In every company sales mangers are required to appoint insurance advisors. What are these advisors are? In general the advisors are the ones who will sell the insurance products to the clients. That means they are one type of representatives of the company. But is this the end of the story of their identity. Nope they are much beyond than the ordinary word of Advisors.
We often find when the company gives target of appointing insurance advisors they come under the pressure as if it’s the last day of the world and they have to complete every thing before the day goes off. So they appoint any one as advisors. Makes them sit for IRDA exam and some how manages to make them advisors to sell their insurance product. But how are these insurance advisors.
Does they have the quality more than the ability to sell products. Think for a while. Many cases you will end up NO. The agents are able to say but do not possess quality. Absence of quality makes them live short in the long term. In other words they are short term Selling Growth.
Now what qualities have got do with selling of Insurance by advisors? The fools of the Insurance industry don’t understand that quality is the game that makes the difference and sustainability in the long run. Now why I am calling them fools? One who does not understand the meaning of quality and its benefits are termed fools.
We hear cases of miss selling of insurance products. Who miss sells these products. Did any one of you hear raising this question who miss sells. The company never does so. The brilliant Advisors appointed randomly are the ones who end with Miss Selling in the long term. Since the have the ability to Miss Sell but not the quality to sell properly.
This is the place where quality gives long term sustainability and benefits.
Quality is not like a fruit available in the market that can be brought. One advisor should have the inputs of Quality to sell properly. The rest needs to be developed by the company itself from time to time progress.
Lets figure out the those inputs which will help us to identify an advisor who will not do miss selling.
1. Honesty –
2. Knowledge
3. Passion
4. Business Ethics
5. Customer focus
6. Financial Planning Skills
7. Multi product awareness
8. Follow up skills
9. Self update
And finally, he should be a good listener with required people management skills.
The list can also be never ending. But the most important thing one should possess to become advisor is honesty and quality. Without them the Insurance Industry is just a Weak Child. Just imagine when the Insurance bill will get passed many foreign companies waiting outside India will come to do business and sell their policies. What will happen to do those who are selling insurance without the two prime qualities Honesty and Quality?
The companies are more focused two wards earning policy premiums and who can fetch the most out of them. Who can win the race of huge premium collection? Companies are busy in promoting the name of their Advisors who have fetched the highest premiums. And when a one down trend comes we find all advisors vanished as if like dinosaurs got vanished from the earth. Then we start getting information on Miss Selling. The company mangers and CEO get flourished with mails of miss selling and finally the company who was least involved in the process of miss selling end up with loosing Reputation. The company might have the best of products but still it looses due to wrong appointment of advisors.
A Loss due to low grade quality Advisors. More interesting twist to the story is this that when the Advisors disappear the sales manager who was the boss of the Advisor falls in to another trap. When the Advisor runs away the sales gets dropped and finally the sales manager also have to exit.
If that sales manager have looked into the factor of quality and honesty before recruiting the agents then he should have seen the exit door and the company should not have lost its reputation. Why don’t the companies focus on quality of Advisors? This will reduce and control miss selling of your companies products. Insurance companies don’t need to spend thousands of Cr. on control and checking miss selling they also need to improve the quality of the Advisors.
In any competition around the world these two basic are the most important inputs required. Now ask your self where you find quality and honesty in your insurance advisor. THATS THE PRIVATE KEY OF SUSTAINBILITY.
Author:- Indranil Sen Gupta
Financial, Economic Writer and Research Analyst.
(Opinion given above are the opinion of the Author)
Author Bio
I really appreciate the views expressed & would request u to bring your views to a level so that all in the participation of insurance may be benefited in interest of nation