Marcia Glasser found her “sweet spot” when she started a lead-generation business out of her home in New City ”“ and never stopped growing.
“I was introduced into the business, but many of the people who were in it warned me away from trying to generate leads for the financial industry,” Glasser said.
A math teacher, Glasser did her homework and decided to take the plunge, starting Customer Identification Services Marketing.
Compiling lists of prospective clients for a target area soon found Glasser and her staff of two outgrowing her basement workspace.
C.I.S. Marketing moved out of the house and into a space in Valley Cottage, where seven more employees were hired. Another move to 14,000 square feet of space in the Clarkstown Executive Park saw the firm grow to 25 employees. Glasser found her niche, and together with her husband of 48 years, attorney Martin Glasser, the two became a formidable duo when it came to financial lead generation and creating products for the industry.
“I was in the process of selling my business when Marcia asked me to get involved in the company,” said Martin Glasser. “I knew we”™d do well, but I never dreamed the company would be so successful.”
Generating leads and marketing strategies for John Hancock, Prudential and dozens of others made the Glassers the experts to seek out when it came to connecting with potential customers.
“We both had strong financial backgrounds,” Marcia said.
They also had a long history of working together as a married couple. “We”™re a good team. I do the selling, Marty does the writing. It”™s been a great partnership all around. What can be better than doing what you love with someone you love?”
After 35 years of running the “800-pound gorilla,” the Glassers decided it was time to scale back and start looking at retirement. They gifted the direct-mail portion of the company, The Mail Depot, to their long-term employees, “but true retirement just wasn”™t an option,” Glasser said. “We spun off the production end, keeping the lead generation and creative end of the business.”
Today, you”™ll find several phones ringing in the Glasser household ”“ the same house where Marcia first began compiling her list of potential clients for banks and financial markets more than three decades ago.
Their business is still very busy, and the couple spends much of their time on the road at financial conventions, teaching others how to market products and marketing their own services as well.
“The recession affected us, just as it affected everyone else,” said Glasser. “We changed our entire business model, became more creative and more unique in the way we generated leads. Today, clients want programs that offer ”˜safety”™ for their prospects ”“ annuities are particularly desirable.”
Glasser says the collapse of so many “too-big-to-fail” companies have made the public wary, so the need to refocus the business on safer products was paramount.
Glasser urges everyone, “Ask for a second opinion. You”™d do it if you got bad news from a doctor. Do the same with your financial planning.”
Today, the focus is on retirees and pre-retirees, said Glasser, with the emphasis on protecting income and more secure investments.
“Our approach is to reach people who are frightened of the volatile marketplace,” said Glasser, “and we”™ve had a good response. Major companies have endorsed us because we led agents and brokers to safer havens ”“ and kept them in a lucrative market.”
Glasser said the shaky economy has made it even more necessary to focus on educating potential clients to buy financial products.
“Many people have cut back on products that are needed the most ”“ long-term care policies are down, as is life insurance ”“Â both rely on discretionary income … and as they cut down on these policies, the government is called on to do more.”
Glasser said the financial savvy she and her husband share ”“ her love of talking to people and his expertise at putting together sound financial programs ”“Â “have made us a natural at what we do. If you can show people you can make them younger, richer, or more beautiful, you have their ear. If you can make people aware you can keep them financially sound, the same principle applies.”
Glasser loves the arts and has been a staunch advocate for continuing art education in public school.
“Art keeps children aware of the world around them. They learn about other countries and cultures through the arts. … To me, the world of art, in whatever form, is as important as food and shelter to keep our lives balanced.”
Glasser is vice president of the Rockland Center for the Arts and has been involved with the group for 25 years.
To her, the arts are as important as breathing.
“Keeping in touch with the arts, in whatever form, enriches everyone,” she said. “Today, we are so programmed by technology, we have less personal time to appreciate anything. The arts help us to keep the important things in life a bit more in perspective.”
The Glassers support many of Rockland”™s nonprofits, St. Joseph”™s Home and United Hospice of Rockland among them.
“More and more people have cut back on giving ”“ not because they don”™t want to, but because they have to. People also have a tendency to give to organizations that have personally touched them. Most of the people who help our nonprofits to expand and offer more services like to fly ”˜under the radar.”™ They don”™t want the spotlight. They just want to do what they feel is right.”
What a great article!
Clearly Marcia Glasser is a top 1% member of those people who create their own way in life, do so successfully, and live a fulfilling life doing so. It’s wonderful that she has shared her dynamic energy and creativity through her volunteer work. It’s particularly notable that she recognizes the important role the arts play injecting a sense of humanity in our increasingly commercial, digitized world.