This blog includes posts on lead generation, eMarketing, Web Marketing, SEO and other leading edge marketing techniques.
-Alan Blume
Welcome to my Virtual Marketing, Lead Generation and SEO Blog!This blog includes posts on lead generation, eMarketing, Web Marketing, SEO and other leading edge marketing techniques. -Alan Blume |
Posted on February 2nd, 2012 by Alan Blume
Sell More & Work Less is now available on Kindle. This web selling tips book focuses on a 4-Phase Sales Process which helps business professionals quickly learn and apply many new web sales tips and techniques to improve their sales effectiveness. Simply said, allowing them to sell more and work less. The 4-Phase Virtual Sales Process facilitates the transition to a web centric sales model offering greater profit potential, improved methods of selling and the more flexible business and personal lifestyle this affords. Readers can replicate the 4-Phase Virtual Sales Process to create their own tailored sales process using the techniques explained in this web selling tips and techniques book. I was fortunate to be assisted by three “in the trenches” coauthors, Mike Lauducci, John Scranton and Andrew Blume in the writing of this web selling tips book.
Sell More & Work Less is now available on Amazon, both in paperback and the Kindle version http://www.amazon.com/Sell-More-Work-Less-ebook/dp/B0072O3KUO/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1328183749&sr=1-1-spell.
For B2B Web Marketing go to www.StartMarketingTech. For Insurance Agency Marketing go to www.StartUpSelling.com.
Posted on January 14th, 2012 by Alan Blume
Many years ago, in an attempt to improve sales productivity and forecasting while reducing pipeline subjectivity, I created something called the 4-Phase Sales Process. It’s been very effective for my businesses and my clients’ businesses, and is a process which can be used by essentially any sales professional or business. This process provides a simple methodology to improve selling, reducing prospect subjectivity and increasing sales efficiency. The four phases (identify, qualify, present and close) create a fundamental selling foundation, which salespeople and businesses can gradually builds upon. It is an effective process for both virtual businesses and salespeople and traditional operations seeking to web enable their sales teams.
The 4-Phase Sales Process is the foundation of my new book, Sell More & Work Less: Web Selling Techniques Everyone Should Use. Salespeople and businesses can rapidly adopt and tailor this process to improve their current methods, helping quantify the sales process into a series of simple, measurable and easy to monitor steps. Within this process is something I call The Prospect Scorecard, a simple tool to help salespeople track and monitor the top of their pipeline. Some of the web sales and marketing topics in Sell More & Work Less include:
* Building your prospect database and email list
* Reaching your target market through email marketing
* Leveraging warm calls for quality appointments
* Expanding reach through Social Media Marketing
For more information, go to Sell More & Work Less or The Prospect Scorecard.
Posted on January 2nd, 2012 by Alan Blume
The second book is finally complete and available on Amazon. Well – at least the paper based version is available with the Kindle version to follow in the next few weeks. This book was written and published faster than my first book, Your Virtual Success, leveraging some of the new web publishing techniques now available to authors.
Sell More & Work Less is a web selling tips book revolving around my 4-Phase Sales Process which helps business professionals quickly learn and apply many new web sales tips and techniques to improve their sales effectiveness. Simply said, allowing them to sell more and work less. The 4-Phase Virtual Sales Process facilitates the transition to a web based sales model and the greater profit potential, improved methods of selling and more flexible business and personal lifestyle this affords many salespeople and businesses, aspiring entrepreneurs and existing sole proprietors. Readers can replicate the 4-Phase Virtual Sales Process to create their own tailored sales process using the techniques explained in this web selling tips and techniques book. I was fortunate to be assisted by three “in the trenches” coauthors, Mike Lauducci, John Scranton and Andrew Blume in the writing of this web selling tips book.
Sell More & Work Less is now available on Amazon, the Kindle version is expected later in January. http://www.amazon.com/Sell-More-Work-Less-Techniques/dp/ …
For B2B Web Marketing go to www.StartMarketingTech. For Insurance Agency Marketing go to www.StartUpSelling.com.
Posted on November 21st, 2011 by Alan Blume
Here is a list of 12 important things to consider for your Insurance Agency Marketing New Year Resolutions.

Insurance Agency Marketing New Year Resolutions
And you have determined how to increase your book of business with a clear and concise insurance agency marketing plan for the New Year.
For more information visit: Insurance Agency Web Marketing
Posted on November 16th, 2011 by Alan Blume
Though every agency has time and budget constraints, here is a simple Top 10 Things To Do List for Insurance Agency Marketing & Lead Generation in 2012. This is a great time of year to step back and review everything from your insurance agency website to your insurance agency lead generation plans.
And you have determined how to increase your book of business with a clear and simple insurance agency marketing plan for 2012. For more information go to: Insurance Agency Marketing
Posted on October 13th, 2011 by Alan Blume
KPI’s are Key Performance Indicators, and are used by organizations to evaluate performance. They are quantifiable measurements that can help rapidly determine historic, current and future performance, predicated upon the type of KPIs used and the platform selected to use them. For example insurance agency KPIs might include number net new clients, net losses, renewal growth, producer quotations, average book of business by producer, agency revenue, and revenue by employee. For the purposes of this article, however, we’ll focus on KPIs for insurance agency producers though these KPI’s will also be a key subset for agency executives and owners.
Key Performance Indicators should reflect the agency’s goals, and it’s very important to select KPIs which help rapidly indicate the tactical and strategic success of your sales efforts. For example, Producer KPI’s are noted below and might be very similar to the KPIs for many industry sales executives:

