This article is part of the Recruitment Ki SHAKTI Series of articles. Look out for more articles in the coming days.
One of the main objectives that most agency managers and development officers have while recruiting agents is to look for some kind of super sellers. The fact of the matter is that one has no way of knowing who a super seller will be at the time of selection.
Super sellers cannot be found by ordering
Long ago when I was involved in agency recruitment, a young boy in worn out clothes approached me for an agency career. He was working in the grain wholesale market as a clerk-cum-peon for a big grain merchant. He was at that time (2002) earning Rs. 800 a month. Of which he would send to his parents Rs. 250 and Rs. 500 he would give his married sister at whose house he was staying.
When he approached the branch manager and me, he mentioned that he had heard that agents earn a lot of money and therefore he was interested in an agency career. We told him that all agents do not earn a lot of money. After much discussion we came to know that his sister and his brother-in-law were quarrelling over his extended stay at their house. He wanted to live independently, for which he had no money. By normal standards in agency recruitment, he had no contacts. But when we told him that we will make him an agent, provided he promised to meet 3 traders daily at the market.
He started meeting 3 traders everyday for the 28 days of 100-hour statutory training. On the day of coding, he deposited cheques worth Rs. 80,000 for 3 policies. In one day he earned more than he had in his entire work life. Now, how do you make out that this boy was capable of such a performance, at the time of selection? Many agents with good contacts and good communication skills fail. But this boy, not even owning a decent pair of clothes, no contacts since he was an outsider, weak communication skills, went on to become a MDRT agent.
Then how do you get super sellers? Super sellers are not available in dozens. The first piece of advice is stop looking for them. Having a super seller enter your team is pure luck. And because it is luck, there are two things you should do.
Law of large numbers and law of averages: First meet as many people as you can with the objective of recruitment. The more the people you meet and the more you recruit, the chances are that you will find a few super sellers. Finding a super seller is a matter probability. A certain percentage of those you meet and recruit will be super sellers, not all. So, meet a large number of potential candidates to get a few super sellers.
Have a process in place: Recruitment is a process. Right from where you should look for agents to the process by which you select. Define a process and follow it. Having a defined process will teach you where you are going wrong and how you can improve your selections. If it does not work, study where the process should be improved and continue to look for agents. Unless you have a process, you will not get the experience to know the type of people you should recruit. Having a process gives you, over time, a concrete basis to narrow down your search and recruit better quality agents.
More in my next article. Look out for regular articles on agency recruitment. Visit our website https://www.iistpune.in/recruitment-ki-shakti/ to know how we can help.