Positive Power of Principled Profit
Volume 2, Number 11—July 2005

Positive Power Spotlight: First Annuity & Insurance Marketing

It's a challenge to market a non-unique product through an independent sales force that also represents competitors. First Annuity & Insurance Marketing has risen to that challenge by setting up systems that make it possible for its reps to spend as much time out in the field, selling, as possible-because the company has positioned itself as an important ally that handles and streamlines many of the other traditional functions of a sales rep's job:

* Performance bonuses in the form of marketing dollars. The funds don't go into the rep's pocket, but are earmarked for company-run lead generation efforts such as direct-mail distribution, seminars for clients (presented by the rep), or traditional advertising. The company, not the rep, designs the materials, inserts the ads, etc., and the rep gets to use a higher percentage of time face-to-face with prospects. The bonus pays off for the rep, of course, in solid, easy-converted leads, and those additional sales put the dollars in the rep's pocket.

* An attitude of "Just ask, it's ok"-and a call center to put teeth into the promise. Call center staff provide sales leads, set up contracts, educate the reps about every aspect of the product line and how different offerings will work for clients with unique needs-or even get First Annuity's president to go out and make the sales presentation. And they don't sit around waiting for calls; when time permits, the call center folks will contact the reps with offers of help.

* Coordinated with the call center: an ongoing e-mail campaign designed to make the reps feel the brass is talking just to them. Using the principles of good copywriting, good design, and repeated messages, the company prepares e-mails that are easy to read, on-message, and genuinely useful to their recipients. And the phones light up every time they're sent out: One typical campaign had an open rate of 56 percent, of whom 9.4 percent purchased, yielding $1,120,000 in sales through the reps. The same campaign, repeated two months later with a different subject line (otherwise identical) boosted the open rate to 56.3 percent. The conversion percentage dropped to 4.9 percent, but brought in revenues of $1,600,000-better than the original mailing!

In short, for this company, being seen as an ally has led to an extremely loyal, productive sales force in a fiercely competitive, commoditized industry. Is there a lesson here for Wal-Mart and other companies? Maybe adversarial relationships with suppliers or reps are not the way to go. Building real alliances is not only more ethical, but better for business. (I discuss this concept in great detail in my book, Principled Profit: Marketing that Puts People First.)

(This profile was based on an article in MarketingSherpa.com, May 14, 2004.)

Another Recommended Book: "Everyday Ethics: Putting Values Into Action" by Michael Rion (W. Hartford, Conn.: Resources for Ethics & Management, 2002)

From the very beginning of this little book, it's obvious that the focus is on how we can all help each other. Working people is not like playing poker, he says. "poker--a winning strategy includes withholding information and trying to deceive playing partners." If your goal is to win such a game, the strategy works.

"But on the job, you rely on others for mutual success. Holding back information is as harmful as actively misleading your co-workers. Either way, you make it harder to accomplish the job." (p.11) Beyond cooperation is the need to be outraged when things are wrong. To act, in other words, with the ethical principles that I (and others) constantly talk about. Blowing the whistle on wrongdoing may or may not change the problem. But ignoring the problem merely makes you complicit, guilty, knowing there's a chance you could have easily fixed the problem, or at least reported it. Other obligations: to be fair, to accept responsibility when we caused a problem, and to live out these principles.

A particularly nice example (p. 35): "When your supervisor immediately stops production to address a potential hazard, the safety value leaps from the poster into day to day plant life."

Rion encourages people to actually think through a situation--not just to blindly follow a set of rules--and that way, be prepared to address those situations the rule books don't cover.

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or this link to buy from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/097236210X/ref=nosim/globalartstravel (paperback)