Sales Mastery: Topic 1: Building Efficient Takaful Distribution/Insurance Sales Teams - A Pakistani Perspective

Sales Mastery - Topic 1: Building Efficient Takaful Distribution/Insurance Sales Teams - A Pakistani Perspective

By Tee Ali

credit: leaderperfect

Lower Awareness & Wasted Opportunities

Just like the very low 'Life Insurance' penetration in the Pakistani market, the youth is usually less aware of career opportunities in direct sales/retail divisions in this industry. Today's the job seekers with tertiary education  - particularly the cohort of Millennial in Pakistan - usually do not consider insurance sales to be their first choice of career. Thanks to their predecessors’ experiences and high turnover rates, insurance salesmanship or its alternate takaful distribution is somewhat stigmatized - referred by the adage - "Those who have nothing else to do, they ...." and so on. However, those who are successful in this profession, are well ahead in terms of material achievement and social rewards than their peers in other industries.

The Nut or the Nut Cracker - What is Broken?

Due to this so-called stigmatization of the job, it is an uphill task to even attract the fresh university business graduates towards Insurance Sales Careers. I remember my encounters with graduates, with majors in Finance & Marketing, at a Job Fair in one of the reputable business schools in Karachi. When I asked them if they would opt for a somewhat clerical job, paying petty amounts for a daily 9 to 10 hours of sedentary work, that proposition sounded like the sweetest music to them. However, when I purposefully and clearly offered the position for Insurance sales, their reaction was that of disapproval and distraught - they simply stood up and went away as if I didn't exist there. Organizations and recruiters - facing challenges in insurance sales/ takaful distribution agencies - have to consider certain strategies to turn the tides for their sales teams in the Pakistani perspective.

Recruiter's Responsibilities

It should also be understood that the trend to take in all and sundry is the biggest cause of higher turnover rates. The purpose is to let the right ones prosper as your team members, rather than to bring in someone and make them blurt some 'references' and then let them phase out! It is indeed disappointing to handle and spend organizational resources quarterly on such groups of misfits, while recruiters keep taking pride and boasting about their "great efforts" at recruitment.

The successful recruitment, on-boarding, and career growth of especially the Millennial in insurance sales sector depend initially on the organization's resolve for long-term growth and then on the finesse of the insurance agency recruiters. A successful recruiter selects his/her recruits according to their organization's pre-defined candidate characteristics and personality traits. Along the way, these recruiting managers try to meet up millennial expectations of a successful leader, by themselves being the admirable role models. Simultaneously, the organization devises the "visible" career growth and reward system, allowing the capable managers to facilitate their teams according to their performances.

It means the most important task at hands of a recruiter is to attract the "Right" candidate towards the job. The Right candidates for insurance sales/takaful distribution are ones with proactive personality, curiosity to learn and offer the best financial solutions, ability to adjust to their given environment and tendency to frame their client interaction and experiences positively.

Eternal Role of Leadership

Secondly, the motivation among the newly hired will grow steadily only when they have a manager with real leadership traits. Thus starts the process of on-boarding, in which the recruiter requires to provide a lot of effective Field Support to each individual. No matter what education they newly-hired holds, the experience of observing ones' superior performing and being successful is what truly emboldens the newly hired to consider sales as a career. Besides continuous mentoring by the superior as well as other senior team members, in form of positive socializing efforts also eradicates their intent to leave the fraternity.

Finally, the visibility of organizational environment and rewards system is also important to millennial - something to quench their esteem needs by a click for their Facebook/Instagram etc. Besides their own earnings factor, the luxury and prestige in their working environment; furniture and fixtures; the usual dining out etc. have an enormous effect on them. An individual recruiter's capacity is definitely limited in offering rewards, however, the organizations with a long-term development plan can indeed help their recruiters in building efficient teams, by implementation and execution of an attractive and visible reward system. After all, seeing is believing, isn't it?