Dakotah Direct Inc., the big Spokane telemarketing company, plans to hire 300 additional insurance agentsmost of them in Spokaneover the next eight months to handle increased telemarketing business from insurance companies.


Connie Browning, Dakotahs director of corporate development, says that the company has a total of 300 licensed insurance agents now and will double that number by sometime in the third quarter of 1998.


Its just a significant growth within our client base, Browning says. Its one of our largest industries.


Most of Dakotahs insurance agents work for the company in Spokane, and most of the new hires will work here, too, she says. However, she adds that agents will be added in many of the companys call centers. Insurance will end up being in the majority of our facilities.


For the new positions, Dakotah will hire both people who already have licenses to sell insurance and others who then will go through an insurance school to get their licenses, Browning says. The company has said that its insurance agents often sell or upgrade insurance policies over the phone for Dakotahs insurance company clients.


Dakotah has 14 call centers and employs about 2,400 people, including 1,200 in the Spokane area. The company recently opened in Coeur dAlene its newest call center, and its new headquarters building is under construction at the northeast corner of Mullan Road and Sinto Avenue in the Spokane Valley.