Industry legend O. Alfred Granum (Al Granum) has passed away at 91.
Al Granum was one of (if not the) most successful agents at the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and the creator of the One Card System, which became the industry's standard method for tracking agent activity. The system still exists today, and is commonly employed by sales managers among career companies to assist new and old agents with managing their practices.
Granum developed the system while he was a General Agent with Northwestern and it was from this system that he developed the often quoted 10-3-1 ratio–essentially the idea that out of every 10 highly qualified suspects three will agree to talk to you in-depth and one will buy insurance.
He held a very successful management post at Northwestern Mutual for 23 years. Bringing 96% of his agents to Million Dollar Round Table status, and being the first and only agency in Northwestern (and the industry) history to producer over $150 million in new business premium. He retired from that post, but continued to work within the industry helping new agents and sales manger across the glove implement his systems.
For anyone who has sat through a Client Builder meeting, for anyone who has been given a SAM (Sales Activity Management) planner, and anyone who has had to sum their activity reports for the week you have Al Granum to thank for that (for better or worse).
Al Granum has had one of the biggest impacts on the insurance and financial services industry. He will truly be missed.
