This article is part of the Recruitment Ki SHAKTI Series of articles. This is my seventh article. You will find all articles on agency recruitment in my blog https://www.helpindiainsure.iistpune.in/category/agency-recruitment/. In the blog you can read this article in most Indian languages. On the right bottom of the screen you will see drop down menu “Select language”. Choose your language from the list given and your article will appear in the language of your choice.

One of the most common questions put to me in my professional life is: Who will be a good agent? There is a constant search for a candidate who will perform well.

In the search for a “good” agent, there have been many beliefs that development officers had.

Beliefs on who will make a “good” agent

Housewives: At one time the mood was to recruit housewives. The mood was based on a belief that housewives are more sincere in their work and therefore would strive to work hard to achieve success.

Medical representatives: Then came a time when it was believed that medical representatives were the real answer. It was believed that medical representatives were used to long hours of field work, which is what is needed to sell life insurance.

Mutual fund agents: In another period, there was a big movement to recruit mutual fund agents in the belief that since they are already selling financial products and go door-to-door, they would be excellent agents.

Oher beliefs: Many development officers believed in the power of time-share salespersons to be successful agents. Some believed that people with a lot of contacts would be successful agents. Others believed that unemployed youth are excellent candidates for an agency career. There is also a highly prevalent view that chartered accountants are the ideal candidates.

And so, the list of who can be a “good” goes on. In the eagerness to build a team of performing agents, the trend has been to select a person by profession – housewife, mutual fund agent, medical representatives, etc.

At different times there were different beliefs. Each of the beliefs fizzled out after some time.

Professions do not define success: It is important to realise that belonging to a particular profession is no guarantee for success. In my career I have come across very successful agents who were scavengers, or who were doing odd jobs for a trader and other most unlikely professions. And many housewives, mutual fund agents, time-share salespersons, medical representatives and chartered accounts have failed.

Having contacts is universal: The belief that one must have a lot of contacts to be a successful agent is misleading. Every person who has lived in the society for a few decades will have contacts. In my classroom I have made agents, who supposedly do not have contacts, to write at least 500 names. Some had even written 2000 names in the classroom. Everybody has contacts.

Qualities required for an agent to succeed

Neither the profession nor the extent of contacts, makes much difference to the ultimate success of the agent. A candidate must possess a few qualities to increase the chances of his or her success. Some of these qualities are,

• A strong need to earn money. Usually, the extra pressure to earn money comes from an unfortunate past or family pressures. For example, some one in deep debt. Or some one who has major medical expenses to meet for family members, etc.
• A high capacity to take rejections. Selling life insurance is not an easy task. The number of rejections an agent has to face before selling a policy is not for weak minds.
• An attitude to learn. The market is a great leveller. It strips you of all your egos. A person not wiling to learn from every rejection and every sale will not succeed. The agent should also be prepared to spend money for training.
• A high degree of persistence. If an agent wants to succeed, he or she must be prepared to go to the market even after days of facing rejections. Persistency is also required to follow-up on a prospect for a number of meetings. Prospects do not decide in one or two meetings.

The qualities mentioned above are difficult to assess at the time of selection. The agent’s qualities will unfold only when he or she starts moving in the market. Knowing the agent’s qualities after selection is of no practical use. Development officers are saddled with inactive agents, who may be a drag on the rest of the team.

The first thing to understand here is that we do not know how to identify a candidate will succeed or not. At the time of selection most of the characteristics, mentioned above, that go to make a successful agent cannot be assessed by the development officer.

Candidate should select or reject the agency career

Hence that decision should be transferred to the candidate by a selection process.

At The Institute of Insurance Sales Training, we have a unique selection process where the candidate selects himself or herself. Or rejects himself or herself. (Click on this link to know more website https://www.iistpune.in/recruitment-ki-shakti/). The decision to join the agency team or not, is transferred to the candidate through a series of structured meetings that direct the candidate to think and come to a knowledgeable decision. This process is likely to give more successful agents, as compared to the blind shots currently being followed.

Many decades ago, I thought of joining the agency career. I met a development officer. He told me first sell 5 policies and then I would be made his agent. At that time, I did not quite appreciate it. But later when I entered the life insurance sector, I realised that probably this is the best way to assess a candidate.

In those years there was no IRDAI, and no licensing. These days there are laws on agency recruitment. What the development officer did to me cannot be done in today’s world. But I found a method that worked. Later I found that many development officers, unit managers and branch managers were doing the same thing.

Market survey

One of the best ways to assess a candidate to ask him to conduct a survey of 25 persons he knows. The questions to ask in the survey are:

• Do you have a life insurance policy? Why did you buy?
• If you do not have a life insurance policy, why did not buy?
• Would you consider buying a policy now?

The answers and the discussions will tell the candidate whether selling life insurance is suitable for him/her or not. In my experience most of the people who were asked to do this survey did not return. Those who did were the ones who liked the challenge of selling life insurance. This is of course a short cut and may not always work.

Recruitment Ki SHAKTI

But to have a defined process in place to recruit sufficient agents to make a successful sales team join the course Recruitment Ki SHAKTI (Click on this link to know more website https://www.iistpune.in/recruitment-ki-shakti/).

This is what you will learn when you join the unique, tried and tested method of IIST’s Recruitment Ki SHAKTI course. You will learn a defined, tried and tested process of recruitment. 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.