I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll say it again: Together Everyone Achieves More. In this spirit of cooperation, several teams of Branch and Unit Managers have hit the road to visit other Branch offices in the interest of sharing ideas. Any Manager who has a field force that wants to learn a variety of marketing programs — and see them in action — would be remiss to not visit another successful Branch with his sales team. Emulation of success is a key to faster progress.

A number of Managers are now in the process of arranging such trips, and several have already benefited from these meetings. In fact, recently Lafayette visited the Little Rock Branch and came back fired up about what they had learned. As the Lafayette Manager writes:

"I sent my three Unit Managers up to the Little Rock Branch last week for three days in an effort to learn more about their marketing efforts in Underage. I had asked my Unit Managers to take notes, observe, and be prepared to share the information when they returned. I followed later in the week and met with the Little Rock Branch Manager.

All three of my people were allowed into the field with Little Rock Unit Managers and Agents. Not only did they observe the techniques used by Little Rock on the phones, but they were put into vehicles to run the appointments the next day. Talk about excited! All three of my Unit Managers were chomping at the bit to get back to Lafayette to put what they had experienced in Little Rock to practical use.

As I type, my Unit Managers are in the next office having a phone clinic with seven first year Agents. If anyone would like to give their Branch a little lift, visit an office that’s got something on the ball!"

How is that for a rousing endorsement? Those Agents, Unit Managers, and Branch Managers interested in making money should get up, get out, and get into successful offices to pick their brains and put together a marketing plan for their own Branches. There is not one single person or organization that cannot benefit from sharing successful ideas, regardless of how successful they think they are already.

In another arena, we are gearing up in anticipation of a lot of excitement surrounding the new Provider Network available March 1 through UA Partners. In order to help kick off the program, two training meetings for Branch Managers and Unit Managers have been scheduled for March. We are looking forward to these meetings as a time when the application of these exciting new programs to the sales field will be discussed.

Other new developments are percolating as well. Our Branches are engineering new methods of lead generation in creative and successful ways (see Unit Manager interviews pages 8-9). Learn about Cover the Uninsured Week on page 4. Also, there’s no motivation like a pat on the back, so read the policyholder testimonials on pages 6-7 to get your sales moving!