Dearborn Financial Services Launches Selling Skills Curriculum in Partnership with Mitch Anthony

New Program Addresses Industry Shift Toward Relationship Management

(Chicago, IL - April 9, 2003) - Connecting through storytelling, tapping into emotional competencies, and recognizing customers' financial planning mentality are a few of the teachings included in "Know Your Customer," a new selling skills curriculum designed for financial services sales professionals. Launched by Dearborn Financial Services, a Kaplan Professional company, the curriculum is being offered in partnership with Mitch Anthony, creator of the curriculum and a nationally renowned author and expert on communications and relationship-building.

Providing courses designed specifically for financial services professionals, "Know Your Customer," reflects corporate America's growing shift toward client-focused service. The program includes a suite of preparation, training and reinforcement tools for sales success, with instructor-led classes, books and email newsletters.

"Some of the trends we've been seeing -- for example, institutions wanting to move away from transaction-based selling to increasing assets under management -- speak to a shift in customer mentality," said Bryan Austin, Managing Director of Dearborn Financial Services. "In order to address this shift and succeed in today's marketplace, sales professionals need to advance and improve their selling skills on a relationship-building level. Mitch Anthony is the recognized industry leader in the field of relational skills development, and we are thrilled to partner with him to provide our customers with the most advanced training available."

"I'm excited to be working with Dearborn Financial Services to bring my books to life in the classroom," added Anthony. "This curriculum will help today's sales professionals acquire the skills they need to be successful in this new business environment."

Mitch Anthony is the author of several books for financial advisors and also the President of Advisor Insights, Inc., a firm specializing in training financial services professionals in relationship-building skills. Over the past 20 years, he has given an estimated 2,500 presentations to corporations worldwide, and his work has been featured on ABC Evening News with Peter Jennings, USA Today, CNN, Bloomberg, CBS Marketwatch, Kiplinger's Personal Finance and Selling Power magazine.

Based on Anthony's work, "Know Your Client" is an integrated series of courses focusing on multiple levels of sales skills development. The three courses, "Selling With Emotional Intelligence," "Telling the Financial Story" and "Financial Life Planning," are designed to prepare, train and reinforce the disciplines inherent in each sales training topic. Courses can be taken as a collective series or as part of a customized curriculum. Further information on the program is available at www.dearborn.com.

About Dearborn Financial Services
Dearborn Financial Services (www.dearborn.com), a Kaplan Professional company, is a leading provider of pre-licensing and continuing education training and certification for securities, insurance and financial services professionals. Offering an array of tools including online courses, classroom instruction, interactive CD-ROMs, and print materials, Dearborn supplies education courseware to corporations, independent schools, and colleges, and conducts classes in more than 120 locations in the U.S. and abroad. For more than 30 years, Dearborn has worked with top insurance companies, securities firms, brokerage houses, and banks, providing high-quality, professional, and personalized education to executives and staff. Kaplan Professional (www.kaplanprofessional.com) is a unit of Kaplan, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO), and includes world-class brands Schweser Study Program, Dearborn Trade Publishing, Perfect Access Speer, Dearborn Real Estate Education, Self Test Software, Kaplan Professional Real Estate Schools, and Call Center Solutions.

Press Contacts:

Karen Blass
212-974-6233
karen_blass@kaplan.com

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