Every week, I travel around the country to speak with independent agency principals about insurance marketing. The more I travel, the clearer it becomes that most agencies today are finding it very difficult to generate enough new business to cover their annual losses. Part of this difficulty is
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02/04/2009
January 28th, 2009 - State Farm Insurance has just announced that they will drop all of their 700,000+ Florida homeowner policies throughout 2009. This has created a HUGE growth opportunity for agencies that have a strategy to capture the 85% of Florida customers that will search online for their
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01/28/2009
The soft market leads to decreasing premiums. Lower premiums translate to lower commissions. Workers comp is a function of the economy. Decreasing work force translates to decreasing workers comp commissions. Rising food and fuel costs put pressure on small businesses and personal lines customer
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01/28/2009
All of us at one time or another have heard references to the concept of "drafting," usually in the context of NASCAR racing. The best independent e-agents are learning to employ the same tactics to find and sell more customers on the Internet. Drafting defined: When a car travels through the air
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01/15/2009
If you're looking to grow your agency and protect your book by tapping into the increasing number of people using the Internet to find an insurance provider, you must have a complete strategy. Just having a website is not going to be enough. 1. The Right Vision It all begins with your vision. If
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01/13/2009
2008 was the "tale of two cities" for independent agents. Fortunately for the agents who embraced the changing needs of the modern consumer, 2008 was MUCH better than expected. Why? Declining premiums and decreasing payrolls affected everybody - even the most creative agents felt the pinch. Acros
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01/06/2009
Agents across the country are starting to realize that they must create a centralized, low-cost marketing strategy that will allow them to find, sell, and keep more customers profitably in 2009. A significant challenge is the notion that policies written by anyone other than the owner are "their"
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12/18/2008
As we close out 2008, now is the time to plan for 2009. Most successful insurance agents agree that the Internet will play a major role in how customers research and select an insurance provider in 2009. According to a recent study by the Association of Independent Insurance Agents, 85% of all ne
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10/28/2008
An independent agent in Southern Florida finally explodes when she decides to start her own gang. Susan has spent the last 6 months trying to maintain her standard of living while her past customers and referral business continued to grind to a halt. One morning over coffee, she came to the concl
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07/31/2008
Does this sound familiar?Ø Great ratesØ Great serviceØ No surprisesØ The right coverageNow draw a 10 mile circle around your AGENCY and I bet you could count over 100 people offering the EXACT SAME THING.Here are a few MILLION DOLLAR questions that must be answered by EVERY SINGLE INDEPENDENT INS
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07/31/2008
