8 WOMEN IN LIFE INSURANCE EDITION; INSURANCE ADVOCATE January 27, 1923
MARY Z. SHAPIRO HAS ANOTHER
PHENOMENAL YEAR
New York Woman Wonder Writing Large Amount in 1923
Mary Z. Shapiro, who is one of the largest personal producers of life insurance in New York City, has just closed another very successful year. Miss Shapiro writes business for a number of the leading companies in this city but despite that fact it has been announced that her production for the Travelers Insurance Company put her in first place for the month of December.
MARY Z. SHAPIRO
When asked by a representative of "Insurance Advocate" what were the necessary qualifications to be successful in life insurance salesmanship, Miss Shapiro stated that the agent must be a master of the principals of business. One should learn all he can about the prospect, his business, pleasures, club life, whom le pals with, his hobbies and interests.. She believes that there are only two obstacles that cannot be overcome in selling business insurance. These two are really insurmountable and are first, that the business is al-ready protected by insurance or second, that the partners are uninsurable.
Miss Shapiro believes that the insurance agent should organize his or her business on a firm businese schedule, and not work at it in a hit-or-miss fashion. For that reason as soon as her success warranted it, she se-cured a capable secretary to look af-
ter the many details of her work. This, of course allowed her more time for actual solicitation and for the continuation of her studies which have enabled her to be classed as a million dollar producer. Miss Shapiro, unlike a number of women in the business, does not specialize on women prospects. Her knowledge of the business world and her further study into the various ways and means by which life insurance can be used for the benefit of business, enables her to compete on an equal basis with men agents in the solicitation of business insurance. It would be most useless and a waste of time for a woman agent or in .fact even a man agent to at-tempt to sell partnership or business insurance until he or she were thoroughly conversant with the entire subject. The mere fact that Miss Shapiro has made such a success of the life insurance business is proof sufficient not only of the hard work she has put in in mastering the subject but her ability to comprehend business principles.
That Miss Shapiro's work is appreciated by her clients may be judged by the following letter from a well-known business concern in New York which she received some time ago.
"We wish to acknowledge receipt of the writer's life insurance in two policies, $200,000 and $50,000, total of $250,000 and take this opportunity to thank you personally for the business-
like and efficient manner in which you have handled this matter.
"We feel that the policies would not have been applied for, but for your diligent efforts to convince Mr.
of the special advantages offered in these contracts and the writer feels that the risk would perhaps have been refused but for your work and if we had made application direct, instead of through your agency. Altogether you have handled this case of business insurance admirably and we feel impelled to acknowledge this to you."
Many other letters and fac-similies of checks received for very large amounts in premiums, shows conclusively her ability, resourcefulness and perseverance in closing her cases satisfactorily. All these are most en
couraging and but spur her on to greater efforts in her chosen profession.
In an article by Frances L. Garside which appeared in the Hartford Courant in December under the title "Women Who Win," Miss Shapiro is called "North America's Greatest Woman Underwriter'". Miss Garside says in part, concerning Miss Shapiro: "To rank as the first woman specialist in business insurance in the United States and Canada, and to have attained that position within three years, without financial backing, with-out friends, but with solely the de-termination to win--This is the remarkable story of Miss Mary Z. Shapiro, of New York City.
"Happy over her success? Some-what. Elated? No. Convinced that a business career is the sphere for women? No, emphatically. Miss Shapiro obtained $600,000 worth of insurance in the first six months of 1922, but she regards the woman who has a good husband and babies as happier, and making a greater contribution to life.
"Her incentive was that she had to earn her living; she determined to make her effort pay. Loneliness, friendlessness, evening after evening of study when others played; one year when she barely made a living, incessant work and an unwavering determination; these are the factors that contributed to make her a'success. Of charming personality, she steadily refused to recognize personality as a sole business asset.
" `The fundamental plan on which a woman must build her business success,' she said, `is to dissociate social life with business. She must learn her job so well that nothing will phase her in what she has to say. She must know her facts. She must never approach a prospect with such vague ideas of her proposition that
will say, `Just like a woman.'
"She must know her business. She must know, also, that the very thing that will help a man in business, namely the haphazard cultivation of men friends—will kill a woman. A man may pave his way with a friendly pat on the back, a cocktail, or a cigar, but let a woman try it and it destroys her totally. Neither must she depend on personality. She must regard all men impersonally but sincerely if she wants to build up a business success that will last."
The year 1923 promises to be Miss Shapiro's greatest year. Up to the 20th of this month she had paid for $225,000 in addition to which she has new applications in process of examination totalling $325,000. Continuing at this rate, Miss Shapiro will be considered not only the greatest woman writer of life insurance in the country but one of the greatest producers of life insurance regardless of sex in the world.
