Agency Operations

What’s a Professional Sales Manager?

I was in the midst of a sales slump when my sales manager offered to have lunch with me and discuss the situation. Afterwards, I was back on track to becoming my company’s top salesman in the nation.  What made the difference in my performance was the skillful intervention of an astute and professional sales…

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Account Profiles

What’s an account profile form? An account profile form isa form full of questions, or more precisely, spaces for the answers to questions. The questions are all about one of your accounts, or one of the individuals within that account. The form is the document on which you store that useful information. A well-designed, systematically…

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How to Protect Your Good Accounts from the Competition

The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, dictates that for most salespeople, 20% of their customers produce 80% of their revenue. If that is true for you, it means that losing one of your good accounts to the competition can be devastating to your business. But losing a good account impacts your business…

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Accepting Responsibility for Your Sales Success

What is it that empowers some people to change smoothly and effortlessly, while getting others to modify their behavior seems like moving a mountain? It is something that is becoming increasingly rare — a motivating sense of personal responsibility. That is, a deep and imbiding belief that one is responsible for one’s own behavior as…

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How to Maximize the Power of a Sales Call

No matter how clever the marketing program, how creative the advertising, or how friendly the customer service reps, if you mishandle the sales call, everything else is a waste. Mishandle the sales call and you may lose a customer for years. Handle it correctly and you’ll take the first step toward a lifetime relationship.

How Well Are Your Salespeople Serving Your Customers?

That’s right. Serving, not selling. I know you are concerned with sales. It’s easy to determine how well your people are selling to your customers. That’s what sales reports are for. But your customers are more concerned with how well they are being served by your salespeople. Why is that important? Keep reading….

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How Sharp Is Your Sales Structure?

How can I get greater productivity out of my salespeople? In one form or another, that’s a question every owner and sales manager ponders regularly. As a sales trainer and consultant, it is the basic question that I confront. And it is the underlying question behind every attempt to train salespeople. Investing in training and…

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Advertising and Marketing Insurance in the “TiVo” Age

The “TiVo” phenomenon is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to consumer-centric product and service marketing. This change, most noticeable in television advertising, is in itself a remarkable change in the way we spend and manage our recreational and spare time. But, more importantly, the “TiVo phenomenon” in all of its forms…

The Ultimate Marketing Tool and the Golden Rules of Sales

Why do the unsuccessful marketers constantly seek the ‘Holy Grail” of sales and marketing when the answer has always been well within reach? I assume that the fads in the sales and marketing profession are the ‘divining rods’ and tarot cards of our industry. Everyone seeks a shortcut to success. Well, I have bad news…

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Producer Validation and Management

Most insurance agencies would like to be driven by a regular flow of new business from their producer force. However, most agencies find that their producers spend most of their time caring for existing customers with production relegated to a secondary position. In this article, you’ll learn how to establish a producer validation program to…