Latest Sales Headlines
All the headlines from our Sales Topic Page, ordered by recency.
6 Juicy Excuses for Why Your Agency Didn’t Grow Last Year
Jan 26 2015 // It’s a brand new year. Hopefully last year’s numbers were where you wanted them to be: solid growth, increased revenue and expenses under control. But for those agencies that didn’t add to their book,...
Fuel Your Agency’s Success with High-Octane Leads
Jan 12 2015 // Jason KulpaLeads are the fuel that powers an agency’s sales engine. And if you run out of fuel — or you’re trying to run your diesel engine on gasoline — you’re not going to make it very far....
Do You Need an Agency Manager?
Dec 15 2014 // Congratulations! You are an excellent salesperson and your business is growing. You first hired a customer service representative (CSR) to support you as you added new business. You might have brought on a part-time...
Large Agencies More Optimistic About Future Growth: Study
Nov 17 2014 // Optimism over the future growth potential of independent agencies ties closely to the size of the independent agency, with larger agencies feeling more optimistic about future growth than their smaller counterparts,...
Should Agency Owners Find or Develop Salespeople?
Nov 3 2014 // I was going through some old files and found an article from 20 years ago discussing how difficult it was to find quality new producers. The author discussed the partial solutions he had discovered running his agency. Two...
Large Agencies More Optimistic About Future Growth: Vertafore Study
Oct 17 2014 // Optimism over the future growth potential of independent agencies ties closely to the size of the independent agency, with larger agencies feeling more optimistic about future growth than their smaller counterparts,...
Nationwide Names Executives, Divisions Under One-Brand Strategy
Sep 11 2014 // Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. has realigned its internal structure and named new division leaders, one week after announcing it is bringing all of its product lines under the single brand, Nationwide. Last week...
Creating Key Performance Indicators
Aug 18 2014 // How is the best way to measure the business’ success? Often business owners have a good grasp of the financial indicators and sales of their business. Knowing sales is important — owners might know off the top of...
Contemporary Growth Tips From a 150-Year Old Agency
Jul 21 2014 // Imagine running an insurance agency 150 years ago. Essentially all that was available to sell was fire insurance and perhaps some marine. Fast forward to today and that same operation – now celebrating its...
The Political Battle Over Export-Import Bank
Jun 27 2014 // A day before U.S. House Republicans were to vote on a new majority leader, lawmakers aligned with the limited-government Tea Party movement delivered a message to the leading candidate, Kevin McCarthy of California. They...
Why Some Young Agents Chose Insurance as a Career
May 1 2014 // The call to become an insurance agent is different for everyone. For Matthew Ostrow the call to become an independent agent came via social media. Thirty-year old Ostrow entered insurance just five months ago after a...
Hiring That First Good Producer
Apr 7 2014 // Hiring that first good producer may be the most difficult single step/achievement an independent agent undertakes. It is so difficult, at least 60 percent of agencies, based on size surveys, never hire a single successful...
Young Agents Survey – Why They Chose Insurance
Apr 7 2014 // The call to become an insurance agent is different for everyone. For Matthew Ostrow the call to become an independent agent came via social media. Thirty-year old Ostrow entered insurance just five months ago after a...
Evaluate and Share Your Sales Successes and Failures
Mar 24 2014 // The “typical” P/C producer’s life is packed with sales drama. It features climactic successes and failures mixed in with routine yesses and noes. You can accept these ups and downs as business as usual or...
Survey: Who’s Worth What in the Independent Agency System?
Mar 21 2014 // For the second year in row, salaries and total compensation rose in independent insurance agencies across the nation. That’s according to Insurance Journal’s annual Agency Salary Survey 2014. This year all...
How to Be a High Performing Agency
Feb 24 2014 // To be a high-performing firm, one needs to emulate what the best firms are doing and the traits that bring high-performance to fruition. This article focuses on the top five characteristics the best agencies have in...
Who’s Worth What in the Independent Agency System
Feb 24 2014 // Exclusive Survey Shows Compensation Up, Benefits Up With a Cost For the second year in a row, salaries and total compensation rose in independent insurance agencies across the nation. More agencies are offering health...
Allstate Beefs Up Agency Force
Feb 21 2014 // Allstate Corp., the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer, increased its agency count for the first time since 2007 as the company targeted growth beyond the U.S. East Coast to diversify risk. The insurer had...
Allstate Seeking to Expand Agency Count in Texas
Feb 19 2014 // Allstate Insurance Co. is launching a recruitment campaign to appoint 120 new agency owners in Texas this year. Allstate agency owners are also actively searching for qualified candidates to fill more than 800 sales...
Encourage Your Inexperienced Agent to Find a ‘Production Peer’
Jan 27 2014 // Inexperienced P/C producers frequently feel that they are working alone, lost in a sea of expectations. Their response, especially if they are young, is often to redouble their online activity. But today’s impersonal...
