Agent’s Sales Journal December 2007
Front Page Stories
When a company needs a new warehouse, its executives don’t wait until they have the cash to buy one....
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ introduction of new amendments to the Viatical ...
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Short Takes
A seismic shift that will forever alter the individual long term care insurance marketplace is about to occur. Ten thousand insurance and financial professionals who have never before sold a long term care planning solution, let alone talked to...
Diversification is a concept that is widely used throughout a variety of business settings. From the financial advisor who recommends that their clients consider expanding their portfolios to include mutual funds to the restaurant owner who...
Powerful data stresses how important it is to encourage agencies and agents to create a marketing campaign targeting gay and lesbian professionals. Same-sex couples with no children are twice as likely as their heterosexual counterparts to have...
Picture a typical day at work. Does this day consist of competing with fellow advisors and the frustration of you continuing to vie for the same client, who is often a married white male professional? This is believed to be the demographic that many...
Today’s insurance professionals are experiencing a period of profound technological changes. New media outlets such as blogs, podcasts, and streaming video create new marketing opportunities for agents as well as clients. The key, however, is...
Creating a Web site is easy, but meeting your online prospects’ expectations and converting them into leads isn’t as simple. Many Web sites geared toward the individual market are nothing more than brochures, a couple of sentences about...
According to elearners.com and their “Guide to Online Education,” distance education in the workplace is becoming more and more common every year. Eighty-five percent of employers that represent a variety of industries across the U.S....
Imagine this: You are sitting in front of a potential client and you are able to illustrate their entire financial outlook at a glance — the coverage they have, the coverage they need, and the coverage they can afford. In addition, you can...
For many years, insurance agencies were run out of cumbersome paper-based offices, with client records tucked away in filing cabinets with a large office staff to help support the storage, retrieval, and processing of customer documentation, among...
Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America and the Minnesota attorney general Lori Swanson have agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the Attorney General in January 2007. “The settlement process with Attorney General Swanson was a...
Over the past decade or so, the insurance industry has made significant strides in eliminating the paper-based systems originally used by carriers, distributors, and agents. These entities have also switched to computerized systems to manage agents...
Patients have perceived no significant change in the quality of care for cancer since the United States government passed the “Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003” (MMA), according to a study published in...
The boards of directors of LIMRA International and LOMA have approved a proposal to unite the two insurance and financial services trade organizations and will submit a recommendation to their members for a decisive vote. “Bringing LIMRA and...
Premium rates for individual term life insurance in 2008 are expected to drop, on average, about 1 percent from 2007 after many years of larger year-to-year reductions, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.). “The generally...
Sales Review
Clever marketers throughout the country are reaching a potentially lucrative epiphany: Those consumers with the greatest spending power don’t always wear ties, cuff links, and beards. As a matter of fact, one of the nation’s most...
Perspectives
In compiling the Agent’s Sales Journal Short Takes section, a gathering of relevant insurance news intended to help agents better run their businesses, we often run across more studies, surveys, and polls than we could ever hope to run in just...
Marketing
The seasons, the ebb and flow of the tides, the cycle of day and night … our very existence is based upon rhythmic cycles. Play a CD of a good Irish jig, and the next thing you know, your toes are tapping, even if you detest Irish music....
Prospecting Corner
Quoting. Follow-up case management. Customer service. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind, neglecting other essential practices — like prospecting. Prospecting cannot be sporadic. It must be a regular part of your...
Objection of the Month
How would you respond to a prospect who says… I bought a life policy awhile ago and I’m not looking to switch. “That’s great! I always try to learn from others — customers of mine, as well as others. Do you mind if I...
Other Stories
Dec. 27, 2007 Dear diary, Well, another year in this magnificently strange insurance selling business is just about history. Like most years, this one had some ridiculous highs and a few rather horrific lows, but I finally feel I am learning to...