Marketing

Many people fail to understand accountability, its importance, and where it begins. Whether you are a new business owner or an experienced leader, it starts with YOU! Good leaders know how to foster a culture of accountability and execution. They make commitments and they keep them.

Salespeople often fall victim to being on the phone 24/7. After all, you never know when that ringing phone might be a sale. So with no one screening a salesperson's calls, they're bound to feel the need to answer every one. But sometimes, salespeople have to set boundaries to be productive.

Traditional ways of marketing and selling won’t work in the near-term, and maybe even in the long-term as some new behaviors are likely to stick beyond the pandemic. Digital and virtual tools can help agents succeed in this environment.

Keri Fox, a Smart Choice Territory Manager serving Washington state, answers some questions about working during this pandemic.

CEO Newsletter: In a time when people may be suffering from economic impacts, as well as information overload from news and other sources, it can be difficult to know what’s even appropriate for promoting your business and staying front and center.

From the Front Line: Now more than ever agents must resist the temptation to slash marketing budgets. It seems counterintuitive, but when times are hard, that is when you actually should invest more into marketing. This doesn’t mean you have to spend more money (although you should consider increasing your budget if possible). There are many marketing avenues that don’t cost a thing!

Social distancing is leading to a continued surge in RV sales. Here are some tips and tools to take advantage.

Four months ago, Jill attended a seminar on how to keep her customers and prospects thinking of her, and not her competition. One simple method was sending a personal thank you note to everyone who met with her.

Who would have thought we would be facing such an uncertain future just a few short months ago? I think many of us believed this would be a temporary disruption, and now many states are facing an undetermined amount of time that businesses will be shut down, which is a scary prospect for much of the population.

There is a prevailing thought amongst P&C agents that Excess, Surplus and Specialty lines markets are only used for those one-off type risks, or poor and high risk business. While E&S is certainly used for placing one-off risks, it is also a good home for risks that have been denied by a standard carrier for a variety of reasons.

I first met Theron about 15 years ago when I was switching from a nice dependable job like teaching to something strange and unusual called sales. I suppose you could say that Theron was, in many ways, a mentor for me. Back then, he had 15 years of sales experience and I was always amazed at how easy he made selling look. For whatever reason, perhaps out of pity, he took to suggesting things for me to do and try.

The last several months have been an unprecedented time in our nation’s history. Certainly, none of us can remember anything quite like it. Who would have thought it was possible to shut an entire economy down in a few short weeks?