This article is part of the Recruitment Ki SHAKTI Series of articles. This is my fifth article. You will find all articles on agency recruitment in my blog https://www.helpindiainsure.iistpune.in/category/agency-recruitment/
One of the questions that many development officers, CLIAs and unit managers have is “How many agents to recruit?”. There is no straightforward answer to this question.
I have seen development officers with 1500 agents, but they were not top performers. I have also seen development officers with less than 50 agents and some of them were top performers.
Recruitment is not about numbers alone
Many managers in life insurance see the number to be recruited as a function of numbers only. The more you recruit, the better. This emphasis on numbers only normally backfires and the recruited agents leave the business. In due course the unit manager (and sometimes the branch manager also) also has to resign and search for another job.
The basis of this understanding is that every newly recruited agent, on an average, delivers 3 – 5 policies from his natural market. If we recruit 50 agents, we have 150 to 250 policies. Managers who supervise the unit managers have a larger calculation. Their calculation is that if we recruit 1000 agents, then we will get 3000 to 5000 policies.
This manner of thinking does not succeed in practical life.
A word of caution
There is an increasing tendency to outsource agency recruitment. Leads are purchased from suppliers. Subsequently, a person (who is not the development officer) makes phone calls to find out whether the lead is interested or not. Many development officers who took up this method of getting leads will attest to the fact the method does not work.
A development officer is a team leader. A development officer who wants to create a team that works for him or her. The development officer or unit manager should put in personal effort for team building. No one else else. Selection of the team members is the team leader’s responsibility.
Beyond numbers – handholding an agent
The question, How many agents to recruit? is linked to
- your working methods,
- the extent of coaching support that you provide,
- the control you are able to exercise on your team, and
- how effective your motivational methods are
A life insurance agent needs a lot of coaching support. Good agents are made only through sales training. When you recruit a large number of agents, it is practically not possible to train the agents effectively. It is also difficult to keep track of a large number of agents and motivate them. The number of agents to recruit should be kept at a level that you can attend to them individually, nurture them and develop them.
Bite as much as you can chew
At the same time, one must remember that when you recruit agents most of them will not be in your team in a few months after they have been recruited. As I mentioned in my article, (To know why recruitment activities must be conducted daily read https://www.helpindiainsure.iistpune.in/2025/10/30/why-recruitment-activities-must-be-conducted-daily/ ), for every 10 agents recruited by you, expect that 2 or 3 agents will get active and remain active.
If this is the case, your recruitment activities (Click on this link to understand what are recruitment activities https://www.helpindiainsure.iistpune.in/2025/10/28/recruitment-ki-shakti-series-what-are-recruitment-activities/) should be conducted daily, so that in a month you can target 4 to 5 new agents. This activity should continue till such a time that you have at least 25 to 30 agents who are working daily. This may take a couple of years of daily work.
Once this threshold has been achieved, you will have a team of performing agents, selected, nurtured and developed by you.
This is what you will learn when you join the unique, tried and tested method of IIST’s Recruitment Ki SHAKTI course. Visit our website https://www.iistpune.in/recruitment-ki-shakti/ to know how we can help.
More tips in my next article. Look out for regular articles on agency recruitment. In the meanwhile, you may also visit the website (https://www.iistpune.in/) of The Institute of Insurance Sales Training (IIST) to know more about the number of ways we can help you reach great heights in life insurance sales team building and selling.