Verhovayak Lapja, 1951 (34. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1951 / Verhovay Journal
January 17, 1951_____________________________ VerhoVCty Journal Selection — Training — Enthusiasm To Insure Verhovay’s Advancement — A Frank Discussion Of Verhovay’s Organizing Program And Of The Objections Raised To Prevent Its Accomplishment. — It was quite a number of years ago when one of the great American life insurance companies hired me, but I Still remember the impressions and experiences gathered during the exciting ‘training period” which, I was told, was to serve a twofold purpose: one, to show the company whether or not I had the makings of a successful life insurance agent, and, two, to prevent me from making- the costly mistake of entering upon a wrong career if I should find out that the! methods and conditions of my new job don’t suit me. The training involved a lot of home-work, because I was given a bunch of books for study in preparation of the state examination and even though during my earlier years I had passed many an examination, it was one of the proudest moments in my life when I learned that I had passed the insurance test with something very nearly 100% and was presented by my district manager with a life insurance agent’s license issued by the Insurance Department of the State of Pennsylvania. Study, however, went hand in hand with actual field work. The superintendent took me in hand and during the first two weeks he went with me from house to house in the debit assigned to me, introducing me to the policyholders as their new agent, showing me how to do and ! credit collections, how to handle tardy payers and, last but not least, how j to write new business. During the first week I merely accompanied him and looked over his shoulders while he made the entries, but in the second week he handed me the debit book and he looked over my shoulders watching that I entered the payments correctly and listened to my salestalk whenever the opportunity arose to write some new business. LARGE TURNOVER What struck me most during my training period was how many policyholders expressed their dismay over again having to get accustomed to a: new agent. My predecessor must have been quite a fellow because almost every policyholder lamented his sudden disappearance and praised him for having been so “nice,” “friendly,” and “helpful.” After a day or two of this I couldn’t help feeling that I was most unwelcome to my debit and, worried about how I could make out under such circumstances, I asked the superintendent whrft happened to my pleasant predecessor. “He left,” he said in a tone of voice that very clearly implied that he had been given his walking papers, so I asked why the company let him go if the policyholders were so exceedingly satisfied with his services. “No doubt he was good,” he said, “as far as his collections and average lapses were concerned, but he couldn’t produce and a man who can’t produce is misplaced in the life insurance business no matter how well he is liked by the policyholders.” Mine was quite a large sized debit, — it kept me on the go for ten hours each day — and I felt that satisfying so many policyholders and keeping them on the boqks was quite a feat that the company should have recognized. “After all,” I told my superintendent, “he made money for the company and even if he did not quite meet his production requirement, his otherwise satisfactory services should have compensated for the lack of new business.” My superintendent shook his head find told me: “It wouldn’t have been fair to let him go on like that and waste his time when in another job he could have done much better for himself. You see, while collection commissions are the backbone of an insurance agent’s income, his real! earnings are derived from new business. You don’t want to be satisfied with making thirty dollars a week for the rest of your life, you want to make more money . . .” “The more the bettter,” I nodded. “Well, you can make as much as you want to,” he replied, “but no matter how satisfactorily you service your debit, you will never make more money unless you make a real and constant effort to earn more by w citing new business. The more new business you write for your company, the more money you will make for yourself.” “This man,” he continued, “everybody is crying about wrote about half as much new business as cne of his predecessors wrote during the most difficult years of the depression. That man built this debit up to its present: size. Since then it has grown very title. As a resuit, the company lost quite a lot of new business in this territory. This the company cannot afford. It cannot permit to let a man merely pick flowers on a field of which another man could make a goldmine.” “But won’t it be exceedingly difficult to serve these people and write new business if, because of the dismissal of the former agent, there is such a great deal of antagonism?” I asked. “Don’t worry about that,” he answered, "the people actually are used I to the frequent changes of their agents. If you treat them right and serve them properly, you’ll win their confidence in a month and nobody will remember the former agent.” He was right, too. In a few weeks time I became everybody’s friend on my debit and I was talked about as the “nicest,” “friendliest,” “most helpful” agent anybody would want to see. But, — and that’s the point, — not only the policyholders were satisfied, but the company, too, and the company’s satisfaction automatically translated itself into cash in my pockets . . . THE FRATERNAL FIELD WORKER’S PRODUCTION ... Then I came to the Verhovay. And soon I was amazed, and with the passing of the years I became more and more amazed, by what I saw. While every professional insurance agent knows that service and production are two equally important; and essential parts of his task, the majority of the branch managers simply rejected this elementary doctrine. Many of them maintained, and still maintain, that seryice to the' members, that is, the collection of dues, the handling of claims and retaining the members, is all that is needed to qualify a man for this job and if over a period of months or even years they happened to write a few applications they felt that they had done much more than meet the basic requirements of their job. And because, due to the lack of produc• tion, their earnings from new business were exceedingly low, they felt dissatisfied with the basic collection commissions and, as a result, became sluggish in servicing their branches in consequence of which they started to iose members by lapses, extensions, i cash surrenders, thereby further reducing- even