It is Friday afternoon in the middle of summer. In my mind, the very best time of the year (maybe second to the summer equinox). We are still weeks away from too much campaigning mania and the kids are not in school. I keep thinking about Tony Snow saying "... concentrate on living." That is very good advice. So grab this time and live it.

When I started my career, there was a great manager at IBM that would go around on Friday afternoons and check on his entire team. If they weren't working on an immediate deadline, he'd tell them to knock off early and enjoy the day. He wasn't my manager but I heard about it.

Which brings up my final 'affirmation comment' for this Friday. From research, we know that doing someone a favor not only makes the person being helped feel better, but also the person doing the good deed has more endorphins moving around too. More than that, if a 3rd party observes the good deed, that person ALSO has the benefit of feeling better, just by seeing the kindly action.

So, if you are a manager, help your team leave early. Many people will benefit from that act, including you.

Posted by Lori Reed at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Lemonade stands, with their diminutive proprietors, are a summer staple. Recently, New York magazine interviewed a gaggle of New York City lemonade stand operators between the ages of 5 and 10.

Despite their youth, these kids clearly have some shrewd entrepreneurial instincts. (Maybe it’s city smarts?)

Check out these interviews, which were conducted by New York magazine writer Joanna Goddard. [Note the Agent Blog analysis after each one]:

Stand 1

REBECCA HORWITZ, 8, AND ARI HORWITZ, 5, SIBLINGS.

Location: On their stoop near Prospect Park in Park Slope.

Price per cup: 50 cents.

How do you make the lemonade? ELINOR: Real lemons, real sugar, and ice.

Do you sell anything else? ELINOR: We sometimes tell people’s fortunes.

What kinds of fortunes? ELINOR: We usually pick bad ones. Like this woman walked up and we said, “You’re going to grow a beard.”

Where do you put the money? OLIVER: In a jar, but you have to hide it under the table. Otherwise, they will say, “Oh, you already have too much money! We’re not going to buy lemonade!”

What will you do with the earnings? ELINOR: I like to wait for a rainy day. I’m saving for a car when I’m 16. I’ve never touched my piggy-bank money. Once I tried to count it, but it got away from me. I was like, “One, two, three, four, I’m tired.”

Do you go to other people’s lemonade stands? OLIVER: We’re not competitive. We’ll buy their lemonade.

Earnings . . . . . . . . . . $30 to $126

Continue reading "Lessons from Lemonade Stands" »

Posted by Jeb Foster at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Yesterday I had the good fortune to attend an Edward Tufte conference here in Denver.

Tufte, a professor emeritus at Yale, is an expert in the art and science of presenting data and information. He’s the author of Beautiful Evidence, Envisioning Information and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. He also wrote the now-classic anti-PowerPoint manifesto: The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint, which could also be titled “How PowerPoint Makes Us Stupid.” The New York Times calls him “the Leonardo da Vinci of data.”

Although I knew he had fans in design circles, I was amazed to observe yesterday that people were treating him like he was Mick Jagger, lining up for his autograph during every break. The audience consisted of everyone from business school teachers to trial lawyers to young designers from Crispin Porter. Everyone in attendance shared the same desire: to be better at presenting their case. Or their company’s case. Or their client’s case.

Tufte makes his living by telling people how to give better presentations, so the bar was pretty high going into the day-long seminar. He sure delivered—all without using a single PowerPoint slide. (He did show a couple short videos.) Anyway, I was scribbling notes the entire time he talked. This morning I translated my notes from handwritten scrawl to type. Check out a few of my paraphrased notes (in the form of 9 tips) after the jump …

Continue reading "9 Tips from Edward Tufte" »

Posted by Jeb Foster at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Published in 2006, the following post was written by my former colleague and Agent Blog founding scribe, Megan Mahan. It’s one of my favorite entries, for its insight and entertainment value. Megan observes some boozing dudes at baseball game at Coors Field here in Colorado. After covering 100 years of baseball trivia, one of them makes a startlingly perceptive point on the importance of differentiating oneself in sales. … click the image to read this timeless post:

Posted by Jeb Foster at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Maybe you already know what it is—the ultimate question you must ask your clients. But heavens! maybe you don't! Click here to head over to the Agent Resource Center to find out.

