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Monday, April 27, 2009 6:45 AM
 I asked – and you answered. And I’m not surprised at the response. In brief, here was my question: “I'm asking them if your CSR's are SELLING enough. When I think of "selling" and CSR's, I think of four things:
1. Selling prospects on inbound calls,
2. Selling clients on the "cross sell,"
3. Successfully convincing clients to give you referrals, and,
4. Successfully "selling" your agency so that clients stay with you year after year.
If you had a "magic wand" so that your CSR's would sell better, what would you change?”
We’re always looking at tweaking and upgrading the curriculum for our CSR Mastery Program, and I got some great insights from your responses. If you’re wondering how YOUR agency “stacks up” with other…
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Wednesday, April 22, 2009 3:28 PM
I just got back – 30 minutes ago – from eight days in Chicago. (Internet Marketing MegaConference, Million Dollar Club, Quantum Club University.) Last night I saw The Chicago Shakespeare Repertory production of “Twelfth Night,” where my brother is Music Director. Since it’s been on my mind a lot lately, I was reminded what a good script can do. Make people laugh at the right time. Make people cry. Make people FEEL emotions. And a good script will do it the same…
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Thursday, April 16, 2009 3:47 AM
 Far too many agency principals resign themselves to the conclusion that “my CSR’s don’t like to sell” or “my CSR’s are supposed to be technicians” – and simply give up on the fundamental TRUTH that CSR’s are:
- The last (and too often, deadly) step in most personal lines and small commercial lines marketing campaigns. (Reflect on how much work goes into a successful marketing campaign: selecting a niche, researching market “hot buttons,” creating an advertising message that generates a response, choosing media, managing costs, scheduling media delivery, purchasing or renting mailing lists and so forth – all leading up to an inbound call to an untrained CSR who can wipe out ALL the hard work of designing a marketing campaign with one bad…
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Monday, April 13, 2009 6:38 PM
 If your home or office was robbed, you’d probably call the police.
But I see agency principals just like you get ripped off every single day. Right under their nose and they don’t even know it.
Let’s put this into perspective. For 17 years, I’ve been advising insurance agency principals about how to make more money in their agency. Most of the time we focus on marketing and business strategy, like:
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Thursday, March 26, 2009 3:28 AM
Local Search Replaces the Yellow Pages When it comes to pure Internet Marketing genius, the insurance industry doesn’t have anyone more knowledgeable, skillful or innovative than Lucas – OUR resident Internet genius. So frequently, I’ll turn the pen over to him. Credit goes to Luke for most of what follows: Beginning in 2008, Google changed the search engine to detect when people are searching for local companies or organizations. When a local search is detected, Google displays a map with the top 10 listings in that region. This is called local search. From this point forward, when a local search was detected, the local search results…
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009 7:29 AM
We recently completed an industry-wide survey on effective Internet Marketing Practices…and the conclusion is straightforward. Internet Ignorance. (Even – I’m embarrassed to admit – many of my own clients and Quantum Club members are two laps behind the mega-marketers who are hungry for your business. GEICO, Progressive, Esurance – and a growing cadre of niche players in the commercial arena.) Compare your agency…but PLEASE, do not…
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Monday, March 16, 2009 5:56 PM
It took the telephone 89 years to reach 150 million users. TV, 38 years. The cell phone, 14 years. iPod, 7 years. Facebook: 5 years. And adding up to 600,000 per day. Today I want to start sharing the most basic tips on getting started on your Facebook Marketing System.
#1. Make the critical strategic decision. Do you want to use Facebook to communicate with clients? If so – and this is an important decision – be very clear on this: mixing up casual communications with strategic business communications can confuse, and even turn off, your business audience. There are strategies to keep them separate (Groups, etc.) which we’ll talk about later. But for now, beware, if you’re going to be positioning “the reason to do business with you” on...
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Wednesday, March 11, 2009 3:25 AM
Remember the good old days?
When the best “networker” won the most clients. You know, the agent who hung around the Rotary and service clubs and spent his time “prospecting” was the one who dominated the market.
Well, those days really weren’t all that good…unless you like selling one-at-a-time and trading time for money. A lot of agents were thrilled to trade in those old, slow methods for marketing. I know that…
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Friday, March 06, 2009 4:07 AM
 Can you market insurance with webinars?
The answer is a resounding “YES.” And it solves many of the problems agencies face today. It makes it easy to sell in MULTIPLES. It gets the market to chase you, instead of the other way around. It optimizes the use of your time.
But…you MUST know what you’re doing. Here’s a quick check list that I use when…
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Tuesday, March 03, 2009 7:42 AM
Recognize the bubbly brunette in the picture?
Nah? Why that’s actress and comedian Stephanie Courtney (Mad Men, Kath & Kim, The Heartbreak Kid, Blades of Glory, etc.). Still doesn’t ring a bell?
Dip into the blog-o-sphere of contemporary culture and you’ll quickly discover she’s the unassuming ICON of a growing cult following. A quick Google of her name will alert you to discussion groups dedicated to her commercial (and romantic)…
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