their basic collection commissions. This just didn’t make sense to me, just as ’it wouldn’t to any qualified insurance man. In this field, higher production is the only way to increased compensation. Sluggish service resulting from dissatisfaction is. to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. However, I was just as amazed by other dissimilitaries between commercial insurance companies and the Verhovay. The company didn’t ask the policyholders whom they would want to have as. agent. They picked the agents, carefully trained them, (and in this process many a trainee never became an ag-ent because he proved himself unfit for the exacting duties of this profession), and those who successfully passed their training period, were placed in debits. If the agents produced new business, at least in the amount required by the company, the company was satisfied. If they rendered conscientious and courteous service to the policyholders, they satisfied the policyholders. Dissatisfaction on either part brought the agent’s carere to an early end. Needless to say, on "the other hand, that if both the company and the policyholders were satisfied, the agent was happy, too. He was liked by the policyholders, his abilities were recognized by the company and his paycheck grew in proportion to the satisfaction he created. In the Verhovay, the policyholders, that is the members, picked the manager. If he rendered service that satisfied the comparatively few electors,' they stuck to him regardless of whether or not his services were satisfactory to the Association, too. Changes in the management were abhorred. When a manager left, those who attended the meetings bitterly lamented the “terrible shock” the branch was supposed to suffer due to the change. Experience, of course, has shown that these terrible shocks existed only in the minds of a very small minority, while the majority of the members didn’t care one way or the other as long as they received courteous, efficient and conscientious service. Still, whenever a manager who has failed to secure any new members for a number of years, is courteously requested to resign and to yield his position to a qualified and trained man, immediately the threat arises that there will be a terrible upheaval in the branch, resulting in innumerable lapses and cash surrenders. All this is particularly amazing in view of the fact, that every member of the Association is also a co-owner, a partner, who has an important share in the organization. The members want dividends, they want extra benefits for the aged, special benefits for students, sportsmen and innumerable advantages over and in addition to sound life-insurance protection. But they refuse to recognize the fact that such benefits can be attained only through increased production. By throwing a monkeywrench into the productive machinery of the Association, they make it impossible for the organization to produce those added benefits that are the outgrowth of a steady, general and substantial increase in the membership. And thus protected by the loyalty of branch-members who don’t realize that they are killing the goose that lays the golden egg, these managers smugly declare that the Home Office 5s unjust, it tries to deprive the members of their rights by appointing managers, and thus they create a great deal of ill-will towards the Association as a result of which many a prospective member is discouraged from joining the Verhovay. Atty. Francis Taptich Appointed Judge Of Allegheny County Court Fraternalists of Western Pennsylvania, including Verhovay’s members, are happy to congratulate Francis Taptich, Pittsburgh attorney* upon his appointment to the Allegheny County Court Bench by Governor James H. Duff of Pennsylvania on January 1st. The appointment fills the vacancy created last spring by the resignation of Judge Blair F. Gunther. Judge Taptich is widely recognized as one of the leading fraternalists of the state. He is past president of !he Pennsylvania Fraternal Congress which recently elected Mr. Colonia« Revesz, National Secretary of the Verhovay, to this office. Judge Taptich is also a Legionnaire: he was last year’s commander of Riverview Post No. 681, American Idegien which will honor him in a double ceremony on January 24 at a dinner. Riverview Post will pay tribute to him at this testimonial dinner, to be given at 1714 Davis Ave., North Side, Pittsburgh, Pa., in recognition of his services as Post Commander as well as the new Judge of the Allegheny County Court. In the past, the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association often enjoyed the benefit of the counsel of Mr. Taptich who is an outstanding authority on the laws and statutes applying to fraternal insurance matters. Several years ago, it was Mr. Taptich, who together with Legal Counsel Stephen J. Matasy, handled the merger of the Workingmen’s Sick Benefit Federation with the Verhovay F. I. Association. Since Chen, He has frequently represented the Association in local cases, at the request of our legal adviser. It is in view of our close association of many years standing with Mr. Taptich that we, as the members of the Verhovay, extend to him our heartiest congratulations upon his appointment and wish him great and continued success as a judge of the Allegheny County Court. PAGE 5 HOME OFFICE VERSUS BRANCHES In a commercial insurance company it would be unthinkable for an agent to go. around in his debit defaming his company, accusing its directors or robbing the policyholders, and throwing mud at everybody who has anything to do with the management of the company. There is many a manager and branch officer of the Verhovay, on the otherhand, who does just that. Managers and officers who cooperate with the Home Office, are accused of being “in cahoots” with the Association’s leaders and hostility toward the Home Office is often interpreted as being “on the side of the membership,” as if the Home Office and the Board of Directors would be natural enemies of the general membership, forever cooking up vicious plans for depriving the members of advantages and rights that belong to them. Actually, it stands to reason that the Home Office and the Board of Directors can have no other aim but 'to make the membership happy by making the Verhovay a prosperous, profitable and rapidly advancing organization. They are the best friends of the members because they live for the purpose of making the membership proud of being part of the Verhovay. Any other supposition has its roots either in silliness, or intentional malice aimed at undermining the future of the organization. In the face of this self-evident fact, (Continue on page 6)
