AN AGENTS' No. 5 NEW YORK, MAY HOW TO BE AN AGENT. III. DON'T. Don't talk too much. Find out in advance all that can be known about the man you wish to assure—his business, surroundings, habits, idiosyncrasies, age, family. It saves talk when you secure an interview. Some agents assassinate success with their tongues. Don't be a bore. Now a days the agent who is a bore is a "back number." Don't waste powder and shot. If you have a hundred good arguments and capture your man with one of them, save the other ninety-nine for the next man. It saves time as well as ammunition. Don't offer the same man every form of policy on the list. Find out which form will suit him best. Offer that, and don't change to another unless you discover that some other form will suit his requirements more exactly. Don't stray from the path. Remember that your work is to make policyholders, not actuaries. Some agents think that the way to assure a man is to give him full instruction regarding the mathematics and science of life assurance. But such agents write mighty little business. Don't let the applicant get beyond his depth. It is not true hospitality to feed your guest so full that he cannot digest his food. Keep your eye on the applicant. See to it that he understands every proposition you advance. Don't expect to convince him by statements he can't comprehend. And when you have convinced him, stop talking. 1900 Don't think you know it all. The only way to make what you have to say to the applicant clear is to understand it thoroughly yourself. The best agents are those who learn something new, and apply it to their work, every day of their lives. Don't get into a rut. The Equitable issues a great variety of policies. Why? Because there are a great variety of men. The agent may make a specialty of one form of policy, but he should be thoroughly familiar with every form, for now and then he will run across a man to whom his specialty will not apply. Don't stop half way. Finish your work. It is good to secure an application; it is better to deliver the policy; it is best to influence the assured to keep his policy in force until its maturity. Why? Because not only will you increase your income, but instead of having the country full of deserters from your ranks, you will have around you a strong army of allies who will help you to fight future battles. Every Don't get discouraged by failure. failure gives experience, and the agent who has found the philosopher's stone can manufacture gold out of experience. Don't fail to read every word printed in the EQUITABLE NEWS; for hidden away in some long, dull, stupid article you will be sure to find here and there a point which will aid you in making money; for the edict has gone forth that nothing shall appear in the NEWS that hasn't some practical value, excepting the editor's contributions and the serious articles by the executive officers. W. Alexander. SOME BASE HITS. Woods is going to give a party. He has invited all of his Agency Force to go on a week's trip to New York this summerthat is, those who succeed in writing 'steen millions of business before August 1st. All others are cordially invited to go to the depot and see the train off. It is safe to say that the perennially youthful Agnew will not be left on the platform, but will be in the parlor car, right up near the band wagon. Woods expects to have 30 in the party, and hopes to have more. On hearing of this projected incursion of the hordes from the interior, Mr. Wilson-the President of the Equitable Base Ball Club-immediately sent a challenge for a game of base ball. Mr. Wilson declares publicly that this was done to add to the pleasure of this delegation during their stay here. Privately he says that they will come here so proud of the large business they have written that it would give him great pleasure to take a little of the conceit out of them. Woods evidently scented the object of this challenge, but in his reply does not confine his "sarcasticality" to Mr. Wilson, who is the author of all the trouble, but uses the Donnybrook Fair method of "Wherever you see a head hit it." Some of Woods's flings are very good, and decidedly appropriate, but the one on the editor was so manifestly absurd that we have felt it our duty to cut it out. The letter, thus expurgated and improved, is as follows: Dear Mr. Wilson: I have your letter of the 4th inst., in which you wish to entice a lot of staid, sedate and ancient Pittsburg men into a baseball game, wherein you expect that your fresh clerks, who never get to the office before 9 o'clock, and who never leave it as late as 5, will thump the life out of our wornout, tired agents, who come from the heat of the combat with the brightest people in Pittsburg, and weighted down with the large amount of applications we will be bringing on to New York. This shows what a mean advantage you propose to take of the boys from the country when they get into your giddy town. I must say that I do