15 Personnel Development

8/3/2019 15 Personnel Development

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CHAPTER 15

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

MS. SUMITRA S SHETTYA.O. (PERS./ADMN), C.O


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Personal Development embraces all those traits andactivities which enhances the performing capability of

a person. For an Insurance Agent to be successful heneeds to cultivate and develop certain traits viz.-

To be outgoing

EnergeticHaving lots of enthusiasm

Aggressive


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Persistence

Initiative taker

Self-confidence

Job commitment

Motivated

Excellent listener, who is a friend to acustomer


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Growth performance of an Insurance Agent

is measured* in terms of the business he procures

agent should set a personal target in

terms of the business he aims to achieve.This work target itself will act as amotivator for him to progress.


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the commission he earns the more the business that the agent is able to procure,

the more the commission.

The reputation he enjoys in the society As the social contact of the Agent spreads, he becomes

more of a known person. Also, if he is able to instill inthe minds of the people trust about him, the morepopular he becomes. Trust can be built up in a number ofways :

(i) by educating the public about the insurance and thebenefits they can derive by ensuring themselves.(ii) by fulfilling a promise.(iii) by giving excellent service etc.


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Essential Qualities for success of an Insurance Agent

Product knowledge:-

The concept of insurance being abstract andsomewhat conflicting with our ingrained patterns of traditional, cultural belief, the need is not readily

understood and accepted.

The sacrifice involved in payment of premium isimmediate and real whereas the benefit are perceivedas contingent and distant, leading to a tendency toprocrastinate and delay decision.


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Product knowledge helps the Agent to sell the right

kind of product to a prospect. For e.g. if the prospectis a couple with a small child then the Agent canoffer various Childrens Plans like Jeevan Kishore,Komal Jeevan, Marriage dowment/Educational

Annuity Policy for the benefit of prospects

child. If the Prospect desires money at periodic intervals

then Jeevan Surabhi Plan may be suggested.

If a Prospect is on the verge of retirement thenannuity Plans like Jeevan Suraksha or Jeevan

Akshay may be offered.


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An Agent should be very well conversant withthe

attributes/distinguishing features of variousinsurance products.

the tax implication thereon etc.

needs of the prospect so there is a fit

between the product he sells and theprospects needs.


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Customer Orientation:

Essential Qualities for success of an InsuranceAgent:

There are a no. of books and other materialsavailable to teach people the art of selling. Theaim of all this is to enable a seller to identify thecustomer needs and find solutions. Thuscustomer oriented approach presumes that thecustomer needs provide serious opportunities,that customer appreciate good suggestions andthat they would be loyal to sales people whohave their long term interest at heart.


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The customers generally dislike when the agents arepushy, arrogant, unreliable, too talkative and fail to askabout customer needs. The customer value reliabilityand credibility, integrity, innovativeness in solvingproblems and product knowledge.

An Agent should conduct himself with:

The customers interest foremost in his mind and not hispersonal gains/transaction which will ensure the clients

satisfaction and will lead to generation of overall good-will in favour of the Agent.Give full information about the product he sells to theclient. The right to information is enshrined in theConsumer Protection Act.


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Business target:

Business goals of an Agent can be in terms of the-

sales he makes

number of clients to be contacted

number of closures that result and so on.

Goals set the tempo on for further activities.


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Personal Goals:

An Agent should have some personal goalslike

the desire to become a member of exclusive clubsviz. D.Ms Club Membership, Z.Ms ClubMembership, qualifying for MDRT etc.


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Resource Management:

Resources like time, knowledge, money,materials and skills have to be managed withefficiency so as to achieve the desired goals.

A good manager continuously finds ways toimprove the utilization of his resources. For eg. Ifthere is a reduction in the no. of hours or callsrequired to complete a sale, then there is

improvement. In this way a no. of inputs can bemonitored and ways found to improve bothefficiency and effectiveness.


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Time Management:

Agents need to know how to use their time efficiently.They should prepare their activity schedule in such away that sufficient time is allotted to different activities ina day/month. Advances in technological equipment desktop and laptop computers, video cassette recorders

etc have allowed dramatic break through in improvingsales force productivity.

Selling face to face is by far the best way to achievepersonal rapport with the prospect. But once therelationship is built by way of closing a sale, the agentcan resort to phone calls for future service calls andneed not visit clients personally thus saving a lot of

traveling time.


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A lot of time is wasted when all the availableinformation /reports are not gathered at a time. Foreg. The agent may have collected all the personaldetails of the prospect in the proposal form butforgotten to collect the age-proof from the client.

Thus the proposal submitted at the Branch Officeis not complete in all respects.

Prioritization of a various activities is a must,otherwise certain important area of work may getneglected and trivial activity gets more attention.


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An Agent should keep the following in mind:

time is an invaluable resource Each job should get the appropriate time that it

deserves for e.g. assume that the agent has tocarry out the following activities in a day:- calling a client for the first time- reminding the customer about the premiumdue date.- following-up with the customer for submissionof discharge form and policy document to theBranch Office for processing a maturity claim


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- Attending an Agents meeting.- Watching a test match on T.V.

From the above activities, the activity that

should get more time is calling a client for thefirst time.

Second comes attending agents meet,reminding a customer about premium duedate and so on.


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Reservation of some time for his family/personalgrowth/relaxation.

If an agent is all the time thinking about work andnothing else it may so happen that his family willbecome unhappy with him. So an agent shouldnecessarily spend some time with his family

members. In this way he can relax himself also.When a person is completely relaxed it gives him anopportunity to think more clearly.

An Agent should also periodically attend workshopson communication, interpersonal skills, marketing soas to upgrade his knowledge/skill and make him morecompetent.