Client feedback is integral to long-term success. Without it, you're simply fumbling in the dark. (Never a good strategy.) Gaining client reactions through regular surveys is an excellent way to spot your weaknesses and hone your skills. Visit the Agent Resource Center to read more about how surveys can help you and your business thrive.

Article: Survey Says: the Value of Customer Feedback Is Undeniable

Posted by Jeb Foster at 02:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Many copywriters, sales people, marketers and designers forget that they are competing for increasingly desensitized ears and eyeballs.

While some marketers and sales people acknowledge they are competing with each other for scarce attention, their response is usually to dial up the volume. The designer will add flash animation to his display ad. The copywriter will throw juicy adjectives and exclamation points into his copy. The sales person will create an artificial sense of urgency.

They forget that they are competing for increasingly desensitized ears and eyeballs. The graphic designer's ad is but one of six on a person’s screen. The sales person's pitch is but one of eight a prospect has heard today. The copywriter forgets that the law of diminishing returns applies to punctuation, especially exclamation points. Faced with this assault of noise, people tune out. Moreover, they selectively tune out the loud and become more welcoming of the quiet.

Quiet is the new loud—where loud means effective and inspiring.

That’s why you actually take the time to read the Ketel One ads. That’s why Google, with plain text , has become the king of online advertising. That’s why your Mac—the actual machine and the operating software—provides a welcome visual reprieve.

Posted by Jeb Foster at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

They work because we humans are pack animals: the opinions and actions of our peers matter to us. That’s why we read Amazon.com book reviews, watch movies that Ebert likes and trample each other at soccer games. It’s the phenomenon known as social proof, or for the layman, it’s called the herd mentality. It’s a powerful force, and testimonials can help you harness it in beneficial way.

Here at InsureMe, unless there is an embarrassing misspelling in all caps, we don’t edit our testimonials. The reason is they bring more legitimacy and flavor when they come from a real person (as opposed to a copywriter). And legitimacy and authenticity are the very things that testimonials are supposed to convey. “Testimonials work best when they are believable, specific, and enthusiastic,” wrote copywriter Dean Rieck in a Monday post for Copyblogger. Thus, Rieck cautions heavily against forging your own.

Continue reading "The Unlikely Power of Testimonials" »

Posted by Jeb Foster at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Which is the right tool?

That’s the question du jour over at Copyblogger, a terrific web site for anyone looking to communicate more persuasively.

Casting nets—as opposed to throwing harpoons—is a better default option.

“Harpoons work great when you need to strike quickly,” says Sonia Simone. “But they have a few problems … [and] they can convey shoddiness and a lack of ethics.”

The harpoon is a tool of pressure and force, which means it pays to keep in mind Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you start lobbing harpoons at people, get ready to encounter Moby-Dick levels of resistance.

The net. This tool is for the softer, less forceful approach. “Instead of hurling your single-pointed communication as forcefully as you can, consider encouraging your prospect to wrap himself in a friendly, supportive net,” says Simone.

It’s a longer process, but it gives you time to earn credibility—which is of singular importance when selling complicated financial products like insurance.

Remember, most consumers have conflicting desires when purchasing insurance: they want to speed through the process and get back to daily life, but they also want the peace of mind that they’re making a smart decision. A good agent will build her prospect's confidence while subtly yet quickly moving things along.

You’ll find advocates of the net method here at the Agent Blog, but that’s not to say there aren’t times to use the harpoon. Just use it wisely.

Posted by Jeb Foster at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

I just listened to a conference call sponsored by Progressive where Noel Albert described his ‘best practices’. I thought you would be interested in some of his tactics. His focus was how to work online leads, but his attitude relates to all types of leads.

He did emphasize that this is how he is working, but that everyone should devise their own best style.

Continue reading "Tips from a Successful Agent" »

Posted by Lori Reed at 02:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

If you're interested, head over to the Agent Resource Center to read a new article on sales style. (And by style we don't mean fashion.)

Posted by Jeb Foster at 04:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)