Cross Marketing: Here’s Your Wake Up Call

Marlin R. Bollinger, CFP, CLU, ChFC, CFS
AuthorHouse (2011)
ISBN 9781463415099
Reviewed by Joseph Yurt for Reader Views (8/11)


“Cross Marketing: Here’s Your Wake Up Call,” by Marlin R. Bollinger, is a new book for insurance agency owners, managers and sales producers. It focuses on how to successfully cross market property/casualty and financial services within a traditional agency structure. Bollinger, after more than twenty-five years in various positions within the industry, formed the Bollinger Group, a self-proclaimed industry leader in innovative marketing solutions.

The author seems to have thorough knowledge of and insight into his subject. He writes in a clear, concise and easy to understand manner. Bollinger is an engaging conversationalist and storyteller. But it seems to me that the book might well disappoint both industry readers seeking truly innovative ideas, as well as potential buyers hoping to learn about an important product they know nothing about.

Bollinger states in his Introduction that “This book is not necessarily a ‘how to’ manual of contemporary selling and marketing strategies.” Indeed, it is not. He continues, “It is intended to be a thought-provoking chronology of our evolution from the late ‘70s into 2010 and beyond.” While it does chronicle the industry’s rather staid and static sales and marketing efforts over the past 40 years, I did not find it particularly thought-provoking. In fact, there is little that is new for the reader’s consideration. And, while Bollinger’s personal recommendations are tried and true, his Endnotes only list nine sources.

When the reader is finished with this slight, sixty-seven page volume, it is apparent that “Cross Marketing: Here’s Your Wake Up Call,” is simply a plank in the author’s marketing platform that is intended to position the writer and company founder as an industry guru. There are many books in the marketplace that are excellent examples of the effectiveness of this approach when it is based on thorough, in-depth information and innovative applications. This book does not meet that standard.

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