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Target Market:

An Agent cannot satisfy all consumers in agiven market. There are too many differentkinds of consumers in a given market with toomany different kinds of needs. Thus the Agentmust study the total market and choose thosesegments which he can serve better.

Consumer can be grouped in various waysbased on

geographic factors regions, cities


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demographic factors - sex, age, income,education.

Psychographic factors Social classes, life-style.

Behavioral factors Purchase occasions,

benefits sought etc. The process of classifying customers intogroups with different needs, characteristics orbehaviour is called market segmentation.

A market segment consists of consumers whorespond in a similar way to a given set ofmarketing stimuli for e.g. consider the


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class of salaried employees. This is a typicalexample of a homogenous market segmentwherein people have more or less similar needs,likes, dislikes etc.

Consider another group of agricultural farmers.This group has many things in common viz. theiroccupation (agriculture), their place of stay(village), their way of life, their food habits, theirgeneral outlook towards life etc.


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Trustworthiness :

Insurance contracts are basically contracts ofgood faith. An Agent has to earn the trust ofthe client if he has to succeed in his profession.

The customer buys the product mainly becausehe believes in the statements and the promisesmade by the Agent.

Trustworthiness will lead to repeat businessand referrals.


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LONG TERM RELATIONSHIP:

Insurance contracts are long term contracts and as

such the Agent should continuously strive to buildlong term relationship with the clients.

An Agent has to act as guide, counsellor to theclient in selecting an appropriate product, giveguidance to the claimant at the time of claim,through periodic service calls to ensure that thepolicies are kept in force etc.

Sellers who know how to build and manage strongrelationship with key customers will gain greatersales from these customers. Thus marketers needto master relationship marketing skills.


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Relationship marketing is most important inlife insurance business because there is along term contract and the product isintangible. Those who invest heavily inrelationshipmarketing benefit handsomely in

getting repeat sales from current customersand also in getting referrals currentcustomers.


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MOTIVATION:

A person has many needs at any given time.Some needs are biological, arising from states oftension such as hunger, thirst or discomfort. Otherneeds are psychological or recognition, esteem orbelonging.

A need becomes a motive when it is aroused to asufficient level of intensity.

A motive (or drive) is a need that is sufficiently

pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction.


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Since an Agent is an independent professionalhe has to be self motivated. The source of hismotivation can be varied such as

he has a high performing agent as his rolemodel and aspires to reach that level.

he may be socially oriented which drives him towork ceaselessly for the welfare of the Society.

In order to outshine others he may invest histime and money in learning, attending lecturesand seminars etc. which enable him upgrade hisknowledge/hone his skills.

MORALE


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MORALE :

The morale of a sales force is very closely entwinedwith the satisfaction people get from their jobs. Moralegoes up when the job is going well. Customers arebuying or reacting in a positive manner and relationsare harmonious within the work environment. When

anyone of these factors is negative, morale typicallydecreases.

Feeling good or not good about ones work is aquestion of morale or enthusiasm about work. If anagent is convinced that he is in a noble profession thatlooks after the welfare of people and their families asnothing else can do, he cannot but feel good about his

work.


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A client buys an insurance product mainly becausehe trusts the Agent. For this it is very muchessential that the Agent should conduct hisbusiness with lot of conviction about the inherent

goodness of his profession.He should exude confidence and his personalityshould be charismatic so as to impress the

customer.


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COMMUNICATION SKILLS:

Communication is essentially the ability of oneperson to make contact with another and to makehimself/herself understood.

Communication should be direct, clear andcomplete.

In an Agents profession communication skills areof utmost importance because of the very natureof insurance product. He has to explain and

persuade. Any misunderstanding might becomeevident only much later. It will then be attributed tothe failure of the agent to inform, alleging evendeliberate cheating or suppression of materialfacts.


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During the pre-approach stage, the Agent shouldprepare as far as possible an exclusive, typedhand-out for the client and ensure that all proposalforms, rate-tables, sale literature and otherstationery is available.

In the sales presentation interview, an insuranceAgent needs to be more vigilant, moreaccomplished in every aspect of his interactionwith the client. The initial resistance to theapproach, objections as also final hesitation insigning the proposal then and there, are likely tobe more marked and recurrent.


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Answering objections:

It is very seldom, if at all, that at the end of theexplanatory exposition by the sales person, the clientmay volunteer to sign on the dotted line. He is quitelikely to raise several objections in a bid to ensure thathe understands the proposition correctly or sometimeseven to postpone the decision. These objectionsraised by the client can be of different types and mustbe answered satisfactorily by the Agent before the sale

is closed. An Agent must remember that objectionsare the windows through which he or she can peep intothe clients mind and must learn to welcome themrather then avoid them, be annoyed with them.


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Motivation and closing:

Even after the client has been satisfied about theproduct and all his objections have beensatisfactorily answered, it does not follow that hewill voluntarily proceed to take the buying decision.This is even more so in respect of decision aboutbuying insurance and the Agent must gentlymotivate him to reach the favourable decision andsign on the dotted line. The process of achievingthis is called motivation and closing.


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PERSUASIVE SKILLS:

Persuasion and communication play a decisiverole in influencing the thinking process of aclient.

In India insurance is rarely brought but has tobe sold. The Agent has to tactfully persuadeand convince a client so as to close a salewithout any element of any pressurewhatsoever.

Persuasion in no way should suppress theclients doubts and queries.


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ANALYTICAL ABILITY:

An Agent must be able to analyze the various needsof the prospect and find the best plan to meet thoseneeds.

BEHAVIOUR WITH OTHERS:

The Agent should have or cultivate some behavioraltraits which would enable him to get support and co-operation from all concerned.

He should act like a bridge between the office staffon one hand and the client on the other hand.

He should exhibit professional ethics at all times and

should at no time compromise on his value system.


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15 Personnel Development

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