not think baseball will be the strong point of the Pittsburg delegation. While Mr. Agnew can make a very good hit, he is not a good man to run the bases, nor would Prof. Knight's gray whiskers look well chasing around the bases for a home run. I myself am not good at batting. If I lived in New York and were not a total abstainer like Mr. Van Cise, I might be good at batting, but with my principles I am not. You may select your clerks at the Home Office for their batting average or their percentage of errors (some of which we catch here), but the team that we will take down to New York will be figured out on a different ratio; namely, the ratio of new business. I therefore greatly fear that we weary worn Pittsburgers will not be able to muster a baseball team. It is true that if we were to pick out the people we were to go up against we might even suffer the chance of defeat, in order to get a chance at them; for example, if you would put up Mr. Caskin as pitcher, we would like to make some hits off of him; if Dr. Lambert was made catcher, we would like to see if we could not steal some bases on him, and we would like to see whether anything could go through Mr. Maine at short, and if Mr. Tarbell, yourself and Mr. Hyde could fill the bases, we would like to see whether we could not slip through you or steal something which we cannot get from your officers in any other way. I cannot suggest anyone just now to put out in the field, but all our hits would be infield hits, which would save the President, his brother and Mr. Van Cise from the necessity of being outfielders. Do you think it would be better for us not to tell when we are coming, so that you officers would not have a chance to trek to some neighboring kopje or down into some drift; we expect to be a large delegation, and we want to have the time of our lives. Very truly yours, Edward A. Woods, Manager. DOUBLED SEVEN TIMES. In the course of his speech at the Philadelphia dinner, Mr. I. L. Register said that the Equitable was but seven years old when he entered its service, and that during his thirty-four years of continuous connection with the Society he had seen its assets double seven successive times. He gave the figures as follows: January 1st, 1866, $1,500,000; in one year they reached $3,000,000; in the next two years they more than doubled, or $7.000,000; the next three years saw them again more than double to $16,000,000; in the following six years they passed $33,000,000; during the succeeding eight years they reached $66,000,000; in six more years they passed $136,000,000, and during the last eight years reached the enormous total of $280,000,000. Here Mr. Register added that "according to the rule of arithmetical progression and law of mortality, President Alexander should live to see the assets double again, or over $500,000,000, and I utter the prayer of 10,000 agents in saying that we hope he will." THE MEMBERS OF THE FIRM OF EISELE AND KING OF NEW JERSEY AND NEW YORK CITY. MANAGERS OF THE AGENCY THAT HAS LED ALL OTHERS IN BUSINESS WRITTEN FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS. Mr. John C. Eisele, the senior member of the firm, was born on August 1, 1860. When he was fifteen years old he apprenticed himself to a silversmith. After working for ten years he received a salary of $12 per week, and was then notified that it would be reduced to $10. Mr. Eisele then concluded that his talents were misplaced and decided to try something else. He was offered a contract with the Equitable if he would first write and pay for $50,000 of business. He got the contract and did so well that he soon had control of the State of New Jersey. markable success since that time is a part of the records of the Equitable. In 1894 he joined forces with Mr. King, and they make a team that is hard to beat. His re Mr. Eisele has received many political honors from his native State, including the nomination in 1898 for the office of Mayor of Newark, which was certainly a great tribute to Mr. Eisele's popularity. He is also a member of the Board of Managers of the New Jersey State Hospital. NAT. KING. The above King has not been crowned with a golden coronet, but his efforts have been crowned with the greatest success. Mr. King, after graduating, took up the study of law, but forsook the profession for that of life assurance. Like his partner, Mr. Eisele, Mr. King has never represented any company but the Equitable. Mr. King has the honor of being the man to place the first $100,000 policy for the Equitable in the land of the mosquito. He has another honor, too, and one which belongs to very few men, and that is that for six years his name has not been off the list of the fifty largest person 1 writers for the years. During the past two years the agency of Messrs. Eisele & King has been the largest producing agency of the Society, writing over $12,000,000 in 1898, and $14,000,000 in 1899. Messrs. Eisele & King are making great efforts this year and