The year was 1943, World War was raging. Spies and saboteurs had infiltrated our country, establishing themselves as normal citizens and were busily (and invisibly) at work trying to destroy our ability to make war. This internal threat became known as “The Fifth Column” (a term from the 1938 Spanish Civil War and memorialized by…
An 18-wheeler slid into a ditch. A little old lady pulled up with her two Chihuahuas in the car and called to the driver, “Throw me a chain and I’ll have my dogs pull you out of the ditch.” “Lady!” he replied, “How are you going to get those two little dogs to pull this…
In many organizations, we are now seeing the modern equivalent of the World War II Stockholm Effect (see below), with sales people transferring alliances to the customer. This could lead to your worst nightmare…your best sales people taking your customers away to a newly formed company or a competitor. To combat the Stockholm Effect….
The issues of attitude and motivation seem to confound most sales organization. Companies will go looking for a “motivational speaker” to pump life into a lethargic sales group. Sales managers will search high and low for the latest gimmick to try to stimulate their sales effort. What they don’t seem to understand is that they…
The most often misunderstood function in a sales plan is the training of staff. The first rule of training is that nothing stays fixed. Training is an ongoing process that occurs whether you want it to or not. Your choice is not whether you train or not. The choice is whether you train your staff…
Most claims of success by sales trainers are a fraud. Many sales trainers are like roosters taking credit for the dawn…they crow about the effectiveness of their workshops when, in fact, there is virtually no way to substantiate their claims. Most sales training is done because management doesn’t know what else to do to improve…
In order to migrate (develop) a prospect up to buyer and then on to loyal customer requires a sales person to have an overall account management vision. What’s needed is a new view of how to “get out of the box” of being a Willy Loman…an order taker. The game is to raise the relationship…
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An insured requested that a second location be removed from his policy. He made the request on 09/29/06. The second location was sold 06/24/04 and he requested that it be removed effective 06/24/04, the date he sold the property, with a return of premium. He presented court house records showing that the property had been…
Insurers often adjust loss ratios and reserves near the end of the calendar year. One agent asks if this is done to reduce profit sharing bonuses paid to agencies or if there is some legitimate reason for the adjustments. The VU faculty point out that it is much more likely than not that the latter…
