Latest Sales Headlines

All the headlines from our Sales Topic Page, ordered by recency.

ACT! Now to Improve Sales – Contact Management for the Modern Agent

May 23 2005 // During the summer of 2004, ISU Curry Insurance, a commercial insurance brokerage, was looking for a way to keep track of its 6,000 contacts.The answer came with the introduction to an Act! consultant who unleashed the...

People

May 23 2005 // James Robinson Huber has been appointed senior vice president and regional executive, Southeast Region for ACE USA, the U.S.-based retail operating division of The ACE Group of Companies. Based in Atlanta, Huber will be...

Relative and Absolute Success

May 9 2005 // Family Follows Sinclair ‘No-Quote’ StrategyDavid Sinclair, founder and president of Sinclair Insurance Group, Inc., is entering a new phase in his business life, relatively speaking. Sinclair has built three...

Why Client Complaints Are a Good Thing

May 9 2005 // Insurance is frequently a complicated product to buy as well as to use. So, it’s not exactly shocking when a prospect or an insured complains. These events are a permanent part of the insurance reality. The...

Purmort Insurance Agency’s Family Tree’s Roots Go Back to 1876

May 9 2005 // When I stepped from the hot sunshine and left the traffic speeding along Sarasota, Fla.’s busy Bee Ridge Road into Al Purmort Insurance Agency Inc.’s cool air-conditioned lobby, it was like taking a step back...

Employee Incentive Plans: Make Them Worthwhile

Apr 18 2005 // A few years back, while leading a seminar, we asked the audience to see if anyone had an employee incentive plan. One person raised his hand and proudly said: “I do. If they work hard they get to keep their jobs,...

Create a Community with an Agency Newsletter and Web Site

Apr 4 2005 // There are two classic reasons why consumers change insurance providers: a lower premium and a profound lack of appreciation. Agency management can only do so many things about the premiums they proffer. But there is always...

Preparing Your Personal Lines CSRs to Sell

Mar 7 2005 // Sales generated by property/casualty customer service representatives are the least risky, most profitable of all agency activities. They generate the easiest of all new commissions and help to keep rivals out of the...

Turning Prospects Into Clients: Are These INs Keeping You Out’

Feb 21 2005 // Year by year, it becomes increasingly challenging to secure appointments with new prospects. Therefore, it also becomes essential that you convert most prospects into sales. Yet studies indicate that even senior agents...

Lessons Learned from a Cherry Red Car

Feb 7 2005 // The last Oldsmobile, painted a commemorative dark cherry red, rolled off the assembly line in April 2004. During its 107-year history, the company produced more than 35 million cars and pioneered innovations like...

The Hartford Sees 37% Gain in Q4 Net Income to $620M

Jan 28 2005 // The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. reported a 37-percent increase in fourth quarter 2004 net income to $620 million, or $2.08 per diluted share, hitting an all-time quarterly record.Net income in the current period...

Insurers Blast Consumer Report On Contingent Fees

Jan 27 2005 // The American Insurance Association and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America have joined independent agents in criticizing a report on the use of contingent commissions in personal lines insurance by the...

ACT Reports on How to Boost Sales

Jan 4 2005 // The Agents Council for Technology (ACT) has published a multi-part report on the ACT Web site to help independent agents and brokers build a sales-driven agency culture and implement disciplined sales processes using...

Sell Personal Lines Upgrades via Direct Mail

Jan 3 2005 // To remain in business, agents need to derive as much revenue as possible from every current insured, at the least possible cost. This is particularly the case now that the structure of the classic contingency commission is...

Lessons Learned from a Cherry Red Car

Jan 3 2005 // The last Oldsmobile, painted a commemorative dark cherry red, rolled off the assembly line in April 2004. During its 107-year history, the company produced more than 35 million cars and pioneered innovations like...

Lessons Learned From a Cherry Red Car

Jan 3 2005 // The last Oldsmobile, painted a commemorative dark cherry red, rolled off the assembly line in April 2004. During its 107-year history, the company produced more than 35 million cars and pioneered innovations like...

Lessons Learned from a Cherry Red Car

Jan 3 2005 // The last Oldsmobile, painted a commemorative dark cherry red, rolled off the assembly line in April 2004. During its 107-year history, the company produced more than 35 million cars and pioneered innovations like...

Lessons Learned from a Cherry Red Car

Jan 3 2005 // The last Oldsmobile, painted a commemorative dark cherry red, rolled off the assembly line in April 2004. During its 107-year history, the company produced more than 35 million cars and pioneered innovations like...

Publish Your Own Insurance Owner’s Manual

Dec 6 2004 // When one buys something tangible of any complexity, it usually comes complete with a hard-to-open box, endless packing materials, and an owner’s manual for handy set-up and reference. These helpful little booklets...

NATIONAL ALLIANCE STUDY RELEASED:

Nov 22 2004 // Austin, Texas-based National Alliance Research Academy has published the third edition of their producer compensation study, Producer Profile: Compensation, Production, and Responsibilities. This study surveyed over 400...