1968 was the greatest sales year in the history of all states.
It was a year of success and achievement, the kind of year we all enjoy looking back on.
It was a year we introduced the personal touch as our way, the all -state way of doing business.
We launched 1968 with the PBC and in six weeks you wrote over 40 million dollars in balanced new business premium.
That effort put our company ahead of plan in every major line by the end of the contest.
But more important, your new business income was substantially higher than in previous years.
That's the way to start a new year.
With each passing week in those early months of 1968, the personal touch seemed to take on more and more significance.
It became a way of life for all employees and all departments and its influence reached out to our prospects and policyholders.
In April we added a new dimension to the personal touch with the Good Hands People advertising campaign, a campaign that communicated the meaning of the personal Touch to millions of prospects.
1968 was also the year of the Great Race, a five weeks homeowner's blitz in which you added over 142 ,000 new homeowner's policyholders.
Most of you earned this award in the Great Race.
It says I beat Count Competition and believe me you did.
Here's our Charger Award.
Over 4 ,000 all -state chargers earned this handsome award in 1968 for their leadership in life insurance sales.
This one says Charles J.
Amos on it.
Now you might just think that I ought to slip this one out of the pile for myself, but let me tell you I'm awarded this stature when we make our Charger Plan as a company.
So this represents almost 11 million dollars in life premium.
Our fall life contest is the highlight of any sales year.
In 1968 you broke all the records with the Life Olympics.
You wrote more business in those five short weeks than 98 % of our competition wrote during the entire year of 1967.
The victor's prize was this beautiful copy of a classical Greek award, a symbol of an age -old tradition of excellence and the modern -day all -state spirit of competition.
In the final months of that great 1968 sales year, you gave your all -out support to that wonderful campaign called Share.
Thousands of less fortunate people, mostly children, shared in your successful 1968.
Yes, 1968 was truly a great sales year, but while it's pleasant to look back, it's more important now to look ahead.
But before we look ahead at 69, let me show you around our marketing department here in the home office.
We're located in the northwest corner of the Allstate Home Office complex in Northbrook, Illinois.
It's late evening now and everyone's gone home.
But user, this is one of the busiest spots in home office.
Over here on my left we have renewal sales and sales promotion.
Over here on the west side of the building we have advertising, research, manpower development, and general sales manager's offices.
We also have our own conference room on this floor.
Right now it's set up for a meeting we plan to have tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow we plan to review some of our major life insurance projects for the first quarter of 1969.
For example, our research division here works very closely with our research center in California.
Next year, as in past years, research will conduct a survey of the opinions and feelings of agents and district sales managers throughout the company.
This is a tabulation of the study made in 1968.
Perhaps you wonder what happens to these survey forms when you send them in.
Let me assure you that they're carefully studied and evaluated.
We need to know how you feel about advertising impact in your market, about how effective our training programs and sales tools are for you, about claim satisfaction and competition in your local market.
Your reaction to these questions is important to us because your ideas and experience and sales insight help us plan for tomorrow.
Our research efforts are directed to our policyholders and the public as well.
For example, research in 1968 showed that although Allstate is the best known name in auto insurance today, not enough people think of us when they think of life insurance.
So we're going to do something about it.
We've had 11 exciting years in the life insurance business.
Starting from scratch in 1957, by 1963, Allstate Life recorded a billion dollars of personal life insurance in force.
By 1966, we were the ninth largest stock insurance rider.
A year later, we moved to sixth place.
It took six years to achieve our first billion dollars in force, and that was a real record.
Yet in 1968 alone, through your efforts, we put into effect almost one billion, six hundred million dollars of life insurance protection, and we expect to end up in fourth place when all the figures are in.
Yes, it's been 11 years of solid achievement, and you should be proud of the records that were set by you and your fellow Allstate agents.
Our goal in 1969 is to be number one, to be the undisputed leader in personal life sales among all stock companies.
To reach our goal, we must issue and place two billion dollars of life insurance in 1969.
If each of you, every man in this great sales organization, meets his own personal life goal, we'll make it.
Our policy whole of family alone, with over 10 million policies, offers you a potential unmatched by any other life insurance organization in the world.
Our responsibility to our policy whole of family is to provide the full circle of financial protection, and financial security for your policy holders begins with adequate life insurance.
In this room tomorrow, we'll be talking about some of the programs we can develop to help reach that goal of two billion dollars in 1969.
We're building a new training program called the Life Sales Shop.
Here again, it's in response to your suggestions in the Age and Opinion Survey for additional professional training in the life field.
The Life Sales Shop will be coming your way soon.
You asked for product innovations, and here's one that will have real merchandising appeal.
We're developing a brand new money back policy designed for sale right at your booth or your office.
Easy to communicate and understand with simplified underwriting and application requirements.
Money back means just that.
All your money back at age 65.
Now when your life policy holders need special service, they'll get it in 1969 from the New Life Information Unit.
This group of life experts in the home will expedite requests for policy loans, cash values and reason statements and so forth on a daily basis.
Improved and revised pocket rate guides are coming in 1969.
This easy to read layout includes many new features.
For example, we've extended the decreasing term discount to the family income rider.
We've liberalized non -medical insurance.
Waiver of premium and accidental death benefits are in effect for children to age zero.
And we've increased the discount rate for those customers who pay their premium in advance.
Another tool which will help you increase your life production is the new Allstate Security Plan.
This new technique couples the facilities of our computers with the needs of all of our policy holders in addition to millions of Sears revolving charge customers.
We're going to make life a lot easier for our prospects in 1969.
One of the most important steps we'll take in 1969 to reach our life goal will be to provide an incentive bonus for agents that produce life sales in volume.
We'll call it the Life Producers Bonus.
Regular life compensation will be modified to provide three bonus levels with plus compensation at each level.
Well, these are just some of the projects we'll be working on tomorrow morning.
You'll be hearing more about them later in your kickoff meetings.
As you can see, they are directed towards meeting our life challenges in 1969.
And that challenge is to be number one life insurance stock rider.
I'm confident that 1969 will offer you the greatest sales opportunity you've ever known.
That you'll achieve your own personal sales goals.
And in doing so, our company will meet our sales goals.
It's been a great pleasure visiting with you today.
And I want to wish each and every one of you a successful and prosperous 1969 sales year.
Thank you.
