During a recent project, the agency owners and the staff all agreed that the key strength of the agency was “customer service.” When asked to define “customer service” most people replied with statements like: it is calling the client back, …
Most agency owners have put their time, energy and heart into building their business. The business is a part of their life. The sale of one’s business is usually a one-time event. It therefore makes sense to take the time …
The “hard market” conditions have been gone now for a couple of years. So, usually during “soft market” conditions one expects a lot of competition from the standard markets. This, however, is not the typical soft market of the past. …
Job compensation The next big question is what is fair compensation? The first criterion is to make sure it is affordable compensation. Hiring the world’s best CSR is not a good idea if the cost will sink the company. Compensation …
Is personal lines costing the agency money? How profitable is that new program business the agency is promoting? What would happen to the bottom line if employee benefits sales increased by 25 percent? When is it time to hire a …
The first step to a successful merger, acquisition or cluster is to determine the compatibility of the firms. Our observation is that when transactions fail the reason is usually poor compatibility. The “urge-to-merge” is often based on satisfying market volume …
One of the most difficult decisions that an owner will have to make is to sell their agency or merge with another party. The typical owner has spent more time working and building up the business than they have with …
The practice of “sales management” is embraced by some and ignored by others. It is considered a powerful tool for some agencies, yet others see it as a total waste of time. The bulk in the middle will exercise various …
Here is a pop quiz. Who is your target market? If you answered with a specific list of target markets take one step forward. If you said you are a generalist wait to the end of the article before you …
An interesting event happened at a recent strategic planning session with a client. Action items for each department were being discussed. What stood out was that the majority of the action items had a heavy reliance for work to be …
