. Yet there are some agencies- admittedly a small percentage, but enough to show a consistent pattern within reach-earning 50% of profit from Life! The P/C profit is equaled or exceeded by the Life profit. The common thread these agencies have is a commitment to Life production. That commitment starts with recognition of potentials. As a guide, complete the following data about your agency. Develop guidelines toward improving Life income. Personal Lines 1. Number of P/C accounts: ____ 2. Number of P/C policies: ____ 3. Average policy count per account: (# 2 minus #1 ): _____ 4. Number of Life policies (including Disability, Medical Expense, and other Life-related coverages): ____ 5. Average Life policy count per account (# 4 minus #1 ): ____ 6. P/C premium volume: ____ 7. Life (and Life-related) premium volume: ____ 8. P/C gross annual income ( ...

... . Xobni indexes all of your stored e-mail, starting with the most recent messages. Once your e-mail is indexed, the Xobni sidebar shows a profile of the sender for any e-mail you have selected in the message list in your inbox or other folders. Each profile is divided into different sections, including a search box that is much faster than Outlook's search function. Other sections include the name of the sender for any e-mail you have selected, with a photo (if available), a phone number, and a bar chart showing how many e-mails you've received from that person, as well as times of day when that person appears to be most or least active on e-mail. Also included is the sender's e-mail network — other people included in e-mails to you, Conversations' which display e-mail threads (other e-mails you've exchanged with the sender), and a section which lists all the files that are attachments on received e-mails. Give Xobni a try! It might make your Outlook e-mail more useful. Only by creating a plan to bring customers to your website, will it be worth the time, money, and energy it took to create it. Steve Anderson is a licensed agent who heads The Anderson Network, Inc., which provides consulting services on how to maximize profits using common sense technology. He can be reached at American Insurance Consultants, PO Box 42, Franklin, TN, 37065-1546, (615) 599-0085, e-mail [email protected] , or visit www.SteveAnderson.com . Login or Register (for FREE) to gain access to thousands of other great articles. Need ...

... or track ball. If you've been using the alphanumeric keyboard for commands, switch to mouse or track ball for a while to do a report or calculate rates. Vary your tasks. If you've been typing a report or proposal, take time to hand-write a few thank-you and F.Y.I. notes. Stretch or rest between movements. Before you answer the next telephone call, drop your hands to your sides and shake them lightly. Or reach for the ceiling, stretching as you go. Avoid using too much force. Today's keyboards are much more sensitive to the touch than the keyboards many of us learned to type on. Lighten up! Give yourself gifts. Reward yourself with an armrest, a footrest, a wristrest, or a document holder with an adjustable angle and height. The common thread running through most of these tips is to change positions and activities at regular intervals. You'll find that improving your health will improve your performance. 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 insurance industry reference library for - Personal Lines Professionals Commercial Lines Professionals Life/Health & Benefits Professionals Online newsletters and content that you can use for ...

... might say publicly that it's "customer focused," everyone knows that doing whatever it takes to make a sale is the real "core value." Exercise: Ask employees, customers, management, and directors to share their perception of your company's three most important values and what each one means. 4. Answering the customer's question. You might think we understand what's going on in your customers' heads, but your perception might be more distorted than you'd like to think. Asking one question can help expand your understanding of what your customers are thinking and how that compares with your views. Exercise: Ask employees, customers, management, and directors to answer the question: "Why do customers buy from us?" 5. The heart of the company. Is there a common thread that binds everyone together, including employees, customers, management, and directors? Is it an idea, a way of doing business, a feeling, or is it something else? Is it positive or even possibly negative? Exercise: What is the one quality that everyone in your company employees, management, customers, and directors all agree to, and why? The objective of this five-question exercise is to find out if the road map (the words we use) matches the actual territory. Although we all approach jobs, ideas, opportunities, the future, and problems from an individual perspective, a shared understanding gives your business an accurate picture of itself and where you're going. Can this exercise in understanding help a company improve its customer relations and better focus its marketing and ...