Business And Education - 1

American business, in general, has long since discovered that continuous education of its employees is vital to continuous progress.

At a recent Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Management Conference, the chairman, in speaking of the company's expansion of its training and educational program, made this statement: "What we want are new ideas, new ways to do things better. We are living in one of the most fascinating eras of history, with rapid advances in methods and equipment making unprecedented calls upon management skills. More than ever before, education must be a continuing process."

Way back in 1924 it was my interesting experience to establish the educational department of Aetna Life Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut. I wrote a five booklet correspondence course, established a three-week field training school and conducted this course in the company's leading agencies from coast to coast. The results were impressive as evidenced by the following advertisement published by the Aetna Life in the November 1927 issue of Life Association News, official publication of The National Association of Life Underwriters.

"The truth is - when we say that the Aetna Sales Training Course is the best investment of time that a life insurance agent can make, we know whereof we speak. A survey of the business written by every Aetnaizer who has completed this course and tested it with six months of 'post-graduate' selling shows that the average production for that six month's period amounted to $126,665. More than 40% of these agents had never before sold insurance. Taken separately those who had previous life insurance selling experience benefited to the extent of an 81% increase in new business."

A few other leading life insurance companies had already experienced, or were soon to discover, the same amazing benefits of organized education. Winslow Russell, at that time Agency Vice President of Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, and a pioneer in sales training, told me in 1924 that way back in 1912 he had made a careful analysis of his company's sales records, and to his utter astonishment found that thirty-two per cent of the salesmen were producing eighty-six per cent of the company's business. This condition was so shocking to him that he wondered if it could possibly be a true picture of the life insurance business as a whole, so he made similar investigations in three other big companies, and found their situations to be as bad or even worse.

After a long and careful study of the facts revealed by his survey, Mr. Russell made the momentous decision to eliminate the sixty-eight per cent, "the business guessers," and devote his full time and attention to educating the thirty-two per cent, "the real producers." All part-time agents were dismissed, and it was announced that after a certain date the company would not renew the contract of any agent producing less than a specified annual minimum of new business. Thereafter all new agents were obliged to complete a course in life insurance fundamentals - basic principles, functions - its uses, and the art of selling. The results were impressive. In 1912, the company had seventeen hundred agents who produced twenty million of new business. In 1922, ten years later, with only three hundred and fifty agents, but every one a trained salesman, the annual production had soared to fifty-two million.

That education has paid off in a big way in the field of life insurance selling is further evidenced by the following facts - the educational program of one of the largest eastern companies increased the production of old agents by 34 per cent; a mid-western company program increased the production of its agents 38 per cent; and companies in general have found that agents who have satisfactorily completed a company-sponsored course in life insurance experience an increase in production of more than 25 per cent.

• The Brain
• The Power Of The Mind
• The Importance Of Formal Education
• Five Reasons For A College Education
  
  
  1. A College Education Brings A Fuller Life...
  2. A College Education Opens The Door To Distinction
  3. A College Education Brings Job Security....
  4. A College Education Enhances Earning Power
  
  
• An Educated Citizenry Is A Vital Requisite For Our Survival As A Free People
• Learning - A Continuous Process
• Never Too Old To Learn
• Business And Education - 2
• Business And Education - 3