promise to close the year with a larger amount of business than ever before written. BOSTON BAKED BEANS. F. A. C. HILL'S BOSTON AGENCY DINNER The Massachusetts Mark for New Business Set at Ten Millions for 1900. A CHALLENGE ISSUED AND ACCEPTED. A most enthusiastic meeting of the Equitable's Massachusetts Agency was held in Boston, on April 4th, which wound up with a dinner at the Parker House. About one hundred guests were present, and a most enjoyable, as well as instructive time, was spent. Interesting talks were given by Messrs. G. E. Tarbell, L. A. Cerf, F. A. C. Hill, J. C. Eisele, J. D. E. Jones, J. W. Cumnock, L. Blumenthal, F. W. Fuller, Nathan Warren and Dr. Green. The proceedings were of a most enthusiastic character. Everyone felt confident and all were on their mettle; and no wonder, considering the magnificent work accomplished by the Massachusetts Agency last year, to say nothing of the good showing during March. Mr. John C. Eisele, of the Newark Agency, was present as a guest, and during the evening Mr. Hill took advantage of this fact to challenge the New Jersey Agency, on behalf of the Massachusetts Agency, to a struggle for supremacy in new business during the months of April and May. The challenge was immediately accepted by Mr. Eisele, on behalf of his partner and agency force, and he promised the Bostonians that the New Jerseyites were going to give them the fight of their lives. Mr. Tarbell offered a suitably inscribed silk banner as a prize, and there will be a merry war for the next two months to determine whetner the banner shall be planted on the "Hill," or grace the palace of a "King." Mr. J. D. E. Jones, the manager at Providence, R. I., was present with his agents. He made a very telling talk, and promised that this year his agency would give a large increase over 1899. It is pertinent to say here that during 1899 the Boston agency wrote for the Equitable a larger amount of business than has ever been written by any company in one year in Massachusetts. Extracts from Official Circulars-2 Let the problem be to produce a given result. Consider all the present means of accomplishing it; go out of the old ruts; think it over deeply ; invent new ways; choose the best plan; develop it distinctly; weigh every point; when approved, change your anxious thought to determined action, and press through all discouragement; and if your energy increases in the same ratio that obstacles thicken around you, you will, as a rule, accomplish your purpose. From a circular of Henry B. Hyde, A FINANCIAL POINTER. New York is the financial center of the United States; its bank clearances each week are greater than the combined clearances of all the other cities in the United States employing a bank clearance system. From this it may naturally be inferred that finance is studied and well understood there. The homes of the leading life assurance companies are in New York, and their management and directors are well known there. The Equitable Life is fortyone years old and is the youngest of the three large companies, and yet it did last year, and every year for a great number of years past has done, a much larger business in New York than any other comHere are the figures: pany. She: "You must forgive me, darling, but of late you have been troubled with a cough, besides, you take so little care of yourself, and-oh! if you only knew how anxious I am about you. Suppose I were to lose you, love." (She bursts into sobs and throws herself on his breast.) He: "Come, my dear, silly child, do be calm, do be calm. People don't die of a slight cold. Still, if it will pacify you, show the doctor in. Who is it? Dr. Pellett, eh?" She: "It isn't a doctor. It is-it is-a life assurance agent."-Exchange. A DOZEN GOOD REASONS. Since I have been acting as agent for the Equitable, I have been asked many times why I preferred the Equitable to any other company; my answer has invariably been: First-Its correct management and its prompt payment of death claims. Second-Its substantial assets. Third-Its magnificent surplus. Fourth-Its steadily increasing growth. Fifth-The adaptation of some form of its policies to every walk in life. Sixth-Its honorable treatment of its agents. Seventh-Its exhaustive, comprehensive and reliable literature. Eighth-Its protection that absolutely protects. Ninth-The plain statements of its guarantees and conditions, and its conservative and fair estimate of dividends. Tenth-Its magnificent and unparalleled forty years' history, which stands to-day without a dishonorable blot. Eleventh-Its Board of Directors, which, as a whole, has not its peer in any financial institution in the world. Twelfth-Its officers, men whose abilities, both administrative and executive, have been fully demonstrated, and while commanding the respect, have won the esteem of the agents. A. A. Treadwell. A Rare Opportunity For Under its new system of compensation, the N. R. GEE & PUSH, (Suggestion for an Advertisement for Agents.) |