Insurance Agency Key Performance Indicators
These Key Performance Indicators help measure your business, and offer indicators of past performance and future success. Year over year revenues compare current performance to past performance, while Web meetings and proposals are forward looking, an indicator of what your future business might look like. If your new prospect meetings have dropped by 20% over the last quarter from the prior quarter, you can be fairly certain that you will experience a drop in new business. However, if you experienced the same type of drop compared to a year earlier, you have a better indication that you are on track for comparable year over year sales.
KPIs can vary by agency, but if they are to be truly valuable to your agency, you must consistently and accurately define and measure them. KPIs should incorporate goals or targets to track and measure performance. For example, our company goal is to close 50% of our proposals and 25% of our web meeting prospects. We measure this goal against our KPIs for this category to track our progress. Your agency might have a goal to maintain a $1 Million book of business for each veteran producer. You might have a different goal for new producers. These goals should tie into your overall KPI tracking, offe
ring rapid insights into the health of your agency, with strong indications of future performance. These KPIs can then be measured year over year – offering accurate historical insights into your performance in mission critical areas. Larger agencies should consider using KPI rollups, where the sales, marketi
ng, accounting and service KPIs are tracked departmentally, with a few mission critical KPIs from each department rolling up to an executive list. This can be done manually or using an automated system.
What type of systems can be used for KPIs? Your agency can use anything from simple Excel spreadsheets, to CRM, to Agency Management Systems to sophisticated KPI dashboards. Selected Web metrics gleaned from Google Analytics or other web monitoring tools may also be used. KPI’s should be kept to a modest number for optimum effect. For example, tracking 10 KPI’s monthly is reasonable, but tracking 50 would result in information ov
erload. This is analogous to the dashboard of your car. Your measurements might include speed, fuel level, RPMs, odometer, engine temperature and oil level. That’s a total of six KPI’s which can be tracked while driving. Some cars offer more sophisticated KPI’s including, average miles per gallon, current MPG, tripometer, and distance to empty. These additional KPI’s may not be displayed constantly, as they may not be deemed critical to your driving. Think of your insurance agency KPI’s in the same way, closely monitoring only those which are critical to your success.
Posted on June 23rd, 2011 by Alan Blume
Most sales cycles, particularly B2B sales cycles can be expressed in four distinct phases:

Your Virtual Success
Each of these phases might have 5 or 10 steps, helping sales executives compartmentalize tasks, ensuring they are following a guide that helps them arrive at their final destination, a new client. The reason I refer to this as a “Virtual” Sales Process is that much of the work can or should be done virtually. Keep the car parked in the driveway, avoid planes and trains whenever possible, leverage Skype, GoToMeeting and other collaboration tools. More on this is available in Your Virtual Success, or at the end of the summer in my soon to be released book, Sell More & Work Less. http://yourvirtualsuccess.net/
Posted on June 22nd, 2011 by Alan Blume
Join us for this unique webinar as our Insurance Agency Marketing team reviews Effective Insurance Agency Closing Strategies and Techniques. For each concept we review, we’ll share a real world example of these techniques and explain how they have resulted in improved close ratios. We think attendees will find these examples intere

Insurance Agency Closing Tools
sting and elucidating. A few of the stories we’ll share include:
The techniques and tools discussed have consistently proven successful and will assist you in growing your book of business and improving your closing ratio. Topics include:
Date & Time: July 13th, Noon ET
To Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/872194921
This webinar is applicable to any B2B insurance agency (or any B2B organization).
Posted on June 6th, 2011 by Alan Blume

Insurance Agency Telemarketing
Recently a client of ours informed us they closed a $750,000 commission from one of the appointments we booked on his behalf. Yes, this was a commission, not a premium. That’s one of the largest individual sales produced from one of our appointment setting campaigns, and the sale occurred within the first year of the appointment setting campaign. This particular insurance agency telemarketing campaign is unique in a few ways. It is a dedicated appointment setting campaign and does not include an eMarketing or webinar component, and it leverages use of both an appointment setter and a senior StartUpSelling Vice President who further qualifies and validates every single appointment to ensure there is a compelling fit between the agency’s skills and the prospects needs.
There is an obvious elasticity when it comes to insurance agency telemarketing. The campaign noted above focuses on high level meetings with senior contacts at very large organizations, which results in perhaps 6 to 8 appointments per month. Some refer to this as whale hunting, and though this term may be politically incorrect, it is nonetheless a reasonably accurate metaphor.
Other insurance agency telemarketing campaigns focus on commissions targets of perhaps $5,000 to $10,000. Depending upon the industry and niche, these can result in 20 or more appointments per month, yielding much higher opportunity volume at lower renewal premiums. And in the middle, of these two targets is the middle market, commissions of perhaps $20,000 to $50,000 which requires appointment activity of approximately 3 or 4 appointments per week for effective results.
Insurance agency telemarketing, or in the case StartUpSelling’s specific version of insurance agency appointment setting, can still yield some impressive results. It has to be done well to be effective, that means no college student bullpen calling centers, and no incentives for appointment setters to aggressively book appointments. A long term approach is best, and campaigns will typically record their best result when accompanied by a professional insurance agency eMarketing and web seminar program. And it’s very important that producers utilize a simple and consistent qualification process. For those who have yet to implement a simple and measurable solution, they should try our Insurance Agency Prospect Scorecard. A free version of this is available on our Sales Tools Web Page http://www.startupselling.com/sales-tools.html, or for more information go to: http://www.startupselling.com/insurance-agency-marketing.html
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